Reflections on the Cross-Country Trip, August 2014

I learned so much...primarily about how much I don't know! Fifteen states, and hundreds of iNat entries later, and among the things I've learned are these:

1. There is great wisdom in what the non-birders say about other taxa: Learn the families, before trying to learn the species. That gets you looking for details that will eventually help you with species, too.
2. Given my inability to identify plants, I will retain my desire to photograph everything of interest to me, and to try to get a variety of pictures. The other trick I learned was to take a picture of any plant storyboards at the parks where we were walking, for reference later.
3. iNat the common things at every stop, for three reasons. First, they will be identifiable to naturalists from that area (if not to me as the observer). Second, they document the basic habitat better than rarities. Third, who knows when another iNat-ter will be passing through that particular location again, so there is some responsibility to document.
4. Take as many pictures as possible with the iPhone, because the uploading process is a tad easier, and it can be done in little interstices of time. The accuracy of the date and time is also helpful (and can even be helpful later when uploading pictures from the real camera).
5. Don't worry about what you don't know - just keep adding knowledge to the data base, and to your own internal store of wisdom!

Posted on 28 de agosto de 2014, 02:27 PM by gyrrlfalcon