Mainly because there are a lot of taxonomic groups for which there still are no field guides.
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Same here. I have more conversations with myself or just in my head than I’ll ever have for real.
For me, it started with planting some flowers I bought at Lowes. I had the very basic idea that it would be good for the bees, and didn’t think much more of it. The next spring, I decided if I was going to try to improve my tiny little slice of habitat, I should do it right. That started with needing a way to identify what was already in my yard, and whether or not it was native.
So that’s mainly what I use it for, and sometimes I take a random interest in something I spot. The forum is a great source of advice for me, as well as just some interesting reading sometimes. Although anything but the most basic information makes my brain go numb.
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I talk to myself constantly, in my head, in whispers and right out loud…
I’ve gotten to a point where several days it seems that in order to learn something (anything) new something known must be forgotten. I may choose the new information but have no control over what gets lost…
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This is basically my most active point of intersection for both nature and domain of technology via the internet. I would prefer ‘being’ in nature and learning through the observations (e.g., the seasonality of wildlife; behavior; and ‘being’ more attentive). And it helps to make an observation and contribute to the database - but often - I have become more patient with simply seeing nature in a different way than through the lens of quantification. As for the identifications (or identifying) process - I think helping others - to clarify or to refine the identification (to confirm or offer a different suggestion or to indicate that the image/photo was ‘great’ (meaning - the composition and capturing the markers for the ID) - is a reward unto itself. I started out in wildlife biology (way back - in college years) over 50 years ago…and then circling back to nature - again (since joining iNaturalist in 2019).
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There are a lot of reasons… one of my favorites: rather than going across the world to look for something, (sometimes) nothing beats looking through a few (to hundreds of!) people’s survey effort across days/months.
I’m personally interested in the “missing species” Metazygia carolinalis; I hope it lives through to 2025, and every so often I sift through observations around the type locales. The fact that it doesn’t seem to appear in ‘normal iNaturalist survey effort’ near a densely populated area might give clues; undersampling could be due to its extirpation or cryptic nature, the latter hypothesized during its description. I hope they’re just great at hiding under bark!
Either way, I think consulting iNaturalist records can give me a terrific idea of what I will actually see before going somewhere, and sometimes, there is even more to be gained when you know what iNatters are not seeing that should or could be there.
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and then choosing plants that have NOT been pre-treated with neonics? From a pollinator friendly smaller more local nursery?
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- In my taxon+area of choice: to share one obs of each leaf taxon, as a reference and checklist of sorts
- Other taxa or when travelling: offering datapoints and pics that might interest local folks; sometimes to get an ID
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Did you see this thread and tool?
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Yeah I had seen that. The 1st time I tried it, it didn’t work. I just tried it again and it did work. Biggest issue I have with this is that in the areas I am usually in, I’m the one with the most observations, so I’m looking for the stuff I haven’t seen. Which I just noticed, this can also help with.
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I have no idea what that is. Anyway, I pulled out the surviving lowes flowers a while ago.
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In 2017 i could use the COmputer Vision engine and at that time it was the only one i knew on iphone and it was quite good.
Now i also use it some time to find plants in the country i am visiting
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As I read these replies, I am struck with how many are of the form “I started using iNaturalist for X, but then it led me to Y and Z.” iNaturalist is a voyage of discovery whether we’re beginners or experts. I use it dozens of ways, but a current mission is to analyze data deserts for Sphagnum in the southeastern US, and travel to them to fill in the gaps. Having a mission every time you go out is great!
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Ok, I’ve heard of those. It’s baffling that they keep claiming the new generation of pesticides as “safe”. Safe for what exactly? Poison is poison, of course it’s bad for anything that contacts it.
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I find it relaxing and meditative; but can be mildly intense. The other day, I parked, walked up to the trail, and saw a Datura wrightii. I knew I had taken a picture of one at different place, but I finally had one up close. It’s a super common plant, nothing special. I get close to it and I spot something. I see a white/grayish weevil (Trichobaris sp.) on this plant. I kept visiting other Datura plants around and I kept finding those weevils. Cool. But then I found Lema daturaphila larvae eating the leaves of this plant. They cover themselves in poop by the way. First time I see them in person. I figured that the adult beetle could be nearby, but I didn’t find it and stopped looking because I instead found a Diabrotica balteata (my current profile picture). Those were all new to me, so at that point I’m mellowed on dopamine; my visual senses satisfied.
And in each one of those stops, I’m grabbing a leaf or the flower, fighting the wind from swaying it. I position the plant and my camera so I can take a good clear picture. It’s challenging. I switch from my custom mode for close ups (C1) to Microscope mode, trying to see what’s the best mode for this scene. Focus darn it. Click. Click. The weevil hides around the stem. Reposition, Click. Gotcha. The Diabrotica beetle is on a white flower next to a weevil. Cool. Click. It sees me. It’s alive. I can see that. Click. It flies away to a neighboring plant. I chase it. Click. Flies BACK to the white flower. Click. Click. Flies to the plant. At some point after 10-20 shots, I just tell it “See ya” and if I’d done that while someone else was passing by, they’d be like: who is this weirdo talking to. Or may be they’ll ask me, “Are you a botanist?” (someone did lol, I guess I do look the part) and I’ll think '“Crime pays but botany doesn’t… f****** clever”… “No, I work with computers, walking and taking pictures is my hobby”. But anyway, I check the pictures, breathe, and I feel satisfied.
When I get home, I open Lightroom. I connect the camera and import today’s photos. I cycle through them judging them and pressing 5 on the best ones. I filter the 5s, denoise some of them, adjust shadows/highlights, and crop crop crop. 20 minutes later, I upload them, arrange them, and ID them initially.
Then the waiting game begins. Will someone see my observations? Will they find them useful and easy to ID? What did I miss? What other angle could I have taken? Feedback that’s rarely received. Then the identifiers, the regulars, start arriving.
And then I wind down by browsing the taxa I’m familiar with and ID and annotate.
I’m sure weevil a similar routine, except those of you do this for a living because there’s probably more paperwork.
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I use iNaturalist as an educational tool and to help me with identifying flora and fauna for my (website hobby - in my spare time) Ausemade.com.au - which has the main Flora and Fauna section and also a flora fauna section in Alice Springs and Central Australia (where I live). When I get help with an ID, I reference the source, from individuals and sites such as iNaturalistAU.
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Anything that is made to kill can’t be safe.
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Having an expert confirm your “educated guess”, at best, is what attracted me to iNat, but then I discovered a lot of added features that I really loved. The one I used the most is: checking prior to my hikes/dives the search map to see what I can expect and wish to see. Such a better way to do it than a field guide or internet blog. It has motivated me when travelling abroad and at home and often been a rabbit hole of learning about new species.
Later, someone showed me the Tree of Life and I also quite like this feature. Before I was manually creating my “own encyclopaedia” as a mapping of my own knowledge.
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Additionally, I noticed than since I use iNat I give much more attention to common and “mundane” species and that’s one thing I really love about it.
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I joined iNat because I am one of those people who always wants to know what everything is. Probably as a child I didn’t go around saying “Why? Why? Why?” all the time, but “What’s that? What’s that?” iNat is a great resource for supplementing my stacks of guidebooks and cache of online references. Plus it automatically keeps a record if what I’ve seen!
It took me a couple of years to stumble upon the forum, where I discovered there are a whole lot of other people like me. Or not like me, but interesting in totally different ways.
At most social gatherings people don’t discuss things that are cute, and show pictures of spiders and flies instead of babies or kittens:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/unexpectedly-cute-observations-what-are-yours/35644
Or ask “did you see anything you’ve never seen before, this week?” instead of “have you been to any good restaurants lately?”
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/what-is-your-favorite-lifer-from-this-week/24219/2977
And after learning (through the forum) the importance of being an identifier as well as an observer, I discovered that making IDs is an excellent use of my many spare minutes each day. It’s more fun than doing chores, less depressing than reading the news, and much more rewarding than binge-watching bad shows…
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