Same! Who needs social media when you have iNat?
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New one… at work at the fire station trying to get a photo of a grey bird grasshopper but the tones drop so you have to leave for a call… and your chief sends you a photo saying “here is the grasshopper you were chasing”
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When you expect payment from moths as their bodyguard after following them for many minutes, waiting to see them finally sit somewhere!
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I’ve been a member for less than a month but I’ve already noticed that at the end of the day I’m only at about half my former step count!
It’s like the ‘slow food’ movement. Suddenly, walking slowly is just so much more interesting.
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When you find yourself Taking pictures so constantly that a hike is twice as long as it should be.
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That is why I divide my walks and hikes into two phases. I have a strict (ish) exercise phase where I keep my camera firmly in its bag and a ‘hunting’ phase.
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Only twice as long? Start looking for galls and leafminers. ;-)
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You get sunburned because you were making a quick trip to the mailbox and on the way back there was a damselfly, a fire-colored beetle, rose campion in bloom, a spider having moth for lunch…
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This makes me recall my first apartment, and my first ‘adopted’ observation.
I rented a small, very rough little space that was attached to a storage warehouse. No hot water, hardwood floor, oil furnace. Quite old. But as it was practically my first private space to live in, I loved it! (Said the kid from the seven-child family) It was quiet, big, and for the most part, dead quiet.
There were old windows – wooden, paint-glued in place. And, no AC or window screens. Did I mention that there were a lot of flies?
A lot of big, fat bluebottles wandered in off the fields nearby (along with mice, and on at least one occasion, a garter snake).
One day after work (I was working as a furniture mover), I heard a very loud buzzing commotion and quickly discovered a drama on the front window. A big blue bottle had gotten tangled in some webbing belonging to a (much, much smaller) jumping spider. It was a real battle that must have lasted at least a minute and I was completely mesmerized.
The little jumper basically clung on and rode that blue bronco to the point of exhaustion. Spinning, twirling, pausing, and spinning again. I found it simply incredible that such a David/Goliath battle was happening right in front of me. And even more astonished to see the victor drag away its prize.
After this I was completely hooked. I found myself chasing any flies I could into that window’s facility. After a week or two the spider had bulked up considerably! And I swear it would pop out whenever I came into the room (alone) as if to remind me of my new role.
I think this went on for about a couple of months, and then the spider disappeared. That’s when I remembered Charlotte’s web and was not surprised to see the hatchling shortly afterwards.
Yes, I can see how jumpers have a special respect from most bug watchers. There’s just something so profoundly awe-inspiring in their calculated actions and interactions. How can something so small seem to connect with us on a level that few other tiny creatures come close to doing?
I remember reading a paper about the vision system (hardware and neural-ware) of jumping spiders and how uniquely optimized and sophisticated it is. Not to mention still pretty mysterious.
I do feel lucky to be alive when such great tools have become available to us that allow amateurs to appreciate these wonders even more than even a generation ago would have ever thought possible.
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… when you are walking along the start of a wood, and someone comes along with a dog and asks if you are searching something…
… when you are singing: “rhaphigaster nebulosa, mantis religiosa”
… when you check your email account several times a day, to see if the NABU (German nature oranisation) has answered one of your emails and the day you don’t do it, as you suffer from physical pain… the doorbell rings and there is the old man from the NABU wanting to see you in person and wants to know, where you got all that knowledge from… and tells you, he couldn’t make out the Species of your egg-laying wasp… but it will be in the next villagemagazine… :) - That surprising visit was today. :D
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When you realise going through your state’s backlog of things not yet ID’d; you have now looked thru more pages than are left.
30 observations per page…current number of pages left: 4496…how many pages i’ve done: 4621
Just passed that milestone today :))
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If you are more into the macro lens side of things, better make that 3, or even 4 times as long.
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When you find yourself muttering ‘sweet nothings’ to the new, flitty find that just settled near you in range of your camera.
“Oh yes, my beauty. There you are. Relax, and let me admire that lovely body of yours.”
And then, afterwards…
“Thank you, thank you. You were great. I hope we meet again.”
(Please don’t tell my wife about this)
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…you pull slimy, rotten turtle shell pieces out of a smelly pond to take a photo of them.
…you use your mom’s colander to catch fish to take a photo.
…you lie on your stomach in wet sand for minutes on end, waiting for a box turtle to stick his head out so you can take an eye-level photo.
…you start naming individual caterpillars so you can keep track of them.
…you search living-room curtains for tiny moths which have gotten into your house via the air conditioner window unit (so you can take photos of them).
…you photographed a smashed opossum on the road at a restaurant.
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… you’ve setup iNat to display scientific name first and when family/friends ask you what something is called it takes you 10-15 seconds (or more!) to remember the common name.
… you’re feeling a little under the weather so a long hike/trek is out of the question, but maybe there’s an observation in your backyard? Worst case, you can always mark it “casual grade”.
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Not so much talking to them, as rather getting excited when they behave like models during a photo session – not jumping/flying off, but staying put, turning around, showing you all their sides, and even cocking their heads and smiling at you… bliss.
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I got “ caught” by my partner profusely thanking a butterfly for allowing its portrait to be recorded.
(I learned “ chasing butterflies” from my dog, also bad at catching them.)
He chuckles when I refer to anything living as “who” and only inanimate objects as “ what” .
He also called me over to check out the “ little white moth “ on the floor, and bring my camera… (it was a folded bit of paper)
He’s also learned a lot from my babbling about “ what I saw today”!
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Why not? It’s a marvelous way to have a connection with nature…
Just kidding…
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…you quickly jump into “normal person” position every time someone walks by while iNatting in public.
…you start wondering if letting flies bite you is worth getting an iNat first 
(it probably is)
…you rate vacation resorts, neighborhoods, and extended family’s houses based on biodiversity rather than any other aspect.
…whenever you don’t have a camera, you question your sanity when you see a lifer.
…you take time to thoughtfully express the reasons on how you know you’re seriously into iNat on the forum.
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Sometimes you can get some cool lifer mosquitoes when you let them to bite you.
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