iNaturalist Observation Exchange

I thought it could be fun to do an observation exchange with someone living in a completely different location. I haven’t thought of the details regarding how this would work, but perhaps choose a certain genus or family and both people would try to photograph and id a species that falls within that category. If anyone wants to give it a go, send me a message! I’m based in the NYC area.

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Some species have such large ranges, you might even be able to find the same one. I’m in California but we could both find a monarch, Canada goose, house sparrow, mallard, pigeon, Asian lady beetle, mourning dove, tree of heaven, red tailed hawk, honey bee, great blue heron…

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It could be fun, because I live in Romania… two different continents so… let’s give it a go! Any details about the exchange? :slightly_smiling_face:

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Good idea!

I think it would be right to choose a family or genus rather than species.
But we have to keep in mind that participants in the Northern and Southern hemispheres would not be able to observe things at the same time, for example insects, flowering plants, or migratory birds.

It sounds like fun, and we might even learn something!

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I noticed you live in Romania, when I looked at your observations from the link you posted on your own forum topic:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/what-wild-animals-frequently-visit-your-garden/58296/1

I was surprised that you have hedgehogs there, because like many Americans, I know next-to-nothing about your country. I think I should do something about that.
I’ve always wished that we had hedgehogs here, but apparently we don’t even have any animals in the same Family or Genus. Just moles, which are in the same Order (I’m not even going to try spelling it).

I’ve learned something already!

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Okay… because winter is coming we should choose birds if you ask me… as we can see them the whole year. Who wants to start an exchange?

One way to make it possible for observers all over the world to participate at the same time would be to target organisms with certain characteristics. For example, maybe the target could be the color red. It’s early winter now where I live, but I could easily find red berries and red birds and red spider egg masses. Or target “furry” organisms. I put furry in quotes because I’m not just thinking of mammals, but also plants that are hairy on the undersides of their leaves, or fuzzy molds. Or even long organisms - snakes and earthworms and vines and grasses and mycelia and on and on.

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Is ‘small birds’ enough for characteristics?

Works for me! But I probably won’t join in on the fun; I’m nursing a sore knee and tomorrow renovations will start on two rooms in my house. Plus I’ve volunteered for two projects with my old workplace for over the winter and I still have hundreds of bryophyte specimens to label and cart off to an herbarium.

On second thought, I will need a psychological break or two - maybe I should join in. Should we start a traditional project to gather the observations, or just talk about them and link them to this thread?