Journal archives for April 2020

April 4, 2020

April 2020 Update of the Illinois Botanists Big Year

Welcome back to spring and another year of the Illinois Botanists Big Year!

For those new to the project, the Illinois Botanists Big Year is an annual program of the Illinois Native Plant Society. This is a friendly competition, and more of a personal challenge, to observe as many species of plants as you can in Illinois in a single year. You can learn more about the Illinois Native Plant Society at https://illinoisplants.org/ and find past year's summaries here: https://illinoisplants.org/illinois-botanists-big-year

So far in 2020 we've had...


509 observers
4,407 research grade observations of plants
591 species
321 identifiers

New to observing plants in Illinois on iNaturalist in the past month are @zoe152 @jacobhawkins @daltonk @knatmac @miller4252 @danielraczyk @kvv @mhaughan @nanohappiness @noahcf @trlong @bradbonnett @catievaccaro @emmariealexander @monserratponce @alanady @ksgrossart @ronandoo @srizzo @bobbygonzalez @bwolo @embracingnature @ghapp456 @glitterzilla @jainabemis @jenk87 @jnino77887 @kbelletire @ktlagory @sammyd_ @marniegalloway @seajay1511 @swethamathai @theresabru @treelover2020 @wintert, among many others - almost a hundred new users in all! If you want to stay apprised of Illinois Botanists Big Year updates, you can join the project here. Give them a big welcome and go help them with IDs :)

Most species so far:

  1. @wildlandblogger – 260
  2. @skrentnyjeff – 212
  3. @missgreen – 193
  4. @adriansydor – 175
  5. @johnhboldt – 172
  6. @sedge – 126
  7. @joelmc – 97
  8. @psweet – 95
  9. @taco2000 – 73
  10. @bouteloua – 63

@joelmc was awesome and put together some maps and graphs for the ILBBY. These visualizations were created in R using data downloaded from iNaturalist. You can find his code at this GitHub repo: https://github.com/joelmcf/ilbby2020

Thanks Joel!! He also created some calendar heatmaps for individual species of spring wildflowers, you can read more and view them at his iNat journal: https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/joelmc/32001-observation-patterns-for-spring-wildflowers

Also big thanks to everyone who's been helping with the Illinois Flower Phenology Annotation Blitz!

Plant Pic Picks

Don't forget to favorite observations to highlight good photos or cool finds!

Some true winter botanizing with this grey-headed coneflower (Ratibida pinnata) observed by @sedge in Vermilion County:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38273046

This crazy double-flowered spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) observed by @outdoorsie in Saline County:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/40736977

Very weenie wood betony (Pedicularis canadensis) observed by @elfaulkner in Cook County:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/40142983

Lovely budding and flowering Enemion biternatum observed by @myzmur in Livingston County:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/41273614

And a bright, cheery bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) observed by @maddiejosmith in Champaign County:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/41089609

Help Identify

As always, please help your fellow botanists, when yr able, to identify/confirm their observations.

Try sorting by "new iNaturalist users" or "random" to mix it up!

Even sorting "unknown" observations into broad bins, like "flowering plants" or "insects" is a super useful activity.

Species New to Illinois on iNat

And keep an eye on these links below for any new documentations in 2020.

You'll often find species on here that are the result of computer vision errors, and observations that should be marked captive/cultivated. Fixing these will massively help to sort the wheat from the chaff! Many thanks to all who help with quality control. :)

happy botanizing!
@bouteloua (cassi saari)

Posted on April 4, 2020 07:43 PM by bouteloua bouteloua | 1 comment | Leave a comment

April 10, 2020

Being an iNaturalist Curator - Discord Chat tomorrow, April 11th at 6PM CDT

Being an iNaturalist Curator

Saturday, April 11th at 6PM Central Daylight Time (see in your local timezone)


We'll have a group chat, with @bouteloua screensharing / presenting, about what it's like to be a curator and what some of the common tasks are. If you're already a curator, feel free to join in and add your perspective!

-What is an iNaturalist Curator?
-What do they do?
-How do taxon changes work?
-Does iNat need more Curators?
-How do I become one?
etc!

To attend, join the iNaturalist Discord server: https://discord.gg/WvZSdfA
-Under Voice Channels, join the General channel a little before 6PM CDT.
-Once it starts, hit "join stream".
-Be sure to mute yourself when not talking. :)

Please reach out with any questions (at any time, now and in the future). To submit questions to be answered during the chat tomorrow, you can add them here. :)

thanks!
—cassi
Posted on April 10, 2020 09:43 PM by bouteloua bouteloua | 14 comments | Leave a comment

April 14, 2020

Being an iNaturalist Curator - Discord Chat on Saturday, April 18th at 6PM CDT

That was fun, so we're doing it again:

Being an iNaturalist Curator

Saturday, April 18th at 6PM Central Daylight Time (see in your local timezone)


We'll have a group chat, with @bouteloua screensharing / presenting, about what it's like to be a curator and what some of the common tasks are. If you're already a curator, feel free to join in and add your perspective!

To attend, download Discord’s software or mobile app (there are issues viewing the stream in a browser)
  • Join the iNaturalist Discord server: https://discord.gg/eCD4WvT
  • Under Voice Channels, open the General chat a little before it starts
  • Once @bouteloua begins screen sharing, you will need to Join Stream
  • We have a concurrent text chat at #v-of-the-c too
  • Please mute yourself when not talking :)
You can submit questions ahead of time here.

Basic outline:

  • Who are iNaturalist Curators?
  • What Curators can & can't do
  • Taxonomic curation
    • External authorities & policies
    • Adding missing species
    • Ungrafted taxa
    • Taxon changes
    • Locked & "complete" taxa
    • Taxon framework relationships
  • Editing geoprivacy
  • Spam patrol & false positive spam resolution
  • Resolving flags
  • Community Guidelines & moderation
  • How to become a Curator
  • Additional resources
  • Q&A - you can submit questions ahead of time here
Hope to "see" you there!
—cassi
Posted on April 14, 2020 06:31 PM by bouteloua bouteloua | 3 comments | Leave a comment

April 16, 2020

The Sidewalk Botanist Scavenger Hunt 2020

➡️Join Project

Urban botanizing in the age of COVID-19

Since most of my botanizing these days is while walking the woofer in a heavily urbanized part of Chicago, I thought I would see how many of these common urban plants I could observe in 2020. Want to join along?

Many of the species on the project list can actually be commonly found in urban areas around the world (urban species homogenization is a whole academic subfield!), but the ones on this list are particularly common in the Chicago region.

Here's a guide that shows a photo, snippet from Wikipedia, and map of observations:
https://www.inaturalist.org/guides/11608?view=card

happy botanizing, fellow sidewalk naturalists!
—cassi

Posted on April 16, 2020 10:18 PM by bouteloua bouteloua | 29 comments | Leave a comment

The Sidewalk Botanist Scavenger Hunt 2020

➡️Join Project

Urban botanizing in the age of COVID-19

Since most of my botanizing these days is while walking the woofer in a heavily urbanized part of Chicago, I thought I would see how many of these common urban plants I could observe in 2020. Want to join along?

Many of the species on the project list can actually be commonly found in urban areas around the world (urban species homogenization is a whole academic subfield!), but the ones on this list are particularly common in the Chicago region.

Here's a guide that shows a photo, snippet from Wikipedia, and map of observations:
https://www.inaturalist.org/guides/11608?view=card

happy botanizing,
—cassi

Posted on April 16, 2020 10:23 PM by bouteloua bouteloua | 3 comments | Leave a comment

April 22, 2020

Guiding new users toward successful iNatting

This weekend is the City Nature Challenge 2020 (CNC), a bioblitz in urban areas around the world. With hundreds of cities participating this year, iNat is about to explode with its annual flurry of activity. The observation period is this Friday, April 24th through Monday, April 27th (local time in each place).

Because there will be so many new users, and a lot of young naturalists, they may not yet realize that iNaturalist is a valued resource used by land managers, researchers, organizations, etc. and treat it more like any other social media site. They may not even know that what they're posting is being viewed by anyone but themselves, or their friends, much less the public. So here are a few tips and common responses to issues that come up very frequently during these types of bioblitzes that bring in a lot of new users.

Bookmark this page: common responses to frequent situations on iNaturalist observations, which includes some standard language for common situations like:

  • Welcome to iNaturalist
  • Not an Organism/Test Observations
  • Observation of Human
  • Add an Identification
  • Multiple Species in One Observation
  • Captive/Cultivated Organism
  • Use Your Own Photos And Observations (copyrighted photos)
  • Provide Cropped Photo
  • Rotate Photo
  • Re-order Photo
  • Missing Date
  • Missing Location
  • Imprecise Location
  • Private Location
  • Duplicate Observations
  • "Bad" Identifications
  • Misled by Computer Vision

Besides adding identifications, one of the most helpful things you can do is to mark captive animals and planted plants as "not wild" if they weren't already. You can also let the users know that they should check the captive/cultivated box before uploading (see prepared response examples). Only mark observations as "not wild" if you are confident that is the case.

You can also use the Data Quality Assessment section at the bottom of each observation to mark observations as not containing an organism at all, a clearly incorrect location or date, etc.

Identify humans as humans: Observations of humans are automatically casual grade and hidden from most areas of the site by default. There is no need to flag observations as humans unless there is some sort of grossly inappropriate content involved. A small number of observations of humans is totally fine. Pictures of pets, humans, abiotic phenomena, or obvious test observations are all okay, unless that's all someone is uploading. You can politely request they focus on appropriate subjects, and if they continue to add irrelevant content, you can flag one of the observations for a curator or staff person to take a look.

You can flag an image as copyright infringement which will replace it with a big "COPYRIGHTED MEDIA REMOVED" image and marks the observation as "casual grade." You can flag the photo directly by clicking the "i" (white circle) below the photo and clicking "Flag this photo" in the very bottom righthand corner of that page. Then choose "copyright infringement" in the pop-up and save.*

Use the Community Guidelines as a resource. If you see something clearly inappropriate and aren't able to address it yourself, or would prefer someone else to, please flag the offending content (ID, observation, comment, and/or photo). A curator or site staff can take a look and hopefully find a resolution. Some people do need to be suspended right away; check out the Community Guidelines for some of the potentially suspendable offenses.

Curators: I use these common responses to flagged issues very frequently. When in doubt, or if something is extremely inappropriate and should be deleted immediately, you can always email the staff help@inaturalist.org.


In general, assume good faith. Remember that there's a real person behind every observation, so be polite when addressing issues.

Take a break from identifying if you're feeling overwhelmed.

Check the Frequently Asked Questions page, Community Guidelines, Curator Guide, and ask if you have any questions.


Want to avoid seeing problematic content as much as possible?

Use the filters on Identify to exclude the dates of this week/weekend, only show content from users who made their account more than a week ago, or limit your searches to places outside of the CNC areas.

Learn more about using the filters on the Identify page and special search URL modifications.

Posted on April 22, 2020 02:11 PM by bouteloua bouteloua | 2 comments | Leave a comment

April 29, 2020

Share your plant observations growing in unlikely urban locales

I love seeing plants growing on the sides of walls, in very high-traffic areas, on top of piles of rubble, and the ones that seem to spring up overnight, flower, and set seed in just a day or two, highlighting the resilience of these little creatures.

For example I loved this photo of shepherd's purse, aka Hirtentäschel (Capsella bursa-pastoris) by @alexis_orion sprouting amongst the otherwise relatively desolate ecological landscape of sidewalk pavers in Berlin:


https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/44108152

Posted on April 29, 2020 03:46 PM by bouteloua bouteloua | 1 comment | Leave a comment