In January 2022, I found that my interest extended to all living/extinct organisms from just molluscs, thanks to iNaturalist. Since then, as a simple goal, I started aiming to observe, identify and post as many species (leaf taxa- not strict “species”) as possible. At first, I struggled to find pe…

Sometimes I think that iNat will turn out to be an incredibly rich source of data documenting range changes with climate change (I am not implying that climate change affected your beetle’s range). If I document liverworts in a part of Massachusetts that I know tends to have species of all sorts at…

You could try rearing invertebrates from samples of habitat. For example, put a bracket fungus in a jar and see what insects hatch out. Take a handful of sediment from a dried-up pond and put it in a tank of water. For iNaturalist purposes your record would be from the place and date where you colle…

A favorite quote from John Burroughs, “To learn something new, take the same path you took yesterday.” Just cultivating attentiveness in your daily routine, you will see new things daily. I’ve seen over 1900 species on my acre, almost 800 lepidoptera, most at the porch lights.

My 2000+ observations are within walking distance of home, and I don’t range far due to aging and disability. Here’s my best advice: sit and watch. Looking and seeing become more focused the more I stop thinking. Favorite quote is from Marcel Proust: The real voyage of discovery consists not in se…

Not a huge fan of Disney Corp’s depiction of the natural world, but I’ll borrow a line from one of their biggest hits (and also one of their most ridiculous depictions) and simply say, “Look harder.” https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/these-gorgeous-photos-capture-life-inside-drop-seawat…

I was thinking along the same lines: watch/ look harder etc. and suggest raise the frequency of your outings. I was surprised how much more I found after I had decided in 2021 to go out every day - even though I always frequent the same areas due to not having a car. https://www.inaturalist.org/sta…

Yes! I think I called it the ‘backyard effect’ but your brain will develop very fine-tuned filters to help you find something ‘different’ in your familiar hunting grounds. For me, one of the biggest breakthroughs was taking off my glasses – which I generally leave on for field stuff (I’m slightly m…

I use inexpensive clip on lenses because I have lost several already. As well as several lens caps when I used my DSLR. Mother Nature will give them back in her own time. I now wear my glasses with a cord around my neck, after having to look for them too many times. Same thing, I can see closeup b…

Small aquatic life is a fun area of biodiversity that’s everywhere. If you put some water and weeds and leaves and sediment in a jar and let it settle, you’ll find all kinds of invertebrates in it. You’ll get different diversity depending on whether you get it from a creek, pond, swamp, ocean etc. …

[image] Thunderhead: I now wear my glasses with a cord around my neck, after having to look for them too many times Oh yeah, I definitely have struggled with this same problem. I once met someone (it was like, 10 years ago) with a new experimental digital lens correction pair of glasses (that…

Tips and methods to increase your species count (how to find new things)

Nature Talk

Topic		Replies	Views
How many species have you observed? General	67	3071	November 6, 2023
How can I maximise my number of observations? General	62	3958	March 20, 2023
Top Observers On The Site General observations	95	7344	October 20, 2021
Location, species, behavior, quality: how I decide on what to record General	19	1360	December 29, 2020
What factors affect what you observe? General question	30	1833	February 26, 2024

Tips and methods to increase your species count (how to find new things)

Related topics