Joined: Jul 23, 2016 Last Active: Sep 17, 2026 iNaturalist Canada
Notifications -- I take occasional lengthy breaks from iNat, which means I lose many notifications as time passes, upwards of a thousand this year so far that are now unrecoverable. I have a gargantuan backlog of existing notifications and it's difficult to find enough time to work through them all. I sincerely apologize for any missed pings, PMs, or very late replies to comments. Please PM me instead for anything you need addressed.
All-around amateur naturalist from Vancouver BC, presently studying Geological Sciences. Primarily interested in disjunct populations, ultramafic/serpentine endemic flora, glacial refugia, and long-term species population trends. I'm always trying to get out into the field as much as possible and learn further how to ID different groups of taxa. Like many others it all started with birding, but (thanks to iNat) I've become a generalist and look to ID anything in nature I don't recognize.
I became a curator to add missing species to iNaturalist taxonomy and fix establishment statuses/common names/etc. - If you see a missing taxon that needs to be added, species to be marked as introduced, common name changed, etc. feel free to PM me instead of waiting for a flag to be addressed. Happy to add any taxon providing it's accepted by the taxonomic authorities that iNat follows and isn't otherwise controversial or already flagged.
Please tag me if you want me to explain or review/retract any ID I've made, as I still make mistakes like everyone else.
iNat tips/tricks:
iNaturalist Photo Guide - Tips, tricks, and guides to help get your sightings identified (BC Parks iNaturalist Project)
When uploading any plant parasite (galls, rust fungi, etc.), put the host plant scientific name in the description or use the 'Host Plant ID' observation field as most parasitic insects/mites/fungi only parasitize single plant genera.
iNat Search URL Filter tips/tricks:
How to use iNaturalist Search URLs Wiki - Immensely useful resource to narrow down your searches. A few shortcuts below:
&hrank=species&unobserved_by_user_id=yourusername - filter for only species you haven't seen
&introduced=false&hrank=species - exclude introduced species (only show natives and those not yet marked as introduced or native within a jurisdiction)
&per_page=200 - on Identify pages, change 30 results per page to 200
iNat Compare Tool - Use search filters to create different lists and find the differences between them. There's an extremely wide range of uses for this tol from tracking out-of-range observations to finding species only first recorded in a place in the current year.
Projects and Lists: - Please DM me if you find any edits/corrections to be made.
List Index -- Amongst numerous others, many compiled lists I've made of the endemic taxa of most of the world's most remote islands where I could not find a full list of endemics online.
British Columbia-specific:
British Columbia Endemics - tracking observations of BC's 140+ endemic species.
Underrepresented Vertebrates of BC - all vertebrates with 5 or less RG observations on iNaturalist from the province.
BC Offshore - observations from Canadian Pacific waters that are not included in iNaturalist's British Columbia place polygon, which closely follows the coastline and excludes all pelagic waters.
Missing from BC - Native species of British Columbia with no current Research-Grade iNat records. Also see BC Vascular Plants with 0 iNat observations of any grade
Projects:
American Amphitropical Disjunct Flora - Plants with a disjunct distribution, being found in both temperate North America and South America but absent from the tropics.
Birds with Zero Macaulay Library / eBird Photos - All extant bird species with zero photographs in the Macaulay Library database.
Cave and Subterranean Fishes of the World - tracking observations of all troglobitic fish species.
Hybrids without iNat Taxa - cataloguing observations of hybrid organisms that are not yet in iNaturalist taxonomy.
Extinct in the Wild - all species currently listed as EW by the IUCN and other authorities.
Legless Lizards of the World - all lizard species with vestigial or absent limbs.
Vagrant Mammals - observations of mammals that have strayed outside their usual range, whether it be a Humpback Whale in downtown Montreal or a Southern Elephant Seal in the swamps of Ecuador.
All my photos are free to use for any non-commercial or educational use, so long as credit given. Please let me know though; I'm always curious where they end up!