iNaturalist's City Nature Challenge 2021 and the Northern Virginia Planning Region's SGCNs
This post explores the utility of iNaturalist’s City Nature Challenge 2021 (April 30th to May 3rd) to harness community science observations in order to support observing Virginia’s Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN). Northern Virginia Planning Region Focus!
The City Nature Challenge is iNaturalist’s massive spring bioblitz and the Washington DC area participates. The DC challenge includes the Washington DC metropolitan area so for Virginia, these counties (and cities within) are included; Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Manassas, Fauquier, Prince William, Stafford, Fredericksburg, and Spotsylvania.
Virginia’s SGCN effort is divided into planning regions. The Northern Virginia Planning Region includes significant county overlap with iNaturalist’s City Nature Challenge. This planning region includes the following counties; Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Manassas, and Prince William, and the cities within. Special thanks to these iNaturalists who recorded two or more SGCN observations during the City Nature Challenge 2021: @izafarr @tomarata @hthrd @leofetterolf @lisam @lucareptile @ashley_bradford @ana_kaahanui @drhowell @telbill @casadoray @kpasternak @zhelicarol @peggyo @aqualily @bheubner @capitalnaturalist @dmvnaturephotos @doclarsen @hugh_vandervoort @jtdavis @krosenthal @lbachle @pam12 @steveyoung and @willowsfordconservancy.
This post spotlights the Northern Virginia Planning Region. Let’s take a look at what SGCNs were observed during the City Nature Challenge 2021.
During the city nature challenge, 751 observers recorded 22,829 observations of 2,173 species overall, in the planning region. Nineteen species of great conservation need (SGCN) were observed by 71 observers during City Nature Challenge 2021.
- Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis), 63 observations
- Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus), 19 observations
- Common Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina), 15 observations
- Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina), 13 observations
- Green Heron (Butorides virescens), 12 observation
- Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus), 5 observations
- Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma rufum), 4 observation
- Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus), 4 observations
- Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon), 3 observations
- Northern Rough-winged Sparrow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis), 3 observations
- Field Sparrow (Spizella pusilla), 2 observations
- Yellow-breasted Chat (Icteria virens), 2 observations
- Spotted Turtle (Clemmys guttata), 2 observations
- Eastern Ribbon Snake (Thamnophis saurita), 2 observations
- Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus), 1 observation
- Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus), 1 observation
- Eastern Hognose Snake (Heterodon Platirhinos), 1 observation
- An Amphipod (Stygobromus), 1 observation
- Eastern Whip-Poor_Will (Antrostomas vociferus), 1 observation
The surge of community science observations during the iNaturalist City Nature Challenge 2021 adds to the understanding of Virginia’s identified species of greatest conservation need. Overall, for the Northern Virginia Planning Region's SGCNs, and including this year’s bioblitz, 1,148 observers have documented 50 SGCNs with 4,613 observations.
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This is wonderful, @tca12345! Thank you for taking the time to review the data and write this up. I'll share the link during the Friday debrief!
Interesting information! Thank you for compiling it. I am surprised to see catbirds in this list, as they are common in my back yard and seemingly around the whole area whenever I go out in summer. I was unaware some of those others are of concern, too, but it's nice to see that some others that I WAS aware of were seen. Sad to see low numbers, though.
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