Το Ημερολόγιο του City Nature Challenge 2022: Chicago Metro

Help organize locally for the City Nature Challenge 2023: Chicagoland Region. The observation dates for next year's challenge are April 28th through May 1st, 2023. Save the dates!

Our first regional organizers planning meeting will be:
Tuesday, December 6th, 2022 at 10AM Central
via Zoom

To join that meeting and/or be added to our regional organizers email list, add your contact info to this form and we will send you the meeting link.

Other links:

• Regional CNC website: https://www.chicagowilderness.org/citynaturechallenge
• CNC 2022 Chicago Metro project summary
• Other Chicago Metro journal posts from 2022

Thinking of planning an event?
If you or your organization is thinking about holding a related event before, during, or soon after the City Nature Challenge in the Chicago Metro area, we will be collecting all events and displaying them on our regional hub. Example events include:

• bioblitz
• guided nature hikes
• iNaturalist workshops/trainings (e.g. for beginners, how to add IDs, educator-focused, or advanced iNat usage)
• virtual identification party or nature storytelling
• sharing how your organization or research uses iNat data
• learning about urban flora and fauna through iNat or Seek
• urban nature trivia Zoom

Help organize locally for the City Nature Challenge 2023: Chicago Region. The observation dates for next year's challenge are April 28th through May 1st, 2023. Save the dates!

Our first regional organizers planning meeting will be:
Tuesday, December 6th, 2022 at 10AM Central
via Zoom

To join that meeting and/or be added to our regional organizers email list, add your contact info to this form and we will reach out with additional information closer to the date.

Other links:

• Regional CNC website: https://www.chicagowilderness.org/citynaturechallenge
• CNC 2022 Chicago Metro project summary
• Other Chicago Metro journal posts from 2022

Thinking of planning an event?
If you or your organization is thinking about holding a related event before, during, or soon after the City Nature Challenge in the Chicago Metro area, we will be collecting all events and displaying them on our regional hub. Example events include:

• bioblitz
• guided nature hikes
• iNaturalist workshops/trainings (e.g. for beginners, how to add IDs, educator-focused, or advanced iNat usage)
• virtual identification party or nature storytelling
• sharing how your organization or research uses iNat data
• learning about urban flora and fauna through iNat or Seek
• urban nature trivia Zoom

The City Nature Challenge 2022 has come to a close!

Infographic text:
City Nature Challenge 2022: Chicago Metro
Powered by iNaturalist
Between April 29th and May 2nd, 2022:
over 9,200 observations
pver 1,300 species
over 800 observers
over 500 identifiers

photo of marsh marigold (Caltha palustris) @dannl (CC BY-NC)
photo of blue-grey gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea) @randall228 (CC BY-NC)

Most-observed:
Animal: red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), Ben Zerante @benzerante (CC BY-NC)
Fungus: dryad's saddle (Cerioporus squamosus), A. J. Kishta @akishta @CC BY-NC)
Plant: lesser celandine (Ficaria verna), Mike B. @taco2000 (CC BY-SA)

photo of great blue heron (Ardea herodias) eating American gizzard shad (Dorosoma cepedianum), @kitundu (C) used with permission

Graphic by cassi saari @bouteloua
See everything we found at https://bit.ly/cnc2022

Logos: City Nature Challenge 2022, California Academy of Sciences, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Chicago Park District, Chicago Wilderness, Budburst: a project of the Chicago Botanic Garden, Shedd Aquarium, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago Ornithological Society, Northeast Chapter of the Illinois Native Plant Society, Illinois Science Council

View the most-faved photos for the Chicago Metro area: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?order_by=votes&place_id=any&project_id=city-nature-challenge-2022-chicago-metro&verifiable=any

And see the global collective results across 445 cities below:

The identification process continues! See how you can help here: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2022-chicago-metro/journal/65266 (no expertise required).

If you or your organization are interested in helping organizing locally next time, reach out at cassi.saari@chicagoparkdistrict.com and I will add you to our email list.

see you around iNat!
—cassi / @bouteloua

Time to identify City Nature Challenge observations! Results will be announced Monday, May 9th.

Did you know that anyone can help with identification on iNaturalist?

No formal training or expertise is needed because even sorting observations into very general categories like "plant" or "frog" can be super helpful! Globally there are currently 304,162 observations that don't have any label at all. Can you help out?

Some stats:

Tutorial

Learn more about using the Identify page in this quick video:

Other ways to help

Not so interested in identifying? How about marking whether a plant is budding, flowering, or fruiting, or if an observation is of an egg, larva, or adult? There are a ton of other ideas listed here: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/ways-to-help-out-on-inat-wiki/1983

What haven't we found yet that we found in previous CNC years?

For birds, we've previously documented common gallinule, long-billed dowitcher, fox sparrow, ovenbird, pectoral sandpiper, and warbling vireo, but none of those yet (and others) yet in 2022. New to the Chicago Metro Region during the CNC period so far are marbled godwits, American woodcocks, semipalmated plovers, and hooded warblers - i.e. those species were not added to iNat during the CNC period in prior years. In 2022, no green frog, snapping turtle, leopard frog, chorus frog yet - it's a bit chilly so they're probably hiding!

You can play around with changing the taxon_id number and sorting the columns on the right side of this Compare tool to see other new/missing species. It's currently showing vertebrates, but you would change the number at the end of each URL to, for example, 40151 to look at just mammals. Note that everything has to be divided into groups that have fewer than 500 taxa in the search results, due to the limitations of the Compare tool. Learn even more about search URLs here.

Semipalmated plover (Charadrius semipalmatus) observed by @breanddave at Rainbow Beach Dunes in Cook County https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/113943488

New to iNat in the Chicago Metro during CNC 2022

Sort by the "before CNC2022" column to find species we haven't observed yet and the "during CNC2022" for those newly observed in the Chicago metro region on iNaturalist in 2022. These aren't necessarily totally newly documented for the region, just the first time they've ever been added to iNaturalist for the region (still cool!). I've excluded casual observations here.

Plants

• Non-flowering plants
• Poales (grasses, sedges, rushes, and friends)
• Monocots excluding Poales
• Apiales (carrots and friends)
• Asterales (sunflowers and friends)
• Boraginales (borages and friends)
• Brassicales (mustards and friends)
• Caryophyllales (pinks and friends)
• Fabales (peas and friends)
• Fagales (beeches and friends)
• Gentianales (gentians and friends)
• Lamiales (mints and friends)
• Malpighiales (nances and friends)
• Ranunculales (buttercups and friends)
• Rosales (roses and friends)
• Solanales (tomatoes and friends)
• All other (eu)dicots except the groups above

Fungi

• Fungi without bacidiomycetes
• Basidiomycetes without Polyporales or Agaricales
• Agaricales
• Polyporales

Animals

• Birds
• Mammals
• Reptiles and amphibians
• Ray-finned fishes
• Coleoptera except Cucujiformia (beetles)
• Cucujiformia (cucujiform beetles)
• Hemiptera except Heteroptera (Hemiptera other than true bugs)
• Heteroptera (true bugs)
• Brachycera (brachyceran flies)
• Nematocera (nematoceran flies)
• Hymenoptera except Anthophila (ants, wasps, sawflies, excluding bees)
• Anthophila (bees)
• Papilionoidea (butterflies)
• Noctuoidea (owlet moths and friends)
• Bombycoidea (sphinx moths and friends)
• Geometroidea (geometer moths and friends)
• Pyraloidea (pyralid and crambid snout moths)
• Tortricoidea (tortricid leafroller moths and friends)
• Other moths than the groups listed above
• Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies)
• Insects except the groups above and below
• Arachnids
• All other animals

Etc.

• Other life (viruses, bacteria, slime molds, etc.)

You'll sometimes find species on here that are the result of computer vision errors and other misidentifications as well as observations that should be marked captive/cultivated. Fixing these helps sort the wheat from the chaff and keeps range maps representative of wild organisms.

Check back on these links later as new observations and identifications continue to come in.

And we're off! The City Nature Challenge began last night at midnight and will run 4 days through Monday, May 2nd at midnight.

Track what we're finding here: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2022-chicago-metro

Check out these Frequently Asked Questions: https://citynaturechallenge.org/cnc-faqs-page/ and feel free to use this journal post as a place to ask/answer questions.

See full event details on the CNC Chicago Wilderness webpage. If you or your organization is thinking about holding a related event before, during, or soon after the City Nature Challenge in the Chicago Metro area, please fill out this form by April 15th.

This list is actively being updated with new events.

All times are local time unless otherwise indicated.

Monday, April 25th

6:00PM-6:45PM Central: Illinois Science Council's Talk and Walk, City Nature Challenge (virtual)

Tuesday, April 26th

7:00PM Central (6:00PM Mountain): iNaturalist MasterClass: Making Science-Worthy Observations (virtual)

Friday, April 29th

10:00AM-11:00AM: City Nature Challenge Hike at LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve (Illinois-Kane)
1:00PM-3:00PM: Roosevelt University Schaumburg Bioblitz (Illinois-Cook)
6:00PM-7:00PM: Bioblitz 101 - Kickoff and Introduction (virtual)

Saturday, April 30th

7:30AM-10:30AM: City Nature Challenge Walk at Bemis Woods North (Illinois-Cook)
8:00AM-10:00AM: Spring Early Birds at North Park Village Nature Center (Illinois-Cook)
9:30AM-11:00AM: Walk at Kankakee Sands' Conrad Station Savanna Trail (Indiana-Newton)
10:30AM-11:30AM: City Nature Challenge at Burnham Nature Sanctuary (Illinois-Cook)
10:00AM-2:00PM: 63rd St. Beach Clean-up and Bioblitz (Illinois-Cook)
11:00AM-2:00PM: Bioblitz at Lincoln Park Zoo's Nature Boardwalk (Illinois-Cook)
11:00AM-2:00PM: City Nature Challenge at Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum (Illinois-Cook)
12:30PM-2:00PM: City Nature Challenge at Northerly Island (Illinois-Cook)
1:00PM-2:30PM: Intro to iNaturalist and City Nature Challenge at Indian Prairie Public Library (Illinois-DuPage)
1:00PM-3:00PM: UIC Eco-Educators BioBlitz at Jackson Park (Illinois-Cook)

Sunday, May 1st

7:30AM-10:00AM: Marian R. Byrnes Park Bird Walk (Illinois-Cook)
10:00AM-3:00PM: City Nature Challenge 2022 at Sand Ridge (Illinois-Cook)
11:00AM-2:00PM: City Nature Challenge at Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum (Illinois-Cook)

Monday, May 2nd

No events currently listed

Monday, May 9th

6:00PM-7:00PM: Bioblitz Celebration and Wrap-up (virtual)

Learn more and RSVP at https://www.chicagowilderness.org/citynaturechallenge

If you or your organization is thinking about holding a related event before, during, or soon after the City Nature Challenge in the Chicago Metro area, please fill out this form by April 15th.

We'll be posting the list of public events on the CNC: Chicago Metro website and this project page.

Examples:

• socially distanced bioblitz
• guided nature hikes
• iNaturalist workshops/trainings (e.g. for beginners, how to add IDs, educator-focused, or advanced iNat usage)
• virtual identification party or nature storytelling
• sharing how your organization or research uses iNat data
• learning about urban flora and fauna through iNat or Seek
• urban nature trivia Zoom

We're also having monthly planning meetings on third Tuesdays at 10AM (next one is March 15th). Please reach out to me if you or a colleague might be interested in attending those, or comment below if you have any ideas for the Chicago region's CNC!

Again - here is the form where you can submit your event!

cassi / @bouteloua

On November 30th, the City Nature Challenge international organizers are holding iNaturalist trainings, two in English and one in Spanish.

These are geared toward City Nature Challenge regional organizers but I am sure they will be chock full of anything vital a new iNatter might need to know.

Some of the things they will cover are:

• how to make observations with the app and through the website
• how to add identifications, how to find places
• how to make a project

You can sign up to attend a meeting here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EGXLr7ydtsPqCIT6H2WauREWNp7baax59a2cl86NANk/edit?usp=sharing

The sign-up spreadsheet includes other time zones and alternative ways to get to the Zoom meetings.

Here is the meeting information for attending:
30 November, 10AM Central (English)
Agenda: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xCc2wcBmiSKz_6JafY7SqpaMKhL3jVOCNcyAVR2HGKU/edit?usp=sharing
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88210261499

30 November, 4PM Central (Spanish)
Agenda: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Knvf--z6GvaUF2MtM-l8boJYDThz1pbLM-seEmFUp8c/edit?usp=sharing
Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84505391330?pwd=bjl0SXdqZXZ0WTRCVUZJYkhZQlM5QT09

30 November, 6PM Central (English)
Agenda: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18R-OI6jZDmGb2jWOCkP9K3fy6e2Sxs5H0xF_leax2Mg/edit?usp=sharing
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83663133053

Help organize locally for the City Nature Challenge 2022: Chicago Metro. The observation dates for next year's challenge are April 29th - May 2nd. Save the date!

Our first regional organizers planning meeting will be:
January 18th, 2022 at 10AM
via Zoom

To join that meeting and/or be added to our regional organizers email list, add your contact info to this form and we will reach out with additional information closer to the date.

Other links:

• Regional CNC website: https://www.chicagowilderness.org/citynaturechallenge
• CNC 2021 Chicago Metro project summary
• Other Chicago Metro journal posts from 2021
• May 18th wrap-up planning meeting notes here

Thinking of planning an event?
If you or your organization is thinking about holding a related event before, during, or soon after the City Nature Challenge in the Chicago Metro area, we will be collecting all events and displaying them on our regional hub. Example events include:

• bioblitz
• guided nature hikes
• iNaturalist workshops/trainings (e.g. for beginners, how to add IDs, educator-focused, or advanced iNat usage)
• virtual identification party or nature storytelling
• sharing how your organization or research uses iNat data
• learning about urban flora and fauna through iNat or Seek
• urban nature trivia Zoom