Ujubee studies wild bees at Cape Point. The bees carefully harvest pollen from one species and store it in a section of the wild hive. The next species in a separate section.
Commercial honey whizzes that carefully separation together.
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I don’t know about the observation rate. Before I used to go for a long walk once a week. When we were in complete lockdown, only allowed to go grocery shopping I tried to find animals in the house or the patio. But in the town centre on the first floor isn’t easy. I must have turned over every leaf of my pot plants. So one day during shopping I saw two cabbage white (Pieris brassicae) caterpillars - about the most boring species of butterfly there is - and decided to take them home to have something to observe. I wasn’t so boring after all! Here is the journal post I wrote about it: https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/susanne-kasimir/32917-observation-on-pieris-brassicae-with-parasite-cotesia-glomerata-during-lockdown
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Indeed! Its very fun to see what creatures come to the lights at night! Though I wonder how my roommates and neighbours would react to a UV light trap…
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If you can’t go anywhere the easiest way is to look for arthropods at night, they really like to rest on the buildings and are much easier too see than at day in the grass.
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For me it is kind of yes and no. During the City Nature Challenge and the whole month of April I was able to get a lot of observations. However this month has been a total drag at times and I have not been able to get out and do a lot of stuff. In part my dad just had a minor surgery and it has been raining off and on. However not being able to make my normal rounds has effected me somewhat. Too this is also the slowest part of my season too. Still I can’t say that the Covid-19 has been a total obstruction to the observation totals in April I was able to get 900 observations that whole weekend so no complaints there. However after the CNC I did hit a few snags since most of the stuff I have done since then has been around the house and my neighborhood and what not. But so far it has not been too much of a hindrance.
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Observations on March 17, 2020: 0
Observations now: 131
I’ve been doing a lot of bird and nature walks in the past couple of years, taking photos, but not doing anything with them. In December 2019 I created an iNat account (recommended by a bird walk friend), thinking there would be days during the Winter when trails would be too icy for walks. We had a ridiculously warm Winter. And then COVID-19 hit. (My last group activity was a walk in a local park with the rangers.) I’ve been uploading photos and IDing unknowns ever since.
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I’d love to go on a nature walk with you. So instead, I’ve gone to look at some of your observations to see what I can identify. Take care!
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LOL I was also tempted to say that my observations rate has been infinitely higher, since a year ago I wasn’t using iNat yet… 11 months so far.
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I also have been going out to my yard way more often now than before the pandemic, and I’ve also been spending more time adding new observations to the insect larva project from other users through the identify feature because even though I’m not very good at identifying, I figure the project aims to collect all the insect larva on inaturalist and being in a project might help an observation get IDed faster.
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Uploading photos from past nature walks has felt very much like walking the route again. Instead of having a small group with me as I walk, now I have the iNaturalist community with me to help identify some of the things in my photos. It’s a quiet, socially distanced kind of socializing with others who appreciate nature.
cc: @jef
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@jef, it is more fun to observe nature with other people who care about it. I hope you’re back to work soon!
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terrybb, welcome to the forums! With the reduction in traffic noise, I’ve been hearing many more birds in my neighborhood, which causes me to look for them. I’ve even put some recordings in iNat to have their calls identified.
Of course, I’m out almost every day, so I have more opportunities to observe them. My yard is small, but I’ve seen a whole lot more species just because I’m looking for them.
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Wow, I’m amazed at the number of people who have replied! I’m so happy that I found iNaturalist because I’ve finally found my tribe: people who want to know stuff about nature. It’s been hard to find my tribe in person, because I don’t have any way to recognize them unless I meet them volunteering at a park or on guided nature hike. Or, now, while obsessively photographing things.
The lock-down has been sad because of the fear and isolation but it’s great having an excuse to just go walking with my camera instead of all that other stuff that filled up my time. I miss going on vacation though. I had one planned for the fall, but I don’t know if long-distance flying will be a good idea yet.
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Thanks, jbecky. I hope to become a productive contributor to iNat, and these forums.
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My observation level has remained steady as exercise & shopping (for “essentials”) were always permitted but travelling restrictions for these was vague. Early on someone got fined for driving to a mountain bike trail but that was withdrawn. Restrictions have been lightened a bit now but for some reason you are specifically not allowed to go camping, even remotely by yourself. State borders are open however so I guess I could drive interstate and camp there. :)
I’ve just been going on day trips this autumn but we’ve had the best fungi season in a while to give me something to photograph. Around here we’ve had about 150% of average rainfall for the 3 months to and of April compared with dry seasons the previous years and then the rains only came with the cold of winter.
The virus itself has had very little impact in Australia so I’m hoping restrictions will continue to ease so I can escape the cold here and head north over winter again.
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Yes, definitely. I get out more often (alone), in beautiful places to see beautiful things, with camera and binoculars. It’s good to create some needed equilibrium in this terribly uncertain time. It’s calming, and occupies time well by forcing me to research things on iNaturalist, and sometimes verify them with field guides and such online resources as Moth Photographers Group, or BugGuide.
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Susanne, I would be thrilled to feature this journal post in our project https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/bus-passengers-caterpillar-parasitoids-more.
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I’ve been providing a lot of help on facebook and via text and messenger, as friends deal with nest-seeking gyn wasps, ant incursions, and mystery organisms. I’m glad to remain useful (I’m moderating a zoom presentation on odonate ID tonight as I’m the secretary of our local entomology association) but remaining physically distant from others is terrible for me. I want to be down in the dirt with my pals looking at caterpillars and mushrooms and spiders. Virtual experiences are pretty good and getting better, but nothing replaces human contact, not for me.
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If you’re ever in the Boston area, look up Urban Nature Walk on facebook. I think I’m starting back up again in some fashion in June. I can’t take this much longer. My introvert wife is in heaven, knitting and listening to audio books all day!
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Sometime I need to visit New England for fall color or see some early Colonial history.
I’m an ambivert myself, but weighted towards the extravert side. (Crafts help just a little. I have ordered a stepping stone kit—how hard can it be to make a mosaic—I’ll find out!) Even my introvert husband has really missed his occasional in-person interactions with others. Humans are social by nature. I appreciate the contribution iNat has made to my personal sanity. Although I have been known to talk to bugs, not the most cooperative camera subjects.
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