2025 City Nature Challenge Recap for Kansas City Metro

The City Nature Challenge is an annual event that I always look forward to, when I have no conflicting engagements. I tend to plan around it, in fact. This year’s edition was held from Friday, April 27, through Monday, April 30.

Pearl Crescent butterfly from Wyandotte County Lake Park, Kansas.

Some background is in order for those unfamiliar with this urban bioblitz. What began in 2016 as a friendly challenge between the California cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles has blossomed into a global project. The intent is to generate public interest in native urban flora and fauna, document as many species as possible during the event period, and build a database useful for assessing environmental trends both locally and globally.

Dance fly, Rhamphomyia nasoni, on our back yard fence.

Here in Kansas City, I am fortunate that the official map area includes counties a fair distance from the city. It is mostly rural in Leavenworth County, Kansas, where we live, but the town itself is at least suburban. Heidi and I usually travel to other areas, too, like Wyandotte County, Kansas, and Platte County, Missouri.

Spring Tree-top Flasher firefly, Weston Bend State Park, Missouri.

The weather this year was less than optimal, overcast virtually the entire time, cool temperatures in the low sixties (Fahrenheit), and occasional rain. Perhaps that is why public engagement was low. The stats are still coming in to iNaturalist, the web platform that hosts the observations for the event, but we had less than 300 people who contributed sightings. As a percentage of the human population, that is pretty dismal.

This unidentified web-spinning sawfly was one of my favorite finds in Havens Park, Leavenworth, Kansas.

Still, there is a current total of 3,744 observatios of 1,084 species (however iNaturalist defines that term, and it probably varies by taxon). Help in identifying observations has come from 349 individuals, from all over the globe. The border of Kansas and Missouri represents the eastern fringe of the Great Plains meeting the western edge of the eastern deciduous forest, so we have some diverse and interesting habitats.

Ultra-tiny ribbed cocoon-making moths, Bucculatrix sp, are abundant in our yard right now.

Personally, given the inclement weather, I looked at plants more heavily than I usually do. It helped that I now have an iPhone that takes photos which are comparable in quality to those produced by my Canon PowerShot SX70 camera. I think it performs better than the camera in some instances.

I can't believe I found this beautiful pair of Oak Stag Beetles, Platycerus quercus, under a chunk of dead branch in a front yard flower bed (male top, female below).

When Heidi and I went out together, we focused on birds. This was especially true at Wyandotte County Lake Park in Kansas, and at Weston Bend State Park in Missouri. Both parks are heavily forested, with a large reservoir at one, and small streams running through the other.

This Blue Corporal dragonfly was one of three species of Odonata I found during the CNC.

I don’t like that the City Nature Challenge brings out my competitive nature, but I feel compelled to demonstrate to other local citizens that insects and spiders are worth looking at. Consequently, I had the most observations for the Greater Kansas City Metro Area, and the second highest species tally. You can find the results for everyone at this link.

American Idia Moth near the blacklight sheet.

I did get in a blacklighting session in the front yard one night, but there was precious little flying in the cool temperatures.

This female ichneumon wasp, Xorides peniculus, was a new species for our home, at the front yard blacklight sheet.

It is a good thing that the nature challenge was not a week later. I went back to Havens Park here in Leavenworth yesterday, May 5, to find that a new gravel road had been laid, right through a small, ephemeral wetland, and over glade habitat at the top of the park. I am devastated and angry. Rumor has it that it will eventually be another paved trail for cyclists, dog walkers, and others. I am all for accessibility, when it does not compromise ecosystems. I don’t know that I will go back to the park now, but there is nothing similar within walking distance of our home (I don’t ride a bike, nor drive any longer, and we only have one car anyway). Pretty much everything else here is lawns.

Baby Fork-tailed Bush Katydid at Havens Park.

One thing that appears sorely lacking for the City Nature Challenge is widespread publicity. There is a wonderful team of individuals at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History that organizes the event each year, but they can only do so much. They have to register cities, for example, which is a demanding chore all by itself. It is up to the individual metropolitan areas to do their own marketing.

Nursery web spider, Pisaurina dubia, Wyandotte County Lake Park.

Did you participate this year? Have you done so in years past? Please feel free to share your experiences in the comments. Oh, and check out my "non-bug" finds over on my Sense of Misplaced blog.

City Nature Challenge 2023 Recap

Pearl Crescent butterfly, Phyciodes tharos

Here, in our neck of the woods in Leavenworth, Kansas, USA, the 2023 City Nature Challenge was, well, challenging. Our county is part of the Greater Kansas City Metro as defined for the City Nature Challenge. Besides unseasonably cool temperatures, and viciously windy weather, there was the competition of the National Football League draft in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. Despite those circumstances, the results were excellent.

I kept an eye out for birds, too, like this Red-tailed Hawk

There were 294 "observers," or people who recorded observations of flora and fauna, making a total of 3,640 sightings, beginning Friday, April 28, and ending May 1 (Friday through Monday). Currently, the observations represent 807 species, and climbing, thanks to the work of more than 300 "identifiers," people proficient in the identification of various organisms. This is an increase over last year's totals of 239 observers making 1,944 observations of 651 species.

A tiny lace bug, Corythucha sp.

Personally, I ventured out only Friday, April 28, and Monday, May 1, both very windy days. We also put out a blacklight and sheet in the back yard the night of May 1 to see what night-flying insects we could attract. We had an invitation to make observations in Topeka, a non-participating city, on Saturday, April 29, which was of course the best weather day in the span of the event.

Plants and fungi accounted for about half the total observations. Over half the animal observations were insects and arachnids.

Cute and camouflaged Blanchard's Cricket Frog

Most of my own observations were in Havens Park, the only "wild" park within walking distance of our home. My partner, Heidi, needs our car for work. Havens has lawns with a few trees, plus extensive oak-hickory forests, and glades dominated by Eastern Red Cedar at the summit of the park. The area has been abused by illegal dumping, and was notorious as a place for drug deals, but these crimes have subsided drastically. Illegal off-road vehicle traffic remains a problem, with the resulting erosion and gouging of the landscape. I see few people on any of the trails, including paved biking and walking trails, but I am usually there on weekdays.

An assassin bug, Sinea sp, in waiting

I found a surprising diversity of butterflies in spite of the periodic strong wind gusts. It helped that a few flowers were blooming, and there were some mud puddles persisting from previous rain.

Eastern Tailed-blue butterfly

Juvenal's Duskywing skipper, Erynnis juvenalis

Gray Hairstreak, Strymon melinus

Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta

American Lady, Vanessa virginiensis

Juniper Hairstreak, Callophrys gryneus

Questionmark butterfly, Polygonia interrogationis

Few moths were seen, though turning on our porch light on one night, and deploying a blacklight on another, helped to reveal them.

Unidentified geometer moth

Tiny ribbed cocoon-maker moth, Bucculatrix sp.

A phycitine knot-horned moth, family Pyralidae

Celery Leaftier Moth, Udea rubigalis

The most diverse and conspicuous insects were flies, with several families represented.

Drosophila sp. pomace fly in the kitchen

Large Bee Fly, Bombylius major

Root maggot fly, Eutrichota sp

Shore fly, Brachydeutera sp., on the surface of a mud puddle

Shiny Bluebottle Fly, Cynomya cadaverina

Pufftail flower fly, Sphegina sp.

Narrow-headed Marsh Fly, Helophilus fasciatus

Blue-green Bottle Fly, Lucilia coerulieviridis

Muscid fly, Lispe sp.

Beetles were disappointingly scarce for the most part. Even lady beetles were mostly absent. Next year, I might try putting out pitfall traps.

Two-lined Soldier Beetle, Atalantycha bilineata

Striped Cucumber Beetle, Acalymma vittatum

Jewel beetle, Dicerca lurida

Rove beetle, Lathropinus picipes?

Springtime is bee season, and they did not disappoint. Most families were present, representing several genera. Some, like large carpenter bees, I was unable to get images of.

Non-native mason bee, Osmia taurus

Sweat bee, Lasioglossum (Dialictus) sp.

Mining bee, Andrena sp.

Nomad cuckoo bee, Nomada sp.

Sawflies and wasps were more challenging to find, and photograph, but I was happy to see any at all.

Mason wasp, Ancistrocerus sp.

Eastern Yellowjacket queen, Vespula maculifrons

Ichneumon wasp, Erigorgus sp.

Spider wasp, Priocnemis minorata

Unidentified sawfly, family Tenthredinidae

Nocturnal ichneumon wasp, Netelia sp.

I only managed to find two kinds of grasshoppers, representing pygmy grasshoppers and short-horned grasshoppers.

Pygmy grasshopper, family Tetrigidae

Green-striped Grasshopper, Chortophaga viridifasciata

Did you know that cockroaches and termites are now classified in the same order? I uncovered both kinds of insects by turning over boards and chunks of wood from logs and limbs.

Eastern Subterranean Termite, Reticulitermes flavipes

Wood cockroach nymph, Parcoblatta sp.

Spiders were surprisingly abundant and diverse, representing several families of web-weavers, ambush hunters, and active predators.

Antmimic spider, Castianeira sp.

Orbweaver, Gea heptagon

Triangulate Cobweb Weaver, Steatoda triangulosa

Brown Recluse, male, Loxosceles reclusa

Crab spider, Mecaphesa sp.

Hammock weaver, Pityohyphantes sp.

Overall, this year's City Nature Challenge was an exciting exercise in discovery and sharing. Thanks to all who participated, in every city, and to iNaturalist (my observations in the hyperlink) for providing the platform to register individual projects and record the observations. I'm already looking forward to the 2024 edition.