Assuming you live in a place with seasons (either 4 seasons or wet/dry), what is your favorite to conduct inat observations in and why?
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Late spring and early summer when the world has come back to life after a long winter. Also later in summer when the monsoon rains in the desert bring other organisms out and active.
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I think mid to late summer(mainly august) is the best time to Inat because the fall migration is starting, most of the plants are up, with at least 20% flowering on Long Island. August 15th is probably, for me, the best day for iNat. Plus the coastal plain ponds are low.
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April-May: lush of spring is still new, you are actually hungry to find common species and not yet tired of them, the season of the prettiest flowers, it’s not hot and biting insects are nowhere to be found. But also earlier when half of snow is gone and plants start growing near it, forest smells amazing and you get both worlds of winter&spring together.
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Anything other than winter. The winters here are not severe by Canadian standards but they can be very dank and dark. There often isn’t much to see beyond slugs and mushrooms. It is also often raining so hard that taking a camera out risks drowning it.
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Anything other than summer. It’s too hot, too sunny, too dry, too dusty in most of California*. Late winter to early spring (late February, March, April, May) are my happy times.
*Well, the coast is great most anytime — I love the coast winter, spring, summer, fall.
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I am not sure I have a favorite, or non-favorite. Each part of the year here in the central valley of California brings its own unique flora and fauna. Flocks of ducks in the winter; vernal pools in the spring along with many flowers and nesting raptors; a scarcity of birds in the summer but unique flowers like Vinegar Weed, and many dragon flies; ducks and birds starting to flock in Autumn again. However, the summer is difficult because of the heat, but it does allow one to search early for owls and still be warm. Hopefully some early morning I will get a photo of one.
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Yeah, I hear that. Summers here are becoming hotter and drier. We really fear becoming California north. Send me some sunny winter days and I’ll send you some winter rain 
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I second this emotion. I’d add late December and January to this list, as I live next to a transverse range in Southern California, and Dec/Jan are great times to find ferns, mushrooms, and other moisturephiles on our north-facing mountain slopes. Plus it’s cool and comfortable for hiking.
And yes - summer is when I head to the coast, as more hours of daylight means there’s more likely to be ambient light when low tide hits. Autumn is when we start seeing more unusual birds. But all in all, late winter + spring for me.
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For sure not wet season… just started, hate it.
Bogotá is one of the most boring cities I have lived in so far in terms of iNat. Even Cairo was much more interesting. If I want to observe more than the usual hand full of organisms I have to specifically go to places, which usually takes quite a while due to traffic or because they are outside the city (+traffic)… and then hanging around there in maybe heavy rain falls?.. No, thanks!
Back in germany I enjoyed late summer/autumn the best… because the mobile organisms start to decline a bit (can get a bit overwhelming in summer actually) and one starts to see the less flashy organisms better
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I live in New York City, and without question Summer is best for iNatting because not only are all the plants out, but all the insects too.
Fall is also quite nice for iNatting, and often the weather is still quite warm. In spring it is lovely to watch everything start to come alive again, but most of winter and the first five months of the year in NYC can be really rather tough for iNatting.
I visit Sanibel in Florida in December, and will be on Nevis next February/March so all that is great, but I do love Summer in NYC, and going in the local swimming pool every day for 10 weeks.
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It depends entirely on where I am. Usually whatever time of year it is closest to 80-90 degrees Fahrenheit (there are exceptions)
I kind of like rainy season here because at least in my garden a few things appear that only appear just after the rain so it feels special and a little magical to see them, like they were hiding there all along just waiting for the right conditions.
When it rains, really rains, I suddenly see rain frogs and rainpool gliders and rain lilies spring from the ground and my rain tree blooms. It is like a little rain Brigadoon.
And it does not last long and then it disappears again.
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Certainly early winter to late spring. Autumn is nice too
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I love the variety of late season flowers and pollinators at the end of summer and beginning of fall. Later in autumn when the rains really start, all the charming mushrooms appear like magic which always makes me happy. Mid to late spring is amazing here for plants and blooms.
Mid-summer is very hot, dry and smoky, and winter is so long and dark. I still try to get out but definitely prefer the times of transition between the extremes.
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Hi just another Californian winter fan here (the Aedes that chase me 24/7 during all other three seasons largely disappear in winter for some reason).
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With that being said, I do enjoy the scalding but tolerable heat of early summer here. A lot of bugs only come out then despite the lusher greenery of the winter rainseason.
Not winter. I’m in west central Michigan… snow can be or drift 3ft or more. Being 5’3”… I cannot navigate in, on, over or through that. When it melts, it honeycombs from the lower pack, meaning it looks flat and “solid” until you take that one step… and suddenly pull that groin muscle. Yes, that was a learning experience that meant I couldn’t enjoy early spring until the muscle healed.
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My favorite taxa to observe are Trees and Spiders. I live in the Southeast US so Late summer/Autumn is probably my favorite. orb weaving spiders are everywhere in the thickets of trees this time of year. The leaves start changing colors which really adds to observations of some trees. Then once the leaves fall the pine trees really stand out and you can get a nice look at them. Also the biting bugs die down quite a lot.
In central Ohio - I like every season. From May to October there’s always at least one species of hard to find orchid in bloom and I can search the forests for them. Since I stick to forests the high temperatures in summer are somewhat bearable - and rain almost never lasts more than 15 minutes or so, just those narrow bands of clouds going through. I think I could inat every single day this year. From November to February I switch to mosses and lichens and ferns (some like Sceptridium or Asplenium stay green) and there’s lots of rare ones I have yet to find. This part of Ohio doesn’t usually have much snow (not in the past 10 years at least) so I can still inat almost every day. Then March to April is spring flower season with 100ds of colorful flower species!