For those that keep field notes or a journal of your iNatting experiences, how do you do this? Do you just keep handwritten notes? Do you use a platform that can pull in iNat observations?
I recently spent a happy and productive afternoon iNatting, making a lot of observations that I’m still uploading. Since this [the place where I iNatted] is a stream site that will eventually have a Beaver Dam Analog installation, I also want to record other observations about the site. Ideally, I would like to have the iNat observations be easily referenced.
I misread this as a metaphorical description of iNat as a site, and while I’m not sure what that would mean, I found it beautiful. lol
The closest thing I’ve done to this is using QR codes. I have some binders of pressed plants with Powdery Mildews on them, and there’s a QR code on each page that links to the iNat observation of the plant/mildew “in situ”. I suppose if I had hand-written notes that I wanted to link to iNat obs, I’d probably put the relevant observations for whatever I was writing about into a traditional project and include either the project name, URL, or a printed QR code to easily link to the project. You can make a project to collect all the observations from a given trip, a given time period, a given area, or whatever else it is you’re discussing on that page of notes.
It is beautiful! But in the interest of clarity, I edited it so the word site refers to where I was and not iNat, lol.
Yes, I use the iNat journal, which can access photos in iNat observations fairly easily.
Is this the journal that is part of a project or something else?
I tried using the journal in iNat and gave up in frustration. The formatting is an horrible experience.
I ended up using my Notes (I use Apple notes as I can’t be bothered to use something else) that save links, geo spacing and can link to other notes etc. The flexibility and the simplicity is what made me use it in complement of iNat as a source.
I don’t know much about projects, I just use the journal that every iNat user has access to. Yours is: https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/anneclewis
Hah! So it is! I even have posted to it. Thanks for the reminder.
I’ve been keeping a paper log/diary of my almost daily searches for jellyfish, I usually need to write down sizes and notes of the ones I photograph - so I also note the iNat ID (the string of numbers in the observation url) next to them so I can find the observation easily!
When I want to “link” an iNat observation in my personal field notes, which might be handwritten but are usually a Google Sheet accessed from my phone, I just jot down the date and time observed (e.g. 6/1 06:19), which is easy enough to search for on iNat. That way I’m not reliant on the observation being uploaded yet, or even loaded into the app yet. And if it doesn’t get uploaded ever for whatever reason, I can at least use the same info to find it among my photos. Sometimes I’ll go back in and add the actual link, but not frequently.
I use Joplin for keeping notes, but haven’t done it in conjunction with iNat. You can easily add URL links within Joplin and insert images. https://joplinapp.org/help/install/
If you use paper notes, you can refer to the iNat observation number in the URL of each observation.
For those who wish to learn how to keep “Field Notes” as they were back in the day see the link below. Some 15 years later going back to my field notes has been useful for details related to bat surveys during my 25+ years of living and working in Belize and Central America have been very useful. My field notes from my trip to Cuba in 2006 were also valuable for subtle bat habitat descriptions. Same with Death Valley surveys in the 1970’s to refresh my understanding of the area during water beetle surveys at various springs and streams. Revisiting several of the sites in DV in 2024 were shocking due to anthropogenic habitat changes.
: https://salishsearestoration.org/w/images/3/35/Herman_1986_grinnell_naturalist_field_journal.pdf