How to ensure all of your future observations are added to project
If you'd like to join the project and then sit back and let iNaturalist do its magic, please follow these steps. By doing so, all of your suitable observations will automatically be added to the project.
- On the project page, scroll down and click "your membership" (below members).
- On the new page that opens, under settings there is a question "Do you want to make your private/obscured observation coordinates visible to the project curators?" click the first option "Yes, no matter who adds the observation to the project."
That's it! From now on, whenever you enter a record that is a provincially tracked species to iNaturalist it will automatically be shared with the NHIC project!
Comments
Hi Mike,
One thing I'm noticing is that the different accepted taxonomies between inaturalist and the NHIC list may be limiting my ability contribute certain observations. An example being Onosmodium molle (as inaturalist requires that I call it by way of their nomenclature 'prompts') is considered Lithospermum parviflorum in the NHIC/VASCAN lists.
Thought I'd mention it as I get the error message "There were problems adding that observation to this project: Didn't pass rule: must be on list" in such cases.
Hi Pat,
Thanks, yes there are some challenges syncing the NHIC species list to iNaturalist's, particularly for plants. We have matched pretty well everything though now. I will email you a spreadsheet with the matches and can do that for anyone else who is interested - just let me know.
As for Lithospermum parviflorum, the iNaturalist match is Onosmodium molle hispidissimum - did you try the subspecies?
Mike
I would like to do this but can't figure out how! My name is woodswoman but on the membership list I don't see a way to jump ahead to the W's
Hi @woodswoman it looks like you haven't joined the project yet. To do that, make sure you're logged in to iNaturalist, then go to https://inaturalist.ca/projects/nhic-rare-species-of-ontario. Just above the Spotted Turtle will be a "join this project" button. Click that and then be sure to select the option to make private/obscured observation coordinates visible to the project curators "no matter who adds the observation to the project". Feel free to message me if you run into any problems.
Thank you Mike, I think I just joined and hopefully hit the right button for automatic add ons in the future....but now, can you tell me how to do the batch upload of species I already have? I got to the page that says "Your Observations" and it shows my list of mostly turtles and snakes all from ON...but when I hit upload it doesn't seem to work.
Hi @woodswoman - great! I just checked and yes, you're all set up so any new records you add will automatically get added to the project. To add all of your existing suitable observations can you try this and see if it works for you?
You can quickly add all of your eligible observations to the project by doing the following:
go to the project page (https://inaturalist.ca/projects/nhic-rare-species-of-ontario)
scroll down and click the "add from your observations" button.
At the top of the new screen, click the "batch edit" button, then click select "all", then click "add to project" and select the NHIC project. This will add all of the records that meet the NHIC project criteria. You may have to do a few batches depending on how many suitable records you have!
Thanks again Mike, somehow I did the upload....my goodness, eBird is so much more user friendly!
Great, glad you got it to work. iNaturalist can do a lot of great stuff!
The instructions were confusing to me, possibly because my observations are on inaturalist.org not .ca. You could consider giving instructions for each site. I think I have my account configured now.
Thanks -- Rick
Hi Rick,
Sorry you had trouble with the instructions. There shouldn't be any difference whether you are on inaturalist.ca or .org...please message me if you have any more issues.
Mike
Who decides the "suitable" entries that are added by batch? Do I have to manually differentiate them or will the app just know which are suitable by ignoring irrelevant ones? The instructions are confusing because it says you may need multiple batches (but if I said "all") why would that be?
Hi Michelle,
The batch will be default select all suitable observations, but iNaturalist has a habit of "crashing" during this process if you have a lot of observations, so sometimes you have to do it a couple of times (you'll get an error message if it doesn't fully "work").
The "suitable" entries added by the batch method are determined based on the project criteria which is basically records from Ontario of species that the NHIC tracks.
Mike
I've gone through the various steps multiple times, and now I see that 11 of my observations have been included into the project.
Fine, but that doesn't include several items that I think perhaps should be included, including Calla palustris (Luther Marsh area, where John Muir was evidently looking for it back in 1864 …)
I keep getting a crash when I try to use the uploader off the side of your main project page. I also tried to view all my observations and select ones that I though might possible be of use to the project. I could select some observations, but there didn't seem to be a button saying to proceed …
(BTW, back in the summer of 1972, I worked for Hal GIbbard in the Nature Reserves section of MNR doing botanical survey of Prince Edward County. I presume your present department is an eventual followup from GIbbard's group?)
Hi @markwhitcombe , thanks for your message. I just checked and all of your observations are indeed in the project. The project will only accept records of species that the NHIC actually tracks....so you're all good. If you ever want to see a list of which species we track, you can find the project species list: https://inaturalist.ca/lists/570739-Rare-species-of-Ontarios-Check-List?rank=species we do not track Calla palustris.
Once you've joined the project and followed the instructions above, then you can just submit the observations to iNaturalist as normal and they'll automatically get added to the project.
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