Events in Dallas Fort Worth for the City Nature Challenge
City Nature Challenge - BioBlitz events in DFW
Friday, April 27
Burleson – 9 – Noon at Wakefield Heights Park (704 Elizabeth Dr., Burleson, TX 76028)
Denton – 10:30 – 11:30 AM at UNT Discovery Park at the Pollinator Prairie (3940 N Elm St., Denton, TX 76207)
Dallas – 1 – 2 PM - UTD Campus Monarch/Bee Waystation (2114 University Parkway, Richardson, TX 75080)
Grapevine – 4 – 6 pm at Parr Park (3100 Parr Ln, Grapevine, TX 76051)
Midlothian – 8 – 11 PM - Mothing at Mockingbird Park (1361 Onward Road, Midlothian, TX 76065)
Cedar Hill – 8 – 10 PM - Mothing at Dogwood Canyon Audubon Center (1206 W Fm 1382, Cedar Hill, TX 75104)
Pilot Point – 8 – 10 PM – Moth madness at Ray Roberts State Park (Kid Fish Pond, Ray Roberts State Park, TX 76258)
Saturday, April 28
Flower Mound – 9 – noon at the Flower Mound (2450 Flower Mound Road, TX 75028)
Dallas – 9 – noon - BioBlitz at Crawford Park (8600 Elam Road, Dallas, TX 75217)
Dallas – 9 – noon – BioBlitz at Hines Park (9701 Harry Hines Blvd., Dallas, TX 75220)
McKinney – 9 AM – 1 PM at Heard Museum (1 Nature Pl, McKinney, TX 75069)
Pilot Point – 10 – 11 AM – Bioblitz at Ray Roberts State Park (Kid Fish Pond, Ray Roberts State Park, TX 76258)
Grapevine – 10 – noon at Grapevine Botanical Garden (411 Ball St, Grapevine, TX 76051)
Pilot Point – 11 – noon – How to use iNaturalist (Kid Fish Pond, Ray Roberts State Park, TX 76258)
Flower Mound – 1 – 4 PM at Green Acres Farm Memorial Park (4400 Hide-A-Way Lane, Flower Mound, TX 75022)
Grapevine – 1 - 3 PM at Parr Park (3100 Parr Ln, Grapevine, TX 76051)
Dallas – 2 – 5 PM - BioBlitz at L.B. Houston (1775 California Crossing Road, Dallas, TX 75220)
Pilot Point – 3 – 4 PM – BioBlitz at Ray Roberts State Park (Picnic Pavilion 1, Ray Roberts State Park, TX 76258)
Arlington – 4 – 10 PM – BioBlitz at Southwest Nature Preserve (5201 Bowman Springs Road, Arlington, TX 76060)
Cleburne – 7 – 10 PM – Mothing at Cleburne State Park (Cedar Lodge Patio, Cleburne State Park, TX 76033)
Plano – 6:30 – 9 PM – Night hike at Oak Point Park and Nature Preserve (5901 Los Rios Blvd., Plano, TX 75074)
Fort Worth – 8 – 11 PM – Mothing at Ranches East Park (3801 Lazy River Ranch Road, Roanoke, TX 76262)
Sunday, April 29
Flower Mound – 8 AM – Noon at Cross Timbers Trail (Dunham Road Trailhead, east of Hwy 377, south of FM 1171)
Dallas – Noon – 3 PM - BioBlitz at Emerald Lake (6102 Mountain Creek Parkway, Dallas, TX 75249)
Dallas – 1 - 4 PM - BioBlitz at Twelve Hills Nature Center (817 Mary Cliff Rd, Dallas, TX 75208)
Grapevine – 2 – 4 PM - Nature walk at Meadowmere Park (3000 Meadowmere Ln, Grapevine, TX 76051)
Fort Worth – 2 – 5 PM at Chisolm Trail Community Park (4936 McPherson Blvd, Fort Worth, TX 76123)
Argyle – 2 – 5 PM at Lantana Trails (11555 Lantana Trail, Argyle, TX 76226)
Comments
Just making sure the citizen science community here in DFW knows about the various events going on here. Remember ANY and ALL observations made within the 10 counties on April 27-30 will count. You don't have to join the projects for observations to count. All observations also have to be uploaded before May 4th -- on the 5th, the results will be announced. More info on the global website: http://citynaturechallenge.org/ or on the TPWD site: https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/wildlife_diversity/texas_nature_trackers/naturechallenge/
I'll be frank here -- the other cities around the world, especially our friends in other TX areas (Houston and Austin) and California and Mexico are going ALL OUT this year... I foresee the competition to be mighty intense. And in some of the other cities in the US, they're planning massive events. Soooo, we need you!!! Like really really need you! And we need you to tell your friends too. :) Oh, and don't forget to have fun too. ;) And, of course, don't overdo it -- take care of yourself as your out observing!
Know that after this event, I will be using this data to share with the city councils, park boards, and policy makers. I'm showing that there's a wonderful constituency of naturalists here in the DFW metroplex that seek out areas with biodiversity. Ideally, this will guide policy and public land management to manage areas FOR wildlife and FOR the folks that enjoy it. :)
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Oh, and if you're curious, I'm going to be at these events:
Friday:
Burleson – 9 – Noon at Wakefield Heights Park (704 Elizabeth Dr., Burleson, TX 76028)
Midlothian – 8 – 11 PM - Mothing at Mockingbird Park (1361 Onward Road, Midlothian, TX 76065)
Saturday:
Dallas – 9 – noon - BioBlitz at Crawford Park (8600 Elam Road, Dallas, TX 75217)
Dallas – 2 – 5 PM - BioBlitz at L.B. Houston (1775 California Crossing Road, Dallas, TX 75220)
Fort Worth – 8 – 11 PM – Mothing at Ranches East Park (3801 Lazy River Ranch Road, Roanoke, TX 76262)
The rest of the time, I'm planning on ID'ing stuff that other folks make in DFW... Hopefully through some comments and ID's, we can encourage folks to make more (and improving) observations: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id%2Cresearch&place_id=57484
I hope you're excited! It should be quite fun.
I'm excited!
I plan to be out looking in the general area of the West Side of Fort Worth. Now, since this is going to the City Council, park boards, and other policy makers, I am wondering where in this area would be the best location for me to be. i've been doing Crestwood and the Trinity Trails east and West North Bailey. Behind me is the abandoned bird sanctuary owned by Greenwood Cemetery where, with some effort, I am continuing to find new species. I'm across the river from Rockwood Park. Marion Sanson Park is close, and there is always the Nature Center. Any thoughts? I should be good for all three days, probably not much at nights.
I'll be out in the Lewisville area.
I hope to find some new little insects. I am going to be doing Arcadia Trail Park All North and South of it. I find quite a few things here and there in this big park. Then I am going to be hitting some State Parks and or Nature and Refuge Centers with my husband Sunday and Monday. He is using two vacation days to join me in my quest. We love hiking, so this will be fun! Lets hope we don t have rain in the forecast. Don't forget your chigger spray. Those little critters love me! (lol)
Cannot wait!! Guys, this.is.our. superbowl (for nature!!)!! Let's do this!! :)
My Mom and Dad are signing up- getting their iNat accounts this week! Yay!! :)
I'm so excited. Looking forward to i'nating in some new places and meeting some fellow iNatters :)
I'll try to show up at Roanoke =)
It's really neat to see all the cities around the world participating. I'll be driving up from Waco to lend a hand. Monday counts too, right?
Of course I'll be out at Chisholm Trail Park, but remember what Sam said, folks... ANY NATURE OBSERVATION COUNTS! Robin on your front lawn? Book 'im, Dann-o! False dandelion growing in your rose garden? It counts!
So bummed I won't be able to participate this year. :-/
Man! I am so stoked! I'm going to try and take off work Friday and Monday just to get 4 full days in the field.
To answer some points on this -- yes, ANY and ALL observations count ANYWHERE within the DFW metro region (10 counties). So, backyards and private property (with permission, of course) is ok -- and if you obscure it, that's fine too. I'll be using all the data, but I'll be especially looking at the data from public parks as I email city councils and parks boards. So, I'll send a message to the City of Grapevine with the numbers of species and participants from their parks (as well as all of the observations from within the DFW metroplex).
The competition is from Friday - Monday, so both Friday and Monday will be great days to observe. If you need a note to get out of work or school or family obligations, let me know -- I will write sloppily in a doctor's writing to get you out of it. :)
Another thing that we should watch for is the 'low-hanging fruit' species... I'll try to give an update on the species that we're documenting and which ones we should be able to see. Last year, we documented over 2000 species, but I'm sure there were some that we missed that simply weren't observed.
The difficult challenge may be uploading everything before the 4th -- the longer you wait to upload, the less likely we can ID it, so try to upload as soon as possible.
Ooooh, and please help with the ID's!!! We'll need lots and lots and lots of help. This may mean knocking down a species count though, just FYI... Last year, there were some species that were incorrectly ID'ed, but they counted towards our species numbers. We're going for quality data here, so it's best that we try to ID stuff as accurately as possible. :)
Tell your friends and strangers about it!!! We'll want as much participation as possible! :) Fingers crossed for some reasonable weather!
I've got several spots picked out and intend to go at it all four days....
I have several spots selected already. Unfortunately. one of my most favorite spots; USACE Overlook is closed (until further notice) for repairs to the dam. ☹️ So I need to dream up another spot... maybe a good day for a drive out to John Bunker Sands Wetlands to see the bald eagles. I haven’t been there in a while
Deborah
Cool! Thanks Sam! If you'd like any help compiling the data afterwards let me know. I'd love to help. I will probably use this day to start documenting species at Arlington's new pocket park off Nathan Lowe.
I'm seeing a lot of common whitetail dragons, yellow-rumped warblers and egrets and herons galore out at LLELA. I'll be sure to get them all in...so you might see 15 common whitetails on Saturday entered into my project. I promise they won't all be the same one. :-)
Don & Debora Young will lead a hike at Tandy Hills for member of the Native Plant Society of TX-Dallas Chapter on Saturday, April 28 at 6 pm. We will encourage attendees to participate in the Challenge.
Oh wow, this weekend has crept up fast! I will be leading a few little teams of my own focused primarily on expanding our species total through fish, aquatic invertebrates and really anything underwater. These tend to get missed by many and are some of my favorites. I will try and get to as many group events as possible as well. Good luck everyone! Let's make it happen!
I brag on the naturalist community of DFW ALL the time -- the rest of the world recognizes just how many citizen scientists we have here. It's a beautiful thing.
And yes, I'm definitely going to be sharing all of this with city councils, park boards, and public land managers. They'll too recognize just how many folks we have here that actively seek out areas of biodiversity...and how folks can manage their public lands to increase biodiversity. It's going to be a big win! Now, let's see how we do against the other 64 cities. It's going to be crazy intense, I foresee!
I suggest also watching the list of species that are being observed during the competition -- I'm sure there will be many that still need to be observed/uploaded. I'll be watching this closely.
Weather's looking pretty good this weekend too. Maybe a little chilly for the moths at night, but overall, it should be great conditions to explore outside. Woo hoo! :)
Oh! Don't forget to have a bit of fun during this thing too. That's also pretty important. ;)
@yarnmaven
Thanks so much for the update on what we can upload. I am new to the bioblitz thing. I did not want to upload the same insect over and over when I come across it. Now that I know it will count toward the observations. I may upload a few from different areas of the park I go to. Thank!
I’m excited about this, and I particularly love catching the neighborhood and park creatures and plants!
There are of course some animals that are pretty prevalent in the area right now - take mockingbird, for example. What’s reasonable as to how often to photograph and upload the same species? D
So, my rule of thumb is one observation per species per location per day. Now, the "location" can be a single park, or various different parts of the park (like one by the river, one by the prairie etc..) if it's a larger park.
Sometimes, you'll get a male and a female, and some folks put these as different observations. It's up to you, but I usually try to combine them into a single observation.
"Common" stuff like mockingbirds or cardinals or ladybugs are PERFECT to document! They totally should be documented -- I think last year, we missed out on some of those 'common' species because people were looking too much for the odd ones! So, make sure to not forget to document the common ones!
And hey, document EVERYTHING! :-D
Thanks for the clarification on "repeat" observations Sam; one per species per day per location seems reasonable. I would also add, try not to add the same individual (such as the same osage orange tree) every day!
Just FYI -- here is the leaderboard:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2018
Myself & my adult son are planning on 4 days of bioblitzing! Trying to formulate a plan, so I won't be as scattered as I was last year on my first one!
Ha ha. Not fair, other side of the world already got to start!
Entered my first of the challenge! Good luck all!
@bosqueaaron, I think you're joking, but just in case: the other side of the world also finishes while this hemisphere gets to keep observing.
Holy Cow!!! San Francisco Bay Area is in the lead!
My Feet are killing me I walked about 18 miles today. (lol) Felt good to get the back pack off. I will be up and doing it again tomorrow.🤪 Had a great day! It was fun and worth the tired feet. I started at 7:30 AM came home around 7 pm, I think it was.
What time exactly does the bioblitz end? Those California counties will still have light.
Also what do we need to make audio recordings of birds research grade? Heard an owl yesterday, but haven’t recorded it.
We WILL WIN again!!! Four great walks in Flower Mound this weekend...new folks to iNaturalist and some oldies but goodies. We can do this, go DFW!!!
This was an extremely busy weekend for me, but still managed to get 131 observations with 66 species (nowhere near the top of the leaderboards). I participated with Los Angeles's challenge last year, but they seemed to disappear this year. I got a few coworkers to participate for DFW this year, but they likely only added a few observations each.
For those wondering about the California leaders (San Francisco and San Diego), they have a few unique advantages. Much of California is a "biodiversity hotspot," with unique ecosystems often within a few hundred feet from each other, due to the ocean, coastal mountains, inland valleys, etc. - so finding unique species and diversity is often much easier. They also have millions of people literally living in the middle of these hotspots, with biodiverse parks within very easy access to those residents. Lastly (though this might be just my observation rather than fact), they have a much younger tech crowd with higher rates of outdoor interest than most big cities, so it's easier to get more participants.
What does that mean for Dallas/Fort Worth if we want to lead next year? It means getting more people to use iNaturalist over the course of the year, then heavily promoting it to various local groups like schools, universities, nature/outdoor clubs, even our own neighborhood community groups.
In spite of all that, third place is still pretty good compared to all the cities that participated. It was fun, and I'm looking forward to next year.
What do we need to do for the second half of the challenge due May third?
FYI -- please fill out the participant survey, if you would:
City Nature Challenge 2018 survey online
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