Agree or not agree? A question of verification on observations...
Someone posts an observation of a bird or plant that you know. Should you identify it or verify its identity? How sure are you that you know what you know?!?
I love plants, but I don't consider myself a professional botanist. However, I do like to identify plants or at least try to figure them out. There are bazillions of different plants out there, and I'm never going to learn them all... but I still like to try! I'm recently getting into birds, and going back to my childhood passion of bugs. Comparatively, I know quite little in both of these areas, but I don't mind doing a bit of researching and scouring the internet to find new resources.
So, when I "agree" with an observation, this is what I am saying:
"Based on what I know, I think that this observation is a ______. Someone else may come along and have a different view and may give different insight into this identification."
That's ok! This is what makes iNat so wonderful -- it represents a community of naturalists. When I "agree" with an observation, I'm not claiming to be any sort of expert -- I'm just saying what I think it could be, based on what I know or what I've recently researched. Our understanding of species changes some too... So today's species may be tomorrow's genus. :)
Do you "agree?"
P.s. I especially appreciate it when people give reasoning behind their verifications/identifications. Thank you!
