Seek by iNaturalist
In a recent educators newsletter from the California Academy of Sciences, I learned about an app I had never heard of before. It's called Seek by iNaturalist and I immediately downloaded it to phone.
Seek would have been perfect when I saw a raptor species that I didn't recognize while on a hike a few weeks back. I took a few crummy photos with my phone, forced my wife to take some photos with her better phone, poked around the internet for a while later that day, and finally determined that it was a white-tailed kite. Then I doubted myself, did some more research, and decided that I was right. I could imagine worse ways to spend my spare time, but an app like Seek would have simplified things (and annoyed my wife less).
Watch the promo video below.
When you enable location services on your device, Seek shows you the flora and fauna in your area. There are also badges you can earn and challenges you can take, too. Your observations help create iNaturalist's database, so users also become citizen-scientists.
As a former summer camp nature specialist, a many-time outdoor ed teacher/chaperone, and a nature nerd, I see so many ways this app could come in handy. I think I'll try it out on some of these weird-looking weeds that have sprouted in my yard 😬.
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