How to Find Lots of Different Species
In this post, we’ll give you some tips on finding the most species possible in the four-day observation period for the City Nature Challenge. Now, don’t feel that you must find every species possible – the whole point of the CNC is to connect people with the natural world around them, not to rack up astonishing numbers of observations and species. But if you enjoy the thrill of the chase or simply the excuse to spend four days in early spring in beautiful landscapes – well, then, you might find these tips useful. (N.B.: Some of this is tongue-in-cheek; we leave it to you to figure out which parts.)
How many species is it possible to find in four days? Well, in the 2022 CNC, just in the three valley counties (Berkshire County was added for 2023), observers found a total of 723 species. We’ll take a wild guess here and predict that over 800 species total will be found this year!
The Basics
If at all possible, spend every waking moment of the CNC making observations. Don’t plan on sleeping much, either. Kiss your loved ones good-bye, load the car with snacks and the charging cords for camera and phone, and remember to plan out a route for each day that takes you to four or five great natural areas.
While the iNaturalist app on your phone is great, it’s slower than using an actual camera (but then you have to make sure to add the correct location when you upload the photos) or the camera function on your phone by itself (but remember to make sure you turn on the locational function for the camera). There are only four days when you can make observations, but there are an additional six days afterwards when you can upload photos for the CNC.
While you’re planning that route, aim to maximize the number of different habitats you visit. It’s easy to find forests and fields and waterbodies, but you want varied examples of each. For forests, here are some of the possibilities: the usual northern hardwood forests on acidic bedrock; spruce-fir forests; rich, mesic forests; forests on circumneutral bedrock (like Mt. Tom and the Holyoke Range); old-growth (if you can find any); floodplain forests; oak-hickory forests; or pitch pine-scrub oak woodlands.
Fields vary at least as much as forests. Try to visit some of these open-area habitats: an old field (meaning one that doesn’t get mowed every year); a powerline right-of way (because they are often shrubby); a rocky ridgetop or outcrop; a weedy abandoned lot in an urban area; or even the lawn of your house.
While western Massachusetts can’t boast of the long oceanfront of the Boston Area CNC, we do have a very wide selection of waterbodies and wetlands: large lakes (like the Quabbin); small ponds (especially beaver ponds); vernal pools; very large rivers (like the Connecticut); medium-sized slow rivers (the Housatonic) and medium-sized fast rivers (much of the Westfield and its branches); small brooks and streams; forested swamps; cat-tail marshes; shrub swamps; seeps; wet meadows; and level bogs. Each one has a different suite of species.
If you don’t know what a rich, mesic forest or a level bog is, take a look at the Classification of the Natural Communities of Massachusetts. This is a technical document, but it’s quite readable and gives locations for most of the types of natural communities described.
Come to think of it, there are caves here and there in western Massachusetts, complete with unusual species; surely one of you wants to do some caving that weekend?
Casual Observations
Those of you who are familiar with iNaturalist know that the usual goal is to get your observations out of Needs ID status and on to Research Grade. However, for the CNC, all types of observations are included: Research Grade, Needs ID, and Casual. In iNaturalist, Casual status often means cultivated plants or captive animals, but Casual observations can also be those without a photo or a sound recording.
This comes in handy when you’re trying to rack up as many species as possible and just don’t have the time to creep up on every bird or basking turtle, not to mention the fact that many of us don’t have the kind of fancy camera gear that allows for decent photos taken a distance. So, we advise you use the iNaturalist app to make Casual observations of birds flying or calling at a distance, of frogs and toads calling in the middle of a wetland, of turtles that plop off their log as soon as you see them, and so on. Such observations will never reach Research Grade because they can’t be verified, but they do count for the City Nature Challenge as long as you have the correct date and location.
These Count, Too
Remember that tracks and signs of animals are perfectly good observations to post on iNaturalist. Look for the oblong feeding holes of Pileated Woodpeckers, or the rows of small feeding holes made by Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. Not every track is identifiable in many cases (hint: include a ruler in the photo for scale), but Moose and White-tailed Deer tracks are distinctive, for example.
Scat counts, too: Look for piles of porcupine poop in rocky areas, or Moose and deer scat if you don’t find tracks. Don’t forget the scent mounds of beavers, not to mention their very obvious dams, lodges, and trees felled for feeding.
If you find an animal that didn’t make it across the road, alas, please make an observation (but you might want to choose an angle that minimizes gore, if you can). Loose feathers are surprisingly identifiable, as are many bones (such as you might find in coyote scat or owl pellets). The shed skins of nymphal dragonflies and stoneflies often remain clinging to protected bridge abutments.
Photos from trail cameras are great. We’ll hope for warm nights when moths will fly. If you don’t have the equipment for blacklighting or trapping moths, try leaving your porch light on if the night will be warm (mostly above 50F) and check it before you head to bed. Listen for owls while you’re out there, too.
Common Species You Might Miss
Most of us tend to concentrate our observations on the bigger end of the organism size scale, from about Golden-crowned Kinglet size up to the largest Eastern White Pines. That means that many very common species get missed. Here are some smaller species that are easy to find in western Massachusetts; how many of these will you find?
Lichens. Lichens can be difficult to identify, but there are a few in our region that are quite distinctive. Since different lichens live on different substrates, add at least two photos to each lichen observation: one showing the whole lichen on its substrate, and one that’s a close-up. On trees, look for Common Greenshield Lichens and Common Script Lichen. On bare, dry ground, look for Pink Earth Lichen. On rocks, look for Smooth Rock Tripe and Smokey-eyed Boulder Lichen.
Fungi (that aren’t Lichens) . Late April and early May aren’t the best time to find fresh mushrooms, but there are some that linger year-round: Black Knot, Beech Bark Canker Fungus, and Juniper-Apple Rust.
The Creepy-Crawlies. You’d be surprised at how often these are missed in a survey of an area. Don’t worry about being able to identify these to species; just identify them to a general name like Ants. Look for earthworms (identify these as Annelids on iNaturalist), ants, millipedes, centipedes, snails and slugs (identify these as Gastropods), pillbugs (identify these as Isopods), ticks, flies, and mosquitoes.
Mosses and Liverworts. These are often hard to identify to species but can be fairly easy to ID to genus (which counts for the CNC!). Look for Sphagnum, Leucobryum, and Ulota, among many others. Two kinds of liverworts are very common: Scaleworts on tree trunks, and Greater Whipwort on damp rocks or small mounds.
Insect Signs. In addition to the actual insects, many leaf and barkminers, gall-formers, and other insects leave distinctive traces of their presence. Some of the common ones are White Pine Barkminer Moth, White Oak Club Gall Wasp, Willow Pinecone Gall Midge, Goldenrod Gall Fly, and Pine Tube Moth.
Don’t Forget the Really Common Species
In the excitement of making unusual discoveries, it’s easy to overlook the ordinary species you see every day, especially the non-natives, so remember to make observations of these, too.
- Eastern White Pine
- Eastern Hemlock
- Northern Red Oak
- Garlic Mustard
- Greater Celandine
- Lesser Celandine
- Oriental Bittersweet
- Multiflora Rose
- Glossy Buckthorn
- Autumn Olive
- Winged Euonymus
- Phragmites
- Shrubby honeysuckles
- Colt’s-foot
- Knotweeds
- Barberries
- Dandelions
- Western Honey Bee
- Eastern Gray Squirrel
- Canada Goose
- Mallard
- European Starling
- Rock Pigeon
- House Sparrow
---Lynn Harper and Melanie Radik, co-organizers
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