Where to find wild species in your neighborhood

I use the iNaturalist app on iPhone to identify any new species for me anywhere I find them. 

You can use inaturalist.org to see what species were found by people like you and me in any place.

 Here is the iNaturalist.org website.

 I have a video about iNaturalist app explaining how to use it to ID anything you find. 

It's a really useful scientific project for people to share and to identify what they find. 

And we can use it to look up what others found in any place. 

So, let's explore the world map. 

The map shows millions of pins of recent observations - it takes time to load so many.

 I've been asked recently if there are any lizards in Central Park in New York. 

So, let's look up for lizards. 

Now we can see observations of lizards all around the world. 

Let's zoom in on New York. 

The more we zoom in the better the view of a particular location we get.

 No lizards were observed in the Central park of New York so far. 

There are many pins of observations in other places. 

Let's click on a blue pin at Crotona park in the Bronx.

A small preview window opens showing some info about this observation. 

Click on the picture of the lizard to get more details on this observation.

 This observation was made by Michael Langerman - that's me. 

You can zoom on the map to get a better sense of the location. 

Click on the photos to see them all if any are available. 

The app lets me upload up to 4 pictures.

 Click anywhere on the screen to get back to the observation. 

Scroll down to see scientific projects and individuals helping to ID this lizard. 

You can click on any of them to see what else they observed and ID. 

Now let's get back to this observation. 

It's important to notice the date and the time of the day the observation was made. 

Some wild lizards can be seen only in the warm season or only during the day time - like this one. 

Let's click to see more details.

 Another window pops up with GPS coordinates on the top. 

That is the exact location the pictures were taken!

 With an accuracy of 11 meters... 

So, you already know the place and the best time to look for this lizard in this neighborhood. 

You can click to view on Google... 

Google maps have more details about the location. 

There are stairs and a lake... 

And you can plot a trip from your location to this place. 

The GPS coordinates of the place are already in. 

So, I have to put in only the starting point of the trip. 

I start my trips from Roosevelt Island in New York where I live. 

Get there by car, train, walk...I go by bike all the time.

 So, you can use iNaturalist to identify what you found. 

And you can use iNaturalist to find where and when to look for particular species. 

Remember to avoid disturbing wild Nature, especially endangered species and any species in the nesting season. 

Have fun and happy adventures :)