Discover Path
You're an Expert, go further.
You’ve put in the time and can recognize different species quicker than most. Whether it’s plants, reptiles, dragonflies, cactuses, birds, or mushrooms, you’ve become an expert in your area.
That expertise makes you uniquely qualified for the next step. I suggest here that there are some important aspects that many experts may not pay attention to.
There tends to be a gap in species coverage. The more colorful of charismatic species get more attention from people who are making nature observations. The more “boring” species need attention too. They may seem uninteresting at least at first glance also need to be given some attention. They may have important roles in a habitat. I guess it depends on who the observer is, but two terms come to mind LBM’s and LYF’s. That is Little brown mushrooms and little yellow flowers. The family Asteraceae is a very large group composed of yellow composite flowers. These phrases illustrate one of the common hurdles to making identifications. The less unique species may go unnoticed.
Go beyond just identification and start focusing on behaviors and interactions. As someone who devotes a lot of time to searching for these organisms, you can notice the behavioral patterns, physical differences, and the ecological context—the aspects that most people might not think twice about.
This not only adds to your knowledge and understanding, but if shared, adds to everyone’s understanding of how living things are acting or surviving. These sorts of things might be noticed more by academics, but there are far more people who have followed a similar path to you.
Please see some of the insights that others have noticed in the forum and consider sharing any insights you may have discovered.
The types of ecosystems are varied and each with their own key species and complex web of species interactions. Exploring the these different places you start to get a sense of the the context that all these species evolved in and how they have shaped each other.