In this observation, https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/309450328. Should I mark it as not enough evidence in the DQA or should I just ignore it?
There really is no way to confirm whether the holes are vulture nesting sites, right?
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Mark as reviewed and move on.
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Its solved now. Clearly, there was some evidence but I missed it, but yeah, I guess that’s what I should do if I come across a similar one again, (after giving it a proper scan for evidence of course).
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I can see this is resolved, if you encounter this situation again an alternative to marking as reviewed is to add a higher level supporting ID then you get notified if the observation has additional activity
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you can also just click the follow button in the top right. i do this sometimes if i don’t think my ID adds anything since i feel bad pinging everyone following it with a super coarse ID they already know
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I think sometimes things like that require specific local knowledge so even if the evidence is iffy, it’s still theoretically identifiable for someone.
There are some bank swallows that nest near water in sandstone cliffs locally by digging roughly fist sized holes. I’m not a birder but I also don’t think any other bird does this locally so even if they’re too small/quick to get decent photos with my camera to prove their presence directly, I would say photos of their holes is good enough in some cases, like in coastal areas of my province. But seeing identical holes elsewhere wouldn’t necessarily indicate bank swallows. I’m not sure how far away one could go before the same evidence wouldn’t be enough anymore.
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I’ve participated in cliff-nesting vulture surveys in southern Africa, and those white poop lines down the cliffs are one of the best indications that the site has been recently occupied. Other indications include nesting material, which could just be a collection of sticks/vegetation.
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What a cool observation! I’m glad you posted the link.
To expand this even further, sometimes observers/identifiers get lucky with local knowledge. I’ve had a few times where I was able to confirm an ID based on what would probably be iffy evidence for most people because I recognized the exact location on a trail, indivual plant, etc. and had previously taken the time to identify the relevant organism independently.
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This also happened to me, I came across a really grainy photo of bridal creeper but I had been to that exact location to treat bridal creeper and I had seen that specific plant
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