It is easy to start with identifications! A lot of them have already been collected in the Identifier’s Bingo and maybe already participate in the IndentiFriday. Also, there are a lot of opportunities to add annotations - maybe get inspiration during the Anntotation Sunday.
There are more and more Bioblitzes and Biomarathons - within these events, there are a lot of people participating that are new to nature observation, especially (but not exclusively) during school-initiated events. These events are a great opportunity to get into identifying, since there are many observations of different taxa, which are often not yet identified in detail, only to a relatively low taxonomic level (such as “plant” or “animal” or “insect”). Here you can (e.g.):
- identify observations to a higher taxonomic level
- scrutinize identifications that have been made on species level (high school students sometimes also “support” each other by validating each other’s observation, even if they do not have in-depth knowledge of the specific taxa).
- Important: Remember to be welcoming and patient with the observers - especially in the case of students - you can support them to see not only how exciting the world of nature observation is, but also that we are a supportive community here.
→ At the moment there is a little Bioblitz going on in Northern Germany among Middle Schools/ High Schools, there does not seem to be an overarching project, but you can look for “sncsh” [School Nature Challenge Schleswig Holstein] in the search bar and will find several projects, that all serve as a good introduction into identification. If you have another project or bioblitz that would serve as a good starting point for new identifiers, just post them here.
- If you want to dive into a specific group of plants/ animals/fungi, it makes sense to find a mentor/ set up a buddy-system, so that you can get a second opinion and learn important traits.
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Great ideas! I’ll add that I think new identifiers are often afraid of being wrong. That’s really understandable!
But ease into the process by starting with the species you make the most observations of yourself. What are those species, you ask? Here’s the URL for my list: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?user_id=lynnharper&view=species. Just delete my user name and substitute yours in the URL.
Pitch Pine happens to be my most-observed species. Now, there are lots of observations of Pitch Pine by other people that just show the bark or a cone, but I always feel most comfortable identifying Pitch Pine if I can see the tree has three needles in a bundle. (This particular trick won’t work everywhere in the world, by the way.) So, I skip over observations that just show a close-up of the bark and nothing else. Currently, there are over 1800 Needs ID Pitch Pine observations in my region. Even if I can only identify one-tenth of those, that’s a big dent in the pile.
Start where you can and maybe build from there. I find making IDs a nice, relaxing, relatively mindless activity that I fit into my day whenever I need a break. Good luck, have fun, and please feel free to ask questions!
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Ha. I was about to comment about the School Nature Challenge Schleswig Holstein before I got to that part of your post. ^^
I have noticed it yesterday due to unusually many ladybeetle observations from that area.
The students are adding so many observations that just setting the place filter to “Schleswig Holstein” will show almost exclusively sncsh observations on the first few pages. It seems to be quite a popular and widespread school project. They have found some cool species already as well. :D
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@lynnharper, what a great idea! My top 10 did not surprise me and I have been identifying those, but now I see a number of other species that I’m confident about in all seasons. I will add those to my ID repertoire.
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For some identifiers, I’m not sure that this ever goes away. Even many experienced identifiers seem to be afraid of being wrong.
It can also be done from your “Your Observations” page by clicking on the “Species” tab.
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