Wow, that was fast! 2022 is almost over, just a month to go! Hopefully, it was a year of excitement and opportunity for all of us. For me, 2022 will be my first full year on the platform.
To celebrate the end of the year, let’s have a look back at 2022. What did you accomplish? Did you observe an interesting lifer, create a new project, or meet new people? Maybe you simply got outside more often or gained a new appreciation for the plants and animals around you.
Same here! So far, I’ve observed 2,025 species (1,256 of those were new), added nearly 30,000 IDs (mostly unknowns and birds), posted over 6,200 obs (In 12 U.S. states), met a lot of awesome people on the platform, and LEARNED A LOT along the way! Happy Holidays!
It’s easier to post this https://www.inaturalist.org/stats/2022/marina_gorbunova
Close to 19k observations, visited two new regions, spent enough time relaxing on two dachas, exploring their moth fauna at night. Totally needed to spend more time observing plants in those places, but that’s the result of seeing them tok much: start thinking you’ve already observed those.
Lots of lifers, lots of first for X, and quite a few new projects, but happy about https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/bioraznoobrazie-dereven-leningradskoy-oblasti because I drew all those villages in Google Earth.
I’m on track to hit 50k observations before the new year: https://www.inaturalist.org/people/graysquirrel
Actually I’ll probably hit it as soon as I get around to uploading my current photo backlog.
I hadn’t realized you were such a recent addition to iNat, I feel like I’ve been seeing your name around for a long time. Thanks for everything you’ve contributed, and I hope to see you around for years to come.
I did use iNat as much this year as no year before.
Going into 2022 I suspected to get only few observations this year, due to personal travel limitations at the moment. I therefore upped my ID-game as compensation. Turned out, I still did more observations this years then in the year before (even if still few compared to many other users here). First time I hit the 2000-observation mark… but once started I am now totally hooked on the IDing-thing as well and am now doing 10fold the IDing compared to the years before:-)
I got 4 iNat-first-IDed this year and 15 firsts for Colombia.
I did get unexpectetly into hiking this year, which is probably the reason why I did get more observations then expected… I did not think I would be able to keep up with the hikers, as I am not the fittest person in the world, and would have never gone myself. But an much older collegue of mine asked me to come and I dared, because I felt I could probably keep up with her. I am forever grateful she did and now I booked a trip for this weekend with the next higher hiking level and will probably hate myself dying on the way ;-D
I totally fell in love with the alien Paramo landscapes, e.g. on this trip https://www.inaturalist.org/calendar/ajott/2022/9/11
I can’t - and don’t want to - compete with all the amazing achievements listed here.
But I kept up my (animal*-)streak from last year.
*actually I don’t know if I have really photographed every day an animal, but I do have a streak and it is mainly animals.
I spent two months house-sitting in France and found a lot of lifers and am currently (still) making a photo-book with 150 beasts of France.
I got a bit deeper into moths and had one trapping night with a specialist.
Every Sunday in summer I went to the beach snorkeling and found more lifers (highlights: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/134649576, https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/129961195)
I didn’t do as many IDs as I could have, but I have subscribed to Andalucía and could move things from unknown to species.
And even without travelling around much (I don’t have a car) I could get another 100 new species for my area (probably requires another book).
I relate to getting outside more. Ever since I began iNatting, I been going on more consistent and longer walks. I also found that my area has more green areas than I expected. I even stumbled on a small pond that was just installed.
I know right? Feels like I been were forever! I’m happy that my my presence is making some sort of impact on the site. Thank you for the encouragement!
That is actually not the case for me. I used to be outside every day with my camera before iNat times, but unfortunately most of those pictures have been lost during a data crash… going days without observing anything like now is actually pretty unusual for me put new normal thanks to new locations I am living at, were observing is a bit more diffucult
I solve this problem by only going “hiking” with people who are also on iNat (or with my partner, who is happy to turn over rocks and help me find weird bugs to photograph).
I once calculated out a hike with an inat friend and came up with our impressive average speed of 200 feet per hour. And that was a fast day.
Can relate, I deleted around 15k of my old photos before iNat times, thinking they’re not needed and that I’ll be able to use them from my old disk, now I have the disk that can’t be used on modern computer and no data from tons of places I’ve never visited afterwards.
Yikes! Are you sure that there isn’t any chance of getting that drive looked at by some retro-ware fan? I have a brother who knows quite a few guys who love this sort of challenge.
Also, thank you Marina for all the great advice, support and encouragement that you’ve given me (and so many others) over my first six months in this forum.
I don’t know how you (and so many others experienced members here too!) find the time to do so much observing, identification and still contribute so much to the forum, but I’m very glad that you all do! Thanks everyone.
I feel the same, Marina help welcome to the forum, making me feel part of the community. In fact, I find the community as a whole to be extreme warm and friendly. One of my favourite threads is Neurodiversity and iNaturalist! It was so inspiring to see other share their experiences, I saw a lot of myself in what they said.
It needs a detail that is not in use now, I asked my husband to ask around or look if it can be bought from hands, but so far he’s lazy about it, and I’m not even sure it’s working now. But it’s my own fault, I never guessed something like iNat was a thing where mediocore photos could be useful.
You’re welcome, I’m not working, so see this as my main activity (and slack at it as any worker does ;))
