As I’m identifying observations, I frequently come across a specimen which I think might be “species A”, but am so unsure I don’t want to add that species as an identification. Is there any strategy for flagging observations with possible species IDs, so that you can come back later and consider that ID again. I’m familiar with using favorites, but this is not species specific. Perhaps I can add a comment “possibly species A” and then search comments of observations for this comment. Can that search be done? Any other ideas?
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Yep, you can go to https://www.inaturalist.org/comments?mine=true&q=possibly%20species%20A to find your comments with that exact phrase.
Note that in the current system you’ll have to make a standalone comment. Comments search doesn’t currently support searching the comments that are attached to IDs. :(
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That’s generally what I do. For example, I saw a dogwood in prince edward island today. Not from there myself. I thought I knew which species I was looking at, but to be sure, just commented “Do you guys have C. alternifolia there too, or are there other species I could be mixing this up for at this stage?”
I’m also quite sure most honey mushroom IDs in my area are wrongly called A. mellea, so I normally just post “Armillaria ostoyae?” in the comments to initiate that conversation in as many places as possible. Seems like a polite way to disagree lol.
I’ve often wished there was a tag for “Prime Suspects” or something similar. I suppose I’m kind of an expert in the place I photograph, but not an expert about anything I photograph and post, my project is about documenting as many facets as possible of the place. A Prime Suspect tag would be a way to tag an observation with one or two taxa while admitting it’s speculative. It would have three obvious uses (1) to help me search my for previous posts that might be the same subject, (2) to help experts find observations of something they are focusing on, and (3) document what I suspected before an expert made an ID, to see if I was on the right track or not.
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You can also follow that one observation which will notify you if others chime in with an ID.I do that when I have nothing to offer, but would like to see the ID process unfold.
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Love doing that for the oddballs. Just have to remember to review one’s favourites somewhat regularly.
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Faves and Follows. You can also unsubscribe when the conversation has got too long.
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I created a traditional project where I can save observations that look promising (good photos, probably enough info to ID). Sometimes I don’t have the right references, or enough time to key it out, or I want a second opinion and I want to save an observation for later. Then I can find them all in one place and share the project with other botanists who can help me ID them.
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