Associated / Interaction Fields: Same Visited Plant Over Time?

[slugcycles]

Hi, all!

I treated myself to a low-end macro lens for my birthday, so I’ve been practicing getting photos of bugs. There are some individual plants that I often visit since they seem to be big hits with the local bees. I know that when I create an observation for a bug, I can use the observation field to note what species of plant/flower it was visiting and even link to an observation for the plant itself.

My question is this: If I’m observing different critters visiting the same rose bush throughout the summer, for instance, is it appropriate to make one single observation for the rose bush to associate them all with? Would it be better to create a new observation for the rose bush on each visit to capture changes like when it’s budding, flowering, etc? Or should I be going about this from another angle like creating a collection?

I know use of the metadata fields is pretty inconsistent at the moment, so I doubt there’s a single Right Answer…but I wanted to check with more experienced users before setting something up :-)

Thanks!

[deboas]

@slugcycles

If I’m observing different critters visiting the same rose bush throughout the summer, for instance, is it appropriate to make one single observation for the rose bush to associate them all with?

That’s what I have done in similar situations. As you say, there is no single right answer, but that’s the way that works best for me. I’m generally not interested in making repeat observations of the same plant.

[joerich]

Same here. I typically copy and paste a link to the plant observation and put it in the “Notes”.