Wetlands are always good for a mix of birds, reptiles, amphibians, and arthropods! I’m fortunate to have a good mix of marshes, swamps, and wetland prairies close by.
so cool! I would def do this if transport was free here as well
niceeee
woowww theyre all in their own little towns! ![]()
very truee!
Ah and my city comes under tropical deciduous forests apparently
Personally I love bogs! Where I live, bogs are uncommon habitats that usually occupy just a few acres, so finding one is like finding a little portal to another world. All the carnivorous plants, the sphagnum mosses, the insects that specialize on the sphagnum, the orchids, the crazy sphagnum-loving testate amoebas, and all usually localized to a tiny little postage stamp on the map, with perhaps miles to travel before finding another similar habitat. I know there are regions where bogs are the common ubiquitous habitat, but they’re quite a treat where I live.
Nothing beats crouching in a good ol’ forest on a wet day, rummaging around in leaf litter and whatnot. :)
Hi, I look several times a day in my small garden in temperate Europe. Over some 6 years I have noticed a change in the fauna I find. iNat allows me to determine if what I am seeing is at the border of the distribution area, and indeed many of the recent new species are indeed at their Northern limit having spread from Mediterranean regions in the recent years. This affects butterflies and beetles. I find it fascinating how I even now I continue to discover new species as my abilities improve to distinguish between species often on their ‘jizz’ (the way they move/behave as well as their markings/color). In winter, the interest moves more to the water birds on the local river and lake.
bogs sound glorious man, I wanna visit one someday!
exactlyyyy hehehee so truee!
yuppp I see some resident birds moving away, and others moving in
very interesting when you think about it tbh
its a very nice feeling indeed!!
I love this question!
I primarily iNat in my own front yard where I have planted a number of native plants to attract native pollinators and other critters. I am within the city limits, but it has more of an established suburban neighborhood feel with mature trees (many of which are huge and old) and is located in the central forests-grasslands transition ecosystem, which basically means we have everything from scrub oak forests to tallgrass prairie nearby. We also have a nice sized local nature preserve with wetlands about a 30 minute drive away where I go to iNat when given the chance.
All of the above. I am fortunate enough that I live in a biodiversity hotspot. I can find all kinds of life around my neighborhood, but am able to drive to mountains, desert or the coast for variety. My favorite places are where I don’t see another human. ![]()
I tend to enjoy it wherever I can do it, so I don’t know that I have a favorite habitat as much as I just enjoy wherever I happen to be while iNatting.
I generally do habitats close to urban areas for convenience, because my phone battery doesn’t last long. I’ve enjoyed other habitats during vacations (eg. beaches, etc) , but I don’t know if I’d consider them favorites or if the novelty of a new area skewed how I viewed them (or if the fact that I was I having fun on vacation also colored my perception).
[Edit: I can say my LEAST favorite spots are 1. places where other people scare away whatever I am observing, 2. places with a lot of mosquitos, or 3. places with a cloud of non-biting tin, hard-to-see nsects that like to hover at face level so you end up walking into clouds of them.]
Earth.
I try to always (not so much mid-winter) always have at least my Olympus TG with me in my pocket and anytime, anywhere, I use it. Or my celphone for many ‘not so-macro’ subjects.
Where is ‘anywhere’?
Public transit (shelters and stations, plus vehicles – last summer got some neat shots of a small spider that had built a wee web between an overhead passenger loop strap and the rod these are attached to, as an example), stores, farm and other food markets (there’s an Asian market here that blows me away with the number of sea creatures it contains), gardening centers (some spider species are only found in these, at least in central Canada, but they also attract a wide range of pollinators), vacant lots (I recently spent about 45 minutes scouring a vacant lot behind the shop that was changing my winter tires out and added nearly 10 new lifers. Vacant lots often have very harsh environments but that can translate into plants and other stuff that ONLY can survive these conditions. Heck, I even take it with me for my hospital visits (they have some great little green spaces tucked in there).
Once I saw a tiny spider on the floor of the ‘last chance to pee before surgery’ washroom and regretted that I hadn’t smuggled in something to record that – not to mention questions about how it got into that highly sterilized space!
Sure, I love the real nature areas, parks and trails, but for me it’s not so much where, but WHEN can I get the time and chance to walk these areas that’s the tougher challenge.
But by challenging yourself to explore and discover nature observation opportunities anywhere, you can really enhance your ability to see things when you DO get your chances to check out more lucrative odds in more enriched and diverse natural areas.
woowwww I love thisss, native plants, foresty area and local nature preserves!!
I have a similar setting but theres more of invasives than natives here ![]()
same! so do you have an everyday spot nearby? like where you go for a walk everyday
unfortunately my go-to spot (my neighbourhood) has both of these, children who pester me occasionally and mosquitoes, I get bitten a lot everyday but sometimes its worth it!
hehehe very understandable
same but with my not-so-sneaky nikon P900 hehe
just quoting the first 2 words but the entire paragraph is very very relatable, ppl around me get bamboozled and sometimes annoyed because I start taking pics anywhere, I remember going to my cousins wedding and it was an open space so I had a nice mothing session because the lights attracted a lot of em hehe
I can 100% confirm, I have trained my eyes so much, my pattern recognition backfires on me cuz sometimes a butterfly shaped leaf is just a leaf or a leaf is actually a butterfly! (applies to other insects too)