We need the "power users!" Competition heating up! We need you. :)
We need you. "We" is "nature in DFW" and "you" is "you."
The City Nature Challenge is just a few weeks away!
Weather will be the major dictator of how involved we get (rain predicted as of right now, but who knows?!? https://weather.com/weather/monthly/l/USTX0045:1:US), but we will need a REALLY big input from you all. You are the cream of the crop in DFW citizen scientists, and we have some major competition from the other 15 cities -- they are coming out big time for this challenge, so I hope we can too! :)
Again, ANY observation made within the 10 county region around Dallas/Fort Worth will count, but if you do want to gather with friends, there are lots of events going on around DFW during this weekend. Here's the semi-final list:
Friday, April 14…
9 am – noon: Breckinridge Park in Richardson *
9 am – 11 am: White Rock Lake (Bath House) in Dallas
9:30 am – 12:30 pm: Twelve Hills Nature Center in Dallas
11:30 am - 1 pm: UNT campus (by student union and admin building) in Denton
1 pm – 4 pm: Bear Creek Nature Park in Lancaster *
5:30 pm - 8:30 pm: The Mound in Flower Mound
7 pm – 10 pm: Cedar Ridge Preserve in Cedar Hill (mothing!)
7 pm – 10 pm: Mockingbird Nature Park in Midlothian (mothing!) *
Saturday, April 15…
8 am - 11 am: LLELA in Lewisville
9 am – noon: OS Gray Natural Area in Arlington *
9 am - noon: Marion Sansom Park in Fort Worth
9 am – 1 pm: Heard Museum in McKinney
10 am – 11:30 am: Twelve Hills Nature Center in Dallas (butterfly walk!)
1 pm – 4 pm: South West Nature Preserve in Arlington *
1:30 pm – 3 pm: Fort Worth Nature Center in Fort Worth
Sunday, April 16 (Easter Sunday)…
9 am - 3 pm: Connemara Nature Preserve in Allen
Monday, April 17…
9 am – noon: Mike Lewis Park in Grand Prairie *
1 pm – 4 pm: Cross Timbers Park in North Richland Hills *
Tuesday, April 18…
9:30 am – 11 am: Blackland Prairie Conservatory & Atelier prairie in Dallas
4 pm - 7 pm: Tandy Hills Park in Fort Worth *
So, you power users -- we need you biiiiiiig time! :) No obligations, of course, but I do hope you can go out and make some observations during this time!
@taogirl @cgritz @bob777 @naturenut @kimberlietx @annikaml @suz @andyk @mchlfx @zooga1961 @dfwuw @wildcarrot @itmndeborah @tfandre @butterflies4fun @brentano @atassin @jblinde @charley @aguilita @kalamurphyking @rmorgan @rehb @tadamcochran @squaylei2000 @mustardlypig @gaberlunzi @melindawpajak @griff @denver @picklepastures @genebem @catenatus @brenledbetter @daniel112 @galacticbirder @fiddleman @chuckd @dwboston @phlank @lkholt @juliayl @taharms48 @nativefishnic @brendakayforest @ryan3 @sbetzen @sy25805 @brennan3909 @karinsaucedo @rainahmcintyre @vadalton @pat_ry @mertmack1 @missypelican @donaldhapp @rangertreaty50 @ntc @happynaturalist @lulubelle @postoak @katiesmith @rangerrick @danimal @oddfitz @mduross @obidaddy @lbullington24 @michelleluster @forester14 @mnbrewer @wincal @taosit @sarahg @shaunhayes @bbenz @jaydubyah @krstldwn @ameec @laurastracke @apcorboy @hedgehogpro @briang @allopatry @kimberlywalks @wilddallas @mikef451 @frogfellow @hawkilitle @gregfw @donyoung @cdpeebles @karenkroesen @juicd @txlorax @diatomwu @sschickedanz @ordoneznikki @smcreynolds @sammyjames @nolmos @jbe_fleischman_fam @sarahedeerman @magatr0n @rnmisc @triddle @colormeamber @valt @lindsay31 @nickmdal @dagmar @abigailmm @ktcorson @k8thegr8 @cosmiccat @tangelaspain @rewildling @notana @mockingbird75067 @jillnugent @elisewalkerolc @troutlily57 @lovebirder @oliviaosborne @torimccoyhowell @interlibrarylowe @naturemom @hebell @fw_tom @aprilbarnett75 @collinswill @lkpres @h2ddavis @lseman @manz @jerickson @christopher46 @crittergitter @elainecopeland @jessicabeckham @rustypaf @rangerdanielle @fratto @phototime @rljtexas
If you have any questions or concerns, let me know: sam.kieschnick@tpwd.texas.gov or send me a message here on iNat. I check it... frequently... to say the least. ;)
just so you know, we're all winners and there are no losers in this thing. But let's do try to show the rest of the country just how magnificent the nature in DFW is!
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I'm just so excited to learn I'm considered a power user! I'm all in.
Woohoo! I'm a power user too :) I'll definitely be out on Easter Sunday!!
You can count me in, rain or shine, alllll weekend!!! :D
If I am not at, I will be out with my camera & have enlisted my son as well!
Meant at work!
I will be out all weekend with my camera and definitely at Mockingbird Park mothing on Friday night (unless it's raining...I will not be outside if there is lightning...)
you bet I will be out every day if possible
is there going to be a project to enter these into? or will you automatically be able to record all sightings in the prescribed area?
Not sure I qualify as a power user, maybe a future power user!
I will be taking photos, if it is raining, I will take some through my windows as I have feeders set up making that possible.
We'll be out and about all weekend, Sam. Looking forward to this.
I'm a power user! Thanks! I'll do what I can to make it to the Heard.
Power Users unite! FLEX
I will try my best!
The best thing about aquatic samples is that I can document many microscopic organisms in one drop of water. That will help our numbers! :)
I should be able to make at least a couple of these! Thanks for considering me a "Power User"!
I love the variety of power users we have! We're gonna give those other cities a real run for their money... uh... observations. I'm in rain or shine. My camera is splash proof, so as long as there is no lightning, I'll be out every day! I might have to spend more time on grass and trees if the flowers and bugs go into hiding, but so be it. Sam, how good are you at ID'ing through water droplets on the lens? ;)
Can do.
My camera and I will be participating.....
Is Ellis county in?
Ellis County is in!
Is there a deadline as to when everything needs to be uploaded to iNat?
I know someone above asked, but I don't see an answer. When we upload to iNat, do we upload to a certain group for this? Otherwise how will we be able to tell what group won?
@wilddallas Everything has to be uploaded before 4/22. @lulubelle It's calculated by location and date - no need to upload to any specific group. All observations in the DFW area between 4/14 and 4/18 will count.
@daniel112, thanks!
I will be making observations in Parker County - looking forward to it! The metroplex is blessed with wonderful biodiversity...as they will soon find out :)
Thanks for giving the answers in the comments on this!
As Dan mentions -- ALL observations made within April 14 - 18 in the DFW counties will count automatically (aggregated to the project). Now, one of the challenges will be that all of these have to be uploaded BEFORE April 22 to count... That's going to be the challenge!
So, there isn't a project that you need to join, although, you can if you want to. http://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2017-dallas-fort-worth
The other cities in this competition are bumping up their efforts -- we'll need to step up all efforts to keep up! :) I'm excited.
I posted the info to our FB pages - Elm Fork Chapter Texas Master Naturalist and our private page - good seeing you at the MN Regional Conference, thanks for everything!!!
Somebody did create a generic project for this. http://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2017
Sorry, another clarification. It is for sure the most species correct? Is that day by day? Once someone has posted an observation of a certain organism is there no point in reposting? Thanks and sorry if this is covered elsewhere.
Do they all have to research grade to count? Only asking because plants & fungi (bugs to a certain extent) do not often get vetted in my experience.
I was wondering the same. I can put on hundreds of obs in that time but I won't know 90% of them. We're going to have to do some overtime identifying...
@lulubelle @k8thegr8 The leaderboards show Observations, Species, and Members. I don't know the answer to the species question, but it's a good one. My guess is that on the 22nd cutoff date, whatever is loaded counts toward observations and members. Whatever is ID'ed at that point counts toward species. So ID'ing will be important too.
AUSTIN HAS 86 MEMBERS AND HOUSTON HAS 80 TO DFW'S 52! This is indicative only of the people that have actively joined the project in advance, but let's keep getting the word out!! #teamdfw
Leaderboard link I'm referring to: http://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/wildlife_diversity/texas_nature_trackers/naturechallenge/
Wait... there's a project to join? How are you counting members?
Ok I found it. Didn't even realize each city had a separate project. lol
Observations will automatically be added, even if you don't "join". Here's the link to the project in case anyone hasn't joined yet: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2017-dallas-fort-worth
I had looked at that page and somehow didn't realize I could join it! Did so just now!
I plan to participate but could not join as I refuse to sign up with facebook.
Good on you, Rebecca. I wish I could quit FB. :(
If you like, you can still join the iNat project at the URL kimberlietx posted: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2017-dallas-fort-worth
It's up on the right corner of the page "Join this project" in a tiny font that is too easily overlooked. It took me a minute to find it. Cheers.
Thanks for the info, Joined at that link with no problem.
Camera batteries charging - check, eyeglasses polished - check, moth sheets up and all lights I have up and on - check, action plan for the next five days - check, backpack with binocs, guides, ruler, Off!, snacks, water - check!
104 minutes left before it starts - I'm so ready!
Austin and Houston will be putting up some massive competition -- it'll take a LOT to keep up even with our friends in TX!!!
OBSERVE EVERYTHING! Go ANYWHERE in DFW. Even if you don't know what it is, go ahead and toss up an observation. Later on, we can all work on the ID's. :)
And yes, I'm excited as well. :)
I'm as ready as ready gets!! Gonna be a crazy week!!
Anyone know why number of species isn't showing up on the TPW site? It's still showing 0 for all 3 cities...
Nevermind! It JUST decided to update immediately after I posted that. :)
Is Wise County part of this? Need to go there this morning and will take my camera if it is.
Wise County is included!
I get off work in 4 hours- cell phone charged, camera charged, water bottle filled up, snack packed- I plan to photograph everything from the plants I don't know to the common buckeyes and great blue herons! I'm in Denton County and the game is on! (well, it will be for me at 1630 hours!). Bring it ON!
Is taking a picture of every oak tree in the neighborhood park in the spirit of this competition or is it overkill? I could rack up a good number of observations.
Hi, All. I was just look at Austin and Houston's numbers. I think we're slightly ahead! Keep 'em coming everybody!
Keep it up! Lots of us are so busy taking photos that we haven't had time to upload or help ID. We've got until the 22nd to get it all done, but we WILL PREVAIL!! We're already coming in strong!
I haven't even added mine yet. About to get to work on it. I will need help with IDs though.
We have maintained a lead as far as observations, but are 2nd in species.
There will be time to update IDs after the observation cutoff if you don't know what something is called. Do your best, even if its just plant, snake, or dragonfly. Those in the know will follow through and help add IDs. And dont forget to try out the Identotron feature. Once you upload your observation with "butterfly" as the ID you can click Identotron to see all butterflies that have been observed at that location. You don't have to be 100% sure, either! I know I usually go back through all the observations at an event I attended to try to get as many IDs updated as possible. Getting it UPLOADED is the biggest step right now!! :) I hope everyone is enjoying themselves!
I'm really struggling to get IDs for Arachnid observations just now (going back to the LLELA Bioblitz a fortnight ago), can anybody help with these please ?
Day 3 has started (if you are still up at 3am like me), but I know it will be a slower day for observations as people celebrate Easter. I just wanted to give a shout out to TEAM DFW for being #1 in Texas, and behind only San Francisco in the country! Wooot wooot!! The link I posted earlier for the leaderboards is a little tricky... it shows MEMBERS that joined, but not all the observers that are included automatically. If you are interested in watching the leaderboards with everything included, you can find it here: https://nhm.org/nature/citizen-science/city-nature-challenge-2017-leaderboard. KEEP ON OBSERVING!!!
Thanks for the pep talk, kimberlietx!
Dear friends, it's thick in the competition now!
San Francisco @lhiggins @kestrel has taken the lead, but we're knocking at the door in second place. Definitely focus on grabbing some more observations, but be sure to look for some new species for you! If there's a weird bug or plant that you haven't seen before, let's document it -- don't worry about putting a species name on it, we'll be there to give you some guidance (although, it may take a little bit of time). :)
Also, if you're willing to, be sure to look through the observations and toss in some ID's or guidance in ID's -- we've got a LOT to look through! I haven't done much of this yet, but I'm planning on staying up for... several nights... to give guidance. :)
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=any&project_id=10752
Yippee! MOST importantly: have some fun outside. :)
Could I make one small request for next time? Could we not have it on Easter weekend? I am going to have to cancel/postpone Easter feast plans with the fam. ;)
@sambiology San Francisco will conquer Dallas/Fort Worth! :) Thanks for the great competition, folks - the showing from across all three cities in TX has been really impressive! I know we were pretty excited when we crept up and overtook DFW in the middle of the night, and honestly, I think we're most excited that we're beating LA (@lhiggins) right now. :D
The collective impact of the CNC has been amazing - I'm pretty sure we'll surpass 50,000 observations and 5000 species today, check out the umbrella project here: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2017
@kestrel, many here in the DFW have not loaded any sightings yet! Don't count on the win just yet
@kestrel I think we deserve a handicap! :D You guys have an ocean! ;)
Anyone looking to ID moths can peruse this link of the most common moths in DFW. Thanks to Sam for putting it together! http://www.inaturalist.org/guides/4700
Some quick stats on current Research Grade observations vs. all verifiable observations:
Fish: 23% Research Grade
26 Verifiable Observations
6 Research Grade Observations
Fungi: 2% Research Grade
150 Verifiable Observations
3 Research Grade Observations
Protozoans: 8% Research Grade
12 Verifiable Observations
1 Research Grade Observation
Birds: 88% Research Grade
969 Verifiable Observations
852 Research Grade Observations
Amphibians: 61% Research Grade
67 Verifiable Observations
41 Research Grade Observations
Reptiles: 80% Research Grade
336 Verifiable Observations
268 Research Grade Observations
Mammals: 56% Research Grade
151 Verifiable Observations
85 Research Grade Observations
Mollusks: 11% Research Grade
61 Verifiable Observations
7 Research Grade Observations
Arachnids: 15% Research Grade
267 Verifiable Observations
41 Research Grade Observations
Insects: 37% Research Grade
3,384 Verifiable Observations
1,259 Research Grade Observations
Plants: 30% Research Grade
5,639 Verifiable Observations
1,705 Research Grade Observations
Here's the San Francisco area stats for comparison. They are consistently higher in ID percentage, with the lone exception being insects:
Fish: 67% Research Grade
12 Verifiable Observations
8 Research Grade Observations
Fungi: 28% Research Grade
560 Verifiable Observations
158 Research Grade Observations
Protozoans: 46% Research Grade
13 Verifiable Observations
6 Research Grade Observations
Birds: 91% Research Grade
1,279 Verifiable Observations
1,164 Research Grade Observations
Amphibians: 79% Research Grade
75 Verifiable Observations
59 Research Grade Observations
Reptiles: 84% Research Grade
94 Verifiable Observations
79 Research Grade Observations
Mammals: 68% Research Grade
119 Verifiable Observations
81 Research Grade Observations
Mollusks: 31% Research Grade
219 Verifiable Observations
68 Research Grade Observations
Arachnids: 20% Research Grade
227 Verifiable Observations
45 Research Grade Observations
Insects: 27% Research Grade
1,271 Verifiable Observations
349 Research Grade Observations
Plants: 43% Research Grade
6,828 Verifiable Observations
2,903 Research Grade Observations
I went to LBJ Grasslands today, but thunderstorms cut the day short. :( I am uploading what I did get.
We ROCK! Good job everyone!
No kidding k8thegr8. I am so amazed and proud of our DFW iNatter's!!!!!!!!!!
Magnificent job to all. Just awesome indeed. Now, time to upload and ID! :-D Another journal post coming...
:clap clap clap: Zzzzzzz..... (my eyes are open, but my brain is still sleeping!)
It's ID time!!
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&project_id=city-nature-challenge-2017-dallas-fort-worth&quality_grade=needs_id&subview=grid
Home page says "Maintenance downtime scheduled for Friday 8pm to 9:30pm PDT" Seems like bad timing when everyone is trying to get their observations in before deadline.
I saw that & thought the same thing, @rmorgan
Yeah, I think there was just such a FLOOD of observations that they have to work on some of the newly formed glitches! Fortunately, it's only down for an hour and a half. :)
Check out the stats:
http://www.inaturalist.org/stats/
I think I misunderstood. I thought we had all of Saturday the 22nd to finish with IDs. Is it really ending tonight at midnight?
It seems that getting plant IDs confirmed is difficult & hasving been putting out more effort to ID them, I understand why! If anyine is decent with plants, take a look at mine please. I have had the IDs confirmed on Texas Flora on FB, by Jeff Quayle, Suzanne Tuttle and other skilled people. I don't post without a confirmed ID as far as plants go - like mushrooms, they will never get an ID! Thanks!
@taogirl, where did you hear that it ends tonight?
On the City Challenge saw this: Now, before we start to rest, we have our next challenge: uploading! If you were like me, you took a LOT of photos and haven't uploaded much. Well, we have until Saturday morning (April 22) to upload observations for them to 'count' in this challenge.
The other challenge is identifying... Now, observations will be identified for a long time to come, but to help out with our species count, we want to try to identify as much as possible before April 22 as well.
@taogirl It says a little further down in a comment by Sam "So, 9 am on Saturday in CA, so 11 am on Saturday here.
http://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2017-san-francisco-bay-area/journal/9513-city-nature-challenge-2017-day-5"
@lulubelle If you tag Sam in your observation, as a comment, that will guide him to unidentified plant observations.
Also, make sure to give some ID, like Flowering plant, Butterflies and Moths or similar. I try to identify as many moths as possible and I do a search for Lepidoptera among the unidentified (otherwise they disappear among all the plants), so if people just leave it empty it doesn't show up for me.
Just to clarify, observations have to uploaded before Saturday morning at 11 our time for them to count as observation #'s.
Now, not everything will be ID'ed in time before the competition ends, and that's ok -- it'll be ID'ed for a long time to come as Judith mentions. Buuuut, to add any new species for the competition, they need to be ID'ed before it ends. Clear as mud, yeah? The point: get those observations uploaded first and then the community will help with ID's -- that's what I'm planning on doing a bunch tonight. :)
@annikaml thanks for the clarification, maybe I will get a few more ID'd better before then. Gotta March for Science tomorrow though.
@taogirl I'm marching too! If you are marching in Dallas I may see you. It will be crowded downtown, March of Dimes have a walk that starts at Reunion Tower at the same time. And after that march I will have a meeting with my bed, I'm totally sleep deprived!
We are 28 species away from #1!
Well,a bit more than 27, but under 50!
so sorry I did not get to do anything on the 17th, wish I could count the 19th when we went to the LBJ Grasslands and saw three lifers at least.
DALLAS IS IN FIRST PLACE BY 6 OBSERVATIONS!!! We need everyone to load what they have, even if it's ID is blank. Several of us are online just to do ID's, but it's the number of observations that will get the win!! @sambiology WE ARE GONNA DO IT!
Woohoo!
will go back and see if there are not a few observations I did not bother with
Added a couple more plants I had missed, hope I met the deadline.
@rmorgan, deadline is 11 am!
Thanks, going back through photos and seeing if I can pull some plants from backgrounds.
Was able to come up with 15 more.
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