Guilt is my go-to state!
But I agree. The more we know about Life, the more we see that humans are not that special. We are unique (probably) in our consciousness and ability to learn abstract things. I know people will say that other mammals are conscious, but we appear to be unique in our ability to learn and apply that learning to complex things in both the past and the future. My dog has been hit (mildly) by a car, but still has no idea what they look like or plan to avoid them.
Almost everyone on iNat is entitled in some way. We have access to, and know how to access, fantastic technology that allows us to photograph, identify, and compile data about other organisms. How the majority of humans choose to use that technology is a whole other issue.
A worthwhile, supersized version of this is something like Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary, a nature center in Southern California, with a bird observation deck. Birds show up because of the many feeders present throughout. I donāt imagine itās any less awesome getting to see a lifer there than anywhere else. Hereās a list of some of the birds seen there.
I kept my college astronomy textbook for many decades solely for a Pogo cartoon therein. Pogo and a friend are sitting out under a night sky gazing up at the stars.
One of them says, āWhoaā¦ billions and billions of stars. I wonder if thereās anyone like us out there? ā
āOr maybe thereās only us.ā
Pogo replies,
āEither way, ā¦ itās a mighty soberinā thought. 
At work I occasionally operate a large deck mower with a skidsteer to mow brush and small trees. This knocks a lot of tree debris, critters and all, onto the top of the deck mower. During my breaks Iāll hop out to clean the mower off and see what insects emerge from the debris. I do feel bad about disrupting the little guys.
Also, roadkill. I was walking along a road bisecting a wildlife area with flowers on both sides, and saw quite a few pollinators on the road that had been struck.
That can actually be a harrowing experience. Coffee shop slipped you a mickey!
There are still few voices on iNaturalist, or in botany generally, who can see value in cultivated plants. Doing this can help to counter that prejudice.
Itās absolutely true. Iāve been living with cardiac arrhythmia for almost 30 years now. Which is how long Iāve gone without caffeine.
When this kind of coffee āaccidentā happens, it can take me many days to recover. Or on occasion, I have to go to the ER for some inside āpaddlingā.
After all these years, I confess that I still miss the real stuff.
But given my choices, I think that I would miss living moreso.
I understand. Iām sensitive to artificial sweetner Aspartame. I gives me 3 day migraines with a couple additional days of hangover. I quit all soda (Iām from Michigan, we call it pop) to avoid it, and all foods where it might be used. Iād rather go a bit hungry than lose five days over a mistake.
Heck no, I donāt feel a bit guilty for the photos from the garden center! I use my iPhone camera, and I am almost always carrying it. ( my hearing aids are controlled with my phone)
Iām also not feeling guilt for whipping out my camera at yard/garage sales, stores,friends or neighbors yards/homes/parties,cemeteries and even the dump, salvage yards, roadsidesā¦ā¦
I am in awe of iNatters that go out with a list to look forā¦ I just go with the theory that todayās ā findsā will show themselves to me.
Ha! Thatās my yard saling plan as well. I make more finds by having no plans!
As far as ālazyā goesā¦ I find a lot of little critters sitting quietly in one place, so I sit, usually on the ground, beside some flowering plants or where I see dragonflies rest. I was amazed to sit and watch (& video) a slug eatingā¦Iād never watched that before!
A garden center is a great place for practicing hand held photographyā¦ itās not easy to capture images ( I used to take pictures, funny how the words make it sound fancy!) of butterflies and other flyers hand held and fast! And since they keep the plants up where I can stand to photograph, itās a physically easier day.
Wow. Pretty good cartoon comment that has stood the test of time.
^Exactly. Frogs, lizards, salamanders - lots of things hitchhiking and becoming established via nurseries. Worth documenting. Iād just mark ācaptive/cultivatedā for the plants, āwildā for the pollinators (most of them anyway). As for the hitchhiking vertebrates, I guess that might depend. Anyway, definitely worth documenting, esp. if thereās coffee nearby.
Iāve been making more of an effort lately to include cultivated plants when I do my identifying. Admittedly, mostly because I found out that cultivated / casual photos can influence the CV. But it was a little bit horrifying to see how many blatantly mis-identified things there were in there, so I definitely agree that it would be a good thing if more people cared! Besides, itās what supports most of our urban wildlife.
This beetle was at a native plant nursery in town Trichodes bibalteatus from Fourth St NW, Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, NM, US on June 22, 2022 at 12:28 PM by Elliott Gordon Ā· iNaturalist
It depends where you are. In my garden right now, volunteer wildflowers are 80% of the available floral resources.
Some of my most cherished observations are of insects at home and on walls outside my work. It gives me such a thrill to find the dazzling, improbable, unusual, or under-observed critters lurking right under our very noses. The biggest way iNaturalist has changed my relationship with the natural world is better appreciating how intertwined my local āhumanā spaces are with the regionās biodiversity.
Sounds like an ideal suggestion for this thread- https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/inatting-nature-hikes-while-injured-handicapped/7568
I see more and more of these super cross-training folks on the trails these days. They zoom by in seconds on the stretches that take me an hour or more to sift through.
Theyāre focused too.
Not so sure about quiet, though.
When I visited a city park, I could hear people doing a walk and talk from quite a distance. When they finally made their way past, I joined the conversation. They thought I was rude! Me? No, if you donāt want everyone to hear donāt talk in the woods!
Iāve also been nearly run over by mountain bikers, who cannot see much at those speeds.
I also talk to people who talk on their phone in a public area loud enough for me to hear.
I have hearing difficulties, so Iām not ālistening inā.
In my opinion, Americans keep getting more arrogant and self involved. Itās probably more widespread than just here.
But Iām sure this is another thread.
My favorite is the casual hikers who like to bless everyone with a carefully curated selection of their favorite music, extra points when they do it through over-powered bluetooth speakers turned up to 11, where even if the music is agreeable, itās so tinny with distortion.
There is a nearby multi-level parking structure with mostly-enclosed staircases that have their lights on much of the night. Moths fly in and get stuck, and the majority of my moth sightings as well as other various arthropods come from that stairwell. Itās become less of a moth killing chamber as they closed the little windows and seem to keep the lights on less, but i still walk through when i can and still get new life list species now and then. If i can easily catch the moths i toss them outside, but iām not sure it does much good in the daytime.
But no i donāt feel guilty, itās easier than a moth light and has resulted in a big increase in the moth species list for my town.
I just had to return to this post with the news that just recently I went back to the last visit I had at the garden centre I refer to in the post title, with my new, āguilt-freeā attitude gained from the discussion and to my surprise, one of my finds may be a real find, and maybe a first for iNat Canada! Iāve got my fingers crossed.
Unfortunately, I just had time to snap this one with my smartphone before it flitted away into the bustle of customers but Iām hoping itās solid enough. I think it should be for genus, anyhow. Which is a win enough, for me. (Though I like to boldly guess and get corrected, pleading ignorance.)
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/130034699
So yes ā garden centres are definitely fair game now for me!