Diario de dianastuder

We walk to Noordhoek Fire Lookout to see Erica physodes. Sticky with bugs, protection against nectar thieves.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/163806047

Was glad to see the invasive pine I reported
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/66343379

had been felled!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/156731688

https://eefalsebay.blogspot.com/2023/05/mule-track-gifkommetjie-blackhill-noordhoek%20.html

It has taken me this long to clear the Cape Peninsula. Looked at everything lurking in Unknown. IDed what I could. @mentioned where it looked worth the time and effort of a taxon specialist.

Taking Research Grade as the most conservative total 2,215 species for Cape Town and CNC23 today. (There will be a few more as we clear the off Peninsula Unknowns)

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&project_id=city-nature-challenge-2023-city-of-cape-town&quality_grade=research&verifiable=any&view=species

Next, I go off the Peninsula where the species are unfamiliar. So I will skim thru faster. Looking for something worth rescuing. Greater Cape Town about 1.5K

Western Cape beyond the city still about 4K

Already one of my daily tasks is to catch plants condemned to the limbo above family. First for the Peninsula. Then for the Rest of Africa. On my own continent at least, I rescued obs which were disqualified from CNC - with good? intentions.

I have hit that target.

After CNC23 ID marathon, will trawl my archives to add 'unobserved' species.

5 people PMed me. Hurt, startled, a little angry to be labelled Maverick? 'Why pick on me, what did I do??'

Made a copypasta for them, but this journal post is for the - wondered, but not enough to ask outright.

The project is automated - think of it as a useful way to display a filtered list. NOT personal.

A Maverick on iNat, is when 3 people agree, and your ID is different. Usually means 'mine is wrong' but you can also be a Proud Maverick, where you see something in the pictures that shows you your species is right.

Replace my name with yours to see your own Mavericks
https://www.inaturalist.org/identifications?user_id=dianastuder&category=maverick

Since iNat requires more than two thirds to reach consensus and Research Grade - I wanted to know while I was still the one holding consensus back. Before the third ID has to be added against my 'wrong'. It racks up steeply, 2 wrong needs 5 against etc.

This brought us to the Pre-Mavericks project
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/pre-maverick

Maverick is an iNat concept (but pre-maverick is mine). Does that help?

Background. I was chatting to @jeanphilippeb. Be careful what you wish for, it may come true. I would like to find ... And days later he came back with a carefully crafted link. Try this? JP is leaving the improved Pre-Mavericks in the project as 'someone is using that data'

First I encourage you to clear your own Mavericks. And get your own feeling for, why I tidy up. But it's too little too late.

If like me, you are a second level identifier (not necessarily a taxon specialist) I encourage you to tweak the Pre- Maverick link to your comfortable tiny slice. Your taxon, or your location, or your combo of taxon and location. You can triage between - what is blindingly obvious, add your informed ID and move it to Research Grade. Side with the Proud Maverick, because you agree the other 2 are wrong (now you need to - @mention some support, or target the Pre-Mavericks with your version of 'Please reconsider'. The middle chunk you may be able to @mention to a better ID, or Mark as Reviewed and move on. Easy and rewarding to move a chunk of obs to a finer taxon level.

A little daunting when you first tackle your chosen slice of Pre-Mavericks. Then move up a taxon level, or out a location level. When I publish this journal post I will have cleared Pre-Mavericks for the Cape Peninsula, then the Western Cape (South Africa) And those are now in my daily slices to ID.

Turning to Pre-Mavericks for Rest of Africa (beyond our border). Over 2K animals but another K with plants. Will take me some time as this is harder in every way. Not so many identifiers to call on. MANY unknown taxa, not simply a new to me species, but whole swathes of biodiversity! Also lots of obs trapped at Pre-Maverick by passive taxon swap / merges so worth another @mention if they are still active.

UPDATE
3 May to 697 - need 3 more
28 April to 690 - can I find 10 more in my not yet uploaded - yes.
14 April to 685
29 March to 670

With 3 more today, I have hit 650!
I need to check all the usual suspects against what I think I have already observed. Many more to add ...

3 October I was at 600.

Thanks to @jeanphilippeb I have a dedicated URL to chew thru.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?lrank=epifamily&taxon_id=47126&identifications=some_agree&place_id=6987

UPDATE 26 March - Planty pre-Mavericks for the Western Cape are done. Went right back about 10 years, including the glitches from moving away from iSpot to iNat.

UPDATE 25 February - I have chewed thru the planty pre-Mavericks for the Cape Peninsula.

I started on 2 February with 4140 obs.
Since these broad planty IDs are constantly added, running as fast as I can, chews that total down ... oh so slowly.
11 Feb 3660 obs at midday.

iNat let's us see our mavericks. But that is too little, too late. Tidying up AFTER trusted identifiers battled with my Wrong ID.

But pre-mavericks link, let's dedicated identifiers catch an obs when @mentioning, withdrawing mine, or informed agreeing with the better ID - can pre-empt piling up IDs to tip it from a broad and unhelpful ID (since taxon specialists can't filter for their taxon of choice) to filterable, or even Research Grade.

You can use the project https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/pre-maverick
to ID for your own chosen taxon / location.

This is a marathon. On a good day I can clear another hundred. Maybe it will take me a year?

Starting from the oldest, and skimming off some fresh new ones in between.
14K ...

From Plantae down to Order. If it is already in Family, taxon specialists can, and have, already worked thru the obs.

Tackling the accumulating backlog for the Cape Peninsula.
Plantae down to Order ... where obs go to die.

2.5 K
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?per_page=10&iconic_taxa=Plantae&order_by=observed_on&taxon_id=47126&lrank=order

Today I finished clearing what was trapped at Plantae. Leaving the utter mysteries in limbo. Shifting them to Difficult Dicots doesn't help.

Some I can rescue from notes. And some, which are clear, would have been caught up promptly if they had been left in Unknown to be seen.

Next ...
300 Bryophyta. Supported a few.

22 Nov - clearing the NOT angiosperms next.
Ferns - supporting, and clearing distribution errors. 2K to go

1,8K to go

Trapped at Angiosperm = almost 400 1.47K to go

24 Nov - Monocots
Orchids

25 Nov bulbs
Amarylidaceae
Asparagaceae
Asphodelaceae
Iridaceae

Poales
Restio almost 1K. One thousand times, yes - it's a restio. One not, and cleared a few duplicates. We need a restio specialist!
Cyperaceae 280. Cleared a few Cyperus textilis.
Poaceae another 1K

26 Nov Remnant monocots down to Family 1.3K to go
Tracheophyta 80

27 Nov Cape Peninsula Difficult Dicots only 900 1.2K to go
First the disagreements, and down to the last thousand.

2 Dec Red algae reviewed. 160 to go

3 Dec Green algae reviewed. Last hundred to go.

2.5K obs released from planty limbo today! (except the truly difficult and disagreeable ones)
Pushed down to epifamily and I am done.

UPDATE - someone came from iNat yesterday and tried to subscribe via Feedly. I had an old, suddenly broken Feedburner feed. Now updated, so it works as intended.

This week our list runs to over one hundred species (but only 11 on my photos). I've been Fynbos Rambling for 5 years. In the first weeks my head exploded with ... ALL ... these ... new ... NAMES!! I carefully wrote down each plant we saw (we do restrict ourselves to flowering now, but it's still overwhelming) And I took photos of each one. First my list fell by the wayside, not enough hands to go round - and I rely on the archived list which is emailed to us later. Then I became more choosy about which plants were worth a few photos, for iNatting and my lifelist (618 Cape Peninsula species, four and a half thousand to go), or for help with tricksy IDs.

Back to September
https://eefalsebay.blogspot.com/2022/10/september-hikes-trapppieskop-rondebosch-gifkommetjie-myburghskloof.html

Including a few from this week's hike finally got me there.