Hi everyone,
Sometimes I recognize a species instantly - for example, a common bird call or a very distinctive plant - but I don’t always manage to get a good photo before it’s gone.
Would it still make sense to add these as “photo-less” observations if I’m confident about the ID?
Or does that just add noise to the database?
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Not really, especially because identifiers will find it difficult to deal with such observations. In many cases, we also have very similar species, so even if your sure, it may not be the species you think it is.
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As far as I know, the main reason iNat allows observations without media is for precisely this purpose – to allow you to keep a personal record of something that you were not able to document with photos or audio.
Note that these observations will always be casual because iNat’s ID system is based on the idea that observations must be verifiable based on the evidence provided, and in an observation without media there is no evidence that can be verified.
You might include a note with such observations that you saw it but were unable to get a photo, as some brave users do look at casual observations to check for mistakes/omissions that the observer didn’t notice, so this will save questions about whether you intended to add media but it didn’t upload or you forgot to add it later.
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The only time I’ve submitted an observation without a photo or sound is when I saw bear footprints at the same site where I had seen a bear before joining iNat. I figured out the date of the observation by comparing the dates of emails with the client with the date of the accident and the date of buying a car (I was in the rental car when I saw the bear).
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/what-are-your-most-frustrating-inatting-moments/70742
or. You go ahead and upload, for your own records, without media. I lifted a plant pot, and saw my first ever pseudoscorpion, in life, wow. Then it scuttled away. I didn’t make an obs, but I do remember it!
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I do want to point out that you are able to upload audio files to the site, and Merlin allows for direct exports to iNat - often if I’m out and I can’t manage to actually find the bird for a photo, I’ll still record the call and upload that to iNat. Merlin won’t auto-detect them, but you can use it for non-bird sounds as well (since the export function makes it easy) - I’ll use it for frog calls loud insects at night as well, and I’ve even managed to snag a flying squirrel observation that way at night.
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