I’ve made an observation in a uncommon scenario and I have a few questions about it.
I was in a restaurant for 2 hours, and after that took my car for a trip of a few kilometers. When I stopped at the destination I noticed the little fella in the windshield wiper, moving. I got out of the car and took the pictures.
- I geolocated the observation to the destination of that trip, but I can’t really know when the fish-faced insect got into my car. So the geolocation is wrong? What is recommended? (the car rolled 150-200km in the 8h prior)
- Some of the pictures are rotated (he’s upside-down hanging from the wiper) - is that not important to mention anywhere or input as data? Or perhaps I shouldn’t have rotated it at all?
- It was raining around the time the observation was made - is there no way to input this data and/or similar context (when it’s precise of course, thus unlike my present case)?
- Am I the only one that can see 2 whales on the first photo?
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Welcome to iNat and the forum! :D
Regarding 1) as iNat is about recording one’s encounter with nature, the observation location should be where the encounter was made. As you saw it first at the destination, that should also be its geolocation. So, no worries :)
Regarding 2) No. Rotating, cropping, etc. are all fine and you don’t need to mention it, unless it is somehow important for identification or you want to have that data for some reason. What you might want to mention is any colour correction, retouching, or similar, depending on how big the changes to the photo are
Regarding 3) You could either use observation fields or just write it into the observation notes or as a comment. This is also up to you and if you want to have that data
Regarding 4) actual whales or pareidolia whales? ^^
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I would leave the location as the spot where you saw the hopper, and put the rest of the information in the comments or preferably the descriptive notes.
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There is no “should” here, it’s just a matter of preference. Personally, if I found the critter hanging upside-down, I would leave it that way to reflect what I observed. But some things are easier to identify when you are looking at them in the orientation your brain expects. You could mention in the notes that you did that if you wanted to preserve the information about how you found it.
Honestly, “I found this cute critter upside-down on my windshield wiper after a long drive” is worth mentioning in the notes just because it is a fun story!
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I agree with the previous answers and yes, I too saw the 2whales!
I’m surprised at the recommendations to leave the observation as where you saw it. When I post something that I can reasonably assume I artificially transported, and I don’t know where it originated, I will look at a map and figure out all the places it might have originated, and then set my observation location as the center of a circle containing all those locations, and then drag the accuracy circle out to include all the points. As you have done, I also explain the history of the possible transportation in the notes or a comment. Otherwise, someone using your data to map the range of the species or to look at phenology of the species at different locations will have to open your observation and read your notes/comments in order to realize that your location could be 200km off.
Having accurate data on where vagrants and hitchhikers have been found is also important, though. I’d think any analysis of a species’ range will already need to account for this kind of thing anyway, and I don’t see what functional difference there needs to be between “I accidentally brought this bug to this location” and “I found this bug in this location” – either way, the bug is there. Unless you drove back and put the bug back where you think it came from (which renders the data point moot, pretty much), it’s an accurate piece of data saying “this bug was here at this time & place.”
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