Always tell them it’s a class assignment. It can help if you have a sympathetic professor to blame. On my campus it works like a charm.
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Apparently I look quite suspicious when I wait for moths to come to a light at a public bathroom in midnight, but when I show people the images I took they usually understand.
Also at school I often crawl on the ground to observe small soil organisms. Nowadays students in my school used to me doing that. lol
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That’s annoying. Collecting is quite necessary in some fields like entemology, also…
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[Apparently i look suspicios while making observation]
Well, apparently I look “available” while making observations!
I went to a semi-urban wetland which has a boardwalk and bird hide.
Unbeknown to me, it is a “hook-up area” for illicit trysts!!
I was approached by a charming gentleman, but politely refused his proposition!
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Luckily when I go out birding/inatting I make sure to have a bird field guide in hand and be aware of my surroundings, (if I’m not looking at ‘‘critters’’ or anything, which is most of the time, so you could say I’m not really aware of my surroundings). I lived most of my life in the U.K., so people there are not as bad as in some other countries when it comes to trespassing (I try to avoid that most of the time). And I could say I never had a bad encounter luckily, even though some people would give me suspicious looks, wondering why a 6’3 18-year-old black dude dressed in all green and cargo, is peering through binoculars in the distance. For that exact reason I go to national parks, and trails for my rambles, I try to avoid public places like city parks as it could get me in a bit of a pickle.
I currently moved to Saudi Arabia, and things are much more different around here, as people here generally hate cameras and forget binoculars, for my birding I go out of the city (really far), and do my thing. Even then I have to be careful and carry my id and a bunch of other paperwork, but hey it’s worth it when I get those lifers.
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I am also from Russia and worry about that too, there are often people hiding or searching for drugs in the forest park, and when I’m crouching down and looking for bryophytes on a tree stump it looks suspiciously similar to that…
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P. S. It’s not bookmarks, it’s drug stashes. Translated a bit incorrectly
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Once I was taking pictures of a garden hedge, with a house in the background. An old couple passing by asked me if I was taking pictures “for my own benefit”. I explained I was observing an Asian hornet and showed them the pics but they still looked wary. This was 50 meters away from my home… most people in the neighbourhood know me as that nature weirdo or bug guy, though. I guess they got used to it.
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There’s a nature spot near my town that had a reputation as a hook-up spot for men. I avoided doing nature hikes and photography there for a few years, but decided it’s too nice of a place to let others keep me from doing my thing there.
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Usually I don’t care about what the others think about me, I have that sassy attitude. lol it help me a lot.
But not few time ago I was hiking a medium size hill looking for a rare plant when I saw a helicopter near me, I know it was the cop, but from a reliable distance sure they could see me well. That day at night, I read out that the police found an irregular marijuana plantation on the same hill. Hope they didnt tag me in anything weird!!!
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The only time I can immediately think of was when I was haning around the employee entrance of a fast food restaurant after closing. There were several moths over the door by the light, which was too far out of reach, so I was walking around, trying different angles of approach, etc as I used my cell phone digital zoom. An employee came up and very politely asked if I needed anything (in that tone that really means “what are you doing”). I said I was trying to get photos of the moths, and he seemed a bit doubtful, until I started trying to excitedly explain iNat. I think after that he decided I was a harmless weirdo, and went back inside to finish whatever closing tasks they had.
I did feel bad that he’d had to check on what I was up to, since the dates on my observations indicate it was almost midnight and I’m sure he just wanted to finish up and go home as quickly as possible.
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People hanging out around the back door after hours is a known risk at restaurants that was part of my training as an employee. Employees exiting at night can be a target for robbery, and a lot of places will have a camera covering the back door that employees inside can monitor. When I worked in fast food, we actually did have a robbery attempt at the back door (they tried to force an employee to open our locked freezer so they could steal the frozen food!). Glad the situation ended well!
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Oh, I definitely knew my behavior looked sketchy, and I don’t blame them for being concerned at all!. 
In fact, as I was walking around the door, I remember wondering if the strip mall had one of those patrolling security trucks, and how I would explain myself to them…completely forgetting that it takes hours to properly clean and close a restaurant, so of course there were still employees inside who would see me first and rightfully and naturally be nervous that someone was hovering around their door.
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The city in Germany where I live has a green strip along the river where I do a lot of my iNatting. I have not encountered any trysting spots, but I have learned that certain sections of this area seem to be frequented by Arab men who are far from home, lonely, and looking for female companionship. Apparently a woman sitting by herself in a field photographing bees is someone who must need a husband, since it is inconceivable that she might be alone out of choice!
I have been giving serious thought to acquiring a fake “wedding” ring in order to clearly signal “not available” during such encounters, which I find very awkward (my own socialization about not wanting to be rude and say “go away” even in response to unwanted attention, coupled with language and cultural barriers).
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The same thing happened to me, (the helicopter part), I was once crouching low trying to photograph a spotted woodpecker, and this police 'copter flew over me and started circling and circling, scaring away the woodpecker and everything else. Found out later that this Allotment I was in was a hotspot for drug sellers, even though you need a key to enter as its gated.
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I totally understand why road cruising or just taking photos in general can look suspicious so I don’t get angry if someone asks me what I’m doing or is concerned - I try to be as nice as possible and sometimes am able to get them interested in my subjects.
However, we were once pulled over and then followed for like 7-10 miles by a Dept. of Homeland Security agent when road cruising for salamanders in a fairly well-known spot, which was definitely overkill.
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The sad part is that most people know me or my family–it’s a very small town, and I was born and raised there. I have asked permission in recent years to walk just to be on the safe side, but honestly few people care about school kids and others walking across backlots. These aren’t tiny properties where you are traipsing past windows or doors of houses. All the houses date from a time when the lots were considerably larger. She was new. I don’t even know how she saw me unless she was wandering across other people’s gardens too. And, in fact, she confronted me on property that was not her own.
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I’m lucky enough in my small town that the kids and most of the higher ups in the school know me. I do their snake removals when a rattlesnake finds its way in the class room. If my camera is with me they often ask me what I’ve gotten photos of, but I also prefer to avoid it when school is in session.
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Maybe the agent wanted a lifer too 
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At the speed he made us go, we wouln’t have seen any. :/
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