Posts without images

please don’t do this :smile:

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Does anyone know how to get the audio file off of the Merlin app in order to post it on iNat?

I have a few observations that I have posted without images and I have been active on iNat since Mar 16, 2015 (happy anniversary :tada:) I am well aware that it is unverifiable.

There are a couple of reason behind this. One is it is for my own personal record - occasions such as my birthday I will have a big day birding trying to get at least one species for every year and although I may not get a chance to capture an image, with most local birds I am confident enough to know what I am seeing and although I would like to add to the dataset some things don’t always present as such - plus my wife is with me (as the best spotter ever) so she can vouch - I can then go back on that day and see for myself what was on that list. I’m retired now so that day is not a small effort and it is cold in February and smart birds are usually huddled away out of site.

One other occasion that I can remember right now is that I saw a Javan Surili Presbytis comata while at Ujong Kulon National Park (World Heritage Site) in Indonesia and while it is not verifiable because I could not get to my camera fast enough, I know what I saw, and there is an account of that occurrence - lets just call it oral history - it is also important in my mind because someone who is curious enough can find that record if they search for an observation without media (glad that feature is on some maps) - currently GBIF does not even have an occurrence there - but at least someone has recorded that they saw one verifiable or not on that day at that time at that location. In some ways I see that as no different than an eBird record and I was with four others so it can be corroborated at least by some.

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LOL:) Same here

That’s a big milestone! :fire: :fire: :fire:

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It is, thanks, but my father in-law turned 98 on the same day and I had some intention to try for 98 species in his honour but it was hovering around 0°C and winds gusts to about 40k making it hard to see any offshore birds and other birds huddle. I did get extra birds making my total 75 but it would have been nice and possible on a good day to get more - we are privileged with multiple environments to be where we are.

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@jwidness I have noticed that you identify many observations that are mammals. I know there is not much point in adding input into observations that have no media but, do you see value in those observations with location and time being recorded for future verifiable data?

I’m not sure what you mean by “future verifiable data”?

Fair enough. I was not clear. When I said there is not much point in adding input into observations that have no media, I was referring to other identifiers adding input to the unverifiable observation record.

But for future verifiable data, if someone is seeking to observe something such as a Javan Surilli, they now know that the location I recorded without media is a possible such location for observation. They can, hopefully, in the future, collect verifiable data. I see this as much the same as me using eBird to find an area with no verifiable data to observe a Whooping Crane during a certain time frame of days just because someone said so (which I did). I would think that people such as conservation officers for parks or researchers could use this information for future data collection.

Hope I was more clear.

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Oh! That makes a lot of sense, I could definitely imagine that land managers/researchers/etc. might use no-media obs as potential starting points for seeking out particular species. Though I think the key point is that the species should be rare or at least underdocumented at that location, e.g. a no-media eastern gray squirrel in Central Park is not particularly helpful.

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