2022 CNCSOFLO Results

Hello CNCSOFLO Participants!

On behalf of all of the organizers involved in the City Nature Challenge, including Frost Science, Florida International University, Miami Eco Adventures, Virginia Key Outdoor Center, the Environmentally Endangered Lands (EEL) Program, Miami-Dade County, and Citizens for a Better South Florida, a big thank you goes to all of the observers, identifiers and everyone that put events together to get people outside, helping to showcase South Florida's amazing biodiversity.

We improved on all of our metrics this year with more observations, species and participants than ever before! Despite beating our own numbers, though, some of the competing cities outdid us and we dropped in ranking in all categories! See our rankings below and let's use this as motivation to do better next year :-D

2022 City Nature Challenge- SOFLO results ranked against 445 other cities/areas (up from 419 cities last year)
-33rd by observation count (down 4 places from 29th last year)
-23rd by species count (down by 4 places from 19th last year)
-23rd by observer count (down by 1 place compared to last year)

You can look through the City Nature Challenge leaderboards, which compare all the cities, here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2022

Check out our stats from this year compared to 2021 and 2020 below:
CNCSOFLO 2022 vs 2021 vs 2020

Remember, these numbers will change as more observations are added (better late than never!) More identifications will also continue to come in as the iNaturalist community looks through observations that haven't been identified yet (in the Needs ID stage- we still have almost 5,000 observations in this stage).

Besides going up in observation count (11,329 compared to 10,327 last year), species count (2,109 compared to 1,978 last year) and observers (593 compared to 582 last year), it's also nice to see we had a smaller percentage of Casual observations compared to last year. Casual observations include organisms that are not wild, such as landscaped, potted, and garden plants, along with pets or zoo animals. Since iNaturalist is meant to primarily document wild organisms, it's great to see that more people posted observations that translate into more useful data. We went from 9.8% Casual observations last year to only 5.3% this year, so that is a huge improvement! The percent of Research Grade observations we posted is around the same as it was at this point last year for our 2021 CNC, around 52%.

Alright, so besides all the numbers... I looked through a ton of observations and picked some to highlight! There were probably hundreds of observations that stood out, so it was especially hard to not put a ridiculous amount of links below. Hope you like them!

Plants
Pink sundew observed by @kuchipatchis
Locustberry observed by @fherrerav
Milkbark observed by @osmunda
Mangrovevine observed by @nature_is_awesome
October flower observed by @pondcypressstudio
Marsh pink observed by @plruiz
Blackroot observed by @sky245
Fourvalve mimosa observed by @bennypoo

Insects & Spiders
Half-blind sphinx observed by @bluemayo
Miami tiger beetle observed by @tiffany_moore
Green lynx spider observed by @noaboa
Y-shaped streaktail fly observed by @djringer
Amethyst hairstreak butterfly (AGAIN) observed by @unlikelycharming
Conchylodes diphteralis moth observed by @lt422
Hypsipyla grandella caterpillar observed by @alexsalcedo
Florida duskywing skipper observed by @laylahm
Atlantic grasshopper observed by @lisnel
Diogmites esuriens robberfly observed by @ericrupert
Polydamas swallowtail caterpillar observed by @northmiamiyardrestoration

Reptiles, Amphibians & Mammals (I know the way I grouped these was a little weird :-)
American crocodile observed by @dean_hester
Eastern narrow-mouthed toad observed by @glennmagusharvey
Hawksbill sea turtle observed by yours truly
Virginia opossum mom and joey observed by @isaacthelord
Eastern gray squirrel observed by @alyssacritters

Birds
Snowy egret observed by @b_gonzalez Bella was our top IDer for the CNC this year! Thanks Bella!
Pileated woodpecker observed by @gatorhawk
Common yellowthroat observed by @ungerlord
Mangrove cuckoo observed by @alcedo77
Swallow-tailed kite observed by @rockjetty
Red-shouldered hawk eating grasshopper observed by @carmenferreiro
Bahama mockingbird observed by @jasonghedges
American coot observed by @waterfowl

Fishes, Elasmobranchs & other marine life
Spotted eagle ray observed by @elesulkv
Hardhead silverside fish observed by @aliandbrice
Caribbean Christmas tree worm observed by @levent90
Florida horse conch observed by @shabrobtilus
Mangrove root crab observed by @david275
Ram's horn squid observed by @dylannt

If you posted any observations you are particularly proud of, or ran into any that stood out, please share the link in the comments below (only possible on the website and not on the app).

If you'd like to share this post with anyone, here's the link:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2022-south-florida-cncsoflo/journal/65814-2022-cncsoflo-results

Thanks for participating and don't forget to follow CNCSOFLO's official Instagram page @cncsoflo and you can also find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/CNCsoflo

One more thing! Make sure to join next year's project so you can get updates when we start planning: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2023-south-florida-cncsoflo

Oh yeah, and here's a link to the official City Nature Challenge's journal post with a neat infographic:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2022/journal/65711-city-nature-challenge-2022-results

Okay, really, only one more thing... remember iNaturalist is up and running all year! One of the best ways to train your eyes to find biodiversity is to keep on the lookout all the time. You never know what you will learn or find!

Thanks again,
Joe MDO & the CNCSOFLO team

Posted on May 11, 2022 02:13 AM by joemdo joemdo

Comments

Oh wow, my "chorus of uncoordinated digital sheep" made it into the standings.

Congratulations to all the participants, and special props to everyone whose obs got featured, and even more special props to top IDer b_gonzalez as well as to all the organizers!

Posted by reedlindwurm almost 2 years ago

Thanks everyone!!! Wish I could've participated a little more, but it turned out to be a busy weekend.

Posted by gatorhawk almost 2 years ago

Thanks for this post Joe, those are some great highlights!!

Posted by lt422 almost 2 years ago

This was such a fun and amazing event. Thank you for highlighting my Hypsipyla grandella caterpillar!

One of my favorite observation was a flower weevil (Geraeus picumnus). First and only time (so far) documented in iNaturalist in Florida!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/113950155

TERRA and myself will keep participating in iNaturalist and most definitely we will be present in next year's event.

Thank you to @joemdo and all organizers. Also, congrats top IDer Bella @b_gonzalez !

Posted by alexsalcedo almost 2 years ago

I had a great time participating in this event! Thank you to everyone who played a role in organizing it and making it happen. I’m looking forward to next year!

Also, @alexsalcedo observed this Acanalonia excavata that I found really cool. It is one of only three uploaded to iNaturalist to date!

Posted by b_gonzalez almost 2 years ago

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