Just hit 5000+ observations
i just realized that after posting some observation this morning, I'm now officially over 5000 observations. i don't think i'm as happy about that milestone as i would be in "normal" times. it's been sort of a terrible year with Covid-19 and such, but hopefully things just get better from here. the solstice just happened, along with a Jupiter-Saturn conjunction. vaccines are being distributed now. so signs of light and hope...
it's been a strange year. with so many businesses being shut down as a result of Covid-19, lots of folks have crowded the local parks. not everyone has been distancing or wearing face masks, although i do see more people at least putting on their masks as they pass me on the trails lately, as the Covid-19 cases have been spiking this winter.
early on in 2020, the road traffic really died down, and things were so quiet in the city, but i didn't get a chance to explore much then, since i was trying to respect the guidance from local officials to stay at home. but late the in summer, when i became obvious that most folks were simply not following the guidance, i gave up, too, and started exploring a bit, masked and still trying mostly to hit trails that were less frequented by the masses.
since late 2019, i've making some iNat-related stuff for the web and making it available at https://github.com/jumear/stirfry. although there's quite a bit that folks can do with the iNaturalist API (https://api.inaturalist.org/), i realized that many people don't know where to start. so hopefully some of my code will help make that stuff more accessible to the masses or at least provide useful examples.
there's stuff that you can use to search for identifications (https://jumear.github.io/stirfry/iNatAPIv1_identifications.html), something to display observations as a slideshow (https://jumear.github.io/stirfry/iNat_observation_slideshow.html), some basic maps (https://jumear.github.io/stirfry/iNat_map.html), more complex maps (https://jumear.github.io/stirfry/iNat_top_observers_map.html), and on and on... (if you have any questions or requests, feel free to send me a message.)
i've also been starting to capture some short videos on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7LHJO5RCpwI1Das_d1F_vg/videos) just to complement some of my observations here on iNaturalist.
