I hope everyone who was out in the rain today has finally dried off. It looks like tomorrow we'll be able to have a great last observation day.

Globally, all the cities together have just passed 1 million observations! Will we beat last year's 1.69 million observations?

Battle of the Boroughs update: We now have three boroughs represented! The Bronx has the most observations, Queens has the most species, and Brooklyn has the most observers.

We have one rescheduled event for Monday and the first of three ID parties! Info below and on the main event list tinyurl.com/nyc2023events.

RESCHEDULED: City Nature Challenge Bioblitz: Seward Park
Date: April 29, 2023
Time: 5p-6:30p
Host: Lower East Side Ecology Center
Location: Seward Park Library. Register for more info.
Description: Join the Lower East Side Ecology Center to document species in LESEC's very own Seward Park! Bring your smartphone and we recommend downloading iNaturalist ahead of the event. Don't worry if you aren't tech savvy - we'll have plenty of support to show you how to use the app and to help troubleshoot any issues.
Registration: via eventbrite.

City Nature Challenge ID Party with the Torrey Botanical Society
Date: May 1, 2023
Time: 6:30p–8:30p
Host: Torrey Botanical Society and the New York Mycological Society
Location: Zoom
Description: The second part of the City Nature Challenge is the identification phase. The final city totals are not calculated until May 7, so users have until then to identify the thousands of observations made over the weekend! Grab your computer and your favorite drink, and join us for our ID Party on Monday evening. We will talk about identification techniques and tips for plants and fungi, and some identification features available on iNaturalist. Then we will explore the observations made over the weekend, and add identifications. No expertise is necessary—if you can tell a plant apart from a fungus or an animal, you will be able to contribute!
Registration: None needed. This is a direct link to the Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89652328280?pwd=ajkyTnZPRklSTzN2WEgwUnAvS2x5dz09#success

Virtual ID Party and Bingo
Date: May 2, 2023
Time: 5:30p-7:30p
Host: Billion Oyster Project
Location: Zoom
Description: Join the Billion Oyster Project for an ID party focusing on harbor organisms.
Registration: via Eventbrite.

City Nature Challenge NYC Virtual ID Party
Date: May 3, 2023
Time: 5:30p-7:30p
Host: Macaulay Honors College
Location: Zoom
Description: Grab a snack and a tasty beverage and hop on our Zoom with @klodonnell to make identifications together! No taxonomic experience necessary - everyone is welcome! The basic format will be a quick intro about how to ID observations and then you'll work on them on your own while on the call. We'll hang out and chat about the cool critters people have found or the funny observations people have made.
Registration: via Eventbrite.

What a difference in the weather! We hope everyone was able to spend some time outside today getting the last of their CNC observations. You have all week to upload them, but we encourage you to get them up ASAP because we have TWO more ID parties coming up Tuesday and Wednesday! Join us for one or both of them!

Virtual ID Party and Bingo
Date: May 2, 2023
Time: 5:30p-7:30p
Host: Billion Oyster Project
Location: Zoom
Description: Join the Billion Oyster Project for an ID party focusing on harbor organisms.
Registration: via Eventbrite.

City Nature Challenge NYC Virtual ID Party
Date: May 3, 2023
Time: 5:30p-7:30p
Host: Macaulay Honors College
Location: Zoom
Description: Grab a snack and a tasty beverage and hop on our Zoom with @klodonnell to make identifications together! No taxonomic experience necessary - everyone is welcome! The basic format will be a quick intro about how to ID observations and then you'll work on them on your own while on the call. We'll hang out and chat about the cool critters people have found or the funny observations people have made.
Registration: via Eventbrite.

Our last ID party is tomorrow, Wednesday May 3 (details below). We're going to try to get through as many observations as we can! While we're doing that, we're going to look for cool observations we can share with the global organizers of CNC. If you can't make it to our ID party, let us know about your observation highlights in the comments below. Here's what they are particularly interested in:

• species that haven’t been recorded in particular areas before
• important finds of rare/endangered/threatened species
• observations that have a great story that go along with them
• really great photos
• other fun finds or personal favorites
• urban contrasts, nature taking over, marginal spaces, etc.

Leave a comment below with a link to the observation!

Here are the details for our last ID party:

City Nature Challenge NYC Virtual ID Party
Date: May 3, 2023
Time: 5:30p-7:30p
Host: Macaulay Honors College
Location: Zoom
Description: Grab a snack and a tasty beverage and hop on our Zoom with @klodonnell to make identifications together! No taxonomic experience necessary - everyone is welcome! The basic format will be a quick intro about how to ID observations and then you'll work on them on your own while on the call. We'll hang out and chat about the cool critters people have found or the funny observations people have made.
Registration: via Eventbrite.

The results are in for 2023! Thank you to everyone who participated in the City Nature Challenge in New York City and around the world!

This year, 482 cities across 46 countries participated in the City Nature Challenge and together we've beaten last year's global observation record! Over 66 thousand people across the globe made over 1.87 million observations of over 57 thousand species. The most observed species globally was the Mallard Duck (Anas platyrhynchos) with over 5035 observations. The global organizers at the California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of LA created an awesome infographic with these results and some other interesting finds. Check it out here.

New York City Results

We hope everyone has dried off by now from what was likely the rainiest CNC we've ever had here in NYC. Unfortunately, about a third of our planned public events had to be cancelled due to the weather, but we still had lots of people out making (sometimes very wet) observations of nature! Together, NYC had 14,391 observations of 1555 species made by 505 people. CNC brought in 154 new NYC observers to iNaturalist, 6,265 new "Research Grade" NYC observations, and 63 species new to the iNaturalist database for New York City. Great job, everyone!

The City Nature Challenge is a collaborative celebration of biodiversity and the 482 participating cities were not competing against each other. However, as always, we do have some interesting comparisons to report. Out of the 86 cities that share our climate zone classification (Cfa), New York City is ranked 9th for observations and number of observers. Out of the 42 similarly-sized geographic areas (between 500-999 sq. km), New York City is ranked FIRST for observations and number of observers!

Let's give a shoutout to our top observers, species finders, and identifiers in NYC, and an extra special shout out to @srall, who split her time between two cities this year and is ranked #8 globally for observations in the whole City Nature Challenge!

Top 10 NYC Observers

@mugglelissa, @susanhewitt, @srall, @zitserm, @jesseanne, @zihaowang, @irag, @klodonnell, @lisabrundage, @kellycarrot

Top 10 NYC Species Finders

@zihaowang, @zitserm, @susanhewitt, @srall, @jesseanne, @mugglelissa, @irag, @kellycarrot, @klodonnell, @spuytenduyvilny

Top 10 NYC Identifiers

@nycnatureobserver, @peakaytea, @srall, @sadawolk, @djringer, @spuytenduyvilny, @jo1010, @zahnerphoto, @igor_kuzmin, @xris

Battle of the Boroughs

Three different boroughs won each of our categories this year. The most observations were made in Manhattan, the most species were found in Queens, and the most observers were in the Bronx.

Let's also recognize the top observer and species finder in each borough. They are:
Bronx: @mugglelissa (obs) and @zihaowang (spp)
Brooklyn: @lisabrundage (obs) and @zihaowang (spp)
Manhattan: @susanhewitt (both)
Queens: @zitserm (both)
Staten Island: @srall (both)

And let's give a big thank you to our borough captains for leading the way in their boroughs: @glyptostrob0ides in the Bronx, @xris in Brooklyn, and @mspceco and Danny DiMarino in Manhattan.

Greenspace Race

This year, 9 NYC green spaces joined the Greenspace Race led by @mspceco. Together, 101 observers made 1,447 observations of 471 species.

MANY THANKS

We absolutely could not run a successful CNC:NYC without all of our wonderful partners: ASLA-NY Plant Research Group, American Museum of Natural History, Billion Oyster Project, Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, Friends of Spuyten Duyvil, Genspace, Green-Wood Cemetery, Greenbelt Conservancy, Lower East Side Ecology Center, Madison Square Park Conservancy, Macaulay Honors College, Manhattan Land Trust, New York Botanical Garden, NYC Parks, NYC Pollinator Working Group, NYCH20, Prospect Park Alliance, Riverside Park Conservancy, Stewards of Ewen Park, Stewards of Henry Hudson Park, The Bee Conservancy, The Friends of Governors Island, Torrey Botanical Society, UrbisEco, and Washington Square Park EcoProjects. Thanks for everything you did to make this year a success, including coming to planning meetings, spreading the word about CNC, and making your own observations and identifications, and many many thanks especially to those of you who hosted or organized CNC related events this year. Even if the events ended up cancelled because of the weather, we so appreciate the time and effort you put into planning them. You all are what makes this event such a success! THANK YOU!

We also would like to thank some great Macaulay Honors College student volunteers who attended events and served as iNaturalist pros to help the participants started on iNaturalist: @dshair, @itsesmetzis03, @yellowtulip, @respectable_absorption, @jacky_, and @julia_aiello. THANK YOU!


The dates have already been set for next year's CNC: April 26, 2024 - April 29, 2024! (this date has been corrected). There won't be much activity until late in Summer 2023, but if you join the CNC:NYC 2024 project page now, you'll get updates when they are posted. Until then, happy observing!

Thanks, NYC, for a great CNC!