tim-mcnamara's Journal

Took the girls to explore rock pools. Didn't see too much marine life, but did take a few snaps of plants.

There's a small pocket of regenerating native bush neighboring Waiwhetu Stream. I went and had a look, tried to find subjects that introduced themselves to the area.

Some words, perhaps too many, on what iNaturalist is and where to begin. Thanks for everyone's interest in giving this a go.

More video tutorials.

Advice for beginners

Here are some guidelines that I follow:

• When taking photos, emphasise features that enable others to identify the taxon (flowers, individual leaves)
• When in doubt, make the observation
• It's fine to leave a species identification off (when this happens, a community member will probably add an identification for you within a few hours)
• Prefer self-seeded plants over cultivars

iNaturalist staffer Carrie Seltzer has written some very helpful advice for new members on her profile page:

My advice to new users:

• Look for other users in your area. Comment on their observations, favorite the cool ones, and add IDs.
• Not many users in your area/expertise? Recruit others! Organize outings. Give presentations (use mine!)
• For initial identifications, it's fine to be accurate (e.g. "plant") without being precise (e.g. "Common Dandelion"). If you're the kind of person who is anxious about looking ignorant, don't stress because we're all here to learn (I tend to hear this concern from professional biologists who are especially self-conscious because of their credentials.)
• This is a social network, so the more you interact with other users, the more likely other users are to interact with your observations.
• Help other users! Add and confirm identifications for species you are familiar with. There are always plenty of observations that don't have any id at all and in that case even adding "plant" or "insect" is helpful.
• Be the kind of user you'd want to interact with. Basically, be a good iNaturalist citizen (helpful, friendly, kind, firm-but-polite when necessary). De-escalate the conversation if it gets heated. Don't engage if you can't.
• Be gracious when giving and receiving corrections. We all make ID mistakes sometimes. That's part of learning. Ask for clarification and try not to make unhelpful assumptions.
• Join relevant projects and add your observations to them. I'm always trying to get more people involved in AfriBats!
• You get out what you put in.

Where to start

Make an observation

It's best to give the app a few trial runs. The first observation is the hardest.

Make an identification

One way to support the community without needing to get outside is by adding identifications. Look for the Identify button.

Technology

If you're interested in playing with the technology and/or data, then you should visit the Developers page.

There is a very rich API sitting behind the web and mobile applications.

Background

What is iNaturalist?

iNaturalist is crowd sourcing system for nature. More precisely, it's a network of technology platforms that enable species observations to be collected and identified. The New Zealand arm, iNaturalist NZ - Mātaki Taiao, is run by New Zealand Bio-Recording Network Trust (CC49036).

iNaturalist NZ - Mātaki Taiao is a place where you can share what you see in nature, set up citizen science and community-based monitoring projects, meet other nature watchers, and learn about New Zealand's amazing natural history.

There is a detailed history available in the About Us page.

About the name “Mātaki Taiao”

The name Mātaki Taiao was suggested by user tangatawhenua. tangatawhenua has recorded over 10k observations since 2015. Their description of the name is provided in the comments section of the blog post describing a 2018 brand change:

I am the one that suggested Mātaki Taiao and some Maori Language experts also had a few suggestions. After a vote my suggestion was accepted. As a member of NW ( hmm I suppose I should use MT now which is easier than iNatNZ) , instead of approaching the Maori Name from a "translation" view, I also looked at the concepts behind Nature Watch and what we actually spend thousands of hours doing :D

While alot of members photograph flora and fauna mainly from whenua, I do alot of obs from the moana as well. Because of that I choose Taiao, reflecting the natural world around me / us - and that is all I see at home as I live in the bush overlooking the moana!

Mātaki was chosen not only because of the watch, but also because of the observe and examine aspects, and we all know the hours we have spent just watching critters and observing them!

Native bees are fascinating and quite mesmerizing. I am lucky that on my property I have walls of manuka and under there the native bees live, so when there are flowers I can spend hours just observing their habits - then I remember to take a photo or two! I have seen wasps dragging insects backwards to their lair, hermit crabs fighting, ika eating koura and did you know that ika - fish - sleep on their side like a patiki - flounder - at night? I kid you not and have the photos to prove it! LOL (And tamure - snapper in their stripped pajamas at night, not the usual silver they wear during the day) All of this is more than watching to me, it is observing who does what, how and where and why.

I use the examine aspect for the plants, as I have to examine the fruits of some plants to be able to get to species level - for example sea rockets (Genus Cakile). Examining the tide lines also gives me an idea of what lives where in that section of moana - I don't watch the tide line - I examine it :)

So hopefully you will now have a greater understanding of Mātaki Taiao as it is so much more than a translation of our old Nature Watch :)

Q&A

How do I protect my privacy?

Do not feel obligated to use your real name as your account ID.

iNaturalist provides the ability for members to to send and receive messages. Muting and blocking functionality is available via your Account Settings.

What will happen with my data?

You control the re-use of your observations via the "Licensing" section of your settings page. Here is a blurb about what happens with observations that you make:

Licensing your content gives anyone the legal right to use it without asking your permission if they abide by the terms of the license. In addition, iNaturalist NZ includes your Creative Commons-licensed content in regularly-updated archives produced for select partner organizations interested in our data. For example, we include No Copyright (CC0), Attribution (CC BY), and Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) records in the archive we generate for the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), an international, inter-governmental organization that compiles and distributes biodiversity information from around the world.

Consider releasing your photos under an open licence

In your Account Settings, you can opt-in to liberal licencing of your observation data, images and other content that you create.

Finding Help

• Feel free to ask Tim at any stage
• Browse the site's help pages
• Send an email to the site admins