Considering I’m a caterpillar ecologist from the US, my top 10 are probably not what you’d expect. 7 out of 10 (and all of the top 5) are tropical species because I did field work in Costa Rica for parts of 8 years and these species all tended to be fairly common but do cool things. That meant I kept taking photos of them despite my strong tendency to not photograph/post species once I become familiar with them. There are two Lepidoptera species in the top 10, but all my observations of them are adults.
If I get around to posting observations of all (or even some) of the caterpillars I photographed during my Costa Rican research, that will change a lot, but that will be a lot more work than adding my pre-iNat “just for fun” Costa Rica photos.
Should be obvious which country I am in!
These are the most common because they can all be seen in my own front yard, and apart from the butterfly can be seen every day of the year.
Kind of a mixed bag, which is my style since I carry multiple lenses during my excursions.
I can’t resist photographing Pleopeltis, and cicadas are just neat. I have a habit of using oaks as way points and markers for google maps related stuff.
I have a fondness for arthropods, which you can probably see from what made it into my Top 10.
Happy to have O. pekuensis at number one, as I always find myself smiling when I see one trundling across a sidewalk or next to a bike path.
The cormorant is so high up on the list because I take a photo every time I see one in the stream near my home while the redstart is an easy one to notice with its distinctive call and coloration.
It used to be common to see a variety of butterflies on my walk to work but the city has been replacing local vegetation with planted nursery flowers and the Asian Commas are the only ones I regularly see anymore. I take a photo of the first and last individuals I see each year, which bumps their species count a bit higher than it might be otherwise.
With the exception of the honeybee, most of mine are California natives or migratory visitors. The elephant seal gets the number one spot because I make a point to visit Drakes Beach in Point Reyes National Seashore every year during pupping season and I take lots of pictures. So I guess that says I can’t resist a chubby little seal pup.
This checks out, I like plants and spend most of my time botanizing in boreal forest habitats, and trying to not completely neglect the more common species while doing so.
Squirrels. Apparently I have an inordinate fondness for squirrels. lol With the exception of the Eastern Newts which at least 70 of came from a single day (yes, all different individuals), I guess I mostly go for bees, turtles, squirrels and dragonflies. Deer are kind of the “easy” target; I see many, often and they are easy to photograph. *I don’t post birds here often due to eBird usage, otherwise my top photos would be largely birds.
You have a point, but when I read the answers, their main interest to me is in how they illustrate the different approaches people have to iNaturalist, and how that affects their approach to nature in general.
Yes, the thread is specifically about how people interact with iNat, so it’s ok for General. It would be fine in Nature Talk as well, but there’s no need to move. We generally move to Nature Talk when there’s no or only a tangential connection to iNat.
Not only my top 10, but my top 92, are moths. Can you tell I like moths??
Plus, it’s easy to get lots of photos at a moth light. I’m working on uploading all of my (identifiable) photos, on the theory that someone, somewhere, might find the data useful. And they’re not doing anyone any good sitting on my computer. I would estimate I’m about 1/5 of the way there.
#93 is a red trillium, which reflects another interest. Harder to quantify is my interest in plant-insect interactions (or, indeed, plant-anything interactions.)
There is one match in my top 10 observed and top 10 IDed - Argiope argentata… other then that one would have to go down the list for a long time to find another match. First none spider on my ID list ranks at 57 and is a mammal… so not in my observer top list
What my top 10 might reveal is that I like to take at least one photo anywhere I stop as I love to see the red dots of where I have been popping up on my map. My go to organism for any town are pigeons and I have just been on a trip, pushing them into my top list. I started to refer to the vultures as my new pigeons, as they are almost anywhere as well and I enjoy to photograph them even more… Happy that they are creeping into this list as well bBut generally I do photograph almost anything I see… but as is obvious from my top 10, it helps if it is kingdom animalia.
The far ahead number one is still a reminder of pandemia curfews and a little backyard project I had at that time on those beautyful frogs.
