sambiology's Journal

Just an FYI...

If you get LOTS and lots of notifications on your observations or on observations you id, you can modify your account setting so that you don't get notified of ID agreements.

Just go to your profile page, click on "Edit account settings & profile" (located under your profile icon, if you've selected one). Then, scroll down a bit to "activity settings." There you can select or deselect these:

Notify me of mentions (e.g. @username)
Notify me about confirming identifications (Receive notifications about identifications that match your own. If you opt out of this you will only receive notifications about identifications of taxa that don't match the taxon in your own identification exactly.)

Just fyi! :)

Also, I can't emphasize enough just how important ID's are -- even agreeing ones. After talking to folks that get ID's on their observations, it's a big deal to them! Seriously -- even the 7 agreeing ID's of a northern cardinal, it's valuable to the observer -- that's positive feedback that encourages them to go back out and observe more. That's a good thing!

So, please continue to add in ID's where you can. It matters. :)

iNaturalist and real-life friends,

So, there has been a lot of planning going into the next City Nature Challenge. Some of our cameras are still smoking from this past one, but we'll be doing it again in 2018! The dates are in stone: April 27 - 30, 2018. Four intense days where we'll try to document as much as possible throughout the metroplex (anywhere within the 9 counties around Dallas/Fort Worth). Are you ready?!?

I want to make sure that you all know the dates, go ahead and pencil it into the calendar. This time, we'll try our best to have more opportunities to gather, and we'll be having at least one "ID party" after the event to go through observations. This last time, that didn't really happen, and too many observations just rested at "unknown." Again, any and all observations made within the DFW area will count -- check out the area and the observations from the last city nature challenge: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2017-dallas-fort-worth

Also, I want you all to know just how often I use the information from the past City Nature Challenge. I emailed the results to many city councils, park boards, city mayors, and city managers throughout the metroplex. They know that not only is there biodiversity in the urban environment, but there are folks that actively want to seek it out. This sort of thing influences policy! If urban planners figure out that we care about nature, they will actively devote spots for natural habitat.

Let's show them again this upcoming year just how biodiversity exists here and how many folks care about it! :)

Competition will be intense this year... like crazy intense. So far about 75 cities around the world have shown interest in participating. Texas will have 7 urban areas playing along: Amarillo, Austin, DFW, El Paso, Houston, Lower Rio Grande Valley, and San Antonio. Lots of partners on board already. Soooo, it will be a major challenge to maintain our lead like last year!

Also, just FYI, more guidelines will be drawn up on the kinds of observations we'll be using and how the competition will be evaluated. Stay tuned -- more details coming up.

Make sure to put it on your calendars! Tell your friends too! :)

Tagging many folks in DFW:
@taogirl @cgritz @kimberlietx @annikaml @bob777 @naturenut @walkingstick2 @wildcarrot @suz @tfandre @denver @andyk @itmndeborah @mchlfx @charley @brentano @zooga1961 @tadamcochran @butterflies4fun @dfwuw @jblinde @cwd912nb @kalamurphyking @daniel112 @atassin @galactic_bug_man @rmorgan @squaylei2000 @melindawpajak @aguilita @rehb @alchemist2000 @mustardlypig @fiddleman @cameralenswrangler @catenatus @gaberlunzi @mertmack1 @griff @genebem @lkholt @taharms48 @jwn7882 @oddfitz @picklepastures @phlank @cindylcobb5 @brenledbetter @spqnancy @sy25805 @nativefishnic @lulubelle @drtifflipsett @chuckd @katelyn3 @andrewbrinker @juliayl @miscelaineous @lpenn @briang @donaldhapp @lbullington24 @karinsaucedo @nerdywithnature @taosit @ryan3 @jillnugent @brennan3909 @aynhart @birdsbatsandbugs @postoak @sarahg @mnbrewer @danimal @ntc @sara39 @spteng @wilddallas @kimberlywalks @fratto @rmarusak @sammyjames @missypelican @diatomwu @littlebitt_of_nature @karen115 @wlhwildlife @jaquiring @amynature @apcorboy @laurastracke @flowerfreak @lseman @cosmiccat @betsymarsh @allopatry @lovebirder @valt @abigailmm @k8thegr8 @justjenny7 @cmoret @naturemom @gregfw @eangler @magatr0n @joshmols @caseyp @schylerbrown @elisewalkerolc @bogslogger @troutlily57 @stephaniehughes @chuckwilliamson @marcie12h @txstack @cdroz105 @perkpenn @dagmar @sandrahorton @juliethibodeaux