Phase II Identifications.

Thank you everyone for participating in the City Nature Challenge 2024.

We have collected an amazing amount of data
93,008 observations by 2,711 observers.

And the loading is continuing: will we make 100,000 observations for southern Africa?

BUT, now comes the more arduous task: identifying all these observations. This must be completed within a week, so Sunday, May 5 is effective.
During the week, we will streamline the identification process, so please pop onto this umbrella journal and check the latest posts, which will include links to facilitate identification by taxonomic groups, regions, and categories.
It makes sense to pool our resources. We have less than 100 specialists, although lots more very keen and competent people, but we need to strategize for this huge workload.

Lots of people are still loading, so their priority is to get their observations on. Please try and complete it today or tomorrow (remember 1 May is a public holiday, so please work hard on the IDs). When done, they will almost certainly be helping with IDs.

Top priority now is to get identifications from Unknown, and vague, to at least Family level (or genus or species if you recognize it).

The tool we will use is the curation tool. It is really quick and efficient to use, but you will need to know how it works, or perhaps be reminded. Their is a 3 minute tutorial here: please take a moment to review it.:: https://vimeo.com/246153496

OK: here goes: please help us Identify the observations.

Please help with Identifications - Round 1:

Phase 1: Unknowns:

• Unknowns: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=any&iconic_taxa=unknown&project_id=city-nature-challenge-2024-southern-africa&page=5

Phase 2: IDs above family: (You can filter further by adding your preferred group in the "search species" box)

• Plants: help ID plants to family or lower here
• Vertebrates: help ID birds, mammals, herps and fish to family or lower here
• Invertebrates: help ID Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs and Worms to family or lower here
• Fungi : help ID Fungi and Lichens to family or lower here

FAQ:

1. Q? I am a beginner, but would like to help. Where do I begin?
   A! Please start with the Unknowns (Phase 1) and identify them as well as you can.

2. Q? I would like to stick to birds (or etc). What is the best way for me to help?
   A! Start with the Phase (2), click on your group (vertebrates), and in the "search species" box type birds and click to select and process the birds. When you have done all that you can, please go to Phase 1 and look for birds (or etc.) there.
   But remember: not all birds are in the "birds bin" yet for identification - more will come later.

3. Q? I have identified those observations that I can, but there are lots that I cannot, and they get in the way. Is there a way of getting rid of them on my ID tool?
   A! Yes, when you have finished a page, and cannot identify those that remain, click the "Mark All as Reviewed" option, and they wont appear again (unless you select them by clicking the "reviewed" button).

4. Q? What about Research Grade? We are only identifying them at a course level.
   A! We will check identifications to get them to research grade later in the week. Because that is more specialised, we want to clear the Unknowns and Vaguely Identified observations first and get basic identifications for as many observations as we can.

5. Q? Wont we all be identifying the same unknowns?
   A! No - the filters on iNaturalist are really efficient, and once identified they will be removed from the queue. A very few might be identified twice, but that will help confirm them.

6. Q? I am a keen gardener, and I want to help with garden plants. I like them best. How can I help?
   A! Please. They are also important because they attract pollinators, herbivores and other wild organisms in our gardens. Here are the planted observations that need attention. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=any%2Ccasual&project_id=city-nature-challenge-2024-southern-africa&verifiable=any&photos=true&place_id=any&page=5

7. Q? I dont know a plant on the identifier, but it is unknown. Should I identify it as a plant?
   A! No! Just skip it - leave it for someone else to tackle. Identifications above Order for Invertebrates and Vertebrates are of limited value. If you know it is a fly or beetle (or even in insect), then please ID it as such. But for plants, if you cannot ID it to Family or finer, just skip it. You are wasting valuable time by making such a vague ID as "plant" or "dicot" or "monocot": to be most effective we need finer IDs, so just leave these for others who do recognize them.

Publicado el 30 de abril de 2024 por tonyrebelo