I hang out with a group of non-naturalist friends who find it hilarious that I’m constantly bending over to photograph plants…they have compiled a sizeable collection of photos of my backside, and gloat about it constantly.
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I don’t count my experiences in the field as an iNaturalist experience personally. My worst experience on here was being told that if I can’t id to species not to bother, and then being blocked.
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How about getting eaten alive by centipedes and spiders going under my deck to get a rare species of plant.
Getting four ticks crawling on you and getting bit by one of them because you wade in tall grass to get a cottontail.
(those happened to me)
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Welcome to the forum, @elfaulkner! You might also enjoy this topic…sounds like you’re one of us
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/you-know-youre-seriously-into-inat-when/1992 :)
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https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/48274869
That is the link to the exact bird that defecated on my phone and hands
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Oh yes…I got some strange looks crouching down to photograph a dead rat in my alley.
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He doesn’t even look guilty about it! The nerve!
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That photo happened before the poo incident
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So funny! This reminds me of another time that was so funny, but it did not happen to me
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I mean, my least favorite thing on iNaturalist is arguing with people who don’t know what they’re talking about and won’t back down when it comes to an ID. I’ve been one of those people sometimes, though I try not to be. It’s easy to think of oneself as an expert after going through a few field guides, but extensive experience is a better teacher. I appreciate the many experienced people on iNaturalist who are willing to ID stuff on here however, and whom make it a better experience for everyone.
The worst naturalisting experience was probably either crashing my car during a severe thunderstorm while looking for Wood Frogs or getting 200+ ticks on me in a Missouri state park in late May while looking for rare plants/snakes. I got plenty of herps and plants though!
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Performing the mosquito jig in 80%+ humidity for minutes on end while waiting for your phone’s GPS to find a signal. Then having to do it all over again and again further down the trail.
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I haven’t been doing iNaturalist stuff long enough to have any real tales of woe to match some of the disasters from by pre-mobile phone days. The most annoying experience so far is losing a bunch of observations because when I start paying attention to something my 70 lb. dogs (1 in particular) assume there’s something going on that they should know about and scare it away. Dog walks are mostly along wild creek banks and through mixed pine/hardwood forest so lots of observation potential but patience is definitely required. I guess if that’s the worst I’ve got, I’m OK. 
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We must have been in the same park!
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Uploading 200 photos at once, filling in all the fields, and right before I was able to click submit my grandma turned off the router
To this day I only ever upload in batches of about 10-20 because of this
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I don’t do international travels often, but when in Argentina, I was robbed in a club and I lost many photos, I went to Argentina with two phones, and days before, my other cell phone had broken. In Mexico it was the same, i was not robbed, but I left my cellphone on the beach!!! can you believe it? I went there with two phones too, and again my (other) phone broke…
I’m so fail.
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My sympathy. I think a small percentage of users forget that IDs are a gift. I’m grateful for the IDs I get. It means that someone else took time to see what I saw and evaluate it.
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I get very few, sometimes I tag experts out of desperation. Yes, I appreciate IDs a lot.
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My worst:
- Almost stepping on a rattlesnake (on 2 occasions)
- Getting poison ivy on my face during a social distancing bioblitz.
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Lol. I feel denial, anger, bargaining and depression all at once when I lose the opportunity to inat a lifer.
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