2024 North Florida & South Georgia City Nature Challenge's Journal

Hello everyone, it looks like you’ve compiled a nice total so far, we’re at 3,143 observations. Regrettably, I’ve had to be away this year so couldn’t contribute. However, I’ve been doing some identifications when I could. Last year we hit a 70% research grade level, which was pretty good. As far as I could tell, we won the CNC in that measurement (but there’s no recognition for that in the CNC)! We have a ways to go to meet that again, so it’s worth going through the identify model on your computer to see if you can nail some IDs! To do so, go to the Project observations, click identify and scroll through. We have lots of unidentifiables this year, however, photos that are too out of focus etc, even a bunch that don’t show the organism.

The following message came in from the INaturalist CNC folks, advising of dates to finish uploading your observations and making udentifications.

������ We wanted to send some quick reminders about the next steps for CNC this week:
������We are now in the uploading and identification period. You all have until 9 am your local time on Monday, May 6th to get all your observations uploaded. You can upload any photos you took from April 26th - April 29th.
������ Be sure to remind everyone that we’re really hoping to document wild plants and animals, and if they did make observations of organisms they know are not wild, to please mark them as captive/cultivated (and as people work to identify observations, they can also mark anyone’s observation as not wild in the Data Quality Assessment section)
������ We will record your city’s results as of 9 am your time on Monday, May 6, and will send out the full results and infographic around 2-3pm PT that day

Just a quick reminder, the bioblitz starts tonight at midnight! Take your photos, record your sounds for the next four days: 26th, 27th, 28th, and 29th! You can upload them and do identifications during these 4 days, but you then have 4 additional days to finish your uploads and identifications.

Please keep in mind only wild organisms count for the purpose of the bioblitz. Things like the nursery flowers you planted, your pets, landscape plants in your neighborhood, all these will not count

Last year we almost hit the 4,000 marks, coming in 118th worldwide.

Happy hunting out there!

Hello fellow iNaturalist Observer! This year the City Nature Challenge (CNC) takes place April 26th – 29th. We have just 8 days left, so hurry and join and make plans, today! Our folks got 118th place last year, but that was our first time out of the gate.

You are tagged to receive this message because you made iNaturalist observations this year in this region. You are encouraged [maybe again] to participate in this global event. 692 “Cities” are participating this year, worldwide (up from 492 in 2023)! Let’s do our part here in North Florida and South Georgia! “Join” the 2024 bioblitz link below and follow the incoming stuff for 4 days!

Give your efforts, as much as is possible for you. Let your friends know to join in too!! All you need to do is go outside, somewhere, anywhere, in the counties that are included, and make iNaturalist observations. You can go for a walk, take the dog for a walk, a proper hike, kayaking, scuba diving, digging in the compost, looking in rotten logs, under rocks, at your lights or go out with a sheet at night for insects, make sound recordings of frogs and birds. Anywhere! Any time! State parks are your best bet for finding the greatest biodiversity, just pick one and go there. Even a weedy roadside has lots to find.

If you think you might be interested, here is a link about the CNC so you can read up: https://www.citynaturechallenge.org/

Here is a link to our regional CNC Project to JOIN:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/2024-north-florida-south-georgia-city-nature-challenge

This includes counties in NW Florida and SW Georgia; the link will show you the map of counties at the bottom. This is where you made the observations that led me to message you. You may have been just travelling through this area and played at iNatting, but there is likely a CNC in your home area that you can join – see the CNC link.

During these 4 days, the idea is to accumulate as many observations in iNaturalist as you can, including photos or sounds. As long as your photos were taken during those 4 days, we have 4 more days to get them uploaded. Identifications can be made at any time.

Many folks are not aware that inaturalist.org is the desktop version and is far more powerful than the mobile app. You can use the desktop on your iPad as well. Please visit there and find your messages, review your account settings, take time to do identifications, check out the iNat Forum function, explore the wide world of iNaturalist beyond your phone!

I apologize in advance for this mass message, but iNat messaging doesn’t accommodate bcc.

PLEASE IGNORE BELOW THIS LINE…

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Hello peeps, I hope everyone’s ready to go iNatting in 2 weeks.

This will be a good time to just get out there and capture all you can in a 4-day span.

As long as your photo metadata fall within those 4 days your observations will count, even if you can’t get them uploaded for a few days. You have 4 additional days to get your pix uploaded, so spend your daylight hours taking photos of organisms and load your stuff instead of eating and sleeping and TV!

I always recommend, to take your pix with your camera, then edit as appropriate to crop etc - I never take pix using the in-app camera option! This way you can easily take several pix from various aspects and of different structures, which helps a TON when identifiers are looking to put names on your stuff. I invite you to scan through my observations and see what I photograph, how many, what angles etc.

Remember you can also collect sounds! You can also go look around your house lights or street lights, see what’s flying or crawling in!

Get out to the state parks that are in close range here, cuz that’s where the biodiversity is! All over N FL and SW GA. Get out there and absorb some Vitamin N! That’s the Nature vitamin eh… get ya some feel-good.

Lastly, please tell your iNatting friends to join and also go iNatting intensely for 4 days! Please, do not delay!

Cheers, Ingolf

Hi all, this link may be of interest. I was looking for some else entirely, and ran across this little graphic illustrating botanical terms. Might be a good reference to go to, and something to look over in any case. Exposure to the terms helps to learn them... makes identification easlier!

https://www.clemson.edu/cafls/research/weeds/weed-id-bio/index.html

Hi folks, if you aren’t on Facebook you might not be able to open this link I found several years and saved.
It contains good info about the sorts of characteristics of mushrooms you need to document with photos if you wish to get a name on your finds.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/188661297973292/permalink/2091835074322562/

Hello all, I just learned of this great little article in IFAS. Well worth the read. Then you’ll have a better idea of what photos are needed to be able ID your INaturalist observations of trees! Similarly, the notion applies to all plants…

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/FR296

Expected nearby vs seen nearby.

No idea if anyone here follows the INaturalist Forum, but I learned something there today. You’ll notice a change in your new observations as this predictive model kicks in. You can read up on it here, it’s worth knowing about! Look Forum in the Community pull-down menu, if you’re not familiar with. Lots of good info and conversation in there.

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/introducing-the-inaturalist-geomodel/45407

Wow, iNaturalist lets you generate your "Year in Review", that's cool. Far out graphics and stuff, that's pretty entertaining. What other identification tool does that for you? My numbers are small fry, it blows me away that there are folks out there doing 5-10 times as much with this!
https://www.inaturalist.org/stats/2023/ingolfaskevold

Hi follks, thanks muchly to those who've already joined the 2024 CNC. Everything is set to run automatically with our "City" bioblitz. It's set up just like last year's but I changed the name a little.

BUT I DO NEED HELP, PLEASE!

Please help with recruiting participants. We're at ground zero right now and I need methods and people to get the word out to folks. Specifically, I need folks to spend time and effort doing just that. If you have ideas and connections, please share!!

I'm teaching a course at the OLLI program early next year, to teach iNaturalist to folks so they can use both the mobile and desktop aplications.

I've a meeting scheduled with the Tallahassee Museum to see about having some public education programs there. Anyone have connections like this where they can go make presentations and what not?
HELP!! If you are willing to help and be an official Organizer, I would enter your name and email into the offical Organizer form. That will enable you to receive emails about he CNC, attend their occasional Zoom Meetings. We have until Nov 17 to add Organizers to that form.

Thanks in advance!
Ingolf Askevold