Observations ypu have observed identified or just saw on iNat, that contain sentimental value.
I’ll start:
This observation by Bazillizab(Jasmine Sain) on iNaturalist reminded me of a tiger swallowtail I rescued as a kid with my friend, the said butterfly flew up into a big oak tree, never seen again.
Do you mean observations by others specifically?
This calligrapher hover fly made a big impression on me since I had been researching calligraphers for a few months at that point and had repeatedly seen the diagram of the species in one of the relevant papers. There are diagrams of many beautiful species in those papers and I assumed I wouldn’t see an observation of most of them, but this one was the most dramatic. I was very excited when I was identifying and came across such a fantastic photo of that species. :)
And also there is Gerald the Muskrat of course, I don’t remember if I helped with the initial ID turnover but I was involved in early hype about the observation on the Discord server. Of a similar vibe was this roadside flyby shot by astrobirder (the other roadside observation mentioned in the comments is my walnut/tree-of-heaven).
I’m reminded everytime I revisit certain iNat records of mine that I was standing there with someone who also observed the organism and who is now deceased. Sadly, there’s been quite a few.
That’s so sad! I feel you.
I had a lot of great undergraduate field research assistants through the years tracking Allegheny woodrats, but Chris and Laura were an especially memorable pair. They named this woodrat Dorothy and I always think of them when I see this photo (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/8770650). Chris went on to work for USFWS and Laura’s a veterinarian, so we all did something right.
There are always “tortolitas” (Columbina talpacoti) around, though I cannot say I paid much attention until the pandemic, when I began to watch a pair raise their two young in a cavity left from a poorly installed air unit in an addition.
The day the family left the nest, I was so proud of the babies, watching them take tiny, awkward flights to where their parents watched from the wall. And then they hopped down into the next garden together and were gone. It felt special to witness.
When I joined iNaturalist some months later, one of the observations I uploaded that first day was the photos I took from some distance of the nest leaving.
In this house too, we are blessed with these same, sweet birds, and on nest leaving days, I keep the dogs restricted to the front and side (the birds nest in the back garden).
But that first nest leaving will always be a little sacred to me. Maybe because it was so early in the pandemic and the restrictions here were quite strict and so it was utterly silent except for the garden sounds. Maybe because the veil between life and death felt quite thin in that time. I do not know. But that observation is special to me.
I am so excited to answer this one. Mine is easily this observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/383818827 - my very first moose!
Moose are my favorite animal of all time. I have a handful of other moose observations before that one, but those ones are pictures either my parents or grandparents took. They gave me permission to post them because they don’t really have any interest in learning or using iNat. Every single person in my family (parents, grandparents, my sister and her friends, etc.) had see at least one moose in the past couple years except for me - until this observation!!
I’m a wildlife biology and conservation major, so I’ve done many many research projects on moose in the various courses I’ve taken. From those courses, I learned that Eastern Montana is such an unlikely habitat for a cold climate adapted species. There aren’t many of them in this area but I knew they were around. Finally, finally, after YEARS of searching, finding tracks and scat, hearing my family and other people around town talking about seeing them, etc., me and my partner spotted a female moose and her calf. Cue me immediately bursting into tears. I could go on for hours about how incredible of an experience it was but I’ll spare those details. Easily one of the top 5 best days of my life, though :-)
Well observations in general on iNaturalist.
A beautifully expressed memory - thank you for sharing it!
So sad! I know the feeling well! My someone was my sweet little dog, SuSu. She went everywhere with me through woods and waters. She passed five years ago on September 5th. I know she was “just a dog” but I loved her more than most humans. Take care! I hope the sadness calms a bit for you.
What a lovely subject. I think that so often we treat our observations with a scientific coolness, that we sometimes forget the positive emotional effects these encounters can have on us. Here’s a few of the many observations that have sentimental value to me:
Lobed Argiope: My first ever observation. Nine years ago, yesterday. I had no idea what it was at the time, but you can see from the smile on my face how happy I was, as this is my profile picture. Sadly, I’ve not seen another since.
Ring Ouzel: I went on a birding trip with a friend specifically to see this as neither of us had seen one before. We searched for ages with no joy. I’d have given up a lot earlier, but my friend was relentless. Finally, we quit though and walked back towards the car disappointed. One chance look over our shoulders as we went through the gate and it was there. We were seconds from missing it.
Hoopoe: My wife and I love Hoopoes and had spent a lot of time on a previous holiday searching for them with only limited success on our last day. This time, we’d been to a tourist attraction and this one appeared in the car park when we went to leave. No effort at all.
Brown Bear: Watching this young bear swimming across a straight and emerge from the water was enough to reduce me (and several other people) to tears.
Wren: One of only a handful of retrospective observations I’ve made. This little bird was in my late uncle’s kitchen.
Red-capped Robin - An observation I made during a family holiday when I was 10. The bird is badly drawn, but diagnostically coloured in! I knew it was “a robin” at the time, but didn’t even know there were various species and that Australian, European and American robins were all different things back then.
“Kenneth the King Brown” - a Mulga snake well known among the staff of Broome Bird Observatory in 2005. I left my donga door open one evening to air out while I took a shower. When I returned and shone my torch into the room I spotted Kenneth on my bed. It’s probably my biggest “this happened to me once” stories that I tell people.
I watched this robin grow up in my garden last year. I took many pics and videos of it, but he used to hang out around me so much that I got used to seeing it around. Slowly grew its adult colors, and then one day dissappeared.
There are more robins around, but I think they are not that one, because they don’t stay around when they see me.
I hope he left for a territory of its own and is living an adult life away from its parent’s nest. I don’t want to think he became food.
When I hear robins now I am always hopeful they will be this one, but they don’t come to greet me from the branches or inspect the compost in my wheelbarrow, so I think they are other robins.
I, too, have to nominate my first ever moose sighting, also a mother and calf.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/322450152
I made the observation a year ago, but I photographed the moose in Alaska in1983 (yes!) I will never forget how staggered I was by the sheer size of them. There were many other awe-inspiring sights on that trip, and I was practically delirious with all the species of wildflowers I had never seen before, not to mention the eagles bears, and caribou.
But what makes them all sentimental is that it was our honeymoon… and yes, we’re still married.
My first scorpion, generously brought to me by my first cat.
The cat was a stray kitten I found in the Arizona desert, and the first real pet that I had. She was just a few years old, and full of energy. This same scenario happened a few more times before we left Arizona, and every time it ended with the cat undoubtedly perplexed about why I wasn’t quite as enthused as she was about the scorpion she had dropped next to me.
A few years later, living in NYC (and with her stuck in a tiny apartment), she adapted her hunting instincts to finding the occasional water bug (Periplaneta americana) that would show up in the apartment. She would catch them and, without hurting them, gently carry them to the bathtub. Somehow she had figured out that they can’t climb the sides of the tub to escape. Once there, she would bat them around relentlessly until they expired. I could always tell when one was somewhere in the apartment because her entire demeanor changed instantly.
Anyway, that cat is still with me, in the twilight of her life, at over 21 years old. She doesn’t really catch bugs anymore, mostly she just sleeps. But she’s been my constant companion for decades, and it’s nice to have a little reminder of how energetic she was, and what an effective hunter she was when she was young.
I should find a pic of her with one in the tub and make a new observation…
due to recent destruction in Big Bend, I thought I would share my discovery of the critically endangered Mariposa Cactus. Getting to this canyon was one of the hardest trips, my friend in her car got stuck in a washout and we thankfully ran into someone with a wench coming from the other side. Pretty harrowing! They regularly close the route down due to washout ect. So it was definitely one of the most REMOTE places I have ever been. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/109242362
Seeing the destruction in Big Bend has really been heart wrenching as it is a place that is near and dear to me and I hope that we can band together to preserve and enhance its beauty.
Another observation that has sentimental value for me is This clearwing moth Vitacea Admirandus https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/228631603 they say it resembles polistes but my observation more closely resembles euodynerus pratensis.
I had never seen this moth species before, and the fire of discovery that it ignited in me is still burning today.
When I had finally identified it, I read on bug guide there had only been 3 specimens collected since the 1800s (it was maybe the 6th observation) to make it to iNaturalist. Later I came to discover its highly attracted to pheromones, which is how they did morphological and geographic studies on it in the late 90s. https://images.peabody.yale.edu/lepsoc/nls/1990s/1998/1998_v40_n1.pdf (page31)
later I found out their larval stage is 1-3 years! So there must be intensified events, sort of like cicadas. I wonder what it means when some moths are born in the big cycles compared to moths born in between them. Lots to delve into.
Okay! ONE MORE. This yet to be Identified lichen I came across in Longhorn cavern state park https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/397351572
can a lichenologist help me out here?! Thank you! (this has been unidentified for 6 years)
I haven’t really thought about this much, but I guess mine would be:
This was my first time seeing a bug that really blew me away that also let me touch it. Polyphemus moths in general always seem to show up when I’m going through some kind of difficult/transitionary time in my life.
