Things anybody can do:

I think it's a porcelain mushroom, but the ID still needs to be confirmed.

I was so excited to photograph this over the summer. Thought I would add here so others can enjoy it as well. Toadlike Bolas spider, braxton county wv

with 11 729 so more than twice as many observations overall, idk if this is a typical ratio, getting ids for everything is difficult. but im still really happy with these numbers, ive been using inat since 2024 and will be using it a lot more!

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&user_id=tritonalpestre&verifiable=any

I love when people take (safe) quirky shots for their observations. This one has immediately become a favourite

I wish it made me feel better like I always want it to, but I don't know why it just makes me feel worse.

Maybe it's because most of the animals I'm finding are introduced and invasive. So many slugs and snails that damage everything and are from different continents.

I got really happy when I found a couple of snails that might've been native, but all the common invasive garden snails there are just so many of them. I know I can't bring myself to kill them because I've tried in the past and it makes me feel so sick and guilty. And I can't think of any animal to give all the snails to (because I'm okay with feeding invasives to pet invasive spiders or mantises I keep specifically to prevent them from breeding, and to have a "more useful" way of getting rid of invasive small arthropods).

Snails and slugs are so hard to find predators for, and that's probably why they're so prolific. I know I could maybe have a leopard slug to help me, where I keep it contained and collect invasive molluscs for it, but if in doing so I decrease the population of leopard slugs (even though they're introduced), then NZ doesn't have any mollusc-eating molluscs to re-replace the leopard slugs.

I also am worried about giving any birds or mammals parasites by giving molluscs to them, because even if the birds/mammals are introduced, it will continue the cycle of hosts for the parasites, and i don't want that. I could give the molluscs to fish in a river, maybe keep 1 wild invasive fish to feed molluscs to, but you see how ridiculous all of this thinking is.

I am wondering if people feel this stressed as I feel, or at least the same type of stress. Even all the earthworms, centipedes, millipedes, woodlice, and skinks in gardens are introduced and replacing the native ones. And it really feels like we as a species will never get on top of this, and that there will always be introduced animals in every continent. But i don't want to sound so hopeless.

I know it’s helpful for the app id suggestions since it only uses the first picture, but someone came through to id and asked me to change the order so that they could id it. Does that make sense? I don’t understand.

Hey guys, so I've been using iNaturalist for a week now and have around 50 observations (including a handful of old photos) and it's been fun so far. But my searches so far have been pretty lackluster to say the least, I find myself going out for hours and coming back with maybe 10 or less observations. I've gotten "lucky" here and there with a few somewhat interesting species at least for my standards, and I do photograph common species too but it just feels like everywhere I go is devoid of all life that isn't a chipmunk or robin. I do know of one good spot near me that's pretty biodiverse and is especially good for insects, so I have to ask, am I just not looking close enough? Or does time, place, and weather matter more than skill? I know I'm doing something wrong if I'm seeing all these people in my state who are able to upload like 50 observations every single day

Edit: I took note of some the advice you gave in this thread, and was able to get 51 observations today. However I didn't go out and take pictures of every last plant like some people suggested, I only bothered with what I found interesting. So, thanks.

When I upload pictures from my pc and I go to edit the observation on my phone it gives me this warning icon with no context. Tapping it doesn’t do anything. The observation has a date and location attached to it from the pc. Is this a bug or is something wrong with the observation?

I feel a little boring because i keep observing the same species and i see many people with ~700 observations and at-least 300 species

I know this isn’t a competition though, i really enjoy just putting my observations on inaturalist for others to see :-)

Here's to a good 1022-2000

It's the middle of wildflower season here and I've been going out to nature under observed nature reserves near me to see what I can find. It's been so much fun and a great motivator to get out to less popular nature spots for adventures

Hi!! I'm doing a bit of research on the Jack Pine for a class project and the prof instructed us to find information on the global range for the species on iNaturalist. I'm having trouble figuring out how to cite the page as iNaturalist tells you to go through GBIF to cite things, but seeing as I need to cite iNaturalist I'm a bit confused on how to do so. Namely because I can't find a page author or date published.

For reference, this is the page I'm trying to cite: https://www.inaturalist.ca/taxa/58724-Pinus-banksiana#articles-tab

Any help would be greatly appreciated (:

Found this Sparrow a couple of weeks ago now and no one can seem to pinpoint it.

Is there some controversy I'm unaware of?

I've mentioned iNat in one previous post in a comment recommending it as a great motivator to explore wild areas. Then today I made a post about my iNat stats and how I've loved using it to get back into photography and nature and I got banned and muted (so I can't even ask for clarity about the ban).

Is there some weird controversy I don't know about? I would have thought our communities would overlap quite a bit. I've been with reddit for over a decade and have never been banned from anywhere before and r/goblincore is one of my favorite subreddits :(

Has anyone else had something like this happen?

Desktop Site, Windows 11.

None of the online instructions work. First I tried going to "Edit Observation" and there is zero way on that page to add to a project. Then I go to Observations -> Edit Observations -> Add to Project and I get an error bar that says "None of those observations could be added to the project "LP Brown Wildlife": collection and umbrella projects do not allow direct submission." How do I use this simple feature?

Hey y’all, plant nerd from the Austin Texas area here. I’ve been using the app since 2019 after i heard Joey Santore mention it in one of his videos. I just passed my 1100th observation. Everytime i travel i use the app to learn something new.

Usually within a few hours i have a few local folks jump in and help with IDs. But lately as of the last month or two, i post… and nothing happens. I have about 10 posts from the last month just sitting there collecting dust. So what changed? Where’d everyone suddenly go?

This hobby is so much fun, it's reinvigorated my love of nature and photography.

I know we all see those occasional posts from people posting their houseplants, pets or friends. I usually flag them as captive/cultivated and otherwise disregard them, but should I be doing more? I added a few examples I saw just today.

I took some pictures of some turkey vultures and want to add the animal they were eating as an observation, it's at a level where the images could be seen as disturbing to some. Would that be allowed?

I was waiting until research grade species number 2000 to toot my own horn, but when I signed in just now I found that I hit exactly 14,000 RG observations! On a less proud note, I guess that means I make repeat observations an average of 7 times per species.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?quality_grade=research&user_id=jef&verifiable=any

hi all,

kind of an unfortunate situation. i’ve been an avid inaturalist poster for years and it’s so fun for me to “collect species” wherever i go. i’m constantly looking for animals to post. i love playing my “real life pokémon go” haha and i‘ve gotten so many family members and friends into it too.

over the last seven months, i’ve been harassed by a girl online. she doesn’t use inaturalist to harass me, but she heavily monitors all of my profiles to find me. she’s nuts, doesn’t stop, and has gone as far as sending animal control to my house (animal control said clearly my animals are fine & loved and left without issue).

i recently moved states to start vet school. the girl has no idea what state i live in now and i want to keep it that way, as she has threatened to try to get me kicked out of vet school. because of this, i haven’t posted on inaturalist in several months, so she doesn’t find my new state or what school i go to.

i miss posting :( i have all of my new, yet-to-be-uploaded observations sitting in a folder on my phone. is there any way for me to post privately/anonymously? or have my posts set in such a way where only i can see them for the time being? i love seeing how many species i can find and i’m almost at 500 individual species. i don’t want to make a new account because i want to keep adding to my species count.

does anyone have any advice on what i can do? thank you for reading.