Thank you, that’s very kind of you to say! And I do feel as though I have a very privileged life.
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- Do not break my streak (or is it already a marathon?) of 2000+ days of inatting, which is very hard :-( May be I should just make photo, not edit and upload them for some months?
- Continue my TG channel about nature around me.
- Make at least couple of lectures, discussions and public walking about inating.
- Visit some new region in my country and some old one in different season to observe different biodiversity.
- Make public my Coccinelidae interactive guidebook which I start last year but didn’t touch this one.
- May be start to draw?
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Add the goal of adding annotations to all new observations and trying to remember to annotate as I look at other observations.
Also trying to pull journal articles on new species eg identification keys, distribution and putting a link in the comments so I learn something. I use the Consensus AI search which is actually useful to find them.
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My goal?
To (as an old African proverb puts it) ‘stay hungry, stay foolish’.
Was never very good with goals or plans, but I’m a true ace at wondering/wandering. Thanks iNat for giving me the excuse to do more – much more – of both of these things.
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My goal for 2026 is to post 500 or more observations, observe 100-200 species that I haven’t already seen, log on to iNaturalist and the forum every day, and to learn 5 new things every day, whether that be about nature, science, history, literature, whatever- I want to be well-rounded!
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My goals:
- Reach 10,000 observations
- Reach 2,000 species
- Increase my identifications
- Fill in range gaps for species in little-visited parts of Nevada and Death Valley National Park with some hiking.
- Make some presentations at meetings as an iNat ambassador
- Catch up on my Great Basin grasses project
- Track the coming big wildflower bloom in the Mojave Desert because of all the rains we have had in California and Nevada
- In May with a biologist friend try to observe and identify the rare firefly on the upper Amargosa River in Nevada that I have seen.
- Increase my mammal track observations.
- Learn more lichens!
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I am currently 12 / 119,826 people in terms of numbers of Harvestmen species observed. I would like to get to top 5 if possible. Of course its a moving target depending on what others do.
For whatever country I visit this year (In South America) I also aim to be number one for harvestmen species. But Outside of Brazil / Chile there isnt much competition.
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Also not good about goals and plans. I just want to get out there exploring as much as possible.
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my goal is to get as much observations as possible in new locations
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I would like to: Find 5 Threatened, Endangered, and Species of Concern, Go to an area where no iNaturalist have been, Add 10 beetle, 7 Potamogetons, 10 sedge, 10 grass, and a Chromista species all while being mindful of my carbon footprint.
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As a new iNat Ambassador (I got in the First Crop of Ambassadors), I plan to host an event every-other-month if I can swing it, especially for City Nature Challenge and for Summer Solstice Sea Star Search and SnapShot CalCoast (June) then again for Winter Solstice Sea Star Search (December 2026). I also hope to host a springtime event to blitz all the plants up and blooming at a new local preserve, now open to the public, perhaps highlighting this event for the neighbors and volunteers specifically to help them learn and play with iNat. I will continue to monitor my own curated projects to keep them active and quality and engage with locals. All this as well as my amost daily forays into parks and places near where I live and wherever we end up traveling this year (my spouse retires in March, but we may not travel far this first year, probably our typical “haunts” of Truckee/Sierras and Sea Ranch (North Sonoma Coast, California). Since I am out and about so frequently, I iNat whatever the season presents! Eagerly awaiting spring wildflowers here in California, with plans to revisit some places that had recent controlled burns to see what presents.
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I have some decent goals but most of these should be very doable.
· Reach 15,000 observations
· Make at least 300 observations outside of California.
· Get my species count over 2100.
· Get my annotations up to 100.
· Reach 30,000 identifications made for others.
· Hit my 40 volunteer hours for my California Naturalist 2026 pin badge.
· Help my Cordova Creek Naturalization Project reach 500 observations. Currently sitting at 403 obs.
· Complete my required two iNaturalist Ambassador Program community events.
· Keep my iNaturalist and eBird streaks alive for another year.
· Help organize the City Nature Challenge for the Sacramento Region.
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do you have a project for the preserve ? Always good to hear of a NEW one opening somewhere.
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Spend a bit less time on iNat.
Meet up with local naturalist-type people.
Improve my identification skills.
Find some bees. Find some more bees. Find some other cool insects. Find some bees again. Etc.
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But why less? I don’t spend that much time on iNat… do I?
How much is too much? I usually get 2 hrs in total (but many more in nature LOL)
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It must be in order to allow sufficient time for finding bees. 
…
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Perhaps better worded by finding a better balance between iNat and being in nature.
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It is easy to use iNat as a way to avoid other things I ought to be doing – particularly since I can tell myself it is virtuous (i.e., I am doing something useful and not wasting time watching videos or playing games or doomscrolling). And as someone who is interested in a taxon for which there are far too few IDers, it is also easy to fall into the trap of convincing myself I have to look at everything because if I don’t nobody will.
iNat on its own is also not ultimately the most effective way to make a difference for nature protection or contribute to science. This requires other types of activities and engaging with local networks.
So yeah, it’s about striving to use iNat more purposefully and achieving a better balance.
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I plan to start eBirding more. That doesn’t mean I’ll be iNatting less. But I’ve heard enough from other birders that iNat is less useful than eBird in documenting bird diversity and I can see their point. So I’ll give it a shot even though I dislike the idea of messing with my phone that much while out in nature.
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I’ve been keeping a streak going with eBird lists and iNaturalist observations since January 1, 2020. There’s no reason not to do both. They really do different things.
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