This is an interesting question for someone who has a background as a competitive endurance athlete! In the old days, I probably would have listed my quantities of new species identified or total species, just like I listed my fastest race times.
But in retrospect, my most important accomplishments were that …
iNat enabled me to slow down and appreciate what I had been taking for granted around me (an understanding of the organisms in my local environment)
I explored several nearby natural areas for the first time, even though they aren’t that far away
I remained sane while I was juggling my full-time work and major health issues for both me and two family members, partly because it provided an outlet
It gave me an entry point into a conservation group, which has provided me with meaning, purpose and connection.
I don’t know anyone who is into this at all, so I actually prefer to do these trips alone if I can. But I love my partner for supporting my hobby, even if he does not share the interest. I have a ton of funny fotos from him (I started a collection on purpose) sitting somewhere with our leashed dog and staring on his phone (he has his books on there) waiting for me to finish crawling in the dirt… under rainforest giants, on the beach covered by a towel to not get sun burned, at the pyramids… it’s a hilarious collection
I set a goal of 10 new species a day on average, and actually made that goal! As of today my total is 3,728 species for 2022, and eventually I hope to sift through the 17,000 observation from this year and refine some of them. It’s been a really cool journey exploring little known taxa like leaf miners, gall makers, endemic plants and tiny little things that I never even thought about before.
I’d say the most notable change is that this year iNat became mainstream. Previously it was a nature geek thing that aspired to citizen science. This year I encountered widespread use in the non-science community and widespread acceptance in the science community. A lot of the acceptance occurs because iNat observations are coming to dominate the GBIF database, and so it’s becoming clear to scientists that for many seldom-collected taxa, iNat provides a much clearer geographic picture than specimen collections alone. iNat is also a stellar resource for visually assessing organisms at a wide scale (although this would be much easier if we had some way to filter photos for content and quality). iNat is being mentioned at professional meetings, used in homeschooling, and generally permeating our social perceptions of the natural world. iNat projects are becoming locally important and groups like land trusts are using it to inventory their biodiversity. We can only hope these changes will make it easier to fund and expand the platform. And, oh yes, I found lots of species for the first time.
Only a year? I also thought you’d been around longer seeing your name a bit. Congrats on your first full year anniversary!
This year I made it to Europe so added quite a list to my life list (Will be doing an end of year recap journal post with partial list).
I have started spending a marginal amount of time with plants but still very much an animal person. I like plants alright, just prefer eating them.
I realized I didn’t get out this year nearly as much as I used to in my own area so I will be changing that for next year.
I’ve only added 373 observations this year with 240 species (not all yet research grade). I know iNat is set up to observe every individual in a colony, but I am not sure I want to spend that much time uploading 20+ photos from a colony of hundreds of birds just to show the numbers. If I did though maybe I’d have more observations? To each their own. 373 (or more as I have time) will be the number to beat next year.
I started using iNat around the middle of last year, so this is my first full calendar year on iNat as well!
What did you accomplish?
I hit 1,000 observations this year! I’m currently sitting at around 1,400 so I hope to have at least 2,000 by the end of next year. I also branched out a bit this year compared to last year by making audio observations of bird calls. Birds were more easily observable than insects or flowering plants in early spring so that let me get an earlier start this year. Late last year I discovered that streaks were a thing and decided that I’d try to get a long one this year. I ended up posting every day for about 7.5 months or so!
Did you observe an interesting lifer,
Because I just started observing last year, a large portion of the species I observed this year were lifers. A few of my favorites were the green beetle hanger fungus, dryad’s saddle (a very large one as well!), and Scaphoideus immistis, which I was the first to observe in the state of Ohio. And while I’ve seen many dandelions over the years and the species itself isn’t a lifer, this summer I had my first observation of a fasciated one.
create a new project,
Back in June I created the Arthropod Faces project! As the name implies, it’s for sharing photo observations of arthropods in which their faces are clearly visible. I think they’re pretty cute, personally.
or meet new people?
Admittedly I can be somewhat of an introvert even online, but I’ve gotten a lot of useful help from people with observations this year, so much so that I’ve even reached out to them again for further help. I appreciate them making me feel like I can ask for that assistance without judgment. Of course, I’ve had a lot of fun chatting here on the forum too! I haven’t been as active recently since it’s getting colder here and there’s less to observe, and I’ve had such a busy year I like to take a little break during the colder months so I don’t burn myself out.
But don’t you worry, I may be a bit quiet at the moment but I’m still here! Hope you all have had a good year too <3
I defiantly share a lot of your sentiment. In my pre-iNat days, I was only really interested in insects and sharks. Once I got into iNaturalist, I began to venture out more and search for new species. This eventually made me pay more attention to plants and fungi. I’m glad I did, since I found there to be many species that went off my radar. Some of my favourite firsts for plants and fungi of 2022 include Staghorn Sumac, Common Milkweed, Shaggy Mane, and Dead Man’s Fingers.
I’ve also found the iNaturalist community to be so warm and welcoming. Me joining iNaturalist was actually the first time I had joined on online community.
2022 was definitely an interesting iNat year for myself, as well. I had the opportunity to observe our natural world in some new localities as well as places I have observed in years past. I started a new local project, a natural survey of the IWLA property, as well as organized in part a gathering of entomologists and naturalists in San Miguel County, NM just months after the conflagration swept through. I observed nature in a couple of far away places and was able to add new reports to iNat for several observations.
To share a few, here are two newly reported moths for New Mexico - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/129180322 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142929749
a newly reported beetle for Louisiana - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142705089 and a newly reported moth for West Virginia - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/126015549 and finally this little bee fly newly reported for Oman - ]https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/108693907 .
Yes, 2022 for me personally was a year of excitement and opportunity.
Thanks. This was just snorkeling, so probably less than 50 cm below the surface. I was totally amazed at the new world that opened for me - and I can’t wait for next season.
I discovered iNat in July, through Odonata Central. While I don’t have big numbers just yet, I’ve managed to post slightly over 30 observations per month since joining, and 75 species so far. As far as accomplishments go, well…
I’ve learned more about IDing odes (among other things) this year than I did in the past five put together.
I’ve gotten better acquainted with some of the neglected settings on my camera. Same for features in photo-editing software.
I’m finally organizing the utterly ludicrous backlog of photos taken by myself and the Doctor over the years. (Some of those 170+ observations are 10 years old, but better late than never.)
I’ve developed the confidence to really ID for other people, and not just move ‘unknowns’ into the appropriate kingdom / class / order.
I’ve been actively looking for new parks / open spaces / wildlife refuges to explore, and finding some in unexpected places.
I’m also grateful for the assistance and welcome I’ve gotten here on the forum, as well as on the main site. Even before the beginning of the plague years, a lot of my social interaction took place online, but in many of my social groups, I’m the oddball who doesn’t see outdoors as something to be avoided whenever possible. It’s really nice to find a group of people who also see grass stains and dirt as a sign of a successful field day.
Maybe most of all, though, iNat has given me some much-needed motivation. You see, I started 2022 with back-to-back hospitalizations for a very stubborn infection, which took a lot out of me. Physically, obviously; I lost a lot of stamina, but I also lost a sense of …fearlessness, I suppose is the best way to put it. At any rate, it was something that I took for granted until I couldn’t find it in myself anymore.
Going out with the camera now is self-imposed therapy – physical and mental. The Doctor (a.k.a. Daniel) can’t detach himself from the desk as often as either of us would like, so my solo excursions are exercise for my sense of independence as much as for my muscles. Could I do that without the excuse of having new observations to post? Probably. Would I? Not nearly to the same extent. So I feel as though I owe iNat at large an enormous Thank You for helping me get some of my groove back.
Welcome! I’ve also found I’m the oddball who likes to be outside in my online and offline groups. Welcome to the largest group of get out there and find things type people!
Sorry you had such a tough start to 2022, hopefully you get that lost “fearlessness” back and you won’t even remember the time it was lost.
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.
Wow. Looking back has me realizing how successful I was this year in terms of the amount of species I was able to observe and photograph. 718 species observed in total for this year, 1,422 observations. Here’s my 2022 year in review stats.
Living in Arizona has definitely blessed me with a prime location for observing a huge variety of species and traveling all around the state during the summer has found us many types of snakes, insects, amphibians, and more. However, I also traveled down to Mexico for the summer which led me to run into countless insect species that I had never seen before. I spent most of my time this summer down by Pena Blanca lake where I found some incredible insects, some of which had rarely been seen before.
I am so happy to have a group of friends willing to travel down through Arizona’s hot and humid southern tips, leading us through swaths of open land filled with new things to explore. My main goal this summer was to photograph as much of Arizona’s fauna as I possibly could, and I can say with confidence that I achieved that goal. I was also able to recently get a new camera, so my macro photos are now better than ever. Cant wait to photograph all of Arizona’s insects and reptiles in even more detail next summer :)
This was my first year on the site, and in less than 12 months I managed to nab over 1,000 observations, as well as catalogue a few new invasives in my local area. I’m hoping to keep this train on the tracks for a while - here’s to a productive 2023!
I went on a big trip with some extended family - a month or so traveling to Utah (near Arches National Park), California (Sequoia National Park) and Pennsylvania (where most of my family lives). The actual trip wasn’t that much fun, and I lost my macro camera in the Colorado River by my own stupidity, but I did get lots of observations.