sambiology's Journal

"Some people can see with their eyes but have no vision." ~Helen Keller

[When asked about what we can all do] "This world is our world; it is our home. We are all living here together." ~Malala Yousafzai

"I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down." ~Nehemiah

I attended a little Leadership meeting a while back, and there were several presenters that were broadcast (Payton Manning, Seth Godin, Ed Catmull, Rudy Guiliana, Malala Yousafzai), and I got quite a bit to chew on from the messages I heard. This leadership thing was mostly about business and being the head of a company or whatever, but it gave me clarity on what I'm doing and what I'm striving to do.

There were two big questions from one of the presentations:

1. What do I believe is impossible to do in my field... but if it could be done would fundamentally change my business?
2. What breaks your heart?

My answer to the second question is "apathy towards nature" and my answer to the first question is changing the second! With iNaturalist, I truly believe that people will become more interested in nature. It is integrating something that everyone is into (technology and modern gadgets/tools) with our environment and the organisms all around us. The simple question of "what is this?" is asked by everyone when they're outside. If they learn what it is, I think they will start to like it.

I thought a lot about the recent trip that I went on with the other folks that are iNaturalist masters (greglasley, robberfly, cullen, maractwin). I thought about what all they do with iNaturalist and how they have and are impacting others. In my job, I get to lead kiddos around a nature park and get to answer the "what is this?" question a lot. iNaturalist provides me with an even greater reach and impact. Sure -- with each new person that joins and adds observations, it'll mean more time invested in helping them with ID's, but it's worth it! Perhaps they will reciprocate the ID help (as best they can, as I do).

So, I'm going to continue to share iNaturalist with everyone I meet. I hope you do too! Also, don't be scared to help someone with an ID. You don't need to be an expert. "I think it's ____..." is a great way to provide some guidance. It tells that person, "Hey, this is a valid contribution to the database. Neat that you found it! Thanks for contributing!" :)

I'm really passionate about this thing because I believe in it. I believe it can dramatically change an apathetic view of nature. That's pretty meaningful. :)

Had a GREAT opportunity to jump down to Austin to be out in the field with some expert iNatters on Thursday. It was wonderful to put some faces to screen-names and to meet true experts and passionate people. I snagged so many lifers; I still need to go through all the photos!

Thanks to robberfly, greglasley, cullen, maractwin, ncowey, gcwarbler, and ericisley for an awesome time out in the field. :)

Most of all, I was re-motivated about iNaturalist -- it's such an incredible tool for us naturalists. I can't wait to see what happens as it grows and grows. I foresee wearing out the iNat tshirt that was given to me by robberfly and the fellas from CA.

Observations to come!

P.S. Many of the observations are duplicates from the other iNatters on the trip. I hear this is totally ok to do -- so I shall do it! :)

Had the day off today from work, so of course, I'm outside at a park. I went to Lake Como Park in Fort Worth, and I found out it's in a pretty rough neighborhood... I interacted with a few guys... Several homeless folks were out smoking and drinking this morning. A few folks came up to me and talked with me a bit. They were pretty scary looking but were fairly nice. They told me about an alligator they spotted and that I should come back after dark to see it. Riiiiiight. I believe them about the gator, but there's no way I'm coming back to this place when the sun goes down!

So, I'm curious -- have you ever gone to a park or place that's in a rough neighborhood or area? How did you deal with it? Did it turn out not to be an issue? What have your experiences been in dangerous areas?

I take lots of pictures of my hands. Sometimes, I am holding stuff too. :)

I tend to use my hands for scale in my pictures. These destroy the artistic side of most of my photographs, but I include them anyways... Let me tell you why!

First of all, I use my hands to focus! My camera is a point-and-shoot, and so many times, especially when I am trying to take a picture of a small flower, my camera intentionally avoids focus on what I want it to focus on... It can be quite frustrating... So, my hands give it a bigger target. This is my reason of "practicality."

I like to include a little bit of a scale with my pictures too -- I very rarely go out into the field without my hands. ;) Sure, they aren't as exact as a ruler, but anyone could tell an inch from a foot when you see my hands. If you are curious, here are my measurements: from the top of my wrist (bottom of my palm) to the top of my middle finger, it is 19.5 cm. My pointer finger is 79 mm, my pointer finger nail is 12 mm, and the width of my pointer finger is 17 mm. :)

Anyways, this is why I include my hands in lots of my pictures. Scale and focus! :)

Whew -- been busy lately, so I haven't had as much time to spend on iNat as I would like. :) My wife and I just got back from exploring the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, Caprock Canyon State Park, Buffalo Lake NWR, and Palo Duro Canyon State Park... Oh, and we visited lots of quilt stores, so that gave me time to photograph some weeds and bugs in the ditches.

Stay tuned for several new observations from me!

Please listen to this. Share with friends too. Oh, and then go outside and observe! :)

http://naturalhistoriesproject.org/conversations/an-exciting-time-to-be-a-naturalist

Transcript:
Josh Tewksbury, "I feel that it's an incredibly exciting time to be a naturalist, perhaps the most exciting time to be a naturalist that has ever existed on this planet. And I think the opportunities for naturalists today far exceed what they have ever been in the past, and that the possibility of discovery today is far greater than it ever has been in the past. We have still only scratched the surface of what's out there, most of the work that needs to be done is natural history and the urgency of that work is increasing every year. It's becoming more and more relevant to policy, and to culture and to the future of our societies and that's becoming more clear.

The other point I want to make is just that we are now able to do incredible things by being small. I can have my observation of these 16 or 20 or 50 plants that I've observed here, combined with hundreds then thousands then tens of thousands of other peoples' somewhat meaningless observations, to become very meaningful. Because suddenly the casual observation of the grizzly bear in the Park is accompanied with a digital photo on an iPhone, which changes Park management. Never possible before that, already happened here.

The same kind of thing is going to happen in species discovery, in range discovery, in changes of ranges because of climate change, and it's going to be citizens with technology that are now the leading edge of natural history. The line between scientist and citizen is going to start blurring, what is an expert will be changing and you will no longer have to have a PhD to be an expert in your field, because the means of communication and identification are no longer go to the white-bearded expert with a PhD. It's go to the social network where the answer is."

Someone posts an observation of a bird or plant that you know. Should you identify it or verify its identity? How sure are you that you know what you know?!?

I love plants, but I don't consider myself a professional botanist. However, I do like to identify plants or at least try to figure them out. There are bazillions of different plants out there, and I'm never going to learn them all... but I still like to try! I'm recently getting into birds, and going back to my childhood passion of bugs. Comparatively, I know quite little in both of these areas, but I don't mind doing a bit of researching and scouring the internet to find new resources.

So, when I "agree" with an observation, this is what I am saying:

"Based on what I know, I think that this observation is a ______. Someone else may come along and have a different view and may give different insight into this identification."

That's ok! This is what makes iNat so wonderful -- it represents a community of naturalists. When I "agree" with an observation, I'm not claiming to be any sort of expert -- I'm just saying what I think it could be, based on what I know or what I've recently researched. Our understanding of species changes some too... So today's species may be tomorrow's genus. :)

Do you "agree?"

P.s. I especially appreciate it when people give reasoning behind their verifications/identifications. Thank you!

I'm fixin' to upload several of my plant collections!

I worked for a phenomenal organization, BRIT (Botanical Research Institute of Texas), and I was quite lucky to go out and collect herbarium specimens and add to their already existing 1 million dried plant specimens. I learned so much about plants as I was out collecting and then back at the herbarium filing said collections! Well, as you collect a plant specimen, colors fade after some years and many times, the plant is too large to fit on a single page of herbarium paper... This is why field images are a great addition to physical collections.

As I upload these field images, I will put the specimen name/number in the description. Duplicate specimens have the same name/number.

You can learn more about plant collecting here:
http://royalbotanicgarden.org/page/how-collect-plants

A few additions to plant collecting -- I always made sure that it was a sustainable population of plants! Fortunately, I didn't collect anything extraordinarily rare. Also, I had special permits to collect at many of these locations. David Riskind of Texas Parks and Wildlife gave special permission to BRIT to collect in specific Texas State Parks. I collected duplicates of all specimens to send to the herbaria at New York (NY) and University of Texas (TEX).

You'll see that many of my collections are of common and some non-native, invasive plants. As noted in the last journal entry, every single little observation/collection adds a data point to the growing spreadsheet of knowledge. :)

Please let me know if you have questions on plant collecting! It's a great way to learn the names! :)

So, I love iNaturalist.

Growing up, I loved to look through field guides... These weren't just field guides of critters around my home, but these were field guides of "birds of Australia" or "mammals of Africa!" I loved to imagine going to these places and finding these organisms. I'd also look harder for different kinds of plants and animals around me where ever I went. It inspired me to explore outside more and more. I even learned a few of the names of things too -- it was great!

iNaturalist is giving me that same sort of fix. I'm actively out looking for different organisms, uploading them to this network of naturalists, looking through other folks' observations, and learning TONS in the process.

It also feels good to be part of something "bigger than myself." I think that every observation adds a bit of data, even if it's just a simple point of species distribution to a 'common' species, and that adds something to the bigger picture. It feels great to be part of that.

So, I'm going to be adding a lot of my older photographs and observations to add more to this growing global database. I encourage other people to do the same. Look through those old photo albums on your desktop -- what sorts of animals/plants did you photograph? iNaturalist is the best way to share these photos and add data to that huge question of "what's out there?" Maybe someone is researching the distribution of some species and our little bit of data helps in that quest of knowledge.

And who knows... maybe there's some kid out there that loves to look through field guides too. He/she may look through your observations and imagine looking for and finding the critters and plants that you post. Potentially life-changing!

A special thanks to those that verify other identifications. I try my best to do that for others. I'm far from perfect on my identifications (I've already mis-ID'ed a bunch!), but hopefully I can give others a bit of guidance to go and either accept the identification or dig deeper to find out what it is! Hopefully I'm helping out a few people out there.

I'm so happy that this network exists. I hope it grows and grows! Thanks to all involved with iNaturalist. Keep it up! :)