When you are asked to think of reasons why you like iNaturalist and you come up with 100 reasons.
…you find yourself having to search “human” in your camera roll
You discover 100 different pictures of the same creature in your photo library.
You visit your local garden centre and the choice of plant that you buy is not based on what the plant looks like, how well it will fit in with your garden or how easy it will be to nurture, but instead what insects are on it. This Eryngium had a Tachinid and a Beewolf, so to me it was the best plant there and the one that I had to have. Fortunately the plant looks very smart on it’s own.
Great choice! Here in Germany Eryngium (both the native/wild species and the ones sold for gardeners) is a fantastic insect magnet.
My local food market has a nice small garden center. Every time I visit, I prowl around the plants photographing pollinators, before I go inside to buy food. The garden employees have stopped asking me “can I help you with something?” - they know the answer will be “no thanks, just looking for pollinators!” Or I will send my spouse inside to do the shopping while I stay outside looking for bees…
When I go to botanical gardens, I also select not for the plants themselves, but for if I expect to see many pollinators :)
When you’re hiking at Writing On Stone, known for its impressive rock formations, and you’re climbing recklessly. Almost every hoodoo has an easy way up carved for everyone to enjoy the climb. But of course, the easy way bores you. So you find the more difficult sections that go straight up, and climb them. You find one particularly tall hoodoo, and eagerly climb the hard way. It’s difficult, and you almost don’t make it, but you do. You relax for a moment or two before looking for the easy way; it’s how you’ll get down.
Your heart drops into the pit of your stomach as you realize there is no easy way. You’ll have to edge your way back down the rock face very carefully. To make sure that your camera will survive, you pass it down to one of your relations, who sets it down carefully on the rock she stands on. Carefully, you scoot down the rock, but quickly get stuck. She tries to help you, but as you reach your foot for a foothold to your right, you feel yourself slipping. Slowly, you turn horizontal as she tries to keep you up with her uplifted arms.
Then, you feel yourself falling, falling to the hard stone around seven feet below. You land hard on your back and arm, scraped, bruised, and bleeding.
And your very first thought is: I’m so glad I didn’t land on my camera!
it is a good thing that the camera is okay, but are you alright?! take care!!
Yes, thank you! Nothing broken, surprisingly, though my arm did get infected and my back will probably give me issues as I get older.
More importantly at that moment, though, was that I had to stick to the trails the rest of the hike, and there were so many interesting animals in the hoodoos! We saw a mule deer climbing there!
You left church a few minutes ago, spot a dead animal on the road, and pull off the road onto steep ground. You wait for no one to come before opening the door, which you have to push up. Someone comes up behind you and asks if you’re okay. You tell her that you stopped to observe a dead animal. Waiting up to a minute, maybe almost two, between shots for no cars to come, you take five pictures and return to your car. Someone in a sheriff car (probably a deputy, not the sheriff himself) pulls up and asks if you’re okay and were taking pictures. After, with difficulty, putting on your seat belt and turning on the car (not starting the engine yet) so that you can open the window, you explain that you just need to get back on the road and go home. He pulls back. You start the engine and get on the road.
This wasn’t my first interaction with law enforcement while iNatting. On July 4, I was returning from church, passed through Lake Lure, saw an opossum, and pulled off the road to take pictures. A celebration was going on, and there was much police in case things got rowdy. A policeman pulled off behind me and told me I was going too fast, but did not give me a ticket.