Diario del proyecto South Carolina Committed Naturalists Society

The City Nature Challenge is coming to Horry and Georgetown counties!
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2024-myrtle-beach-and-the-grand-strand
Please join if you can contribute!
April 26 - April 29

Best,
Luke
@abiggs2
@captainmantis37
@jtmartin54
@kencheeks
@kimiller
@kjmurph
@lenrely
@matthew_campbell
@norm_shea
@patrickbelk
@pwilson96
@ryan84
@sc_beetles
@sharleen_j
@toxmace
@xx7trey

Hey everyone.
So I was in the process of making this when I stumbled across an observation by @toxmace
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/205407835
Now it is unclear whether @toxmace saw it as well, or if it was his Dad or Grandpa. So all we know is that someone in that family won! So congrats to all who saw the first Summer Tanager lol! @toxmace Tell your dad/grandpa congratulations!

Also, Committed Naturalist Society will soon have chapters in other states! If you are a member of SCCNS and live in a different state, feel free to start a chapter in your state. I can help just dm me.

Best,
Luke

@abiggs2
@captainmantis37
@jtmartin54
@kencheeks
@kimiller
@kjmurph
@lenrely
@matthew_campbell
@norm_shea
@patrickbelk
@pwilson96
@ryan84
@sc_beetles
@sharleen_j
@toxmace
@xx7trey

Hello everyone!
April 2-April 10 will be the start of the annual Reptile Bioblitz!
The winner will be decided by amount of species observed. Photos of a reptile alive or dead in South Carolina during the time stated above.
Good luck and have fun.

P.s. Race for the Summer Tanager begins soon!

Best, Luke

@abiggs2
@captainmantis37
@jtmartin54
@kimiller
@kjmurph
@lenrely
@matthew_campbell
@norm_shea
@patrickbelk
@pwilson96
@ryan84
@sc_beetles
@sharleen_j
@toxmace
@xx7trey

Hey y'all, I made this post to inform everyone of our spring 24 goals. I know I have been rather inactive lately, but I assure you that will change. My apologies for not continuing the ob of the week series, I was extremely busy and it slipped my mind. Starting in March we will start the observation of the month series, because week wasn't really explainable. We will host the annual "Race for the Summer Tanager". There will also be a focus on herps come spring that I hope would be rather fascinating. I have also been thinking of ways to have a "meet and greet" kind of event, but that is still in its formation.

There were talks in December of people wanting to send pictures of their favorite observations from SC for our website. Just dm me, I would be happy to add them ( my pictures are rather subpar).

For the identifiers: If you have any resources for ids (I personally have compiled a few)n please comment the links or dm me so I can add them to our website.

Thank you all for being a part of what we do. I hope we can grow and make a difference.

Once again, I am sorry for not being very active on here lately. Its been quite busy in life.

Best,
Luke

@abiggs2
@captainmantis37
@jtmartin54
@kimiller
@kjmurph
@lenrely
@matthew_campbell
@norm_shea
@patrickbelk
@pwilson96
@ryan84
@sc_beetles
@sharleen_j
@toxmace

Hello Naturalists of South Carolina,

As 2023 comes to a close, I wanted to put together a quick overview of the year on iNaturalist that will hopefully serve as not only a thank you to those who have contributed to iNaturalist in South Carolina, but also as a glimpse into some of the trends of observation in the state. To preface, I pulled the data and numbers you’ll find to follow on the 30th and 31st, so if any of you accomplish incredible feats of observation in the last 24 hours or so of the year, they will not be documented in this review, and I do apologize for that.
Currently, 34,633 users have posted at least one observation in the state of South Carolina, up from 29,237 users at the end of 2022, marking an 18.5% increase in the number of observers in the state. While this is an impressive increase, the current number of South Carolina observers represents approximately 0.6% of the total number of residents in the state! There’s certainly room to spread the word about the power of iNaturalist. For another perspective, the number of South Carolina observers is currently about the population of the city of Greer, or the city of Aiken.

166 observers have logged more than 500 observations in the state of South Carolina

75 observers have logged over 1,000

14 observers have logged over 5,000

5 observers have logged over 15,000

The top 10 users with the most observations within South Carolina (in order) at the end of 2023 are…

@torgos216
@jtmartin54
@kkeivit
@kcthetc1
@sharonoutside
@sc_beetles
@toxmace
@wildlife13
@sharleen_j
@abiggs2

In 2023 alone, the most prolific observers were (in order)…

@jtmartin54
@wildlife13
@sc_beetles
@sharonoutside
@toxmace
@abiggs2
@ungberg
@latraviata
@funnystuff2495
@lotusmooncake

Thank you all for your contributions!
At this time, 13,585 species of organisms have been observed (and marked as verifiable) on iNaturalist in the state of South Carolina. At the end of last year, this number stood at 12,282, marking a 12.8% increase in the number of species observed in this state over the course of 2023. I think it’s a terrific accomplishment that the iNaturalist community was able to so substantially increase the record of South Carolina species observed on the platform. If anyone knows how to find information on those 1,303 species that were added during 2023, please let me know, I’d be interested to learn more and share with you all.

170 users have logged more than 250 species in the state, up from 120 at the end of 2022

54 have logged more than 500, up from 42 at the end of 2022.

19 have logged more than 1,000, up from 14 at the end of 2022.

6 have logged more than 2,000, up from 3 at the end of 2022.

The 10 naturalists who have observed the most species in South Carolina until this point are…

@kcthetc1
@sharonoutside
@toxmace
@feroxara
@pwilson96
@sc_beetles
@kim_fleming
@torgos216
@sharleen_j
@linaceae

In 2023 alone, the 10 naturalists who observed the most species were…

@ungberg
@sharonoutside
@toxmace
@sc_beetles
@latraviata
@pwilson96
@feroxara
@wildlife13
@funnystuff2495
@thevargases

Thank you all for your contributions!

Finally, a thank you to the identifiers who helped us all out with their identifications. We all appreciate you sharing your expertise to help us learn! The 10 most prolific identifiers this year were…

@wildlife13
@williamwisephoto
@norm_shea
@torgos216
@suchosauros
@rtwhitson3
@ricemi2025
@mmmmbugs
@georgiano
@mhalsted

Thank you all!

I’d also like to say thank you to everyone who contributed to iNaturalist over the year. I enjoyed connecting with so many great people on this platform, and look forward to connecting with many more. I’ve got high hopes for a terrific 2024 out in the woods, fields, and waterways of South Carolina, and I hope you all are looking forward to it as much as I am. If you would like to reply with any notable finds that you made this year, want to share a good story, or something you’re looking forward to doing out in nature in the coming year, please do so below. Happy New Year everyone!

If anyone has knowledge of articles that would help Id a certain species(s), I will add it to our website as a resource. I have collected several myself but I feel like y'all will have a lot more to add. Just add the links below. You can wait till after Christmas that's fine.
Merry Christmas

Thanks,
Luke

Our own individual website is up! I decided to make this just to keep track of events, etc... Forgive me if it is of poor quality (my budget is 0 and my tech skills are 0). Let me know if there are any changes that y'all think I should make.
https://free-4333254.webador.com/

@abiggs2
@captainmantis37
@jtmartin54
@kimiller
@kjmurph
@lenrely
@matthew_campbell
@norm_shea
@patrickbelk
@pwilson96
@ryan84
@sc_beetles
@sharleen_j
@toxmace

This has so far been really successful, so I want to thank everyone for their contributions. So far we have 78 species and 240 observations. We even have a flamingo. Thanks @toxmace
@abiggs2 Is currently in first place with number of observations and diversity of species.

@abiggs2
@captainmantis37
@jtmartin54
@kimiller
@kjmurph
@lenrely
@matthew_campbell
@norm_shea
@patrickbelk
@pwilson96
@ryan84
@sc_beetles
@sharleen_j
@toxmace

This weeks highlighted observation is this American Flamingo! by @toxmace
https://www.Inaturalist.org/observations/194147187
This may be a shocker to some of you but this has been the third time flamingos have been spotted wild in SC. All of these observations were took in, or near the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge. What do you y'all make of these sightings?

@abiggs2
@captainmantis37
@jtmartin54
@kimiller
@kjmurph
@lenrely
@matthew_campbell
@norm_shea
@patrickbelk
@pwilson96
@ryan84
@sc_beetles
@sharleen_j
@toxmace

Starting today and running until January 1st, 2024, at midnight, is the December Bird Count.

It must be observed in the state of SC during the allotted time. The person with the most species wins!
Even this is a competition, we should have a goal as to how much total species of birds we can observe. Please post below what our goal should be. There will be weekly updates every Saturday. May the best birder win!

@abiggs2
@captainmantis37
@jtmartin54
@kimiller
@kjmurph
@lenrely
@matthew_campbell
@norm_shea
@patrickbelk
@pwilson96
@ryan84
@sharleen_j
@toxmace
.