I take heart from the ongoing development of sustainable aviation fuel.
Not to an exact place for an exact observation. But I do use iNaturalist to find the general area where I am likely to find a taxon of interest.
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I mean ā¦ I did drive to the other side of BogotĆ” twice to see the wild guinea pigsš (did not find them, but instead got robbed with a knife the second time, and almost even twice that day, when I was not able to call an uber without a phone but had to walk to the road and wait for a bus to take me alongā¦ which happened just when two guys had passed me, looked back at me and were about to come back to me, when a bus finally stoppedā¦ not my best day in BogotĆ” for sure).
A āmust seeā are almost all mammals that I could easily observe without disturbing too much. ā¦ If I know there is a spot nearby with high chances of seeing them, I might probably try at some point. In my main photographic macro-realm I actually prefer just exploring and getting excited about anything new-to-me I find.
PS: Happy end on the guinea front - figured out that they live just along the roadside that I pass almost every day on my way to work and see them regularly nowā¦ however, did not manage to take pictures yet
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After driving someone to Seoul for a test I checked some of the local waterways for what had recently been seen and shared to iNaturalist. I came across one observation of a Ruddy Shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea) from the day before but I didnāt spot any when I visited the same stretch of river.
The next day I drove to a different city where someone had posted on a Korean blog about seeing Ruddy Shelducks and did get my first - and so far only - observation of the species!
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YES!! My friend and I will hop in the car to try to find unique observation. Itās always a hit or miss, nothing guaranteed except a fun adventure.
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Yes. Locally though; my bigger trips are family things. And I will try to do side excursions then, but the family stuff is first/foremost. Example: weāre going to Colorado and I plan to try to do at least one or two small solo hikes to search for neat animals but most of itās going to be taking my kids around places I grew up.
I did this early last year, traveling to Gainesville, FL to photograph some Trillium at its southernmost range.
For a while, if I was planning to spend a day driving and hiking, I travelled to where observations are dense. (Thatās observations of taxa I that interest me, at the current time of year, not just all observations.) Thereās even the time I used QGIS to count orchid observations close to walking tracks, and tell me which tracks had the most diverse range of observations this month. That did lead to two very nice days of walking and observing.
But now I mostly do what you describe: find spaces that are accessible to the public but sparsely covered in observation pins, and explore those. There are a lot of places like that here in Australia. In particular, we have some popular fishing spots with well-made roads and walking tracks, but few observations except for the occasional bird. (Iām not an expert on dragonflies and damselflies, but theyāre common near fishing lakes and Iām gradually learning where to look for them.)
In April 2023 I went on such an excursion and found this fantastic insect. My initial identification was embarrassingly off-base, but some helpful identifiers sorted me out, citing a 1921 paper to help narrow it down. At the time of writing it was the only observation of Eusthenia lacustris on iNaturalist, and itās only there because I took a day trip to a hole in the observations map. So yes, I endorse this method of choosing travel destinations.
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Absolutely yes! Thereās nothing like a good āmissionā, whether itās the other side of the road or half a world away, and what better place than iNat to get some good ideas. Sometimes itās the ideas that spark the destination, sometimes the other way round, but the āhuntā is always a big part of any destination I and my botanist husband visit. I just canāt imagine going somewhere for any other reason!
I saw a plant with the common name, I kid you not, Obi-Wan Conobea (Leucospora multifida) and decided I had to see it. It wasnāt that far (a county over) but definitely not my usual stomping grounds. I found it: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/57807809
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The only times Iāve traveled to specific spots because of someone elseās iNatās observations are when the observations are of state-listed species and the site is not already documented to the state.
But, like you, now Iām trying to go to places that arenāt well-documented in iNat - specifically to places with no observations of Eastern White Pine, which is the most-observed plant in my state (Massachusetts in the US). I figure that if no one has documented Eastern White Pine in an area, there havenāt been enough observations there in general.
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ā¦aaaand its range doesnāt include Colorado. Disappointing, this is. In the future, I sense, a road trip may be.
I do that quite often. thing I enjoy is when I come across an old herbarium record and make it my mission to track down that plant to see if itās still.
Now that Iām older, and figure I probably have more world travel in my past than my future, I am taking stock of where do I consider most important to go. As part of this effort, I am making out an iNat wish list ā taxa that I want to observe and upload ā based on where I still want to go. Existing iNat observations are helping me to target this effort.
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