Diario del proyecto City Nature Challenge 2020: Greater Philadelphia Area

A big thank you to everyone who participated in the 2020 City Nature Challenge, adding or IDing observations, as well as our amazing partner organizations. The Greater Philadelphia Area did phenomenally well this year despite the less than ideal weather and COVID-19 restrictions, finishing 6th in observations (23rd in 2019), 13th in species (24th in 2019), and 11th in observers (16th in 2019). Our raw numbers are as follows:

Observations: 23,681
Species: 1788, including 22 species with research-grade observations that had never before been recorded in our area on iNat
Observers: 821

Worldwide, this 4-day effort saw the following numbers:
Observations: 815,258
Species: 32,500+, including more than 1,300 rare/endangered/threatened species
Observers: 41,165

Most-observed species locally: Garlic Mustard
(Alliaria petiolata)
Most-observed species globally: Common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)

Some of our highlights include a Cerulean Warbler (Setophaga cerulea) and the Red Tree Brain Fungus
(Peniophora rufa).

Highlights from around the U.S. and the world include an amethyst hairstreak butterfly—nearly extirpated in the United States—in Florida, a critically endangered harlequin frog in Panama, Honduras’s first observation of a rare orchid, and the first record in over 40 years of a white-spotted slimy salamander in Arlington County near Washington DC.

Once again, a big thank you to everyone for making this a successful and fun event. We're looking forward to next year already!

Now that the observation phase is over, it's time to move on to the Identification phase and we could totally use your help identifying the 20k odd observations that we have. It doesn't matter if you are not an expert, you can still help. And while you are identifying stuff, if you find something really cool, please post a link to the observation in the comments below.

First, there are a ton of observations without any identifications (identifications are best done on a screen larger than a cellphone). Help us narrow these down first. So for example, if you know that something is an insect, enter 'Insects' in the species field. But if you know, it's actually a beetle, you can enter 'Beetles' instead. If you know exactly what species it is, enter that. If not, Beetles is fine, and someone who is an expert in Beetles can search for it and figure out the species.
Unknown

Here are some more useful ID links:
Plants
Fungi
Arachnids
Insects

If you want to get more specific, for example:
Beetles
Bees

From the above two links, you can simply replace the text in the species field, with whatever your area of interest is, whether it's isopods or lichen.
Thank you!

A big thank you to everyone who went out and made observations these past 4 days. That was a whole lot of fun. The weather was less than ideal but that didn't stop you. We currently sit at 6th place in observations, 13th in species and 11th in observers. And I'll be watching that closely as more people upload observations over the next few days. If you know anyone who loves taking pictures of wildlife and was out taking pictures these past 4 days, I would urge you to consider asking them to add their photos to iNaturalist so that we can get our observer numbers up as well as have them be a part of the iNaturalist network.

Once again, I want to thank our amazing partner organizations for spreading the word and helping us organize this wonderful effort. I want to thank all the participants who went out there and took pictures and audio recordings. Despite the social isolation it has been fun getting to know every one of you through your observations. I'm truly happy and proud to be a part of this wonderful Philly naturalist community.

Also, I want to give a special shout-out to @srall for joining the Philadelphia effort this year. Sara had the second most observations and the most species for NYC last year, and she currently is top of our table with nearly 1400 observations. Thank you so much, Sara. I also want to thank @conboy for crossing the 1000 observation barrier and for topping our species count. Thank you, Andrew! And rounding out the top 10, big thanks to @josephthebirder, @brittany101, @robizzy, @mycofreak, @that_hippie_chick, @jfries7448, @danefroymson, and @javiehweg. Thank you!

We have less than 3 hours to go! Make sure you make your last-minute observations soon. Any moths visiting your porch lights tonight? That spider in your basement? Perhaps, mold on some old bread? They all count. This is your last chance to observe them, but you have until May 3rd to upload all of your photos. Good luck!

After the high of Saturday, racking up over 8000 observations with over 500 people contributing at least one observation, the incessant rain yesterday meant we didn't do so well. We barely crossed 2000 observations and only 181 people participated, making yesterday our worst day in the CNC. This allowed Dallas to make up a 1000 observation deficit and pull into 5th place, and they currently hold a 2k observation edge over us. Can't blame you though. The weather was not nice at all. Wet and chilly weather isn't good iNatting weather - neither my phone or my camera can handle that well.

This is our last day of the 2020 CNC's observation phase. New Zealand have less than an hour left, we have a bit more. The weather is not ideal again, it's cold and damp out, but hopefully not as bad as yesterday with non-stop rain. I'm hoping we can rack up those huge numbers again today. Another 8000 observation day will put us in good stead to pull back that 5th place spot (maybe even higher?). Good luck out there today, everybody!

Well done, Greater Philadelphia Area! I asked if you could double Friday's observations on Saturday and you answered and you answered big. Not only did you double it, but you also blew right past it. Thanks to everyone's efforts, we vaulted ahead to 5th place worldwide in observations. I know it's not a competition this year, but I can't help but be proud of what you've achieved. It's the only sunny day in the forecast during the CNC and you came to play, racking up over 8000 observations just yesterday alone. I know the forecast is not ideal today, but can we keep the momentum going?

Thanks to everyone who went out in the rain and gloomy weather yesterday. We're doing pretty well in terms of the number of observations. 9th place worldwide among the cities using iNaturalist! That's pretty impressive, Philly. But it's not over yet. Can we hope to double our totals today with the better weather? Montgomery and Philadelphia counties are doing well, and Delaware and Burlington aren't too bad either. But I want the other counties to join in on the fun today. I'm looking at you, Bucks! But make sure you stay safe and take all social distancing precautions.

Here's hoping for an even more impressive day! And don't forget that to knock off those target species: http://targets.cncphilly.org/

We have only 6 hours to go for the start of the Philadelphia City Nature Challenge! Are you excited? We sure are! There's a lot of wildlife you can find in the Philadelphia region and we want you to find it all (with proper social distancing, of course)! Here's a link to a target list of species you can find in the next 4 days ordered by how common they are.

http://targets.cncphilly.org/

This includes all species that have been seen in the area in the months of April and May. You can also filter by certain 'iconic taxa' (iNat's terminology, not mine). So if birds are your thing, you can filter by that. Prefer plants instead? Or fungi, or insects, or arachnids? You can filter by all those too.

As people find the target species and upload them to iNat, it will drop off of the targets list. There will be a bit of a delay since iNat servers get pretty busy during the CNC and we store the target species list for a bit to avoid taxing their servers even more. The top ones are fairly easy to find, but as the challenge goes on, it will be harder to find some of them. You can also click around to see what NYC or DC have seen already that we haven't yet (it'll become more useful once the CNC starts). How far down the target species list can we get?

Good luck everybody! Happy hunting!