The Streak

Today marks the one year anniversary of a consecutive observation days “streak” I started on December 19th, 2019. I had been looking for something that would help me fight my iNat winter blues, the time of the year when observing wildlife in the Santa Monica Mountains becomes challenging, as it seems to be hibernating, waiting for rain to arrive. What I was missing above all was observing insects, after an excellent spring and summer especially for butterflies and bees that made every outing so interesting and rewarding.

Inspired by https://www.inaturalist.org/blog/29540-year-in-review-2019, and @jmaughn’s amazing streak of to date 2,823 consecutive observation days (starting in 2013), this was the personal challenge I was looking for, to help me hang in there and dig deep: Lichens, fungi, mosses, galls, the earliest flower buds… Observations while waiting for an appointment, while shopping… Stopping to take pictures of roadkill… Adding sound recordings, feathers and tracks/signs to my tools …

When Covid-19 arrived, and our lives radically changed more or less from one day to the next, keeping the streak going helped me fight so much more than winter blues. Forcing myself out of the house to observe wildlife on roadsides (when the trails and beaches were closed), in my backyard and immediate neighborhood, no matter how depressed, scared, tired, stressed or angry I felt, became my daily sanity routine. And connecting to the iNat community made me miss friends, family, and travel so much less.

I think iNatters are mostly quite rational people, interested or immersed in science, in reality, both feet on the ground. iNatters tend to be interested in research, in evidence. In a year full of conspiracy theories, political agendas, denials, in a year where one plus one didn’t add up to two for about half of the United States, iNat was my home, my sanctuary.

I participated in a few Socially Distant Bioblitzes (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/socially-distant-bioblitz-series) and my first team competition (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/california-wild-women), made new friends, and saw so much wildlife that it often featured in my dreams.

The bulk of my 8,490 observations to date is from that year of streaking: 6,119, on average around 500 per month, with 1,355 species observed, in a really limited radius of no more than 10-20 miles around my house, with the exception of one memorable excursion to Long Beach (60 miles) and a handful of trips to Oxnard (40 miles). Mostly I went to the same (safe, unpopulated) places over and over and over again, saw organisms come and go, followed the progress of breeding birds, of bees and their underground nest sites, of plants from flower bud to fruit…

My plan is to keep the streak going for a bit longer, possibly much longer, depending on so many things that may or may not happen. Who can really make plans right now?

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I wanted to add a few highlights of the year, as curated / faved by fellow iNatters:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?d1=2019-12-19&order=asc&order_by=observed_on&place_id=any&popular&subview=grid&user_id=andreacala&verifiable=any

I faved these: https://www.inaturalist.org/faves/andreacala

由使用者 andreacala 在 2020年12月19日 16:42 所貼文