8,000 Plants, Animals (and Fungi Too!)
The early numbers are in for the The Wild Coachella Challenge: together, you made more than 8,000 observations of plants, animals, and fungi in the Coachella Valley! Even more impressive: you observed 838 different species, actually an increase from 2019 (813 species), one of the best years for wildflowers in living memory. Amazing!
Here's a breakdown of the observations by "taxa", or groupings of life, with bars representing number of species and points representing number of observations. Note the this graph is presented using a logarithmic scale - basically squished down so that plants, with more than 6,000 observation alone, fit on the same page as everything else. The label is off the edge of the page, but there actually was one observation of a fish, a largemouth bass in an agricultural pond near Mecca.
Even though you can't go back in time and make any new observations for the month of March, there is still plenty of time to finish sorting and adding the photos you've already taken and add them to iNat. I will record the "official" count first thing in the morning on Monday, April 6th. Now is a great time to review your photos to find things you missed the first time around, fix and add location data, and remember those amazing experiences you had out in nature. Here are a few highlights from the challenge:
A great picture of a crab spider on a beavertail cactus flower. Every individual wildflower is a micro-ecosystem of its own, with insects, spiders, and other organisms feeding on nectar, pollen, flower petals, and each other. Crab spiders are one of the top predators in these tiny pockets of life.
A migrating Monarch butterfly. Monarch populations have fallen from the millions to the tens of thousands as their habitat and the availability of their favorite milkweed plants shrinks, so it's always a special treat to see one here in the Coachella Valley passing through on their journey from Mexico to Canada.
A spectacular vermilion flycatcher. These birds belong to the genus Pyrocephalus, which translates literally to "fire head".
An unfortunate end for a barn owl, which was identified by a bird band - added last year in Idaho - a journey of more than 800 miles! Leg bands are used by ornithologists to study the migration of birds, and can be reported here if you find a (hopefully living) bird with one.
And finally, a male Calfornia tree frog that's gotten a little turned around...
Thank you again for all the amazing observations! I hope you've had at least as much fun making them as I've had viewing them. Even though the challenge is over, you can keep making new discoveries. Your new observations of wildflowers, life along hiking trails, and in your neighborhood will contribute even more to all of our understanding of the amazing unique desert wildlife all around us!
Stay well,
Colin Barrows
Friends of the Desert Mountains