Here is my 2022 year in review for overall iNat stats.
Mostly was in Atlanta, USA for the whole year, but was in Hong Kong during a few months in the summer, there I had lots of fun doing plenty of late night/overnight treks in the jungles looking for all sorts of wildlife.
It was also the first time I did freshwater stream and catchwater exploration. Many animals including snakes get trapped in these man-made streams so it is a great opportunity to find such creatures, but is not terribly good for the animals because they usually get down there accidentally and often is difficult for them to escape. My favourite wildlife experience was a bunch of us encountering a ~4.5m long Burmese python in the catchwater we were wading through. Being mindful of the snake’s well being we decided to try and help it out of the catchwater and back into the forest to lessen the chances of someone spotting and likely killing it in the daytime. So we just followed behind it as it swam slowly along the catchwater, occasionally pushing its tail to encourage it forward. Eventually after a few hours we were able to find a suitable escaped route and successfully guided it back into the forest. But the feeling of being in the murky water in the same place as a thick 4.5m snake is quite interesting. That same night a different, smaller, non-venomous species of snake managed to slither down my trousers. Literally had to grab at my crotch to pull the sneaky little fellow out.
In the last quarter of the year I finally purchased a camera, so photo quality of iNat observations has now greatly improved. Still lots to learn about the camera, but definitely makes me want to focus more on the smaller insects etc. Also with the new camera I am eager to reshoot as many already observed species as I can. The real main regret I have is not deciding to buy the camera earlier. I would have gotten excellent photos of that python (I hope its doing well) and of many many many moths.
In looking forward to 2023 I hope to continue finding a good balance between grad life and iNat life. I hope to meet more like-minded people particularly within the Atlanta region and to explore more places. Hopefully I will get a moth trapping setup sorted out also.