For folks who also broadly identify unknowns, what are the top three interesting things you’ve learned while doing so? Mine: It’s new users’ favorite taxon Spiders are not insects (see Taxonomy tabs) Snowy owls (Bubo scandiacus) aren’t common in Southern California Looking at forum guidelines , …

Since it’s possible for most people to do at least a very high level ID on most observations in the world, I feel like identifying Unknowns in places you haven’t been to or don’t visit often is in some ways a bit like traveling to those locations. you get a little peek at what lives there (and who, …

Placeholder … wait wait, what did it say? Sigh. My reviewed is many, many dead fish and ‘edible’ marine life. Unsee.

[image] DianaStuder: Placeholder … wait wait, what did it say? Sigh. …wait, what? I have learned (in keeping with the theme) that if I immediately withdraw my ID, the placeholder returns (before someone else comes along and IDs) [image] [image] [image]

But sometimes sasquatch stays out of sight. It is unpredictable. Click click click double sigh.

One needs to be fast to catch a Sasquatch…

[image] DianaStuder: sometimes sasquatch stays out of sight. Waiting for the phylogenetic tree of Sasquatch, Yeti, and the Florida Skunk Ape.

This is why all the photos are grainy: it takes good (heavy) gear to take a quality photo, so because of its speed, only folks who have light gear can keep up the chase and capture any observations whatsoever.

[image] vreinkymov: Spiders are not insects I kind of knew, but not enough to avoid the mistake. :grimacing: I have discovered that IDing is a way of learning. I recognize regional experts and high volume IDers Unknowns are a bit addictive, especially my local ones. I get excited when I se…

I still vividly remember my first “unknown” identification session. I had just discovered all the filters for the Identify window and how to limit to a location and unknowns only, and got really excited and thought to myself: “Well, I should be able to do iNat a service and clear all the unknowns fo…

Informative Unknowns

Nature Talk

anon93074988 January 28, 2023, 2:46am 32

Someone just needs to whistle or hum some sasquatch noises and we are duty bound to believe it.

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Informative Unknowns

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