I decided to give iNaturalist a try after hearing about it from lots of other naturalist folks in Ontario, and I'm really enjoying it so far! For those of you who don't know what iNaturalist is, it is a place to log observations of any type of plant or wildlife that you come across! Data from iNaturalist is being harvested by various organizations such as the Natural Heritage Information Centre, so it is a great way to ensure that the data you are collecting doesn't go to waste! I plan on using it for all of my non-bird observations, as I use ebird exclusively for logging bird sightings.
After posting an observation, other naturalists will verify your observation until it eventually gets to "Research Grade" level, meaning it has been vetted by enough people to considered verified more or less.
You can check out the website here and sign up!
https://www.inaturalist.org/home
Here are some of my favourite observations so far:
The nice thing about iNaturalist is that it is still really growing so you have the chance to feel like a pioneer, for example, this observation below of Bombus balteatus of mine in the Beartooth Wilderness is only the second in the continental U.S as far as I can tell!
Green Basilisk Lizard in Costa Rica
Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth in Costa Rica
The amazing thing about this program is how quick people are to verify your observations! It is a really fun way share what you have seen, I encourage you to join! It is particularly fun while we wait for spring to start here, since you can log all your old observations from past outings that is just sitting on your computer!
