Tips for getting the most out of (and putting the most into) iNaturalist

Does you camera want to focus on the background when trying to photograph a slender object, like a grass stem? You can force it to focus on the subject by placing something plain, like a notebook or your hand, behind the subject. If you use a lined notebook page, you have an automatic scale. See my observation https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/133532632. If you use your hand, you can use your fingers to manipulate the subject to show different aspects of said subjects in successive photographs.

Have you ever been taking pictures of a wildflower, only to have an insect fly in, then fly away, as you hit all those buttons to close one observation and open another? Don’t close your first observation--just keep clicking away! When you have enough pictures of the bug, you can go back to the wildflower, if you need more pictures of it. When you upload, duplicate the observation using the down arrow next to the blue Edit box in the upper right. Click to de-select the photos that don’t contain the insect, put in a placeholder name, and click save. See my observations https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/155971907 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/155972648.

In the same way, you can “double-dip” your observations. If you have multiple subjects in one picture, you can duplicate the observations and put comments in the observation notes. The simplest is, for pictures of a flower and a pollinator, duplicate and indicate “This observation is for the insect” and “This observation is for the flower.” If you have multiple shorebirds in a picture, you can indicate “This observation is for the third bird from the left” or “This observation is for the taller bird in the center.” Another way is to use the simple paint programs that come with most computers and draw a circle around the different subjects you want to document or have identified. See my observations at https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/114329993 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/114329511. (I think you can do this directly in iNat, but I haven’t tried.)

Finally, be sure you put something in the “Suggest an identification” box. Even if it’s just something as basic as “plant” or “snake” or “bird,” it will help it get found and identified. Many times I see this in the notes, but not in the identification. During the nature challenge, we will be looking at everything in the six-county area, but the real experts, who know the flies or the grasses or the mushrooms aren’t going to be going through the thousands of “Unknowns” to find the few that need their expertise. Putting in “plant” lets an amateur botanist find your observation. They may be able to get it to family, where a specialist, who may not even be in the US, will pick up on it and be able to put a name to it. Without that initial hint, “plant,” it can go unidentified for years.

Bruce Neville
Brazos Valley CNC Coordinator

Posted on April 24, 2023 01:36 AM by bruceneville