Summer time, musseling time

Hi all,

COVID is now part of our daily lives, and our routines are slowly but surely resuming, including all your favorite field activities that are very COVID-compatible.
The seasonal heat waves are already upon us, and with them comes lack of rains. Bad for the crops, but ideal conditions to go explore your favorite waterways in search of shells and live mussels on the move in search of deeper water as levels recede.
Our data bank is well on it's way to reach the 3,000 observations mark before the waters rise again in September, so keep those observations coming!
On that note, quality is always better than quantity, so as a rule of thumb it is best to submit no more than a few specimens from the same collecting site on the same day if it clearly appears to be the same species. Unless some individuals found are of a different age class for the same species, such repetitive data is just just redundant without significant benefit, and requires more time for peers to review for proper identification. Please keep in mind that for some of the more active iNat identifiers this type of pro bono homework can add up to quite a few hours every week.
Multiple specimens of the same species found at any one site can also be submitted as one single observation with a group photo, along with a representative single specimen of the same group to facilitate reviewing by peers.

Happy musseling,

Phil

Posted on June 21, 2020 06:09 PM by redgarter