I am an amateur naturalist who enjoys nature and wildlife -- especially birds...
But since starting up with iNaturalist, I've become so much more aware of all sorts of organisms. I also enjoy nature photography as a hobby. (I started on here using my phone camera only -- and quite often viewing through my binoculars to be able to zoom in. I used a pocket-sized Canon PowerShot camera with a built-in 40x telescoping zoom for subjects at a distance, until 2022, when the lens sensor malfunctioned. Now I tend to use my smartphone camera held up to my binoculars, to digiscope photos.)

I am also an artist, and the last few years have been experimenting with oil paints, making landscape or wildlife paintings (my avatar is a close-up on a peahen painting I completed in 2016).

A local naturalist got me starting on iNaturalist, and she also informed me of the various Scientific and Natural Areas serving to preserve and re-establish natural prairies in the region. It's been a fun adventure documenting and learning about the organisms that are all around us.