For me, it would depend on the conversation topic… some topics, it would be ok to be “distracted” by a rat. Some, that would seem rude. (In his opinion.)
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At work on Wednesday, I go to a colleague’s office on the upper floor for a meeting. There’s a tree right in front of the window. I see some movement, I try not to be too distracted or at least make it too obvious.
It’s ok, it’s just a magpie and a few blue tits… and some great tits… and two treecreepers… and a bunch of goldcrests… and a ringed-neck parakeet.
Needless to say, my coworkers noticed.
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She fully knows. She thinks I’m insane, but she knows
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Oh, good. Maybe you can convert her, in time. ;-)
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It’s a work in progress. When we started dating the rule was “Absolutely zero (0) bugs in the house” and now we have a dead bug freezer that she occasionally contributes to. She also will occasionally take pictures and send them to me to post.
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Having loved ones sending you pictures is such a good feeling, it shows they’re thinking about you and want to share in your passion. On the other hand, why do animals keep showing up right after I’ve left? I swear, they casually send me photos of species I spent weeks chasing in vain when I was visiting…
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I just tell my fiancee to hang on a second cause I need to take a picture of a rat, cicada, spider, etc when we’re on the phone and I’m walking home XD. She has accepted that it is the price she has to pay to be with me XD.
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I know that feeling so well. I have been trying to get a good photo of a Northern Harrier and they never come near me but will fly right up to my husband after I leave. Sigh.
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…in the dim morning light, your daughter excitedly calls you over because she just found a green moth on the door.
It was the tip of a green shopping bag that got closed in the door from the other side.
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I think it’s great your daughter has learned to call out this find, even if it was misidentified! This is how it starts… now my adult daughter works for a major city parks system, everything from nature center education, animal care, even working the controlled fires.
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…when you are riding mountian bikes with your friends across an 8 mile trail, and you stop every 10 seconds to photograph some organism. They finished prob an hour earlier then I did; of course some of that may have been the fact that I got lost for about 20 min trying to photograph a wood warbler that kept moving farther away.
Never did manage to photograph em :(
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I’m sure everyone noticed especially when you said, “Hey, there’s a few great tits out there!” 
Then when they asked, “Where?” You just reply that they’re the small birds up in the tree.
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That’s me. I’ve uploaded a shower curtain spider and a trash pail spider in this week alone.
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I was cleaning out bird nest boxes on the weekend and found one had a healthy population of fleas in there (which is partly why they need to be cleaned). A normal person wouldn’t have tried to catch a flea to get a photo for an observation and wouldn’t have ended up with no photo and a series of flea bites all up their arm. I’m now trying to hide my flea bites and hoping none of them followed me home so I don’t get in trouble with my wife.
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You know you’re seriously into iNat when you look up to see that this has rolled in on top of you
…and you’re miffed that the Barn Swallow isn’t recognizable from the photo.
(This isn’t even the first time that this has happened. I’ve been going through a bunch of old photos; found some from Florida where I was taking photos on the beach, and looked up to find storm clouds just as threatening as these. They were heading into the Gulf, though, so I waited them out and got some nice rainbow shots for my patience.)
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This is a great example for “What’s the worst pic you uploaded to iNat?”! The barn swallow is hardly visible.
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UFO. Unidentifiable Flying Observation.
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I took a photo of a yellowjacket on a trash can at a rest stop for inat, thinking no one was watching. Someone was watching, with a very confused expression. Oops.
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I’m pretty sure people think I’m on drugs between constantly swerving and squatting down and looking under plants or inspecting dead rats and such
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Two this week,
Was walking home from work with a friend and we were chatting when I saw a dead rat on the sidewalk and turned away to check it out. They’re an entomologist though so they asked if there were any good bugs while I was down there.
Going through my fiances and I’s google photos for old pictures of us for a project when I realized that there are untapped observations saved on here with locality and everything. She went to bed and I kept looking through her old photos for anything I could upload
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