…when you photograph 50 arthropod species and find 34 iNat lifers on a work trip
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When you give a presentation about iNat functionality for an audience of about 80 people, talk non-stop and enthusiastically for almost 3 hours straight and lose your voice afterwards (slowly recovering now after 4 days…)
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This is about 1,000 entries late, yet I’m replying to your jumping spider post. Jumpers don’t make webs as most people think yet they are ambush predators. They wait until the opportunity comes close and then with awesome accuracy, jump on the fly and get it!
The second part mentioned something about not many people, except bug people, even noticing the small wonders of the life of insects that others squish without any regard for life. It’s because we take the time and aren’t so rushed in life, that we can appreciate all the little things that are happening right underfoot. I think jumping spiders are awfully cute! Their little eyes looking at you and the way they wave a leg at you! Even though that’s a defensive movement, if you look at it as “waving to you” it’s still cute! As I mentioned in another post, I do keep jumping spiders as pets, I have 2 separate containers, yet I only keep them for a 3-6 months then release them where I found them. They enjoy the flies I catch for them and it’s fun to watch them attack! I don’t have any now, just too cold. The ones I collect are mostly found in our house and sometimes on our garage door. I still hope to have a Regal or Bold JS as a pet.
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… when u go to a forest with ur camera with your guide and spot an amazing and never seen before insect, and u get a perfect shot of it thinking that u will get the best Lifer of the week from INAT
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You get a new job, and you have to adapt your outside work schedule as well, so you have go on on a self-imposed hiatus from Identifying and from the iNat forums for a few months, because THOSE are among the larger uses of your free time.
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Jumping spiders are some of my absolute favorite to photograph!
You are woken by your wife at 3am. “Could you help with the baby please?”
You respond drowsily “Um, probably. Why, what is it?”
“I just need your help”
“Well yes, but what is it currently?”
“Are you still half asleep? What do you mean?”
“I mean, like, is it Syrphus?”
…
“I don’t need you to identify it…!”
(I was writing a key to Syrphus at the time…)
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When you realize that your advice to @matthewvosper would be to take a day or two off from identifying, but then you realize that you (meaning me) couldn’t follow that advice yourself.
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I once used my camera with the macro lens attached to ID the problem with a baby bottle during one of the 3am feeds. That whole time seems a bit surreal now.
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I haven’t done this, but I have been asked before about a ecology center that I have a lot of Obs for…
When you end up choosing a pixel phone over an apple phone because you prefer the android iNat App.
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As for my own
…Even though you’re in short shorts for running, you end up kneeling down to get photos of a bug to the dismay of fellow hikers
…You become one of the top observers for a city by visiting it once
…You almost pick you college based off of where you will get the more lifer species (in the end, 60k made the choice for me)
…Someone who’s crushing on you uses the allure of photographing ducks to get you to go on a walk with them. (It worked)
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Souns like a match made in heaven. Hope you wore the aforementioned shorts! 
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Having used both, I agree that the Android iNat app has so many more features and functionality that it’s not even close. I can do so much more from within the Android app than the iPhone one.
I did chose my current phone based on how well it took observation photos (I got one Android make/model, didn’t like how my observations looked, and returned it ASAP to get another Android).
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Sadly not for that time, but with summer coming, that may become a thing.
That is funny!!! Syrphus are my favorite fly genus. It is also funny that this topic is still going after close to 4 years…
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Goes to show that we are indeed Seriously into iNat!
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… When you are willing to do a 24-hour challenge of just IDing extremely blurry photos
… When you abandon life to seek… life!
… When you spend over a week trying to figure out the ID of ONE observation (True Story!)
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When you’re counting down the days until Spring when the wild flowers bloom and all the creepy crawlies come out.
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