When you’re having trouble observing things in your usual niche but you have to post something so you start doing things you normally wouldn’t, like you can’t find any insects so you start recording bird songs.
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Glad you didn’t bring up Pthirus pubis
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When 500-ish boxelder beetles crawl up the side of your house and you spend the next 15 minutes photographing them one by one because you’re hoping you might get Eastern Boxelder.
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When making a particularly interesting observation is the best part of your day :)
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you find some unusual rare specie and u keep following it to take a photograph and upload it on INat
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Yeah! for instance, I thought today would be boring during my walk at work. It’s generally the same 10 species of invasives. But then I found this dead deer with funky looking beetles mating all over it and I must say, things are looking a lot brighter!
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…when the police pull you over, lights flashing, because they got a report of a strange car parked on the side of a country road and they are afraid someone is having some car trouble or up to something shady. The police officers ask what’s going on and you point to the very confused juvenile red-tailed hawk you were taking pictures of, sitting on the ground about fifteen feet away staring at the both of you. The hawk then has to vouch for you to the police that you are not up to no good.
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New one… when you are called to a vehicle vs animal collision and after doing your job of making sure the human is okay, your coworkers have to wait to clear scene because you are taking a photo of the deceased animal for iNat. And the coworkers no longer question you…
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Definitely the longest topic on the forum.
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When your daughter, (the park ranger, and also iNatter) stops to photograph snakes and alligators and such, dead or alive, to send to her mother, and her coworkers not longer question her!!!
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My kind of friend lol
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Stands to reason. We ARE seriously into iNat, after all.
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you know you’re seriously into iNat when you set the identify tool to show grey wolf observations that don’t have anything listed for “evidence of organism” and think, “oh there are only 49 pages. I’m gonna do that right now”.
It took an hour and 43 minutes, I timed it. I did this because I made a project to show observations of grey wolves with the Evidence of Presence: set to Organism so it would be easy for people to find pictures of the actual wolves, and then I thought well I should help make sure they get to this project!
Unfortunately I forgot to hit the button so it would include research grade observations, of which there are 63 pages that need an annotation lol. I’ll do that on my next day off…
Anyways I’ve made it my goal to add annotations to every single pawpaw observation on this site so that the plant phrenology graphs will be filled out with when they flower bud, flower, and fruit :)
small-flower pawpaws are done except for the new ones people add every now and then, some of the species from Florida that are rare are done, and most of the time and effort is spent on common pawpaws, which has 371 pages remaining so far that need annotated. And while I’m going through I’m helping to confirm or correct the identifications.
Some examples of things confused for pawpaws:
hickories. Lots of hickories.
tupelos. I don’t know anything about tupelos but I’m starting to recognize them just from knowing they aren’t pawpaws lol.
one time there was a “research grade” obsevation of a persimmon that was marked as a common pawpaw, with pictures of the fruit and its little petal things included, lol…
It’s also taught me how to tell the difference between common pawpaws and small-flower pawpaws. No idea how to identify any of the ones from Florida yet, but I can tell just from looking at a photo that “Yeah, that’s from Florida”.
it’s fun, and I get to learn at the same time :)
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You are on a family vacation overseas and keep wandering away to take photos of birds.
Everyone else: Oooooo…Iceland’s most beautiful waterfall.
Me: Oooooo… Eurasian oystercatcher
You get the van rented for said vacation hubcap deep in mud because you see birds you absolutely have to photograph (Whooper Swans!), so down the farm road you go. The road was fine. The turn around in the muddy field was not. The family was not amused. (But I got great photos)
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Thanks for your hard work on those pawpaws 
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I should learn pawpaws, because I’ve been working on Spicebush, and Pawpaws (and tupelos) frequently get mixed in. I’m not super confident either of those yet unless they have fruit or flowers.
Sometimes I get a feeling for it, and put a tentative genus-level ID on it. There is only one kind of Pawpaw up here, so it should be easy-ish?
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Aha, same here, I keep finding what I assume are tupelos in with the pawpaw observations!
And I just checked to see what spicebush plants look like, I can definitely see how they’d get mixed up for pawpaws :)
The main thing with common pawpaws is the newest leaf / leaf bud at the tip of the stem will look like the tip of a paintbrush, and then they have leaves, they’re very big and long. Here’s an observation that’s a really good example: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/13180081
Once I learn how to identify all the “Florida” (as I collectively reffer to them, lol) pawpaws, I’m going to make a guide on how to tell them all apart :)
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When you get really excited about being able to identify something you weren’t able to before, even if it’s just a family!
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When you are not annoyed when a tiny insect flies right smack into your eye after you slowly slowly slowly bent forward hoping it will let you see it… because, at least it shows willing. 
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