On 2019-11-05, I posted my 2000th observations, of a Shaggy Mane mushroom I found at Lagarde d’Apt in the French Provence, Alpes Cote d’Azur, on October 30th.
I put in a geek hour and ran the stats on the second batch of a thousand, just as when I had posted my first 1,000 observations (https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/andreacala/25683-1000-observations-some-stats).
The big differences:
1. Time spent on iNat:
0001-1000: 447 days / 64 weeks / nearly 15 months.
1001-2000: 134 days / 19 weeks / 4 months and a week.
2. Focus on insects and their relationships with plants:
0001-1000: Insects - 109 obs of 71 species; Plants - 98 obs of 90 species.
1001-2000: Insects - 391 obs of 169 species; Plants - 227 obs of 174 species.
3. Butterflies! 2019 was a great year for that.
0001-1000: 36 observations of 19 butterfly species.
1001-2000: 184 observations of 36 butterfly species.
In my first year on iNat, I focused on wildlife I can observe around my house and also spent a lot of time in the King Gillette Ranch area. In the second year I was nearly exclusively exploring the burn scar of the Woolsey Fire, which was the first fire I had experienced first hand, including evacuation etc. I contributed nearly 800 observations to https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/woolsey-fire-wildlife-and-plants, a 365 days project to document losses and recovery from the fire. But this had a slow start for me: For about three months after the fire, I was holed up at home, and had to deal with the trauma, stress, sadness, and fear I had experienced. But as soon as I was able to face the devastation around me, I started to explore how nature dealt with it.
Comparing the first and second 1000 obs, percentages of Research Grade observations of the various kinds of wildlife are pretty similar. Birds, Mammals, Reptiles fared really well, Spiders, Funghi, Plants and Insects could use more identifiers.
| 1001-2000 |
|
Species |
All obs |
RG obs |
% |
|
|
0001-1000
|
RG percentage
|
| Birds |
|
110 |
248 |
246 |
99% |
|
|
157 species / 644 obs |
100% |
| Amphibians |
|
4 |
9 |
9 |
100% |
|
|
3 / 8 |
100% |
| Reptiles |
|
5 |
11 |
11 |
100% |
|
|
6 / 20 |
95% |
| Mammals |
|
14 |
35 |
33 |
94% |
|
|
15 / 68 |
97% |
| Fishes |
|
8
|
11 |
10 |
90% |
|
|
7 / 7 |
57% |
| Mollusks |
|
8 |
8 |
8 |
100% |
|
|
7 / 7 |
85% |
| Arachnids |
|
13 |
22 |
13 |
59% |
|
|
5 / 10 |
60% |
| Insects |
|
169 |
391 |
328 |
84% |
|
|
71 / 109
|
83% |
| Plants |
|
174 |
227 |
164 |
72% |
|
|
90 / 98 |
71% |
| Funghi |
|
19 |
28 |
17 |
61% |
|
|
2 / 2 |
50% |
| protozoans |
|
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
0 |
|
| unknown |
|
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
0 |
|
| Overall |
|
434 |
1000 |
846 |
85% |
|
|
380 species / 1000 obs |
933 obs / 93% |
Some more data points:
331 identifiers, and counting.
105 observations of 71 invasive species
24 observations of 13 threatened species
775 observations of 407 species in L.A. County
84 observations of 73 species in Ventura County
106 observations of 77 species in Germany
35 observations of 33 species in France
Europe: 141 obs / 107 species / need ID: 15 obs / 14 species
USA: 859 obs / 431 species / need ID: 137 obs / 114 species
Most observed:
16 Northern White-Skipper
13 Orange Sulphur and Acmon Blue
12 Common Buckeye and Lorquin’s Admiral
10 Gray Hairstreak and Cabbage White
9 Monarch and Checkered White
8 RT Hawk
212 Butterflies and Moths observations of 55 species
184 Butterflies observations of 36 species - 3 need ID
15 Bumble Bees observations of 9 species
1 banded bird (a W Gull who I reported to USGS who were able to trace it).
18 popular observations, most popular with two stars of a Western Fence Lizard on a burned tree trunk
