2023 is my iNat big year
I think I'm going to go for it -- 2023 is my iNat big year. I'm going to try to post personal bests in the basic categories: most observations in a year, most species (=unique taxa), most new species, most identifications, and at least one observation every day. New species is going to be the most difficult personal record I think, although I'll probably focus on that and then fumble my streak or something. Here are my personal bests:
Most observations (2017) = 3560 (Goal = 3600 obs)
Most species (2017) = >1764 (Goal = 1800 sp)
Most new species (2017) = >1130 (Goal = 1200 newly added sp)
Most identifications (2012) = 775 obs/339 taxa/292 observers (Goal = 800 IDs)
Observation per day = never attempted (Goal = 365 day streak)
It will be hard to beat my 2017, which included SE Arizona iNat-athon, a work trip to Indonesia, a dragonfly society meeting in Virginia Appalachia, and vacations in Tennessee and elsewhere. But, the attempt should be fun. I will update this journal post as I go.
January
January recap: A good start with daily observations around my Anchorage Alaska home and commute, and a trip to Morro Bay, California, scheduled to coincide with their lowest tides of the year. An otter with a live rainbow trout was neat to see and you can watch a couple videos of the otter dealing with it flopping around, eating just the head, and then slipping away with it again under the ice. In CA, nudibranchs of the Central Coast were a big draw for me in the intertidal, and I was thrilled to see 12 species (pictured above) along with many other animals, plants and fungi on the trip. Some of the other new-to-me taxa included a seaside button lichen, a pencil isopod, and a cinnamon teal. Thank you to @anudibranchmom @thomaseverest @jeffgoddard @tomleeturner and many others for the dialogue, comments and identifications that helped make my CA iNat'ing better. January recommendation where to stay: the "Bird House" in Los Osos CA (VRBO link). Where to eat: Valley Liquor in Los Osos for quick breakfast burritos & burgers. Monthly total = 620 observations.
February
February recap: last month, I traveled to California and this month I traveled even further south to western Mexico state of Jalisco and the coastal city of Puerto Vallarta. Amongst other family vacation activities, I snorkeled a bunch, including at PN Islas Marietas and a couple beaches south of the city, and fit in an entire day in the mountains with my wife dedicated to birding in the San Sebastián del Oeste area. It was glorious and particularly fun to watch my 9-year-old son get into snorkeling and get excited with me finding fish and other marine life to observe, including 7 species of pufferfish and relatives, a couple stingrays, and many yet-to-be-identified sedentary species. I added 20+ lifer birds, including brown boobies, new-to-me warblers, and the second smallest bird species on Earth, the bumblebee hummingbird. Ostensibly on a birding day tour on 24-Feb, I observed far more insects and plants, including an abundance of wasps, butterflies and bromeliads. A big thank you to @albertoalcala @aleturkmen @sultana @oscargsol and many others helping to review and identify MX-JAL observations. Finally, back home in Alaska, I got my first videos back from a backyard camera trap, adding screengrabs to the 30+ moose observations I’ve already made in 2023. Recommendations of iNat-related activities as a tourist in Puerto Vallarta: comb through the interesting shells at Playa Lindomar, take an early morning walk to el salto waterfall if staying downtown, and book a nature trip in the ocean or forest with Luis @kiskadee, who is the executive director of the San Pancho Bird Observatory. Where to eat: seafood at Abulón Antojeria del Mar. Monthly total = 500 observations. Cumulative = 1121 observation (31% to goal), 562 taxa (31% to goal).
March
March recap: I spent the full month in Anchorage, mostly dormant but venturing into the city's largest natural areas--Kincaid, Bicentennial and Chugach State Park--to look at lichens. Mostly thanks to @csyampae identifications, I recorded 19 species of fungi that I hadn't seen before, including a bevy of well-named species: the seaside firedot, the cileate wreath, a yellow specklebelly, and a bearded jellskin. There's so much to see that I had previously overlooked. Conversely, in terms of large conspicuous things that are hard to miss, I'm up to a moose-a-day rate of observations, and should have a few more to add from trail cameras currently deployed in the woods. Monthly total = 157 observations. Cumulative = 1278 observation (35% to goal), 612 taxa (34% to goal).
April
April recap: This month brings several signs of winter waning: ptarmigans and snowshoe hares just starting to transition into summer colors; more and more lichens accessible and uncovered by the melting snow; Milbert’s Tortoiseshell as the first butterflies in flight and landing on slushy ice; and the voices of cranes, geese and gulls conspicuously leading the way for spring bird migration. I became re-acquainted with Byssonectria terrestris, a neon orange, specialist spring fungus that grows on moose urine (I have a LOT of questions about this), and began daily monitoring of a couple patches – boosting it into a tie for my 2nd most observed species this year. I was so happy to go outside this month with @rkelsey who was in town to speak at the Cordova Shorebird Festival, with @paul_norwood who was in town from Sitka, and to meet @csyampae for the first time. Like March, most of my April new-to-me species are lichens found and identified by Preston, so credit to them! This month’s recommendations of iNat-related activities: become a member of the Alaska Native Plant Society (a bargain $15/year) and start planning for their iNat-fueled July plant bioblitz and contributing to the Chugach State Park Flora iNat Project all year. Where to eat while out iNat’ing: Girdwood Brewing Company foodtrucks. Monthly total = 335 observations. Cumulative = 1620 observations (45% to goal), 738 taxa (41% to goal).
May
May recap: My job took me to Wales and England for the second half of May, and I diligently sought out every weedy plant, bug and fungus that I could distinguish as potentially new-to-me. My wanderings took me to meadows in Cambridge and Oxford, a royal London park, walking trails around Church Stretton, and the Welsh hills of Snowdonia National Park. I observed a number of new as well as familiar lichens, many new insects and a small handful of new birds, and even a roadkill badger on the highway that @jason1192 slowed down just enough for me to snap. Cheers to identifiers @cmarkwilson @nschwab @oakleafe @jlisby and many others for sharing your knowledge of UK species. UK restaurant recommendation: the Magdalen Arms in Oxford. The first half of the month, still in Anchorage, I was able to meet up with several local iNat’rs: Preston in the still melting snow (now thankfully gone from mostly everywhere at sea level), reconnect with Kerri @kdog907 and meet @pynklynx and @dennisronsse on an early plant walk on Turnagain Arm. Always a great joy to meet people for the first time IRL who I’ve long admired via their iNat observations and identifications. April/May is the time when iNat action starts to ramp up in our state – I’ve written before that an estimated 63% of iNaturalist observations in Alaska are made between June and August, covering about 82% of the all taxa that have been identified on iNaturalist in the state. Alaskan summer is a rush of visitors and light and nature cycling fast, and this year shouldn't be any different. Monthly total = 893 observations. Cumulative = 2513 observations (70% to goal), 1112 taxa (62% to goal). Daily streak still intact.
June
June recap: June started with a through-hike in a miserable June snowstorm, from the Rabbit Lake trailhead to McHugh Creek with my beloved @aamuir to celebrate our 15th anniversary. Not much was seen or celebrated at the higher altitudes in the wind and whipping snow, but we did enjoy loud and conspicuous willow ptarmigans in a 2700-2900 ft elevation band on either side of the trail’s high point. Plant activity seems delayed this year, with mostly cool and cloudy May and June weather following this winter’s heavy snow. A native plant society walk with @dennisronsse in Arctic Valley was therefore less fruitful than normal, with several comments about how plant and bird timing is weird in 2023. I was grateful for @csyampae showing me a corner of Campbell Creek Gorge, sheltered from most people and lichens galore, such as this charismatic Xanthoparmelia. A couple quick visits to my hometown of Kenai were my only other trips away from Anchorage in June. Both times I drove the scenic route on Skilak Lake Road, and both times I saw bears, including a sow brown bear with yearling+ cubs. What a sight! June was a month of camp drop-offs and pick-ups, and so several of my daily observations followed wherever my kids were going, including my (never ceases to be exciting) first-of-season moose calf in Kincaid Park. I was also with my youngest son, when I made an observation of a small beetle while harvesting rhubarb. Thanks to @sdjbrown who identified it as a hairy spider weevil (Barypeithes pellucidus), which appears to be a new state record, which I flagged for @awenninger who collected it on her own rhubarb only a week later! I love the connections and the sped-up pace of learning that iNaturalist enables. Monthly total = 553 observations. Halfway through the big year, I’ve completed 85% of my observation goal, 70% of my species goal, 51% of my goal for newly added taxa, 190% of identifications, and my daily streak is intact at 181 days with 184 to go.
July
July recap: Unusual for me, I left Alaska during the month of July, and spent a week in Barbados to celebrate my in-law’s 60th wedding anniversary. It was wonderful in all respects. Barbados is the easternmost island of the Caribbean and small enough to drive around in half a day. I ate mangoes and snorkeled, poked around the fringes of wooded gullies and cleared fields (once forest, then sugar cane for 350+ years, now weeds). I made almost 500 iNat observations in a week, including 160 new-to-me taxa. Barbados is relatively under-observed on iNat, and even a short trip like mine yielded 39 taxa (and counting) identified on iNaturalist for the first time in the country, including nine insects, six sponges, six fish, four plants, and three fungi. Overall, some personal favorites: a sharptail (snake) eel observed alongside my son Marshall, a spotted spiny lobster that I never saw directly but only saw after blindly photographing inside a coral crevice, a handsome Exomalopsis bee among many other pollinators on Euphorbia heterophylla, and my first sacoglossan – a lettuce sea slug – that consumes algae and absorbs the chloroplasts into its own cells for energy production (the only multi-cellular organism known to do so, earning the group the nickname, “solar-powered sea slugs”). Thank you to @jbrasher @coralreefdreams @la_mrmd @sue1001 for sharing your knowledge of marine life and @stevemaldonadosilvestrini for island plants. Recommended iNat-related tourist activity in Barbados: Calypso Cruises for booze cruise snorkeling.
Back at home in Alaska, I picked up new-to-me species mostly in dribs and drabs, similar to June. I am learning that for areas and seasons that I have already iNat’d heavily in the past, I really benefit from the fresh eyes, motivation and the different perspective of being in the field with other people. By myself, I tend to stick to my own favorites and routines! Of note this month, I did finally observe the chokecherry midge galls helpfully flagged by @awenninger, and while @mordenana was in town for a mammal conference, he spotted a pika and a moose with sores on its legs that led to learning a cool story about moose flies and roundworms, plus another successful dipnetting season for red salmon on the Kenai River with the entire family. Monthly total = 719 observations. Cumulative = 3794 observations (105% of goal), 1535 taxa (85% to goal). Daily streak still intact.