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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I made about 1000 observations in the three months after lockdown was announced in the UK, and about 800 for the same period the previous year. However, last year’s observations were across various parts of the UK, and included my trip to the Isle of Man, whereas almost the entireity of this year’s observations were within walking distance of home. Last December, I started intentionally making at least one observation a day, and I think this has caused the increase in my observations - if I had been to all the places I did last year, I would have far more observations. My dad, in his spare time, has been looking at old camera memory cards and pointing out some observations I made before joining the site.
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Due to the pandemic shutting tourist places down i now observe more at greeneries and streams without people as well as increasing my night walks. Theres actually more biodiversity to be found here so my observation and species count is actually increasing faster
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Wow, very interesting! I noticed that even though 3/4 said that they have had nature related trips cancelled and 45% said they have traveled less than 25 miles for a nature related outing, 55% said they have been iNatting more than before. What are your thoughts on this?
Perhaps because there is a lot more free time now and you can iNat more? Or maybe iNat creates a much needed distraction from the world right now and therefore people are using it more?
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Well, it gave me enough time that I’ve broadened my IDs to plants more often than fungi, despite fungi being my main interest.
I was seeing gluts of observations of simple, common plants like Mitchellas and pineappleweeds, and didn’t wanna just ignore it lol
I had to cancel my guided nature walks, so I did have covid cancel an event on me… by me. I’ve been trying to use my spare time to teach/correct/reaffirm strangers about what they see since I can’t teach the locals in person.
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Our weekly fynbos rambles were, still are, cancelled. I miss that live, see, the difference between species A and species B is … not the same to read it spelled out in a comment on iNat. Not nearly so convincing to retain in the memory.
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I was on full blocksown for first weeks, missed CNC and some other things, but now everything is the same as before the situation.
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For me it is the time factor and also the “distraction” factor. Where before in Ecuador I was mostly photographing on special trips, I now just took my camera out all the time in the backyard (this had been different in Germany, where I basically had my camera with me all the time, just in case, as did not have to be so much on guard while carrying it around). Where I hade so many interest to fit in the limited amount of time in a day, they got severely cut down by the lock down.
So no, I did not go to photograph llamas on a vulcano, but I discovered some (to me) new species in my backyard instead ;-)
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Thanks so much for everyone’s responses, the post is now up at:
https://thegullery.wordpress.com/2020/07/11/on-being-a-naturalist-during-the-covid-19-era/
P.S. I used a couple of quotes from this discussion, if I used one of yours and you’d like it removed, you can DM me and I will do so ASAP.
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Shiny new blog! I look forward to more posts.
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Thanks!
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Some of the best and most convenient iNatting spots for me are at state parks and wildlife refuges and nearly all of those were closed for months but most have now reopened, although only partially in many cases. But it put a crimp in my outdoor activities during May-June. Unnecessary travel was also strongly discouraged by our governor. The few places that remained open in my area became overly crowded with other outdoor enthusiasts so I elected to stay away. And right now it’s hitting 100 plus degrees F, so that also is a factor in my reduced outdoor activity.
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Covid has been great for moth hunting in the backyard - I’ve had UV lights up outside all night every weekend - and for catching up on sorting and processing photos. Past years I did more weekend trips (often camping & hiking trips with my kids), and I came back with interesting finds but didn’t process the photos.
I’m brand new to inaturalist, and still figuring out where it goes in my workflow.
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COVID hasn’t affected how often I go out, but has influenced where I go as it’s more important to avoid popular areas now. What has put a damper on things lately is the fires on the west coast (though very much in only the metaphorical sense). Several of them are tearing through some of my favorite places (Big Basin Redwoods SP has sustained quite a lot of damage and has a long cleanup ahead of it, so has the Plumas-Eureka area, and the Woodward fire is nearly at 100% containment but has already burned through a good chunk of Point Reyes), and I can’t visit many of my other favorite spots because the air quality is so bad from the travelling smoke. I had it in my head that I’d take some time off work and head north to Oregon or Washington if it got to be too bad or if I just couldn’t stand being inside anymore, but now the fires have spread all the way up the coast. It’s not been a great year. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’d be alright with skipping the rest of 2020.
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Those fires are a grim double burden for this year.
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