Hello all,
Where I live, 2026 is about an hour and a half away. It’s surreal. This year went by way too fast, yet it feels like I’ve done so much. This year was the year I became interested in wildlife, back in about February/March. It changed my life; I will never be the same.
It was also the year that I joined iNaturalist (and later the forum) and found this community of people who have the same interests as me. It was the year I learned everything I know about nature, taxonomy, ecosystems, etc. It was the year I became a better person.
I’d like to know- what are your best moments from 2025? What are some of your best memories relating to iNaturalist/iNatting?
Mine was definitely in September when I spent the most time outside, exploring creeks and looking for bones with my dad. Also, when I went to Arizona in May. But my best memory was May 14th, when I explored a creek with someone extremely special to me, and I saw the American toad that is my iNaturalist profile picture, among many other things like honeysuckles and poison ivy.
Thank you all for a wonderful year, and cheers to many more
~bromine_17
Happy new year! I joined iNaturalist and subsequently the forum this year as well. I have enjoyed the first year of my iNatting journey a lot, and hope for some unexpected detours next year!!
I visited the West this year, and got to see so many amazing lifers! Then I went on a cruise to the Bahamas with money I had saved selling girl scout cookies, and got to visit the Grand Bahama Island one of the days. Most people didn’t enjoy Freeport, because it didn’t have the fancy shopping opportunities of Nassau (I retired early that day), but Freeport was the best because I visited a place called the Rand Nature Reserve, and it was this nearly untouched expanse of land, with beaten but unpaved paths through a true Msoamerican ecosystem. I saw so many amazing lifers, including three Allen’s woodpeckers, a supspecies of the hairy woodpecker, which I am now top observer of. It started misting along the way back, but it felt beautiful. Just being out in nature in peace and quiet, with no other humans to wreck it. I was so grateful for the opportunity to experience that.
Where i live new year is already here, so happy new year y’all! My personal favourite moment is hard to pin down since 2025 was a rollercoaster of a year, but it might be at the Bhramagiri bird survey. It was were I truly got into birdwatching, and was by far the best three days of my life. Loads of birds, awesome people, and one of the most biodiverse places I’ve been to. Except the mid-bird trail lunch. That hurt my soul with ever bite .
What an amazing and inspiring post . Not sure of my best moments of 2025, but I just wanted to say… please never, never lose that infectious enthusiasm. Promise?
It’s been quite the year for me!
Back in spring, my university offered a marine biology excursion to Spain which I really wanted to attend. So in January, my zoology professor (whom I admire greatly and who has sadly gone into retirement now) has told me he would take me along despite me being one credit short of the required amount for that module. That excursion has gotten me my favourite animal encounters of the year and a lot of photos/observations I’m quite proud of. Additionally, it ended up getting me a job with the other professor to photograph mollusc shells for the slides of the animal identification class, which was my first ever “real” job. :D
The second big event was the Botanical Garden Bioblitz. I spent the entire week in the botanical garden, only leaving for sleep, food, or to charge my camera. It was an amazing week and I got to dig around in places I normally couldn’t have, such as the botanical garden’s greenhouses. Also, the bioblitz ended up getting me in contact with another professor because I found a beetle he was looking for for years. And I got offered a second job in the botanical garden, digitsing and archiving a historic botanical collection that was on exhibition at the world expo at the end of the 19th century.
I have a feeling, this next year is going to be exciting as well!
Happy new year, everybody! :)
I knew I liked the Northwoods of Maine (United States) before 2025, but this year, on a trip to Québec, when my family and I passed through a northwestern part of the wonderful state I live in, I truly realized that the Northwoods is the place to be. However, many people would disagree, which is great - I’m a big fan of low human population densities. On that trip I finally saw a moose somewhere that wasn’t Europe, and got some wonderful pictures (see my observations for confirmation of my talent for moose photography). Other than that, I better end this post.
My best moment came when I was hiking in Florida, last month. I noticed a couple birds land on the trail far in front of me, which turned out to be a pair of Sandhill Cranes. As I walked towards them, I noticed that they were walking towards me, so I stopped to see just how close they’d get. One ended up circling right around me, maybe ten feet away! And then they started making their call, which is quite distinctive–and at close range, startlingly loud. For a couple of minutes, we had a little parade going, with them sounding their calls and me following behind.
We spent 2 months in Spain with a month of that on the Camino Madrid hiking very slowly armed with good cameras. We are both nature nerds so while we did a lot of the usual touristy things there was a strong nature focus.
We live in a biodiversity hotspot so just picking new spots to check out and seeing what is there works for me.
We pulled down the old house and rebuilt in 2020. I love how our garden has come along. The priority is natives and/or edible plants and pollinator attractors. There is quite the variety of little spiders and birds and we have spent many hours photographing just on our property.
2025 was a terrible year for me. Probably the worst one I’ve had (Homer Simpson voice: the worst one you’ve had so far). I lost my job, and I had to move away from the place where I was happiest to live with my parents in the place I spent most of my school years itching to leave (my parents are the silver lining here, not the bad part). I’ve jumped through so many hoops trying to find a new job and a way to leave the US, only to be met with dead-ends and roadblocks.
The one moment from this year that I recall feeling any real joy was a trip I made to Rocky Mountain National Park. I brought the person I love the most (our best moments are often those we share with the best people) and we sat by the lakeside together and watched dozens of young tiger salamanders swimming through the water, still with their gills. We hiked through the mountains and took in the sights and smells of the flowers of Summer and rested with the sound of rushing streams in our ears. It was a bright moment that allowed me to forget all of my worries for a short while. I wished it would never end. Here’s hoping I will have more moments like this in 2026.
My best moment of 2025 was visiting Prince Edward Island on a family trip. We visited a park one day and then the next my kid and I went back at low tide and it was amazing to see how much it had changed. As we walked out towards the tidal edge, we could see several seals in the water. They were so close we could hear the seals breathing. On that walk, I even found a live moon snail in the water - amazing!
. Not sure of my best moments of 2025, but I just wanted to say… please never, never lose that infectious enthusiasm. Promise?