Is anyone else a birder? I’m getting amped up for spring migration, and was hoping some other people were as well! My most recent lifer was a Hoary Redpoll during this winter’s huge irruption.
Also, just nature in general! Anyone use iNaturalist? It identifies and records nature observations for you (it’s like PokemonGO but with real species). I really like lichens, mosses, and birches. I also routinely sort through amphibian and reptile observations to identify them for people
I bet that there’s a pretty significant overlap between Pokemon card collectors and people interested in wildlife. After all, Pokemon are basically imaginary wildlife. The drive to study/collect nature is probably similar to the drive to study/collect Pokemon. I used to have a freshwater fish tank full of a diverse array of colorful fish. Having as many different species of fish in that tank as possible was satisfying to me. Whenever at the pet store, I would try to buy a new fish specimen of a species that I didn’t yet have in the tank. The impulse to sort, identify, and study wildlife is very similar to what drives Pokemon card collectors, IMO.
Graduating with Outdoor Adventure Leadership degree, looking to lead wilderness vision fasts, and my birth name is Cedar (like the tree). Naturalist would be an understatement XD
Crazy nice pic! I’m no photographer, I just avidly bird and try to add to to my life list (I’m at 337 species of bird so far!)
I’m not a huge fan of raptors, I’m more of a Passeriformes (the perching birds) type of guy. North and South America have incredible warblers, here’s a crappy photo of one of my favorites, Chestnut-sided Warbler
Been a hiker/camper for over 10 years and have definitely picked up a few things. I still have bug books from my childhood and like to identify different kinds of clouds since it was one of my favorite things to do as a kid. I also will often take pictures of wildlife, plants, bugs, to identify later and keep a nature journal with me at all times. I love identifying birds as well but don’t keep up an active memory. Though my most exciting find was a small flock of Prothonotary Warblers last year.
As much as I love certain Pokemon including Gyarados, my favorite type are Bug Pokemon since I’ve always loved collecting live bugs which I would identify and then release later. Over the last few years, I’ve thought of potentially doing a bug collection as I love Museum displays of them and it’d give me more reason to stay curious about life.
Add them to iNaturalist! It adds the sighting to a massive database of biodiversity and nature sightings, and people will help to ID it if you’re unsure.
One of my coworkers is doing a bee survey and pins 10k+ bees a year for the collection, it’s so neat to see. I’d love to do that with local dragonflies or moths/butterflies one day.
Over where I live we have a national bird watching day where interested parties can participate and report each species they discover in their neighborhood/garden on this specific day. Since there are a lot of participants, the results are usually very conclusive nationwide - it helps finding and protecting endangered species early and see if certain species changed their habits/location over the years.
@tolan, that’s a great idea! Thank you for that resource. I help identify bugs for certain facebook, friend, and the occasional reddit groups so this is right up my alley!
Bah, that’s awesome. If I got hired to collect bugs for a living and identify them and survey them, I think I’d be golden. Though, this gives me hope for a potential summer job opportunity. So thanks for the idea!