City Nature Challenge Southern Africa 2023's Journal

Journal archives for March 2023

March 7, 2023

50 days to go

Just 50 days to the 2023 City Nature Challenge.
At this stage most people who have joined the project are Organizers. If you know of any organizers who have not joined, please ask them to do so.
But it is now time to start asking participants to join both your city project, and this "southern African Umbrella" project. From time to time and during the event we will post journal articles that might interest your participants: please also feel free to copy, use or adapt any journal items in your own project journals.

As can be seen on the main page, we have 31 Cities taking part. There is just a very small window to add cities, but by now most organizers should have their committees in place, portfolios assigned to specific members, and at least a rough plan of action and events.
At present, only Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia & Zimbabwe are not taking part, which is a pity. As usual Botswana is roaring to go, and Eswatini & Ruwanda are each fielding 2 cities.

Welcome especially to the new cities: we hope that this will be fun.

Because this event is over a holiday period, it will be difficult to do school activities. And some of our cities will be emptying out. However, other of our cities will be experiencing an influx of holiday visitors: please feel free to capture and enrapture these and get your events and tallies for the City Nature Challenge up.

I will shortly be posting the standard FAQ, so many of the usual questions will be dealt with there. But if you have any questions about organizing or issues or just need some feedback or assurance, please feel free to use the comments below, and to answer anyone's queries if you have some insight or suggestions.

Here is to a great 2023 City Nature Challenge. May the best city win!!!

Posted on March 7, 2023 11:04 AM by tonyrebelo tonyrebelo | 3 comments | Leave a comment

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions!

City Nature Challenge 2023 important dates:

  • Make and share observations: April 28 - May 1
  • Upload all your observations: April 28 - May 7
  • Help with Identifications: May 2-7
  • Anticipate final Results: May 8

When can I make observations that will count for the City Nature Challenge?

All observations must be made starting on April 28 at midnight 12:00am (South African standard time) and up until midnight May 1 at 23h59 (ZA time). Any observation made before or after will not count.

  • Note that this is for observations made - you have a week to upload and identify your observations afterwards. So it is OK to not upload during the 4 days of the challenge and upload them the week afterwards. Or you can do it immediately if you prefer.
  • Similarly, it is the dates observed that counts - identifications may be done anytime until May 8 to count for the City Nature Challenge - you do not have to identify your observations to submit them (you are welcome to identify them though). In fact, it is often most efficient to upload your observations first and then identify them at leisure later.

Can I upload photos during the CNC that I took prior to the CNC?

No, only observations made during April 28 - May 1 will count for the City Nature Challenge.

  • It is a snapshot of biodiversity for the weekend for your city - and all participating cities - that counts.

Do I need to join the project and or add my observations to the project for them to be included?

No. All observations that are made within the boundary of the city between April 28 - May 1 will automatically get pulled into the project for that city. No further action other than making and uploading the observation is needed. You can participate in several cities - iNat will take care of all the details.
You are encouraged though to join your City project (and more if you anticipate participating in several cities):

  • That way you’ll get notifications about News posts that are made.
  • Also the project will then automatically display on your observations - both advertizing the project, and allowing you a quick link to look at progress.
  • It will also allow you to participate in the ID parties, and to respond to organizers requests for planning the events and coordinating identifications.
  • If you want to take part in several cities, then join them all: the full list of our cities can be found here: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-southern-africa-2023

How can I make sure my observations are in my city's CNC project?

The easiest way is to go to your city’s project, click the “Observers” tab.
Look for your name there in the list of observers!

  • If you have joined your city’s project, you can see which observations are included by looking on the right Projects sidebar on the web version, or the projects section on the app.

Do I need to join the umbrella projects?

No! But you are welcome to. The umbrella projects will also show on your observations. And you will also be notified of national news and issues. The two umbrella projects are:

In fact: join them now!

What kinds of observations should I make during the CNC?

Any observations of WILD plants, animals, fungi, seaweed, bacteria, lichen, or living organisms you find in and around your city!
This includes dead organisms, or evidence such as shells, tracks, scats, feathers, nests, slime trails.

But domestic Cats, domestic Dogs and People (esp. selfies) are NOT included. You can include people or hands or fingers to show scale of living organisms (if it is safe to do so), but it must be about the organism (although sometimes with fishermen, one never knows if the observation is more about the fish or the man).

  • Remember, photographs must clearly show the organism: please focus, and crop and compose your observations carefully if you can.

What if I make an observation of something I know isn't wild? Will it still count for the City Nature Challenge?

Yes, as long as you’re not making a lot of these observations, most cities will include observations of non-wild organisms during the CNC. However, these must be marked as captive-cultivated.

  • If you notice any observation of a captive/cultivated plant or animal, please mark it as cultivated if you are certain.
  • Captive/cultivated includes pets, animals in a zoo/aquarium, plants in your garden, potted plants, planted plants at a botanical garden, etc. Often these may be part of an interaction: e.g. bees may be visiting their flowers, or caterpillars eating their leaves, so please include them. Note that birds held at SANCOB and other rescue organizations also count as "captive" until released.
  • Domestic dogs, domestic cats and domestic humans will not count, so please don't bother uploading them. Go out and find something wild. Or record the "wildlife" living in your house - ants, spiders, moths, cockroaches and other visitors.

What if I don't know what the organism is that I took a picture of?

No problem! You don’t have to know the name of what you recorded. In fact, part of the fun of the CNC is learning about species that you dont know. So if you have been meaning to find out what that bird, plant or goggo is, the CNC is the time to go and observe it.

  • Please make sure that you take a good enough photo(s) so that it can be identified (closeup, in focus, cropped, clearly visible) - see tips for taking good photos (https://vimeo.com/167341998).
  • You may find it easier outdoors to just make observations, and leave the identifications for the ID week after the event. That is perfectly acceptable.

How do my observations get identified?

There are a couple ways you can get your observations Identified on iNaturalist, but the City Nature Challenge is not the time to learn them.
So if you want to find out, practice beforehand. There will not be time during the event. You will be either making observations over the weekend or helping with IDs afterwards.
But basically iNat offers:

  • a Computer Vision/Artificial Intelligence (AI) ID tool, that matches your picture with its library. Be aware that the AI ID has not yet been trained on rare and poorly recorded species, but is great for identifying the more common species. It does require a connection and time, so best to switch it off for the CNC, unless you desperately want an immediate ID. Before accepting a name make sure that it is not a species from the USA or Europe - because the AI is trained or far more of their species than ours in southern Africa.
  • on the web version you can use the Identotron (click the compare button next to any ID) to see species seen nearby. But you will need a rough ID to narrow the search.
  • there is a special curation tool for identifications. If you wish to help with IDs during the identification week, you will need to use this. Please join one of our online courses, or have a look at this 2minute video: https://vimeo.com/246153496 . You will need to practice before the City Nature Challenge if you seriously want to help during the ID week. But it is a great way to learn the local species in any group that you are interested - be it snakes, spiders, orchids or sedges.
  • Any observation can be seen by the entire iNaturalist community, and there are lots of people willing to help with making an identification. These include novices, experienced amateurs and experts in specific groups. The iNat community may agree with your ID, they may refine your ID, or they may correct it if wrong. Remember all identifiers are volunteering their time to help identify observations - there are no paid identifiers. Please feel free to ask questions (as a comment) and find our more about the organisms.
  • Note that identifications are only possible for adequate photographs: they need to be in focus, zoomed in (and cropped) and clearly show the organism. For many species special parts need to be included among the photos. If you are interested in a particular group, you will quickly find out what those are. Tips to taking identifiable observations can be seen here (https://vimeo.com/167341998).

Do I have to make observations using the app? What if I want to use a real camera?

The iNaturalist app is really convenient to make observations. It records the date and place, and uploads the different photos and observations seamlessly. Unless you have an expensive camera, it is the way to go.
But it is fine to use a real camera, and if you are really serious you will probably get one soon if you dont have one. You can upload your observations using the Upload tool on iNaturalist. If your camera does not have GPS, then you will need to manually do your mapwork on the Upload Tool - we would recommend though that you record a track on your phone, and sync the tracts into your photos, which will save you lots of time during uploading.

Can I use audio recording to make an observation?

Yes, you’re welcome to use sound as evidence of an organism for your observations – this is a great way to make observations of animals like birds, frogs and crickets! You can record sound directly in an observation using the iNaturalist app.

Can I upload observations without media like photos or sounds?

We get it - sometimes a cool bird or butterfly flies by without stopping and you just can’t get a picture. Yes, you can make observations in iNaturalist without a photo, and some cities will allow observations without photos for the City Nature Challenge. However, please do this sparingly, and only if you know for sure what the species was, since no one can help ID or confirm an observation without a photo. If it is rare or unusual, it would be better to try harder and get a picture or sound. Some cities do not allow it: check the conditions when you join your city.

Can I use Seek to make observations?

Seek by iNaturalist is a great way to engage children and families in nature exploration because it does not automatically collect personally identifiable information about users. In order to use Seek to make observations for the City Nature Challenge, you must first login to Seek using your iNaturalist account.
It is probably better to work as a parent-kid team, with the parent managing the process. Cub groups often participate under their Akela, or a few parents, or set up a patrol team.

Where can I see how my city is doing?

Use one of the two umbrella projects. These are live and are up to date to the second. Note though that some cities are 10 hours ahead of us, and some 14 hours behind. So although live, the participants from some cities are certainly still asleep. So the CNC will start and end at different times for different cities depending on their time zone.

My city is not taking part in the City Nature Challenge! Can I still participate?

Everyone is welcome to participate, wherever you live! Join our global project. This also applies if your route extends out of your city into neighbouring non-participating areas.

Someone added an ID to my observation - should I agree with it? What if I don't agree with it?

An identification confirms that you can confidently identify it yourself compared to any possible lookalikes. Please do not simply “Agree” with an ID that someone else has made unless you are certain about the ID.
If you disagree with an identification, then please add your own identification. It is helpful if you disagree to explain why you disagree. Similarly, if someone disagrees with your identification, and you think that you are correct, then please ask them why they disagree and explain why you think you are right. Please be friendly: all our identifiers are volunteers and many are still learning, but we can all learn together.

Do observations have to be "Research Grade" to count for the CNC?

No: all observations will count for the CNC, even those that are not Research Grade, and even those that dont get identified at all (hopefully we wont have any of those, so please take good, clear photos!).
“Research Grade” observations need an identification and a confirmation. They also need to meet other criteria, like needing an adequate date, place, media, being wild, and having a 2/3 majority in the event of an ID dispute.

I took so many photos during the CNC that there's no way I can get them all uploaded before the end of the day on May 1 - what should I do?

Relax! Luckily we have a week - up until May 8 at 9am your local time to upload them and get them identified. They will still get added to your city’s project, as long as they were made in the April 28 - May 1 window.

Can I help identify what other people found during the CNC?

Yes! In the same way that anyone can be an observer, anyone can help identify observations.
One way is to go to your city’s project, click “Observations” and you’ll see an “Identify” button just below it on the menu bar. Clicking this will take you to the iNaturalist Identify page and show you all of your city’s observations that still need to be identified.
But keep an eye on your cities journal. Most cities will coordinate the identification among volunteers, and provide links that you merely need to click to help with IDs.
If you are a specialist, you can add your taxon in the species box to see only observations in your group. Bear in mind, that many may still need to be identified to that group.

  • It’s really helpful to go through the unknown observations and assign them to groups such as insects, birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, frogs, insects, snails, spiders, scorpions or “fungi”.
  • Please note that and Id to "plants" is a waste of time: please try and get them to family level, or leave them for the plant fundis. However, if it is a tree, then please add them to the trees project, to get them to the tree specialists. The tree project is https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/trees-of-southern-africa-id
  • If you want to help with IDs, please have a look at this short video tutorial https://vimeo.com/246153496.
  • Remember: only make identifications for which are are reasonably certain. There is nothing wrong with only making an ID to genus , family or group level.
  • Specialists: if you wish to help with IDs of all southern African observations in your group, please follow the journal postings in the umbrella project. And add your group to the taxon box in the identification too. The curation tool is superb, and a brief online tutorial can be seen here: https://vimeo.com/246153496.

Why is the species number different in my city project to the umbrella project?

iNaturalist counts species in different ways. There are a half dozen different ways of talling species, and different parts of iNaturalist use different ones.

  • For the City Projects, leaves (branch tips in the tree of life, or terminal taxa) are counted. So if a genus or family is identified, but no species in it, then it counts as a leaf. Subspecies are ignored (which is a right pain, when so many of our species have subspecies, sometimes many in one city).
  • For the Umbrella Project, only species-rank identifications are tallied. Subspecies are ignored.
    So the Umbrella Project always has less "species" But for the CNC itself, the City Project leaves will be used in reports, but for overall collaborative results, the umbrella project will be used.

When are the results announced?

The results for your city will be whatever the numbers are in your project on Monday, May 8 at 9am your local tiime. It takes almost 24 hours to get the numbers from all the cities, since our cities in New Zealand and our cities in Hawaii are 23 hours apart by time zone. So the very last cities to hit 9am on Monday May 8 are in Hawaii. Results will be announced within 2-3 hours of that time, around 2pm Pacific time.

What are the City Nature Challenge data used for?

On iNaturalist, all the data are freely available to anyone interested in downloading them. iNaturalist observations are used in hundreds of scientific publications. Many of them are using data that is shared with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility as part of the iNaturalist Research-Grade Observations dataset.
Your data are also used nationally, provincially and locally by our conservation agencies. The Red List Teams (CREW), Alien Clearing Teams, Reserve Managers and Conservation planners follow up and synthesize our data:

  • new species
  • new distribution records - range extensions
  • unusual habitats
    So the data contribute to Red Listings, Reserve Management Plans, Student Research and municipal programmes. And also into research programmes on Wetlands, Vegetation Mapping, Migration and a myriad other projects.
    And of course, data are used by you, by hikers, mountaineers, holidaymakers, and citizen scientists for planning holidays, trips, routes and finding out what is likely to be found, or found flowering, in specific areas.

How can I share about the City Nature Challenge on social media?

Tag any post with #CityNatureChallenge!
Tweet or Instagram: @citnatchallenge.
Your city project will include city-specific CNC social media accounts, as well as activities planned, so read your citys' journal for details.

Posted on March 7, 2023 11:05 AM by tonyrebelo tonyrebelo | 0 comments | Leave a comment

Tips for Taking Photos During the City Nature Challenge

Tips for Taking Photos During the City Nature Challenge

The photos you take during the City Nature Challenge are there to provide evidence of the organism you saw, and to help confirm the identification of that organism. Therefore, taking good photos is key to participating in the CNC!
Here are some tips to taking photos:

  • Focus on one species in each observation: While a field full of wildflowers is beautiful, it’s not the best photo for an observation - which of the many species is your species? Make sure that at least one of your photos for the observation (preferably the first) is a close up, centered in the frame, and fills the frame.
  • Take several photos in one observation: photograph different parts or angles of your organism. For example, one photograph of an entire tree taken from far away won’t be very useful for identification. But that same shot combined with other photos that show close ups of the leaves, the bark, flowers or fruits, will allow the tree to be identified.
  • Discard blurry photographs: Use the option on the app to retake photos if the photo is not good. Try retaking with a flash, or wait for the organism to stand still.
  • Get close: For small organisms in particular, like ants or aphids, getting a nice close-up shot is vital for identification. A huge picture with a small black dot is useless. It can be difficult to get a good close-up shot with your smartphone, but zoom in and get close. If you enjoy photographing small things there are inexpensive clip-on macro lenses that take great, focused pictures of small organisms or close-ups of features of other organisms, like a plant that has tiny flowers or the eyes of a spider.
  • An ideal observation has a picture showing the full organism, closeups of important features (for spiders this might be the arrangement of the eyes, the hairs and claws on the toes, and the spinnerets, for plants it is the inside of the flower, the back of the flower, a stem showing the leaves, and the plant habit - you will quickly learn what is important in different groups), and the habitat it lives in. If you can get all of these in one sharp, detailed photo, then that is ideal. But the more pictures the better - iNat allows up to 20 pictures per observation (although the android app only allows 4).
  • Remember: only one species per observation. Dont post different types of things on the same observation: iNaturalist can only give one name per organism. Keep it different species on a different observation. If uncertain, do separate observations.
Posted on March 7, 2023 08:25 PM by tonyrebelo tonyrebelo | 0 comments | Leave a comment

March 30, 2023

Time to start finalizing Events

Less than 30 days to go. Time to start finalizing events for the City Nature Challenge.
If you want your events posted on the iNaturalist Facebook Events page (and shared with any pages you might have, now is the time to start finalizing them.

Please add your project here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Pzg0SWHOxA5J8_oWN7uxw05TrPHEBh3y/edit#gid=603735091
If your city has its own spreadsheet, or if you have already posted a Facebook event, please just mark it up here as well, so that we are aware of them. .

While at it, now is the time to get everyone to join your city's project (or more than one if they want to take part in several cities - it is holidays after all), and also to please join this project.
You join on the top right hand corner (yes, you know, but you need to tell the others).
By now you should be in the 20-50 participants signed up zone, and by Easter you need to be in the 100s. After all, your project is the best way to communicate with your serious participants (Facebook is pure advertizing!).
And Everyone must also please join the umbrella at
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-southern-africa-2023

Hope all your plans are underway.
Please dont forget to get societies and clubs involved as well. Contact, Scouts, Gird Guides, your local Mountain Club, and hiking societies.

Tell us your themes below.

There is a request to please consider a Polyphagous Shothole Borer Beetle Survey - how bad is it in your area?

So a Quest:
Survey these species: Oaks, Poplars, Camphors, Planes, Liquidambers, Elders, Elms - yes they are planted, but we will count them: they are part of our urban forest after all. Whether they are clean or infested, please promote this project:

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/polyphagous-shothole-borer-beetle-pshb-atlas-s-afr
A map of infested and clear areas will be most useful. And will help in planning to deal with this problem, whether it is to start planting resistant trees, or to start removing trees that promote the spread (the so called "amplifier" species).

[Remember to click on the topic name to open the comments if you cannot see them ...]

Posted on March 30, 2023 01:18 PM by tonyrebelo tonyrebelo | 3 comments | Leave a comment

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