Welcome to the forum, Christopher. I’m sad to see no mention of the first state record leaf beetles we found together. We have different priorities :-)
Triarius lividus from Bernalillo County, NM, USA · iNaturalist
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I have a lot of exciting memories but I’ll share 2:
1.) A Condylostylus comatus I found in my backyard. I think these are some of my best photos so far, especially for such a small insect:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/165909376
2.) An Amara pennsylvanica I found in a field while walking on a trail. Its the first Virginia record for inat!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/193518329
Goals for 2024:
-
Get to 1000 total species (only need 30 more!), possibly 1500 if i’m ambitious
-
Try and find a species no one on inat has seen before
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My highlight for the year 2023 was a three-week trip through Germany visiting friends. They all took me to their favourite spots and I could add a lot of lifers, like these chicks of an eagle owl, an alpine newt in a garden pond, a fire salamander (the last two are childhood memories, so not real lifers), Hamearis lucina, a lifer-family of butterflies, finally a woodpecker (meanwhile I have seen one in Spain as well), a crazy looking bristly millipede, a white-tailed sea eagle from the living room window :-), a harbour porpoise while sailing in the Flensburg bight… and so much more, also nicely reflected in my YIR.
But good old Spain also had something new to offer. Sparrow hawk with prey, Squacco heron in the Doñana area, crested coot from a reintroduction project in Sevilla, Xylocopa iris mating, night heron in the center of Córdoba, while snorkelling off the beach of Málaga I stepped on a marbled electric ray, a sea slug Berthellina edwardsiis like an orange blob, a mating pair of black pennants right on the beach…
Some nice moth lifers from nightly walks around town: Eucoptocnemis optabilis, Episema glaucina, Callopistria latreillei…
I did manage to complete the challenge of 1000 RG species for this year and #1000 was another nice lifer moth: Chrysodeixis chalcites. And I continued my streak (from 30.12.2020).
For 2024 I have not planned any trips yet, but I want to find at least 100 new animals for me, finish the photo book about 150 beasts of Germany, maybe make another photo book with 200 moths of Antequera, because it is getting rather difficult to remember them all - and of course continue my streak.
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Not necessarily different priorities; more lack of experience I think. Most beetles are completely new to me, so having a first for me and a first state record doesn’t have the same impact as it will for you. As an example, I remember leading a bird walk at the Randall Davey Audubon Center and seeing a Goshawk fly in and snag a Robin - then a female came screaming in and the first transferred it to her. I was thrilled to see a Goshawk and the prey transfer (because one doesn’t see them very often). Most of the very beginning birders were horrified to see a Robin get killed… What is memorable is all a matter of knowledge and enough perspective to provide the “memorable” experience.
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2023 was a banner year for bobcat obs; and that was definitely the highlight of my year.
The best one was the day the 49er’s lost their playoff bid; which would have left us really bummed. Only, this bobcat came to console us right outside the living room window (I’ve posted this before in other topics dealing with favorites). This will probably be my lifetime favorite for all time:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/147657472
Then, I am always thrilled to find a sea star now days:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/157356880
I love finding these wasp galls:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/167223979
then, I was SUPER excited to see an American Badger on the trail
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/189154443
So, for 2024 (besides the vague intent to increase my time in nature)
I hope to help more often with the ongoing study of the Pacific newt roadkills on Alma Bridge Road, Lexington Reservoir. See the project page for more info: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/pacific-newt-roadkill-lexington-reservoir.
(If anyone who lives in the Bay Area wants to support it, the project needs more volunteers for this season)
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Spent the last few days uploading obs from Mauritius.
And reliving that visceral experience of - yes I’ve seen them on iNat - but, to see it in life! In 3D, to see all the sides.
The huge https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/195270220
The tiny huge https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/195187017
The strong https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/195182531
In 2024 another large chunk to sort and upload from Reunion.
Plough my archives for Unobserved species - which are same old same old, I know I have photos of that.
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What a lovely memorial to her! That’s what I am going for. “In lieu of flowers, please plant a native pollinator”.
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The big highlight of my year was my trip to Kruger National Park, where I saw many species new to my lists! Examples include Flap-necked Chameleon, Klipspringer, and Violet-Eared Waxbill.
Other highlights of the year were the extralimital Narina Trogon and the extremely out of range American Purple Gallinule, both in Cape Town. Glad I got to see both.
My most recent favourite observation probably had to be a pair of European Bee-Eaters nesting in a very low earth bank on the edge of a suburban parking lot in the north of Cape Town (this species is interesting in that the majority of the species is migratory and breeds in Eurasia, wintering in Africa [some of which I did spot in Kruger Park], and then there is a population that breeds in the Western Cape of South Africa - it is from this population that I observed this pair). In the couple of hours I watched them, they would be feeding the chicks, then taking off like a rocket into the air to find more food. When they did, they didn’t always immediately go back to the nest - sometimes they would perch in a nearby tree, and thrash the prey to soften it up for the chicks: then they would take wing, and fly overhead in ever-tightening circles until they swooped in to land at the nest hole entrance. Sometimes the chicks, almost fully grown, would poke their heads out of the hole, watching their parents in the sky, and other times they stayed hidden within their nest. The parents brought in all sorts of prey for the chicks - cicadas, dragonflies, bees, and even an invasive alien German Yellowjacket wasp! I also saw a Cape Skink that had made itself their neighbour in a hole next to the two main ones being used by the bee-eaters.
For 2024, I’m thinking of perhaps booking a pelagic birding day trip sometime in May - hoping to see all the seabirds that frequent the seas off our coast: albatrosses, shearwaters, storm-petrels, etc. Other than that, I will take the year as it comes.
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For me there are too many 2023 faves to name ( partly due to me joining Inat in late december of last year) but here are a few notable ones
a very chunky hawkmoth caterpillar
My first UK lizard observation
first ever wild snake I’ve found
First Inat observation of an american bullfrog in the UK ( crappy photo tho)
Cute lil hedgehog
First visit to slimbridge wetland centre
witch’s butter
Cute little september thorn moth ( found in august)
Ballan wrasse caught whilst rockpooling
As for stuff I want to do in 2024 I’m hoping to do another trip to cornwall and potentially visit Greece, try out the new moth trap soon, do a few more trips to slimbridge wetland centre and hopefully do more wildlife recording in my nearby nature reserves and wild areas.
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That may be doable on Long Island if you look mainly at the non-obvious ones that people mostly don’t pay attention to. It may be even more doable if you take that same approach to a place like the Appalachians.
Another nice year of contributing to iNaturalist, which I appreciate as a stimulus to do more and to go further learning about nature. Above all, I am immensely grateful for the kind but rigorous exchanges with the iNaturalist community.
Curiosity and aesthetics are criteria I would use for my “Best of the year” , and my 2023 awards go to:
Boreus: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/151190734; https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/151268337
Corythucha: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/182388748 ; https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/176639817
My curiosity extends to the profiles of iNat members.
I found that the ratio of species/observations is quite telling. A higher ratio may indicate an interest in observing new organisms across many phyla and in diverse places (my case, 0.5 ratio). This helps patch voids in distribution maps.
A lower ratio (not intended as pejorative) may indicate repeated visits to fewer locations, concerning more specific groups of organisms, which contributes to the accuracy of seasonal curves and to the evaluation relative abundance.
It would be nice if the computer vision program could provide a “usefulness score” for photos.
Finally I am profoundly grateful for the iNat Identifiers who share their knowledge.
Happy New Year to all.
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Same!!
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We have an app. Made for us by an iNatter
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/inaturalist-enhancement-suite-chrome-extension-v0-7-0-identifier-stats/44002
407 users of that app
Well, that is an easy one for me… as I did not reach a single of my goals for 2023 for unexpected personal reasons, I will just take them along to the next year 
- Like every year since I joined: make at least 1000 observations of 500 different species
- do at least 40.000 IDs for others to keep up with my so far best year 2022
- reach a total of 10.000 observations (640 short)
- reach a total of 3000 species observed (150 short)
- reach a total of 100.000 IDs (15.000 short)
My favourite of 2023 were my last hikes to colombian paramos in the beginning of this year… will probably be the last of this kind I have done… but what crazy and enjoyable landscapes they are with few but very special organisms to observe
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When I have my act together, I like to write a personal “year in review” that I sort of think of as my holiday letter to the iNat community. Here it is for 2021-2023.
I had a great 2023 on iNat, helped along by a lot of people here, and am planning to ease off in 2024 and be a little less goal-focused than I was last year. Happy New Year everybody!
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What I liked best about 2023 was enjoying Nature in whatever way I felt like.
And that is exactly what I am looking forward to in 2024!
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