The results are in!
A big thank you to everyone who participated and helped make this year yet another successful one. Philly's official numbers at cut-off were:
Observations: 19,030
Species: 2,215
Observers: 876
We didn't do as well as last year but we had a late surge that made it very, very close after not looking like we were going to get anywhere near last year's numbers. Good job, everyone. For comparison, these were last year's results at the cut-off time:
Observations: 19,637
Species: 2,219
Observers: 966
As you can see, it was very close, but we always want to do better on our total observer numbers and try to get past 1000 next year.
And while not officially a competition again this year, the numbers put us at 16th in observations, 19th in species, and 13th in observers out of about 450 participating cities. Well done, Philly! For comparison,, this is how we placed last year: 11th in observations, 12th in species, and 11th in observers.
And despite not being a competition, we take a little bit of pride in that we beat NYC in all 3 categories. And as usual, DC smoked us again with 38k observations, nearly 3k species, and 2112 participants. As we always say, we'll get them next year! We did better than Boston in species, but they got ahead of us in observations and observers.
Ever since we started participating in the CNC, globally, Cape Town usually runs away with most observations and species. That was not to be this year, with La Paz, Bolivia recording numbers never before seen during the CNC (and it was so far above previous years' highs). They had 137k observations, 5320 species, and 4296 participants! Those are some really impressive numbers. If anybody has any ideas on how we can replicate La Paz's numbers here, we'd be all ears. After all, the more people who are engaged with nature, the better we can be at protecting it for all of us.
Across all cities participating, the global CNC had the following amazing numbers with over 1.5 million observations made in 4 days:
Observations: 1,694,877
Species: 50,176+, including more 2,244 than rare/endangered/threatened species
Observers: 67,220
Thanks to every one of the 876 people who added observations in the Greater Philadelphia Area. And to the 725 identifiers, thank you! A special shoutout to our top participants:
Observers: @srall , @jameshoughton, @annebekker, @seahound, @mattparr, @georgemushkal, @allisonrhoughton, @debbeer, @that_hippie_chick
Species: @annebekker, @srall, @jameshoughton, @mattparr, @seahound, @maryah, @that_hippie_chick, @allisonrhoughton, @mark_fallon
Identifiers: @maryah, @efalquet, @mbwildlife, @conboy, @naturejeanne, @julietrav24, @brianwhite, @ciafre, @choess, @mark_fallon
And just like last year, an extra special shoutout to @srall for participating with both Philly and NYC. Sara did two days in NYC and 2 days in Philly and she was number 1 in observations in both NYC and Philly! And she was well ahead of the 2nd place finisher in both places! She also tallied 416 species in Philly in just 2 days! We are very lucky to have you continue to join us, Sara.
And a shout out to @annebekker as well! She was the first person to cross 400 species during our CNC last year. This year, she outdid herself with 475 species! Those are some really impressive numbers. Well done, Anne! We are hoping for 500 next year.
And big thanks to @maryah for all the identifications! I know my species numbers would be a lot lower than they are without the help. Thank you!
One last shoutout to @jameshoughton and @allisonrhoughton! This was their first year participating in the Philly CNC having relocated from Boston and they really helped us out and they both were in the top 10 in both species and observations.
Here's a cool graphic made by the global CNC organizers highlighting the global competition. CNC 2022 infographic
I'll try to make a similar one for our region soon, so please let me know if you found anything cool either while observing or IDing.
Well done and congratulations all!