Amateur!
My path to iNat started in the Adirondack Mountains of NY at the Tupper Lake Wild Center giftshop, where I limited myself to only three new books. Among them was Mary Ellen Hannibal’s Citizen Scientist. I hadn’t gotten to the chapter that talks about iNat yet, when I visited the San Diego Museum of Natural History and their third floor exhibit of gorgeous old books and drawings, promoting and describing citizen science. Intrigued, I picked up a handout and set up my iNat account later that day (much to the amusement/annoyance of my sister who was visiting from out of town). My friends feign interest and roll their eyes a bit when I geek out about it and my employees at work play along, and add this to the list of my “charming” quirks. Imagine if they knew what I’m about to tell you.
In month two, after I’d uploaded all of the good photos from my archives, I started trying to build a catalog of species at a local trail I frequent with my dog. It’s about a mile and a half along the edge of a lagoon, a very tame, very suburban attempt at recreating wilderness. Eyes peeled, trigger finger on the iPhone in my pocket, I set out to capture some images. I got a couple of good plant shots, then caught something unusual out of the corner of my eye. The biggest lizard I’d ever seen in this area, sunning itself on the back of a park bench! Wow! My mind fast forwarded to the lectures I would be asked to give after discovering a new species right here in Carlsbad, CA; the press accolades; the nerd street cred. I tied the dog to a fence post so she wouldn’t scare it away or move my arm and ruin the shot. I took a few pics from a distance, in case it darted. It still wasn’t moving. I couldn’t believe my luck! I snapped a few more, perfectly centered and focused. Then I moved even closer….oh. Noooooo! I’d made the groundbreaking discovery of a forgotten plastic toy alligator. I was so embarrassed, laughing out loud at myself, that I didn’t even pick up the “litter” self- righteously and discard it in the nearby trash bin.
I collected the dog, and moved on sheepishly. We did manage to catch some very cool spider egg sacks on the back of another bench, which helped to restore my confidence. On our way back to the car, I noticed that the alligator was gone.
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Haha! There have been many occasions where I nearly peed myself in excitement in finding a stick instead of a snake or a leaf instead of a bird. :)
Keep on nerding out! You're among friends here on iNat. :)
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