Diario del proyecto City Nature Challenge 2022: Greater Philadelphia Area

A big thank you to everyone who participated and helped make this year yet another successful one. Philly's official numbers at cut-off were:

Observations: 19,030
Species: 2,215
Observers: 876

We didn't do as well as last year but we had a late surge that made it very, very close after not looking like we were going to get anywhere near last year's numbers. Good job, everyone. For comparison, these were last year's results at the cut-off time:
Observations: 19,637
Species: 2,219
Observers: 966

As you can see, it was very close, but we always want to do better on our total observer numbers and try to get past 1000 next year.

And while not officially a competition again this year, the numbers put us at 16th in observations, 19th in species, and 13th in observers out of about 450 participating cities. Well done, Philly! For comparison,, this is how we placed last year: 11th in observations, 12th in species, and 11th in observers.

And despite not being a competition, we take a little bit of pride in that we beat NYC in all 3 categories. And as usual, DC smoked us again with 38k observations, nearly 3k species, and 2112 participants. As we always say, we'll get them next year! We did better than Boston in species, but they got ahead of us in observations and observers.

Ever since we started participating in the CNC, globally, Cape Town usually runs away with most observations and species. That was not to be this year, with La Paz, Bolivia recording numbers never before seen during the CNC (and it was so far above previous years' highs). They had 137k observations, 5320 species, and 4296 participants! Those are some really impressive numbers. If anybody has any ideas on how we can replicate La Paz's numbers here, we'd be all ears. After all, the more people who are engaged with nature, the better we can be at protecting it for all of us.

Across all cities participating, the global CNC had the following amazing numbers with over 1.5 million observations made in 4 days:

Observations: 1,694,877
Species: 50,176+, including more 2,244 than rare/endangered/threatened species
Observers: 67,220

Thanks to every one of the 876 people who added observations in the Greater Philadelphia Area. And to the 725 identifiers, thank you! A special shoutout to our top participants:

Observers: @srall , @jameshoughton, @annebekker, @seahound, @mattparr, @georgemushkal, @allisonrhoughton, @debbeer, @that_hippie_chick
Species: @annebekker, @srall, @jameshoughton, @mattparr, @seahound, @maryah, @that_hippie_chick, @allisonrhoughton, @mark_fallon
Identifiers: @maryah, @efalquet, @mbwildlife, @conboy, @naturejeanne, @julietrav24, @brianwhite, @ciafre, @choess, @mark_fallon

And just like last year, an extra special shoutout to @srall for participating with both Philly and NYC. Sara did two days in NYC and 2 days in Philly and she was number 1 in observations in both NYC and Philly! And she was well ahead of the 2nd place finisher in both places! She also tallied 416 species in Philly in just 2 days! We are very lucky to have you continue to join us, Sara.

And a shout out to @annebekker as well! She was the first person to cross 400 species during our CNC last year. This year, she outdid herself with 475 species! Those are some really impressive numbers. Well done, Anne! We are hoping for 500 next year.

And big thanks to @maryah for all the identifications! I know my species numbers would be a lot lower than they are without the help. Thank you!

One last shoutout to @jameshoughton and @allisonrhoughton! This was their first year participating in the Philly CNC having relocated from Boston and they really helped us out and they both were in the top 10 in both species and observations.

Here's a cool graphic made by the global CNC organizers highlighting the global competition. CNC 2022 infographic

I'll try to make a similar one for our region soon, so please let me know if you found anything cool either while observing or IDing.

Well done and congratulations all!

That was fun and exciting, and maybe a little exhausting, wasn't it? We had a great time documenting our biodiversity. There's so much wildlife in and around Philadelphia, and we thank you for helping us document it and holding our own against other cities around the world. We're now at just over 14k observations, 1955 taxa (1683 ID'd all the way to species), and 847 observers. A bit behind our numbers from last year, but let's see how much more we can get!

While the observations phase might be done, it's time to ID all of the photos that we have in our project. And also upload any photos you still have. We have until the end of Sunday, May 8th to upload and ID all the observations we documented over the weekend.

To start IDing observations, from the project main page, click Observations and then Identify. Or go straight here. You can filter taxa by whatever you are good at IDing. Good at plants? Filter by Plants. Birds? Same thing. If you're not an expert at any particular taxon, no problem, help us ID all the 'unknown' observations. You don't need to ID them all to species. If an Unknown is a plant, you can apply the label plants and anyone who is looking at just plants will be able to find it and narrow it down further. Try to get as specific as you can though. If you think a plant is an oak, ID it as an oak.

Here are some links to help you get started IDing observations that are not ID'd to species yet:
Unknown observations
Plants
Fungi and lichen
Insects
Arachnids
Molluscs
Reptiles and Apmibians
Mammals
Birds

Happy identifying!

We're almost at the end of the first phase of the 2022 City Nature Challenge. Today is the last day to go out and take your photos and audio recordings. We've made over 9k observations, collectively seen 1577 species, and have had 656 people taking part. Those are a bit behind our numbers from last year, but hopefully, we can make it up on the last day.

Despite a rainy start to the morning, I'm still holding out hope that we hit, and perhaps even exceed, our all-time high totals of 23k observations (2020), 2141 species (2021), and 950 people participating (2021). Even though it's still not technically a competition, we still like to see how we do in comparison with other cities. Currently, we are at 19th place in observations, 22nd in species, and 15th in observers. NYC, DC, and Boston are all ahead of us, so let's step up our game and get our numbers up!

Here's to a wonderful last day of observations!

Find what species we still need at: http://targets.cncphilly.org/

We're just shy of 6k observations, but we've crossed the 1000 species mark and are looking good with 443 observers. We seem to be a little behind our numbers from last year, unfortunately, so we really need to keep this going. We have 2 days to get to 20k observations, 2k species, and invite another 500 or so people to participate. We can do this!

And if you are out and about, see if you can find some of the most frequently seen species that we haven't seen yet for the CNC this year: http://targets.cncphilly.org/

Happy Day 3 of iNatting!

Another chilly start but warming up nicely later in the morning. How was everyone's first day? Collectively, we did pretty well - a little over 3k observations, 815 species, and 213 observers. Traditionally, we more than double our Friday totals on Saturday; can we keep up the trend? Maybe hit 10k observations today? Let's get those participant numbers up too. Tell your family, friends, and neighbors to add a couple of observations.

Globally, La Paz is off to a rocking lead. 35k observations, 2016 species, and most impressively, 2258 people participating. Can we close that gap? It all depends on you!

Happy day 2 of iNatting!

Cold start to the morning, but there's plenty of wildlife to find. At 7:30 in the morning, we're at 42 observations, 35 species, and 9 observers. Let's set a goal of 5000 observations for the day. Who's with me?

Good luck and happy iNatting everyone!