What are you guys up to next year? What are your plans, goals and ideas for the upcoming year?
Mines are here:
iNat
• 100.000 IDs and reach a top 30 in Europe for bird IDers;
• 5.000 observations;
• 2.000 species, and 100 species of birds (I’ve got a really good chance of finishing this one thanks to my new camera);
• Expand my bird feeding station and add some bird houses and maybe a bird bath;
• Go mothing amd maybe have a couple of Mothing Nights (or more);
• 1.000 species in my backyard;
• Reach a 600 day streak on iNat;
- hard
- medium
- easy-peasy
I’d also love hiking more often and check out all the cool animals, plants and lifers I can find there;
I also have a trip to the Danube Delta planned for the summer, and I can’t wait to put my camera to the test; I’d love fishing there as well, and find some lifers amongst freshwater fishes. (Of course I mustn’t forget about insects, amphibians, reptiles, plants, fungi, and many many many others).
As for the seaside, I want to go scuba diving again, and go snorkeling early morning or during the night for cool animals out there.
Finish up the thousands of moths photos I am backlogged on from 2025.
Make a meaningful contribution to Lepidoptera checklist for my state.
Travel somewhere in my state for some moth nights.
Get at least one county lifer bird.
I’ll keep on ID:ing unknowns to at least kingdom-level. A pet peeve.
I’m also planning about going to the local biodiversity park. There have been some interesting and returning species of plants and arthropods found there last Summer.
Aaaand keep documenting the spread of mistletoe in the city.
I should know better by now than to make plans, because then I feel badly if I don’t reach them. On the other hand, planning is fun and I’ll forget all about whatever I say today, quite soon. So:
Reach 500,000 IDs. (yes, I’m crazy)
Post a minimum of 10,000 observations. (did I mention I’m crazy?)
Travel to three foreign countries and probably three or four states besides my own, making iNat observations constantly.
Collect 500 bryophyte specimens in New England and donate them, properly curated, to an herbarium.
Volunteer a day a week or so for that herbarium, helping to get their bryophyte collection digitized and up on the Bryophyte Portal.
Trap moths 40 to 50 times, helping to understand their distribution in Massachusetts, particularly in areas of habitat restoration.
Co-lead my local City Nature Challenge.
Run the annual regional plant ID-a-thon here on iNat.
And I wonder why I feel frazzled a lot of the time.
(For context: I’m a retired biologist. Do not try this at home.)
ETA: I forgot the vascular plant survey of a major watershed I’m helping with.
Reach 3500 IDs and more but I can’t estimate - Medium
Reach 5,000 observations - Medium
Reach 100 bird species, which has to include snagging them from the missed list - Medium
Keep my streak alive throughout the year - Medium
Hard
Reach 100 butterfly species - Hard
Reach 200 moth species - Hard
Reach 30 Odonates - Hard
Very Hard
Photograph the leopard which is currently picking off dogs and cattle from the village - Very Hard
Stay ready when the Gaurs come in the summer, someone else saw them in this year’s summer, photographing and uploading a photo to iNat would be legendary - Very Hard
Sounds like great plans. You could west coast yourself and visit British Columbia (foreign country) with 454 iNat RG observed species of Bryophytes and 1,703 iNat RG observed species of Moths. Surely there would be something new for you. Then head south for Washington, Oregon, California and Nevada for more changing ecosystems.
Here are some of mine:
• Photograph and examine as much Collembola species I can find
• Finally get around to buying a new microscope in order to properly photograph Collembola and aquatic microorganisms
• Reach 60K ID’s and 5000 obs
There are people that do it. My style of doing iNatting doesn’t allow for that many per day. I’m too busy birding and looking around to just be mass taking photos.
If I have my way, I’ll be moving to a new country (Canada) within the next year. My primary goals at this point are pretty basic survival goals: Find a new place to live and either get a job or go back to school so I have some income to live on. Once I’m finally back to a stable living state again, though, I’ll be looking forward to having a whole new country to explore. I’d love to see a Canadian Lynx, some caribou and moose, polar bears up North. I can’t wait to explore the Canadian Rockies or take a trip to look for salamanders in BC or Ontario.
We have a trip to Sri Lanka planned for mid-year so I intend to go nuts there photographing absolutely everything.
At home, there are some places that are likely to be cleared soon so I would like to spend some time in those areas.
But also at my workplace where there is a big open concrete ditch that was a giant heatsink. Lots of natives have been planted here so I want to start documenting the critters that are there now.
Knowledge-wise I can see myself getting more and more into spiders. The more I read during this ID-a-thon as I try to have a go at tidying up local spider IDs the more I realise how quirky and fun some of them are in this area.
I want to get a better camera + lens to improve my photo quality
Visit Australia / New Zealand and photograph some iconic animals there (kangaroos, koalas, quokkas, etc…)
Reach 2000 species observed
I have to get up and out to actually see the sun rise…it’s a quarter mile walk. It’s a more difficult than it sounds goal, weather is the main deterrent factor.
BTW You already have a beautiful life!
and check out all the cool animals, plants and lifers I can find there;
A pet peeve.