Exactly!!! The hands-on thing, the “labs” required for all my science classes, were just as important as the book learning.
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This is just so true! My husband and I ran a bird banding station for years and realized that a bird in the hand can be much different than one seen up in a tree. In fact, over the years, I’ve become less and less confident in my identifications because I know how easy it is to misjudge a number of things including color (e.g. the light hits a molting, immature northern cardinal just so and turns the chest bright yellow) and size. So unless the photo is very good, the view is perfect, and I totally know the bird, I often won’t contribute an ID. Especially for birds like flycatchers where it may be the difference in mms of feather length because we can’t hear the bird in a photo (and my hearing is shot anyway). So I don’t consider myself competant enough to do a lot of IDs or put anything in my profile except that I’ll do my best to research the species before I make an ID and even then…
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The only way I learned to ID better, was trying to ID the species that interest me. It requires that you are always willing to withdraw an identification and listen to others who comment or ID these observations. I too cringe when I get notifications from ID’s I did years ago. But learning to ID, to be cautious, to consider all the evidence (such as range, date, seasons etc.) takes time. It also takes engagement with iNat and taking some chances to learn. I am no expert, but my ability to ID has improved only because of the very wrong identifications I have made in the past, and the willingness of other people on iNat to educate me about those errors.
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I agree totally. I have learned more and improved faster from wrong identifications than anything else. In fact, that’s true for life in general. I always learn more when I have made a mistake. And I remember it better, too. So I keep learning, trying, making mistakes and trying to improve. It’s a constant process.
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