... And Collectors

While this chap was sitting up in a tree, the City Nature Challenge was in progress.

A competition* amongst 'cites' run by the iNaturalist folks over an extended weekend, Friday through Monday, the goal being to submit the most observations during that period in a specific geographical area. I was in the greater Philadelphia area, consisting of the city and the counties which border it.

And as can be seen below, I did rather well, coming in 6th in the number of species seen. And (not shown) I was 9th in observations submitted.

The full results can be found here: Greater Philadelphia.

Some fun facts.

- All my observations were from my yard.

- I know the first, second, and fifth place finishers in the species list.

- At one point I was #2 in species, just six off the lead, but I faded as the others continued to submit observations.

Maybe next year I'll go across the street!

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* Unlike past years, this year was not an official competition. Although it is not clear what difference that made.