Diario de binaaaronson

Over the course of a little over a month, I have engaged in the Citizen Science program through the iNaturalist app, as well as the NYC EcoFlora Project EcoQuest challenges. This process involved making an account with iNaturalist and downloading the app, and then going around to local parks and looking for certain organisms that were presented as the EcoQuest Challenges for the months of October and November. I also received updates as people left comments with “suggested ID”s (and in some occasions people wrote different ones), as well as recorded journals about my experience. It was especially exciting to see how some of my observations became research-grade level!

Despite my frustrations with not being able to find either of the EcoQuest challenges, I actually quite enjoyed participating in them! It definitely was disheartening to look for the plants and not be able to find them, though I tried not to let this get me down and to still enjoy the other wonderful aspects of the iNaturalist app. If not for iNaturalist, I probably wouldn’t have made as much of an effort to leave my home and go to the park and spend a significant amount of time looking at different plants and animals. I find that it takes some effort to leave the apartment, but once I am outside I love being outdoors and looking at the different organisms within the park. I also was surprised to find out that one of my friends had already downloaded iNaturalist last year and loves using it (as a side note, she is currently in an ornithology class and was able to show me different types of birds and the specific sounds they make). She continues to use iNaturalist to document different organisms she sees, and I hope to do the same. This project gave me the opportunity to explore the outdoors in a new way, and made me feel appreciative for the nature that I live so close to. It not only encouraged me to get outdoors, but it also showed me how diverse the plants and animals I see outside really are. In a way, it added a name to face, the names being the IDs and the faces being the organisms that I usually do not put into different categories other than tree, grasses, squirrel, or bird.

In evaluating this experience, I think some things could be improved, such as providing more help initially with locating the EcoQuest challenges. I wasn’t really sure how to go about finding the challenges other than having a picture of them out as I searched Riverside Park; I definitely think I could’ve used some more guidance. The “more information” guide for the groundsel tree was more helpful, but again I would’ve appreciated having an idea of how or where exactly within NYC to locate the plant. The iNaturalist app is very interesting and exciting, but for someone like me who has never used such an app before I wasn’t really sure how to use it to best help me find the EcoQuest challenges.

Although somewhat challenging, I really enjoyed discovering the way iNaturalist works, and I enjoyed the process so much that I decided to continue taking photos and posting even when I went home for Thanksgiving break! I went to a trail close to my home and looked for the EcoQuest challenges there too (though I didn’t have much hope of finding them because I wasn’t in NYC). Instead I found a multitude of other plants and even animals! Among some that I found were wineberry, stinkwort, American tree moss, and even some white-tailed deer! Taking part in this challenge forced me to stop, slow down and look, as I truly engaged with my surroundings in a way I haven’t before. This challenge made me pay attention to plants and animals I usually pass by without a second glance or thought, and this allowed me to gain admiration for them. Furthermore, I appreciated how the app itself was extremely interactive, as anyone could leave comments and suggest IDs. This makes the app even more engaging and enjoyable, and I found (and still find) myself checking to see if people have suggested new IDs or agreed with the ones I suggested. Not only does this aspect make the app thrilling, it also shows how each person can play an active role in observing their environment and contributing to the collection of data, which, when combined with much more data points, can ultimately lead to new ideas and chances for scientific research.

Ultimately, iNaturalist and the EcoQuest challenges provide an experience that allows you to connect with the outdoors, and have fun and learn a lot while you do so. This app opens you up to learning more about the organisms that inhabit your nearby surroundings, and makes you interested in it as well! This app really got me excited about being in nature and identifying different types of organisms.

Perhaps I could have tried to look for the EcoQuest challenges in a park other than Riverside. I wanted to stay close to home, but I could’ve made an outing to Central Park in order to look for the challenges there; I stayed close to Riverside because I felt overwhelmed by the vastness (and sometimes crowded areas) of Central Park. The idea of having to look for a plant when there are so many areas to look at deterred me from going. If engaging in this project again it may be helpful to try and look up if any of the plants were found in specific locations in Central Park, and perhaps doing more research into their specific locations could have given me some sort of coordinates to pursue them in. This may help develop a plan of search and direct me more, instead of feeling overwhelmed by the number of locations I could look in. I would also try to use iNaturalist in a way to help me find the plants, and try to explore the app even more to see if there would be a way for me to most easily locate the plants. Overall, this experience has opened my eyes to the not-so-hidden nature around me, and has brought me into a community of passionate observers of nature.

Similar to October’s EcoQuest, I was unfortunately not able to find the groundsel tree plants. I started by downloading the “Groundsel Tree Guide”, which had more information about these plants and what they looked like, but not exactly where in NYC to find them. So again I began my search in Riverside Park, trying to keep my eyes peeled for the white tufts of flowers. I was frustrated upon finding nothing of the sort. On the way back from looking I found some adorable squirrels, one perched upon the ledge overlooking the park and another standing still on its way down from a tree, so I decided to post those to cheer me up. I went back to Riverside Park a few days later to continue my search further down, but I couldn’t seem to locate any groundsel tree plants. I saw many house sparrows on my way back, and I managed to capture a picture with two house sparrows and two squirrels which I thought was very cute. After these two long searches I wasn’t really sure what to do; I hadn’t planned for it to be so difficult to find these plants, so I thought I would be able to find them in my local park. I had seen the Asteroideae plants earlier, which have a similar feel to the groundsel tree plants, so I assumed if I kept walking and looking I would be able to spot some.

I found it hard to find the common mugwort, and was quite upset that I couldn’t find it. I originally started by looking in Riverside Park because I wasn’t sure where to begin, but I didn’t have much luck there, as there didn’t seem to be any easily spotted common mugwort. I looked up mugwort and learned that it was a weed, so I tried to look for plants that were similar looking to weeds and also the images I found of mugwort on google. Although I couldn’t find any weeds that looked remotely like common mugwort, I did find some beautiful sumacs that were orangey-red. I decided to keep looking for mugwort in November, but still could not find it. In order to make up for not finding mugwort (and to make myself remember that it’s okay not to find it), I decided to take pictures of the plants I found most picture-worthy and interesting. I found some Asteroideae plants, which I noticed because of their pretty small white flowers that were in clusters. I also found fungie with lichens on a log, which I thought was pretty cool!

I chose this option because I actually just moved into an apartment in the city, and I'm excited to explore and be out in the streets and parks of NYC again. I am close to Riverside Park and so I plan to be going there frequently as well as other parks, and looking for different organisms. I am looking forward to getting the chance to not only walk around parks but also to truly understand what I am seeing, and to be able to identify a plant, type of insect or animal that I see along the way. This project will allow me to take in my surroundings in a meaningful way, and appreciate the many different species that live right within my reach.
Today I saw these beautiful trees in the park, and some flowers on the sidewalk. The flowers originally caught my attention because of their bright pink and red colors. I also loved the tree that is slowly changing colors, and it also has an interesting leaf structure. The tree was a clear reminder to me that autumn is here and the leaves are changing color and some are beginning to fall.