City Nature Challenge 2024: Zululand's Journal

a Massive thanks to everybody that assisted. This was a great experience. The people that made it:

• 41 Observers (Covering a wide area, sweating in the field)
• 230 Identifiers (Thanks for spending hours of your time and having patience with the process)

Some stats, not that important, the fun is in the experience, Our ranking In South Africa:

• Number 6 for number of species
• Number 10 for number of observations
• Number 16 for number of observers

Some averages:

• 33 Species per person (We are so blessed in Zululand with the massive variety)
• 13 identifications per identifier

Most Observed Species:

• Common Citril: 16
• Brackishwater Mangrove: 14
• Slender Pintail : 13
• African Jacana: 12
• Broad Scarlet: 12
• Banded Groundling: 12

Thanks to Suvarna as Project Admin, thanks for all the assistance , responding promptly to all the questions.
Thanks to Reshmee, for all the information, communications and posters, we appreciate your help.

Thanks to Inaturalist, this is an amazing system.

The hard work in the nature is done. Thanks again to our observers, we have 2662 observations captured with 1187 species. That is awesome.

Please help to id observations even if you just do the well known species. Thanks I see 170 people are helping to identify the observations currently.

Please join both projects:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2024-southern-africa
www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2024

• Go to projects,
• add city-nature-challenge-2024-southern-africa

• Enter then click join
  Do the same for : city-nature-challenge-2024
  (Please join both projects)

Also please look at other participant entries and select the observations that you really like,

• click on their observation
• Next to the photo, under maps. click on "to fave and observation, click on the star (select the special observations you favor, select one or a few..
• add

Regards
Hendrik McCarthy

Thanks to the new observer's that loaded observations, well done. I know some of you must still upload and we can not wait to see when all the observations are in.

Team proud of you, we have now 2476 (1569) observations logged, 1128 (792) species listed and 34 (26) observers have uploaded their data. (Previous day`s results are in brackets).
Although not finalized, some interesting stats, number of species::

• Birds : 89
• Butterflies: 61
• Moths: 30
• Mammals: 18
• Insects: 214
• Plants: 706
• Reptiles: 10
• Spiders: 14

Areas Covered: (Observers amazing for the area covered by32 people)

• Richards Bay
• Amangwe Forest
• Bonamanzi
• Cape Vidal
• Empangeni
• Enseleni Game Reserve
• Fakude
• False Bay
• Hluhluwe
• Isimangaliso
• Khula Village
• Kwambonambi
• Mkhuze
• St Lucia
• Umfolozi Game Reserve

• Umtinzini
  (I might have missed small places, let me know what I have left out)

Our team decided to redo Richards Bay. We had lots of rain on the Friday.(Day 1) We started at the weir at the lake. There is always some surprises. We then tried opposite the Enjin garage in Wild en Weide. We got the Emerald dragonfly. We then tried the little mud dam at the far end of Wild and Weide and found quite a few dragonfly species.

Next stop was along the harbour fence. We got a few bird species and some butterflies.
Meerensee was our next stop. We visited both the Reeds Restaurant Area and also the Bass dam behind the LAC Centre, our faithful spots. You are sure to get quite a few Dragonflies, insects and some plant species there.

The team was tired after the day and all the walking during the 4 days.

Please load all your observations, remember you can still load observations taken during the 4 days.
Thanks to all the Identifiers that are hard at work. Without you there can be no Inaturalist,. Any body that can help, please jump in and assist.

Thanks to the Inaturalist organizers. This is a great opportunity and I can only speak for Zululand and I know all the observers had great fun.

Thanks to the team, amazing what you have achieved in 4 days, I will do a final update and I hope to see you all again next year. If you ok with photos on Facebook, please send me a photo of your group or yourself, I want to make a collated team photo to put on the inaturalist Facebook. (hendrik.mccarthy@gmail.com)
Regards
Hendrik McCarthy

Thanks to the new observer's that loaded observations, well done. I know some of you must still upload and we can not wait to see when all the observations are in.

Team proud of you, we have now 1569 (1228) observations logged, 792 (547) species listed and 26 (20) observers have uploaded their data. (Previous day`s results are in brackets)

We started in Amangwe Forest, what a little pearl close to Kwambonambi. It is so relaxing to walk in the forest and to enjoy nature. Lots of plant species, the insects were slow in the early morning. We then travelled to Enseleni Game Reserve. Lots of plant species, insects and dragonflies.

Thanks to the additional 6 observers that joined.

Tomorrow is our last day. Have fun out there, enjoy our amazing Zululand. remember to load your observations and please assist with identifying species for this challenge.

Enjoy day 4.

Thanks to all the additional members that loaded observations, well done. I know some of you must still upload and we can not wait to see when all the observations are in.

Team proud of you, we have now 1228 (421) observations logged, 547 (250) species listed and 20 (11) observers have uploaded their data. (Previous day`s results are in brackets)

It was a slower day in Mtunzini. We started the morning travelling in rain. Luckily the weather improved during the day. Again we got a big variety of species. In the afternoon we visited a big farm just outside Esikhawini.

Remember if you load photos of plants in your garden, mark the observations as cultivated . Thanks to all the observers in the other areas of Zululand, I see the red dots are growing, Awesome.

Enjoy day 3.

Exciting thanks to all the observers, well done. I know some of you must still upload.

Team proud of you, we have 421 observations logged, 250 species listed and 11 observers have uploaded their data.

It was a exciting day in Richards Bay, we visited the weir in Arboretum, the Bass dam behind the LAC centre and did Forelly Ally. Saw an amazing variety of species.

Great to see action in the Hluhluwe area, Umtinzini, Umfolozi Game Reserve, Bonamanzi, St Lucia, Kwambonambi and I see even in the Duku Duku forest.

Enjoy day 2, hope we have more sunshine.

Welcome to our City Challenge,
Thanks to all the nature lovers who joined this project. One day 10 hours to go. Enjoy Zululand Biodiversity and let us capture our amazing biodiversity. It is going to be great fun.
Just a reminder:

• Timeframe:
  o 26 - 29 April Making observations of wild plants, animals, and fungi within the City. Remember to mark plants in your garden as captive.
  o 29 April - 5 May Uploading and Identifying the observations.
  o 6 May 2024 Results will be announced

• General:
  o All taxa except
   Domestic Dog Canis familiaris
   Domestic Cat Felis catus
   Human Homo sapiens
  Please be safe on your trips.