Diario del proyecto City Nature Challenge 2018: Chicago Wilderness Region

Here it is:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2019-chicago-wilderness-region

Hit "Join" in the top right corner.

The Chicago Wilderness Region needs an organizer for next year's City Nature Challenge 2019! It won't happen in our area without one. Volunteer and/or team up with a few other people to organize this event in our area!

See more information about signing up below:

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"Hi everyone!

Thanks so much to those of you who made it to one of our three "new City Nature Challenge organizer" calls yesterday! We really enjoyed hearing from all of you around the world about why you're interested in the City Nature Challenge. Hopefully the calls were informative and gave you some background and details about what being a local organizer entails. There are some important next steps to become a local organizer:

1. If you did not attend one of our calls, we recorded the third call yesterday.
   Please listen to the call here: https://zoom.us/recording/share/E6nUjbZSO7cXt_NMW4unrDK5zwY6jZhvIei2v96qYcawIumekTziMw
   And follow along with the agenda here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-Kiu2rUl7hEOZPh5gfz8bJEZICrVcF7akal1pu-WaSg/edit?usp=sharing
   This is key to understanding the responsibilities and expectations of being a local organizer.

2. Read over the Organizer Guidelines: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mjUnUS0jIhxCTj1LJ3_yNIeegK0g7hZP5Jcp4k9uyP8/edit?usp=sharing
   This outlines what we're asking organizers to agree to in being part of the City Nature Challenge.

3. Take all this information and decide if you/your organization has the capacity to organize the City Nature Challenge in your city for 2019. If you have questions you need answered before you can make a decision, please email both of us (Lila and Alison): lhiggins@nhm.org, ayoung@calacademy.org

4. If you decide to be an organizer for the 2019 City Nature Challenge, please sign up on this spreadsheet to officially become part of CNC 2019!: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/174MRi5LOg_Ybyvim-hYiuGrbqAXb10bQM7Ivd03E6hw/edit?usp=sharing

The deadline for signing up is September 21, 2018! If we don't hear from you, we'll assume you're not planning to take part in CNC 2019.

1. We'll hold our first planning phone calls with new and returning organizers in early October, so look for an email from us near the end of September.

Thanks,
Alison & Lila"

ayoung@CalAcademy.org
lhiggins@nhm.org
http://citynaturechallenge.org/

Survey

If you participated in the City Nature Challenge 2018, whether you made 1 observation or 100, please fill out this short survey. All input is important and appreciated! The international organizers will be evaluating the results. See here: https://goo.gl/Ujg4sv

CNC 2019?

If you or your organization wants to take the reins for the CNC in the Chicago Wilderness region in 2019, please shoot a message to me at cassisaari@gmail.com.

You can also sign up to get information from the international organizers for 2019 by providing an email address here.

The identification period for the purposes of the City Nature Challenge is over, but the data live on iNaturalist forever, so keep on identifying anyways! ;)

In the Chicago Wilderness Region, we had:

6,870 observations

1,017 taxa (921 at species or below)

353 observers

256 identifiers

Of our observations, 58% reached research grade, 34% still need identification, and 9% either didn't have photos/audio or were captive/cultivated organisms (or something else made them casual grade). Over 64% of the species were plants (69% of observations) with birds following up at 13% of the species (15% of observations). The most observed species were all charismatic native woodland spring flora: mayapple, bloodroot, white troutlily, spring beauties, and bluebells.

According to the international leaderboard, the categories for most observations, species, and observers went to the San Francisco Bay Area, with 41,700 observations of almost 2,950 taxa observed by over 1,500 people. Ow ow! Fantastic numbers.

Also check out this amazing hockey stick graph of global mean temperature number of observations per week on iNaturalist since 2008. As a whole the iNaturalist community made almost half a million observations of over 22,000 taxa during the CNC timeframe. Really amazing.

We are doing really great -- about 56% of our observations are research grade already, holy cow. About 36% are still "needs ID," so please head over to Identify and help out if you've got a few moments to spare today.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?project_id=city-nature-challenge-2018-chicago-wilderness-region

Check our previous post to see what species we missed seeing--did you find any of these but didn't grab a photo? Add 'em! Know a birder who found these during the CNC timeframe but they're not on iNaturalist yet? Let them know! Hoping we can get over 1000 taxa documented and we are soooo close.

Results from the City Nature Challenge will be announced tomorrow morning, May 4th, 11 AM central time.

The observation period for our City Nature Challenge is over! We have until the end of the day Thursday, May 3rd to upload and identify what we found. Know your stuff? Help us identify and verify with this link. As you identify, please also mark things as captive/cultivated when appropriate. Turn off "confirming identifications" in your account settings to reduce the barrage of notifications.

So, what did we find, or maybe more interestingly, what didn't we find that we would have expected to? Below are links to compare what has previously been found and documented on iNaturalist in the Chicago Wilderness Region in the months of March, April, and May compared to what we found during the CNC 2018. Did you see any of these creatures? Add them, even if you were unable to get a photo (honor system, folks!). These links and stats will be changing as folks finish adding their observations. I excluded captive observations for the purpose of these comparisons, since they're much less interesting. The compare tool limits us to check 500 taxa at a time, so these are broken into several groups.

Click the title (e.g. "Mammals") to view what we didn't find. Other links are included in-line for the things we found that were newly documented for our region on iNat. On the right side of the compare page, click the number (e.g. "1") under the column "CNC 2018" to view observations of the new documentations.

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▶Mammals

How did we not find a skunk or a feral cat? :) No new mammals were documented during the CNC 2018 for the Chicago Wilderness Region, which is not an unexpected result of course.

▶Birds

Several things I saw photos of on Illinois Birding this weekend but didn't get posted to iNat. How about gray catbird, rose-breasted grosbeak, indigo bunting, scarlet tanager, common yellowthroat, bufflehead, etc! Once a few others get their observations posted I'm thinking this list is going to change a bit :) Here we go: one new bird was documented for the Chicago Wilderness region on iNat! A ruff (Calidris pugnax) was found in Indiana and observed by @mbeatty233.

▶Reptiles & Amphibians

Anyone find or hear an American toad, leopard frog, foxsnake, or chorus frogs? No new herps documented.

▶Ray-finned fishes

Did anyone go fishing? 2 new ray-finned fishes documented, including silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix, talk about a mouthful) observed by @observer26.

▶Insects except the groups below

Lacewings, water striders, plant bugs? We did get one new species documented -- a common bed bug (Cimex lenticularis), not the most welcome observation of all...

▶Butterflies & moths
Several here y'all may have seen but didn't catch a photo of--American lady, eastern comma, mourning cloak. New leps (excluding superfamily Noctuoidea) included Lycia ursaria, observed by @bg1159 in Warrenville. No new Noctuoidea.

▶Dragonflies & damselflies
Also early for odes. Anyone see an eastern forktaill, common whitetail, or swamp darner? No new species documented.

▶Flies
Margined or eastern calligrapher? No new flies documented.

▶Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps, sawflies)
Camponotus pennsylvanicus or carpenter bee? A couple new reports, but not so sure about their identifications--can someone QC these?

▶Beetles
An absence of six-spotted tiger beetles and spotted ladybeetles! At least one new species for our region on iNat--a Carabus ground beetle at Columbus Park Bioblitz observed by @ericgyllenhaal and @joelblecha.

▶Arachnids

No zebra or bold jumpers? Anyone find dog ticks yet? We found a couple new things including an openfield orbweaver (Araneus pratensis) found by @randomrover88 at Midewin.

▶All other animals

A couple new things here, including a species of Daphnia captured by @rakesh2.

▶Fungi including lichens

Morels, witches butter, jelly ears (I'm hungry now). It's a bit early for mayapple rust, but did anyone find mayapples with orange speckles on their leaves? We apparently found a bunch of new fungi species for our area now that knowledgeable folks are out looking! I suspect several others will need corrective IDs due to Computer Vision suggestions.

▶Plants

Lots of plants. Split into several groups.

▶Non-flowering plants
Looks like no one added plant observations from Illinois Beach State Park yet--no Juniperus horizontalis. I bet @ewarden saw some Fissidens and Physcomitrium, no? A few new documentations since @rakesh2 had a microscope to look for small stuff and @aaroncarlson was able to capture our more northern flora.

▶Monocots
It's pretty early for several of the species here, but I'll bet someone found Convallaria majalis at least. A few new genera/species documented, some of which need some quality control.

▶Plants in Asterales (sunflower family and friends)
Nothing new documented yet, not too unexpected given the timing of the CNC.

▶Plants in Fabales (pea family and friends)
Anyone see Baptisia alba, Medicago lupulina, Astragalus canadensis, or other weenie early leaves? Nothing new documented.

▶Plants in Lamiales (mint family and friends)
A few new things which may need some QC.

▶Plants in Rosales (rose family and friends)
Pretty sure most of these Fragaria vesca observations from before the CNC are misidentified due to common name issues; anyone document downy hawthorn, black chokeberry, spring avens, glossy buckthorn(?? how'd that go missed). Several new species documented, several of which probably need QC.

▶Plants in Brassicales (mustard family and friends)
What, no dame's rocket? A couple new documentations, maybe needs some QC.

▶Plants in Ranunculales (buttercup family and friends
Where's our Anemone canadensis, Ranunculus sceleratus, Eranthis hyemalis, Thalictrums, Chelidonium majus at? Some new spp. may need some QC.

▶Plants in Caryophyllales (pink family and friends)
The Opuntia in our region have mostly been reclassified as O. cespitosa, so this is a taxonomic issue (we did find prickly pear in several locations!). A few others should be IDable based on vegetative photos--Silene latifolia, Rumex acetosella, Moehringia. Some questionable new stuff.

▶All other dicots except the groups above
A bit early for most of these too, e.g. phlox, violets, puccoons, but some should be IDable if you have vegetative photos for sure. Newly documented in our area on iNat were the American fly-honeysuckle (Lonicera canadensis), cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon), and a bunch of stuff that need to be looked at carefully to vet the IDs.

▶Other Life

Viruses, bacteria, archaea, chromista, slime molds, and other small things. We didn't find any dog vomit slime mold, but we did find several new taxa for our area on iNat.

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phew.


Again, help identify and verify observations with this link:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id&project_id=city-nature-challenge-2018-chicago-wilderness-region&verifiable=any

You can turn on research grade in the filters if you want to vet for trigger-happy agreeing or help verify captive/cultivated organisms with this link.

Hi! It's been such a pleasure getting to meet so many of you in person. I had a great time at Harms Woods yesterday and it looks like quite a few people were able to make it to the Columbus Park Bioblitz. Wherever you were, it has been inspiring to see the number of people out observing our local flora and fauna.

Today's the last day to record observations for the City Nature Challenge, which ends tonight at midnight. We'll have all this week to upload any remaining photos and identify what we found. Results will be announced on Friday.

Sneaky tip: if you have observations that feature more than one species, you can click the little downward facing arrow next to Edit in the top right corner, then Duplicate, and then identify the other species in the photo. It's no problem using the same photo for multiple species. It's a great way to show plant community assemblages.

Here is the link to help identify:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?project_id=city-nature-challenge-2018-chicago-wilderness-region
You can then filter it further by the taxa you're familiar with, such as birds, fungi, or plants.

The stats tab on our project has a nice display of the top favorited and commented on observations. Be sure to give your faves a fave--click the little star below the map on the observation.

A reminder that there will be an Identification Night hosted by Lauren Hendricks in the Pilsen area of Chicago tomorrow night (5/1) at 7PM. Gather with other iNatters to verify the gargantuan number of iNaturalist observations that are coming in. Bring a computer, any keys/references you may need, and a snack if you please. All are welcome regardless of skill level. RSVP by emailing renhen2@gmail.com for the exact address.

Wow! As of this morning we've got 3106 observations of 625 species submitted by 212 different people. Amazing job folks.

Our top observed species have swapped out to all native flora--mayapple, bloodroot, bluebells, spring beauties--and then Siberian squill, mallard, white trout lily, cutleaf toothwort. View more stats here.

Here are all the events planned today, Sunday, April 29th. Join in:

7:30AM: Columbus Park Bioblitz, Birds (Illinois, Cook County, Central)
8AM: Bioblitz of Sand Ridge and Burnham Greenway (Illinois, Cook County, Southeast)
9AM: Bioblitz Harms Woods (Illinois, Cook County, North)
9:30AM: Columbus Park Bioblitz, Plants-Soil Life-Mushrooms-Insects (Illinois, Cook County, Central)
10AM: Spring Flora Hike at Camp Shaw-Waw-Nas-See (Illinois, Kankakee County)
12PM: City Nature Challenge Perry Farm (Illinois, Kankakee County)
1PM: Columbus Park Bioblitz, Trees (Illinois, Cook County, Central)
1PM: Columbus Park Bioblitz, Aquatic Life (Illinois, Cook County, Central)
1PM: Scavenger Hunt at Gibson Woods (Indiana, Lake County)
4PM: Night Hike at Bob Mann Woods/Salt Creek Nature Preserve (Illinois, Cook County, Central/Southwest)

And Tuesday we are having an Identification Night in Chicago. More info on all these events here:
https://habitat2030.org/city-nature-challenge/

Just a few snippets before I jump in the car to get over to Warren Woods.

• We nabbed nearly 1000 observations made by ~100 different people. Great job guys!
• Even though this year's spring is wayyyy later than last year's, we've documented 80 plants that we didn't find last year. There are 170 plants we found last year that we still need to get. You can do similar comparisons with other taxa.
• Just look at these super cute owl babies by @sanguinaria33 https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/11530095
• Remember you can add observations even if you didn't grab a photo.
• Anyone have time to get to a bog? Volo Bog would be a great place to grab some unique species.
• List of Species to Find
• Help identify Chicago Wildnerness Region observations
• View all the events this weekend **newly added, an Identification Night in Chicago on Tuesday!
• Tips for a long day of bioblitzing

Woohoo! Have fun.

@aaroncarlson @achang @adam_b @adamwardsell @airalcorn2 @alan_villalba @aleksmuller @alisonbraun @amaris @amybeanblossom @amyturner @andrea14 @andrewlindquist @andrewsaldrich @andrewstpaul @andriy @angelmi @annechw @annettem @anniep122 @arbor167 @arosie333 @aseeger @ashleyt2 @ashleywold @asolarte @astake @austinburoff @avalontile @b_sargeant @balsamgrommet @baxtercrowe @bbennett3 @beckyk @benjaminshonfeld @bg1159 @billieegads @bird_freak @birdnirder @bkossy @bmoneymaker @bnorlin22 @bouteloua @brendandcarson @brentmichalski @brittanyhull @brooklynfontana @bruce43 @bschrock2 @bufface @bwagner @bwsteward @cabinfever65 @camron_pg3 @cardnoclare @carolt-80 @carterobrien @caseymerkle @casteensa @casteensc @casteense @casteensg @casteensj @casteensk @casteensl @casteensn @cdawes @cghiotto @cgunnlents @charles18 @chriskozlak @cindygrau @citymouse @cjoll @clnoll @cmaso @coles-cavendish @corvusshade @cpdlauren @cqlanus @craigbillington @creativefinder @creaturekid @crusty @cwarneke @cweber1 @cynthia_r @d3038010661 @d_coulter @dan58 @danbuckler @danielmaisch @darryn @darwin11 @davidr @dayshinique @dcoldren @deansy @debantlitz @dhoebeke @diane45 @dlcarterksu @dog @donbocker @dorothybayern @driftlessroots @droberts49 @dsuarez @dustin29 @dwdwash90 @dylanfaughn @dylanw99 @dziomber @eattaway92 @educator_go @ekmoody @eknuth @ekrimmel @elana1 @elfaulkner @elliotgreiner @eluu @emily280 @emilyanne1296 @eminor @entrenet1 @ericalannan @eriko @erjanes93 @esp @ethankosdondlinger @evettegalvan_ @ewarden @farawaywolf @featherenthusiast @flexfolks @fpccoutreach1140 @fraz4919 @ggallupe13 @ggcouri @ggoatboy @gieserguy @gotta_be_the_very_best @gowillia @greenbergh @greg80 @gwen21001 @gyrrlfalcon @hayley511 @heatherbryant @heelsplitter @helen28 @hershbergers @hollisg10 @hollykatz @hudfrucci @idiaogbomoh @illinoisbotanizer @ingrid8 @irmela @isaac_krone @isaaclarkin @j_keating @jackassgardener @jackiemajdov @jacklousberg @janebaldwin @jasonsiegler @jbarthel @jbates606 @jeffcramer @jefferykarafa @jeffgrant @jennifersnyder @jennproud @jennykendler @jerr17 @jerrybrown219 @jerryhossli @jhowell @jimcarberry @jmanieson @jmb62 @jmclark617 @jmmcclo @jmn @jmpatton @joelle @joey24 @jonpaul @jordan41 @joseph8 @josephine7 @joshuaknutson @jpbobolink @justinjubert @jvreeland @jwhitenack @k1mberlyz @k3outdoors @kaarakallen @kafka1959 @kate88jm @katelynsbolds @kathleensoler2 @kbuck @kcaldwell22 @keeper @keeterscience @kellielachata @kelvin9 @kennedy9094 @kevapiva @kevinwhiteloyola @kgort26 @kimberleaf @kkucera @klaudiasowizral @knightericm @kristen57 @kstrain @kyreelong25 @laniarius @lauritalavette @lexie475 @lfinn1050 @lindemanzachary @lizchiparks @logan42 @lotsofheadbands @luis005 @lukaszhradecki @lumprvt @marapresley @marie25 @markmalitz @marniebaker @marshmaiden @marsieme @martinlucas @mary137 @marystorino @matt167 @mattmart @maximilianthenaturalist @mbeatty233 @mbf @mbrien @mepatter @mfs3168 @michaelszuter @missgreen @mjaberg @mjcarbs10 @mmcmasters @mmcnamee @mmog @mn2010 @molanic @mollykunkle @montanamike @moorschuster @mrpeagle @msaviola @nan-cee @nashuagoats @nate27 @nathanglamb @naturalheritage @naturalprairie @naturemuseumteens @nfurlan @nicksouza @nickv27 @nicothoe @norawestol @nuthatch75 @olchambers @oliviaburns @osagiearlette @owlwhisperer @paigelawless @palmera01 @patriciafojut @patrikl @paulefields @paulroots @pembrokeycc @pistodog @pitmaster @pnnmsp @pnnmyp @prairieclover @preriesmoke @psweet @puzzlemasta @rakesh2 @randomrover88 @randyshonkwiler @raquel_w @raverick819 @rbowe @regnar @rensweiler @retrofuturism @rgraveolens @rheinrichs @riccardomarchingiglio @ritafw @rjm2 @rmay @robustus_ @rubzzz @ruthstrutz @ryankiefer @ryanoconnor77 @saarahjunaid @sallydavis @samwerts @sandersreno @sanguinaria33 @sarahtheentwife @sasquier @sbeilke @scoobbi @scorchyru @sedge @seeslinger @shahista @sidb @skrentnyjeff @softserve @sophiaremias @staceyrecht @stealintv @stephasaurus @stevilkinevil @stormdaze @sunshineboudreaux @suzbot @swalquist @swampy @taco2000 @tamandua2 @tariqshihadah @taylward @tbell @tchakamaura @terrypie @themothergooz @thesnaguy @thismia @thomasgrosmichelbanana @threetrees @thunefeld @tianaelias @timidlittleturtle @timothyobrien @tippery @tkgoggin @trebol15 @treefahrner @tsc_wis @tulalola @tvalenzuela @tzdunek @urwhatueat @vanandelle @victor65 @vytukas @waguirre @wanderinghaack @wartellr @wesleybaker @whimbrelbirder @wilderless @wildernessbarbie @woodridgejeff @writemealetter @wyattwellehan @yes123 @yryzhik @zachar1 @zbolda @zoology123

All observations between this morning at midnight and the end of the day Monday will automatically be added to the City Nature Challenge. No need to manually add to the project. Have fun!