It truly came down to the wire, but with a final surge of observations in the last hours of the competition, LA County won the first City Nature Challenge!
The final stats (from 10 pm last night):
SF Bay Area: 9389 observations / 1551 species / 444 people
LA County: 10353 observations / 1601 species / 574 people (counting those who also submitted over social media)
All together, participants in the City Nature Challenge added a total of 19,800 observations of nature to iNaturalist. This same week last year, there were only 2,397 observations made on iNaturalist in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles County combined, meaning there was a more than eight-fold increase in observations for the City Nature Challenge. Across both regions, City Nature Challenge contributors found 2,544 species, 617 of which were found in both the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles County, highlighting our shared species (like western fence lizards and our state flower, the California poppy), but also demonstrating how unique our two regions are.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, the most-observed species was the California poppy, and 4 out of the 5 most-observed species were California native plants. In LA County, the most observed species was the Western Fence Lizard, and the next four most documented species are all non-natives.
Some of our favorite observations from the week:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2935101
Botta’s pocket gophers are ubiquitous in the San Francisco Bay Area, but this observation of a particularly camera-ready animal was made by iNaturalist co-founder Ken-ichi Ueda in the very first hour of the City Nature Challenge. Ueda spotted the gopher while out observing with other California Academy of Sciences staff to celebrate the start of this competition.
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2942520
This subspecies of garter snake is endangered and only found in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Only an estimated 1,000–2,000 adult San Francisco garter snakes remain in the region, making every sighting cause for celebration.
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2942348
Once relatively common in coastal scrubland and grassland habitats from San Francisco, Marin, and San Mateo counties, the Mission Blue was one of the first insects ever placed on the Endangered Species list, due to habitat loss, in 1976. Inspirational teacher and naturalist Liam O’Brien has worked tirelessly to save this and other butterflies in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Not only did we just make some stellar observations, we also added some (potentially) new species and subspecies for the San Francisco Bay Area! This list is not comprehensive, just highlighting some. Keep in mind that not all of these have been verified, so IDs may change. If you have the expertise to ID these, please do!
Plants:
Trifolium variegatum variegatum: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2957009
Psoralea pinnata: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2963459
Acmispon micranthus: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2974712
Crataegus gaylussacia: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2975355
Layia fremontii: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2959922
Cirsium palustre: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2957746
Veronica peregrina xalapensis: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2969066
Carex plantaginea: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2963111
Bromus tectorum: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2969082
Poa bulbosa: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2957815 and http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2969252
Insects:
Bombus flavifrons: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2955624
Charidotella sexpunctata: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2989987
Pedicia albivitta: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2990031
Platycheirus: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2936007
Epistrophe: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2936020
Arachnids:
Mimetus hesperus: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2990563
Phytoptus laevis: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2968629
Molluscs:
Marseniopsis sharonae: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2944525
Fungus:
Clitocybe gibba: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2962883
Polyporus tuberaster: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2941034
Porodaedalea pini: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2954517
Thank you so much for all the enthusiasm and effort you put into this competition! Even if the San Francisco Bay Area didn't formally win, we have added incredible amounts of knowledge and data about the species in our home and built our community of Bay Area naturalists!
Look for the City Nature Challenge again next year! We had repeated requests from others around the country to take the competition national next year, so who knows what other cities we'll be competing against the next time around?!
