Why I Love iNaturalist
(I must tip my hat to http://www.inaturalist.org/journal/sambiology/3679)
I am very curious about the natural world around me. As my profile and my observation list bears out, there are a wide variety of creatures I am interested in. My level of interest in observing and photographing wildlife has fluctuated throughout my life, but it has always been there.
- iNaturalist combines many great facets in a coherent way. It is a field guide, a fellow naturalist friend, an expert to consult, a photography forum, a place to learn, a place for tips, a place for constructive criticism and feedback, a place to explore taxonomy, a life list a place to held record species lists and range maps for others, a place to contribute to something bigger, etc.
- It is broad. There are many great specialty sites like BugGuide, Mushroom Observer, and eBird. They fulfill a niche and do it well, but there is none that has the depth and broadness of iNaturalist.
- iNaturalist is improving and getting better. I'm very thankful for this.
- There is a great community of people on here, both experts and amateurs like me!
I'm very thankful for the people that have helped me learn and identify my observations on here. Thanks a lot! My lifelist is much better due to your help!
We need to get more people on to iNaturalist, especially in some of those areas that are under-represented. My town (Essex) and county (Essex County, Ontario) are under represented, in my opinion. We have a lot of bio-diversity, but not many observations here. Here is a letter to the editor I wrote in hopes that some more people would join a project I made to document the wildlife at Sadler's Pond here in the town of Essex, Ontario: https://twitter.com/ContraTweet/status/694098091209814017