I remember this observation (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9111031). I was focused entirely on the butterfly at the center (slightly to top right) that I didn’t even notice 3 more of the same species to its bottom left! I distinctively remember trying to get closer before they all got spooked and flew away and I realized I was denied a great photographic opportunity.
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This is a case of noticing but mistaking identity. One Dunlin in a group with 4 Kentish Plovers on the beach. This was my first time observing these species. I first though the Dunlin was the mother of the plovers since they were smaller and fluffier but similar in appearance and they all stuck together in a group for quite some time while I was watching them.
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And another one. This was actually just supposed to be a landscape photo.
The creature, looks to me like a scorpion, is on salt. That’s a supersaturated hot spring flow that feeds salt terraces. Sorry the picture is not detailed. I only discovered there was a creature after I got home and edited the file, months after the moment!
Same photo, cropped:
Actually, the observation was never identified. Anyone have an idea?
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About a week after submitting this observation of a Sea Centipede:
I noticed the detritus on its antenna had blue spots, and realised it was actually a tiny sea slug:
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I’ve later heard calls of birds which were not in the list when I went through videos taken. Best example is of a Malabar Trogon. It was a video of streams in the forest taken during a bird survey in 2018. I later heard a Malabar Trogon in the video and it was not in the list. Ebird lists were not put at the survey as there were some criticism regarding ebird and a list was put only later with just the species marked as ‘X’ after the issue cooled down.
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Surely a scorpion! Though I have no idea about their taxonomy.
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What, no mention of the American coot in the picture?
I have noticed the opposite: an observation of a plant, and I’m wondering why it wasn’t an observation of the clearly visible moth or other insect perched on the plant.
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I am 100% guilty of the plant blindness and of not making observations for the plants in my animal observations. I so lack confidence in plant ID that I often wouldn’t even know whether to mark them Captive/Cultivated, and I worry that I’ll just be asking for ID for the same few escaped garden plant 50x without having learned it yet. Writing that all out, I realize that I should do it anyway, that that level of learning is one of the things iNat is great for, and that of course I would eventually catch on. @jdjohnson thanks for your comment, and for the way it prompted me to examine what I do. There’s nothing more effective than trying to explain your thoughts for making you realize you could be thinking another way instead. And I’m guessing I’m not alone in the pernicious lacking-confidence/not-learning cycle.
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We’ve had a few discussions here about escaped garden plants and the general consensus is that the original parent plant is cultivated but if it spreads on its own without human help, its offspring are not cultivated (and often called weeds.) One feature I really like about iNaturalist is on the Explore page where you can see a list of species for an area. It can help you learn what to look for when you’re out collecting observations.
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Just to second what @jdjohnson said. If the escaped garden plant is spreading on its own, it counts as wild, and you might potentially be doing useful work documenting an invasive species. So don’t be shy about posting plants!
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For me I feel it also depends on what I choose to focus on that day.
Some days I will be intent on photographing springtails and be oblivious to the plant or lichen they are sat on…other days I will be intent on photographing plants and lichen and be oblivious to the springtails sat upon them.
This is another I didn’t see until I got home:
I feel like perceptions of springtails are beyond blindness - most people just don’t even seem to know they exist in the first place…despite their abundance all around us…
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I certainly didn’t! I’ve photographed them 5 times since joining iNat, and it wasn’t until the most recent one that I stopped putting my ID as “Insecta”. That last one I actually did recognize as a springtail, so there’s another thing iNat has taught me. I think the reason I guessed they were insects has to do with that quite-non-taxonomical designation “Bugs”. I just look at things and decide if they’re a bug or not, but was under the impression that all bugs were either insects or arachnids. So I look at a springtail and decide that it is a bug, but it’s not a spider - therefore it must be an insect. I wonder if other people’s thought processes work similarly…
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Wow, there’s only 21 observations of Class Entognatha in all of Nevada. Either they’re much less common in the desert or few people pay attention to them. I’ve only seen one in Lehman Cave in Great Basin National Park.
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They need more moist, but I found some is steppe environments, so I doubt they’re so rare, just overlooked.
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I’d also imagine the latter…
Of the 20000 observations in Iceland, only 9 are Entognatha… but I can step outside my front door as I did today and regardless of the snow and bitter wind, its the one thing I can find, without fail, metres from my house. :)
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Well, I have this, where I didn’t notice the other deer in the back until I’d already uploaded it to iNat. It’s not as interesting since they’re all the same species, but…
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I’m sure there is a springtail just in front of that deer!
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