How has COVID-19 affected your way of iNatting

Probably the biggest change I’ve noticed is that I’ve been much more active IDing observations and reading/writing forum posts.

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I was set to go to another continent last week to visit a restoration project and, incidentally, make some observations. That’s been postponed by almost a year and a half.

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You may find further insight into your project by reading some of these prior topics related to iNat/Covid:

https://forum.inaturalist.org/search?q=Covid

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In the past I did a lot more observations while I was away on vacation. Now I go on nature walks to get out and exercise, and have learned a lot more about what blooms from month to month in my own environs. I’ve also developed a lot more patience chasing butterflies and birds–I wouldn’t have sat still as long in “the before.”

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I joined iNat during COVID-19, so I don’t really have a “before”. However, my general lifestyle hasn’t changed much - I was at home a lot anyway. I think it didn’t affect me greatly because I’m 13 and only go on trips with other people.

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I joined iNat because of Covid. I was sick for a month and when I got well I decided that it was time to spend less time thinking about work and more time doing things like looking at plants and bugs. Set myself a goal of learning all about the local bumblebees and signed on to iNat. Haven’t had a single ID on my bumblebee observations but I am enjoying iNat and the forum very much.

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Covid hasn’t really affected my work or life significantly at the local day-to-day scale. I’m working in Vietnam, which handled all this pretty well and has been essentially back to normal or a long time now, and I work inside a park.

However, I am a US citizen and usually go to conferences and such each year, as well as trips to meet with the agencies that sponsor our work here.

The conferences have all been cancelled and, due to the utterly disastrous handling of the Covid issue by the US administration (as well as by the right-wing politicization of pretty much anything involving intelligence), many countries have banned entry to US citizens indefinitely.

That has affected my work, and likely will for some time to come.

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I joined iNaturalist when one of my teachers used a BioBlitz for homework (I was the only student who participated). I mainly observe birds and plants, which get lots of ID’s, so that’s no problem. I love it when people comment on my observations - I just get so excited!

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Same here. (Well, I guess not technically the same, I’m 14, but pretty close. ;-P)

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Before I was planning on buying some expensive new optics to make better observations, but now it seems better to hang on to that money.

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Covid actually caused us to take a trip. Well, we took advantage is more like it. From around Corpus Christi, Texas to northern Idaho. Pretty fun, got a few observations. (Gonna upload later through computer, I had been uploading them through app as I saw them, but app isn’t syncing with website, and deleted quite a few obs.)

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For the most part, COVID-19 has caused me to make more observations near where I live. I’ve started paying attention to smaller and more secretive organisms that I never thought to look at before and have developed interests in certain taxa that I have never focused on before. I now take many more photos each day than I used to, leading to me making more observations in the past 4 months than the past 3+ years before that since I joined iNaturalist. I’ve spent the vast majority of my time exploring areas of local parks that I hadn’t explored much before. I did go on one 200+ mile trip to some unique habitat in an infrequently visited part of a national forest. I haven’t spent that much more time identifying, however, probably due to the fact that I have been using most of my time to post observations (sometimes several hundred in one day).

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Well then, comments are in order. Check your rat observation.

I’ll be honest - I’m 66 and I get a bit of a thrill too.

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I make many more observations near my home because my other gigs are canceled and I can’t travel. It keeps me busy and gives me an excuse to take longer walks than I used to. I walk the same territory frequently and have enjoyed watching plants develop from shoots to seeds. I’m seeing more of the less showy plant species and a lot of animals I wouldn’t normally notice. Here are my COVID-19 observations: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?d1=2020-03-08&place_id=any&subview=table&user_id=jbecky&verifiable=any. I look forward to adding a cutoff date to that search.

I also boosted my identifying. I periodically go on a search for new folks’ observations to welcome them and give them a positive start. I’ve been working on the Unknowns backlog. I can’t identify many very far, but I can usually get them to the major kingdoms of creatures and the classes of plants.

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I have done more ID’s. Missing the forays out to observe with other like minded people.

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Certainly when I was living in the US during the first half of 2020 I was mostly counting on an opportunistic strategy - waiting for the critters to crawl into my room. I think definitely the US government’s poor response strategy is a factor for me to go out less, and if I do, only to the local parks within walking distance from my abode, fully masked. I also found myself giving ID’s more and spending more time on the forum.

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After the initial shock of a complete lockdown in Ecuador, with no motorized vehicular travel possible for me for the 1st three months, I made iNatting my central theme and cause in the eco-tourism town where I live. I started a project (Citizen Science in Mindo-Ecuador) in mid-May to encourage friends to use iNaturalist.

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I also experienced the total lockdown mode in Ecuador and started inspecting my backyard all the more intensely, as from 2pm on I could not do too much else anyway. I dove pretty deep into my local Gastrotheca cuencana population and did a little project on their variability and their loyality to the location, which I qiute probably would not have done otherwise.

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I missed the majority the spring bloom because local parks and trails were closed. Now I when I arrive at natural areas I leave if they are more than moderately populated, which still seems like a crazy inconvenience. I’ve gone hiking alone a few times, which previously I never would have done in a million years, but now weekdays are often the only times parks are sufficiently less crowded, but my only other household member still has to work (me, I’m in month four of furlough from my ironically outdoor solitary job.) Overall the pandemic experience has made me realize I absolutely need to move somewhere else, where nature is not just for the wealthy people who live next to a reserve, and where I can afford to rent or own a backyard.

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I live in Manhattan, and I was very happy that NYC kept the parks open, although if the city had closed them, I would have been combing the streets – there is a fair amount of nature to be found on the Upper East Side streets if you look carefully.

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