City Nature Challenge 2025

This year has been a whirlwind, and it's hard to believe it's already been eight months months since this year's City Nature Challenge took place, but as we push into winter I have had some more time to look back at what I was able to discover this year during that busy weekend in late April.

We're back living in northeast Oregon again, and this was my first CNC outside of Louisiana. It was also my first time attempting to help organize the local CNC effort. I did not end up doing a great job there, but even still I learned some lessons for next year and other naturalist efforts here in the future. I also made a couple of connections with other local and regional naturalists, which was very exciting.

Late April is still pretty early for Wallowa County, at least the areas I was able to visit and had experience with exploring, but things had started to wake up and most of the snow was gone down in the valley. So there was definitely still a good bit to see, and with the county being 3500 square miles or so, plenty of ground to cover.

We were also in the middle of moving to a new house, which complicated how much time I could dedicate to everything this year. So I couldn't quite push as much as I was used to from the last couple of years, but that may have been for the best! We had quite a busy May ahead of us.

With all that said, let's see what I was able to find.

Friday

My iNaturalist observations from April 25, 2025

Things started slow, near our winter cabin up at Wallowa Lake and my morning walk with Loki. There would be no midnight moth sheeting this year. It was still pretty wintry up in the cold forested spot tucked into the mountains, but I picked up some of the usual suspects around the area and the bird friends that had been visiting our feeders.

Violet-green swallows had just started arriving in the week or two leading up to the CNC, and so it was nice to see some of those near the base of the Tramway.

Joseph Sewage Treatment Ponds

From there it was time for a quick visit to the Joseph Sewage Treatment Ponds, a reliable spot for waterfowl in the colder months as the treatment process keeps it from freezing over. I picked up some of the expected ducks, but overall it was a bit quieter than I might have hoped. We were just a bit past the point where most of the winter migrants had moved on, and we weren't quite seeing any spring migrants flying in just yet. At least not in major numbers.

Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, and a pair of Canada Geese with very new bunch of goslings were the highlights of the sewage pond trip.

Iwetemlaykin

Next was one of my favorite spots in the county (and in the world!), Iwetemlaykin. I hadn't been back since the fall, which was far too long, and I was so excited to be back as it was coming to life. Once again, though, it was a bit slower than I might have hoped.

I got a few birds and bugs, and some new plants for the day and CNC, but overall things just hadn't quite taken off yet. I did find a Blue Elder (Sambucus cerulea) there, which was great to see. I saw a Pygmy Nuthatch going in and out of its home at the end of an old dead branch, which was amazing. But for most plants, leaves were still just breaking, and if I wasn't already familiar with some of the species it might have been tough to know what I was looking at.

I did get a nice view of some Red-tailed Hawks interacting in mid-air as I was leaving the park, and a recently-arrived Turkey Vulture, but it was a pretty quiet visit in the end. Good to be back, though.

Joseph City Park

I decided to try the little City Park after Iwe, since it was pretty close by. I'd only ever been there a couple of times when we lived here before and I wasn't really sure what it had to offer, nature-wise. I didn't expect much, as a lot of municipal parks are typically lawns with a few cultivated trees, and this one mostly followed that pattern.

I did get my first American Goldfinches of the weekend, singing high up in a cottonwood tree. One of the local Willows was also in full bloom of buttery yellow flowers, and months later a regional Willow expert came in and was able to identify it as a non-native and frequently planted Hybrid Crack Willow (Salix x fragilis). Even though this one is not native, I would soon learn there are quite a few native willow species here, in so many different shapes and sizes. It's pretty amazing compared to Louisiana where Black Willow (Salix nigra) dominates overwhelmingly.

I also saw my first biscuitroot (genus Lomatium) of the year, growing near the ditch across from the parking lot. Looking back it's a little surprising this little plant was thriving in a spot that has definitely been managed by people for so long, which was nice.

Overall, though, the little park was pretty quiet. I was already running out of public places in the Joseph area to explore, but I did double back to the road leading to the Sewage Treatment ponds to snap some photos of Brewer's Blackbirds, since I knew they were reliable there and it was a relatively low-traffic area to stop and get a look.

Little Alps Picnic Area

After Iwe and the Joseph City Park were so slow, I really wasn't sure where to go or what to try. I'd assumed Iwetemlaykin would be my most productive spot in the Joseph area for the day, so when that didn't pan out I was a bit short on ideas. I figured I should at least try a little different ecosystem, so I headed up to the base of the mountains a little bit to the trailhead up at the Lake and the Little Alps picnic area.

It was slow there too! Things had just barely emerged, and even the larches were just barely growing new needles for the year. I found a few little plants I hadn't seen yet, and likely only found up near the mountains, so that was good.

I also found a new-to-me dwarf mistletoe, a subspecies specific to larch. Such a cool and strange little plant.

Wallowa Lake Marina

Much to my surprise, a place that I didn't expect to see much other than a few waterfowl ended up being one of the most productive spots of the entire weekend.

There were indeed waterfowl: a few Common Mergansers and a Canada Goose or two, but the real surprise and treat ended up being a stand of (unfortunately invasive) Myrtle Spurge aka donkeytail spurge (Euphorbia myrsinites). Unlike most plants around town it was in full flower, with dozens of tiny yellow blooms per plant. Suddenly, I was surrounded by generalist pollinators here to collect any pollen and nectar they could find!

I saw several different kinds of bees, wasps and flies, and my first ever bee-fly! Definitely over a dozen different species, although getting some of these little bees and flies to their exact species is pretty tough or impossible from photos. Sweat bees, mining bees, nomad bees, and mason bees galore. One that I was able to get to species, the strikingly orange Prunus Miner Bee (Andrena prunorum), was the first record for Wallowa County on iNaturalist.

I'm still waiting for the one-and-only John Ascher to make his way through these to review, but a northwest bee lover @swisschick did give them a pretty thorough look over and helped get me to Genus on quite a few.

A Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel popped up out of its home while I was snapping away, so I got a nice look at it while it was deciding if I seemed like a threat or not.

East Moraine

While driving away from the Marina, I stopped along the highway to snap a photo of the Arrowleaf Balsamroot that had started to emerge. There were just a few plants blooming here and there -- a week later, there were hundreds, if not thousands. That's a pretty good indicator of how the County was just right on the verge of popping for Spring during the CNC.

I also spotted a large jumping spider crawling on the balsamroot, a Johnson's Jumping Spider.

While driving back into town trying to think of what else I could try, I though of checking out part of the East Moraine down across from Iwetemlaykin. And as luck would have it, as I pulled into the parking lot I saw another patch of Myrtle Spurge blooming, and it had a few more surprises for me.

Parking Lot

The first was one of the most amazing butterflies I've ever seen: a Sheridan's Hairstreak, Callophrys sheridanii. This little metallic blue-green jewel stopped me in my tracks, and I moved so slowly and carefully to try to get close for some good photos. And the photos don't even really do the color justice! What a beautiful little butterfly.

There was one unique wasp which appears to be in Genus Banchus, but that Genus only has 700 or so observations worldwide at this point, so I'm not sure if it will get to species. According to BugGuide, it may even be undescribed! Another first for Wallowa County.

There was a dead fawn in the area, which was sad to see, but I did get a chance to see some carrion beetle larvae doing their thing, which was fascinating, if a little on the grotesque side. The circle of life!

Moraine

Eventually I was able to peel myself away from the blooming spurge for a while to make the short hike up the terminal end of the East Moraine to finish the day with a lovely view and some of my first "true" wildflowers of the year.

There were blooming larkspurs, genus Delphinium, a delicate little grasswidow, and I was able to get a closer (and safer) look at the arrowleaf balsamroot.

There was also a new biscuitroot, this time one that would end up being potentially another iNat first for the county: Lomatium simplex, Umbrella Desert-Parsley. This is one I'll have to go looking for next year to get some better photos. I had no idea such a simple-looking little plant might be rare, and it was a good lesson to not take any little plant for granted out here.

I saw a funny little moth cross the path on my way back down, and couldn't resist trying to get some photos, even though it was tiny and the sunlight was failing. Who knows if it will ever be confirmed, but right now it's the first observation of Eucosma in Wallowa County.

On my way back home, I unexpectedly saw a Wild Turkey near some cabins at the head of the lake, which seemed like a very unusual place for one to be wandering. It was a nice surprise and a great species to get for the weekend!

Saturday

My iNaturalist observations from April 26, 2025

Since Friday was pretty slow, and I wasn't really sure where else to go in Joseph, I took it easy in the morning and made some plans for where we could go. We'd visited the Lostine Canyon area a couple of times the last time we lived in Oregon, but on our way to go buy a table earlier in April, we passed by this a Wildlife Area which we had no recollection of from our earlier visits to the canyon. So it had jumped up on my list of places to explore, especially since this part of the county seemed to be a little more thawed out than around Joseph.

Lostine

First, though, we went out for some pizza at the wonderful M. Crow store for lunch after our hike, and then walked across the street to check out the antiques store.

Out in the gravel lot there, I noticed some small scraggly weeds popping up through the gravel, and one of them actually ended up being one of my most-discussed observations of the year: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/274273407. It ended up being IDed as Myosotis stricta, the Blue Forget-me-Not. Not native, but still fun to find such an “interesting” plant in a very unexpected place. I definitely got a funny look from the guy working out there, kneeling down in the gravel to take photos of a weed! Such is the life of a naturalist, I suppose.

Lostine Wildlife Area

Things were indeed a little warmer here and in some cases further along, and for the first time there was a pretty abundant population of small butterflies around, especially Brown Elfins and Echo Azures. There were a good bit of California Tortoiseshells around as well, by far the most abundant large butterfly on the wing for the CNC weekend.

The further we got up the trail in the wildlife area, the more we encountered blossoming Saskatoon, and I was able to get some of my first good photos of it along the trail there. We also encountered another new-to-me currant species, Wax currant (Ribes cereum) for the first time. Its pinkish blossoms and shinier leaves quickly differentiated it from the white-flowered currants growing along the river in the State Park.

Some other shrubs and trees were starting to emerge here as well, and the very impressive early growth of Monument Plant, which I ended up seeing a few times, but then ended up missing the blooms of this year.

I saw my first Dark-ribboned Wave Moth along the trail on our way back out, and that was a nice way to finish things off for this area.

Home & Wallowa Lake State Park

In the afternoon I was pretty tired from Friday's adventures, and mostly just stuck to the area around our cabin and a bit into the State Park while walking Loki.

There were a few small plants emerging that I hadn't seen yet, and I also got my only snake of the CNC - a beautiful Western Garter Snake sunning near the river bank.

I also saw the first Mule Deer of the weekend, quite a surprise after them being daily visitors for most of the winter.

Sunday

My iNaturalist observations from April 27, 2025

Home & Wallowa Lake Village

There were a couple of good birds that came in to the feeders in the morning: Cassin's Finches and a Hairy Woodpecker. I also picked up a better look at Violet-green Swallows and surprisingly the first Steller's Jay for the weekend on my morning walk with Loki.

Temple Grounds

With permission, I explored the Temple grounds a bit after Sunday service and found some unique plants, including Meadow-rue and a beautiful – and my first – Purple Clematis vine growing on the Temple gate.

There were a few other things starting in the wetter places on the property, but since this was even higher elevation than most of the places I visited for the weekend, things were still pretty quiet overall.

But honestly, the Purple Clematis were an amazing discovery. Would have been very happy just seeing those. 💜

Crow Creek Rd

While waiting for the opportunity to visit my friend Erica's family property in the afternoon, I popped over to the edge of the Zumwalt Prairie to see what I could find, with the hope to see some more raptors. And I lucked out!

I saw a huge Red-tailed Hawk nest, which has clearly been in use for several years, with the parents sitting on it as I observed. There was a female type Northern Harrier flying low as usual, and a beautiful Swainson's Hawk perched on a utility pole. Swainson’s might be my favorite hawk at this point.

A Great Blue Heron was flying low across the fields and was the only one I saw for the weekend, which was a great pick up. They are regulars in the County but you never quite know where you might see one.

I also spotted a male Ring-necked Pheasant walking through one of the ag fields, and while not native, it's always special to see one of these lovely birds doing their thing.

While parked and taking photos, there was also an interesting weather-related phenomenon that I witnessed. It had started to rain just a bit – but they were big, fat raindrops, and it had otherwise been pretty dry for the previous couple of weeks. I was hearing a strange zipping sound all around me, and eventually realized it was the sound of those big drops landing in the very dry, hydrophobic soil of the prairie. It's hard to even describe, but it was amazing!

Erica's Property

After a quick visit to the prairie, it was time to visit my good friend Erica's family property to explore. They have a lovely, large property on Alder Slope that is an island of trees in an otherwise very agricultural place, and a spring runs right through it, so they have ponds and an relative abundance of water on the property. I was very excited to check it out and see what might be found here.

The first thing I noticed was the abundance of Pacific Chorus Frogs calling from their ponds, the species known for the prototypical "ribbit" calls from movies and TV.

The boggy, wet ground was a treasure trove of unique water-loving plants that I wouldn't find anywhere else for the weekend: Field Horsetail, Common Duckweed, American Brooklime, and some green algae in one of the ponds.

I also picked up a Brown-headed Cowbird, some California Quail hiding in one of their brush piles, and my first Northern Flicker of the weekend perched in one of their trees.

As I was leaving, I snapped a few photos of another Northern Flicker on a fencepost, and only after someone added an ID a week later did I realize it was my first ever Red-shafted x Yellow-shafted intergrade! It was a male, with a red mustache and a red spot on the back of his head. Quite a find, and another first in Wallowa County on iNaturalist.

A Savannah Sparrow perched on some irrigation equipment was the last "get" for the area. It was a first great visit, and somehow I didn't manage to get back there later in the Spring and Summer. A must-do for 2026!

Pete's Pond & Marr Pond

After Erica's, I headed to a reliable spot in the county for more waterfowl: Pete's Pond and Marr Pond in Enterprise.

Pete’s Pond is, I believe, a large man-made pond on the edge of town near the train tracks and old grain silo. It has a resident Mute Swan “escapee”, and it was there on the day along with a Common Merganser (writing this recap made me realize I never posted it to iNaturalist! One more species for the CNC!), some American Coots, and some more of the ducks that I’d seen at the sewage ponds on Friday.

Marr Pond, at least from what I've gathered, are older ponds that have been a favorite local fishing hole as long as most locals can remember. They aren't quite as large as Pete's Pond, but being nearby, it collects some "overflow" waterfowl as well. There wasn't much here on the day, but I did get a good photo of a Red-winged Blackbird, my first for the weekend. There were also a couple of weedy plants, one of which had some striking purple on the underside of its leaves, which I'm still unsure of its ID, even to the Family level.

Enterprise WMA

The third big pond in this general area on the south/southeast end of Enterprise, the Enterprise WMA is another good spot for waterfowl and I've even seen Mallards and Canada Geese breeding here in previous years.

I added three new duck species for the weekend: a lovely male Northern Pintail, a male Green-winged Teal, and a Gadwall.

As far as plants, I saw my first Golden Currant, which is one that I would love to try to propagate next year with its delicate yellow flowers. I really fell in love with currants/gooseberries this spring – they are relatively rare in Louisiana, and I hadn't heard of our native species at all until I started noticing the ones in the state park this year. There was also a Wax Currant there, along with the non-native Siberian Peashrub, in the only place I've seen it so far in the county.

There were a couple of cool mosses growing here as well, and a really cool lichen on several of the larger rocks around the area.

After the WMA, I was pretty exhausted, and on Monday we'd be spending a lot of time packing and moving on Monday, so I headed home to process photos and get some rest.

Monday

My iNaturalist observations from April 28, 2025

The last day of this year's CNC we were in the middle of moving to our new place, so there wasn't a lot of time for observing, but I managed to get out to the State Park and Marina for a few more observations before wrapping up for the weekend.

It was a very windy day, so even the pollinators were few and far between, but there were a few more things to pick up here and there, and quite a few mosses and lichens that I hadn't checked out so far throughout the park.

Before I headed out, though, I picked up a Downy Woodpecker in the back yard. They'd been regular visitors to the feeders throughout the winter, but as we started to refill the feeders less toward the end of April in preparation for our move, we'd been seeing them less. It was good to get one on the last day.

Wallowa Lake Marina

As I headed to the park, I decided to head back to the blooming Myrtle Spurge at the Marina to see if there might be any new pollinators checking out the flowers. Unfortunately, the wind really seemed to reduce the number of flying insects in general. There were a few flies here and there, very strong flyers, but not much else. It was almost like they were taking advantage of the lack of other insects in the area to get their chance to snag some nectar! There was one bumblebee around, Bombus vancouverensis, the Vancouver Bumblebee. Not a new species for the weekend but good to see nonetheless.

As I wandered a bit to see if there was anything else around, I noticed that one of my favorite little plants, Common Whitlowgrass (Draba verna), had started to bloom in the sandy soil around the Marina shop building.

Wallowa Lake State Park

For this last, windy walk through the park, I focused on trying to find new mosses and lichens as much as I could, though I knew the chances of getting them to species was fairly low. There aren't many moss experts who do identifications in our area, and IDs to species in general are tough for most mosses without microscopic photography.

I do feel confident that I added some new Genera for the weekend, at least, because I simply hadn't found any others that looked anywhere close to these. I got a great photo of a thread moss full of stalks with drooping, "nodding" capsules. There was a "hairy" one that I'm pretty confident is in the genus Dicranum, the Forkmosses. There was also an interesting looking... maybe "wormy" looking one that I'm pretty sure is in the genus Pterigynandrum, and maybe the species Pterigynandrum filiforme, the Capillary Wing-moss. Though it was growing on the base of a tree, and not on rock where it seems it might usually be found.

Based on appearance, it seems like I picked up a few different kinds of lichen, but I still have a lot to learn when it comes to them and it's hard to say if they were definitely different species. They made for some great photos, though.

For the final bird species of the weekend, I spotted one of the Bald Eagle parents sitting on the huge nest in one of the old Black Cottonwoods near the head of the lake.

And with that, my City Nature Challenge was over! It was time to head home, upload to iNaturalist, and get some rest before another couple of days of moving into our new place.

Lessons learned and goals for next year

Ultimately, even now with eight additional months for people to add their observations, only four people "participated" in the City Nature Challenge in Wallowa County, down from a grand total of five in 2024. I was the only observer with more than a half-dozen observations. No matter how I look at it, that is really disappointing. It's also a pretty low bar to overcome in 2026!

The biggest lesson I learned, as mentioned many times, is that late April is just a bit too early in Wallowa County to see a lot of plants and insects, which is where you can really increase the number of species. Birds are reliable but I doubt there are even 100 total species in the county by this time of year, with summer migrants still just starting to trickle in.

I also need to familiarize myself with the perennial, woody plants of the county and their early growth. Leaf buds, stems, even bark in some cases. At least they have above-ground parts to observe! A lot of the many, many vegetative plants are just starting at this point in the year and there's not much you can do to observe them if they haven't even started poking out of the ground yet.

Another lesson: don't plan on doing anything else for the weekend! There wasn't a ton we could do to avoid the fact that we had to start moving house on Monday, but I'll really have to make sure I can block off all four days as much as possible in the future.

With that said, and with everything else I've mentioned in this post, let's get to some of my goals for City Nature Challenge 2026:

Organizing Goals

• My main goal for 2026 is to get more people involved! Even if I only put out some flyers at the local libraries, starting in March or so, I think that would be huge for awareness. If I had to put a number on it, I would love if we could get 50 people to participate (The county population is around 7500 people)

• Work with local nature-focused organizations for iNaturalist training and awareness. There is one in particular, Wallowology, that I think would be perfect for this

• Connect with other local nature-lovers one-on-one to figure out how they could potentially promote and participate

Personal Goals

• Get into the warmer areas of the county -- specifically, the canyons. Imnaha is probably significantly further along in late April than the upper valley, and even just a week or two makes a huge difference in what has emerged, what's blooming, what insects are out gathering nectar and pollinating, and even what mammals might be a little more active.

• Get to Troy and observe there. Not only is it probably a little further along, like Imnaha, it is really like stepping back into time and I think the ecosystem there is maybe even more "pristine" than anything in the Wallowa Valley. However, this might have to be an entire day of the CNC with the time it takes to get there and explore.

• Get to the Zumwalt Prairie Preserve

• Hit 250 species. I finished with 203 this year (though only 105 have made it to Research Grade -- but that has a lot to do with the number of identifiers in our area)

There's lots to do in the next few winter months to prepare, and I am very excited for it!