How to use iNaturalist

To start recording, you'll need to create an account with iNaturalist.

On the website

Go to the iNaturalist website and click on 'Sign up' from their homepage. Fill in your email, username and a password, and you're ready to go!

On the app

Open the app and click on 'Sign up now!' under the 'Log in' button. Fill in your email, username and a password, and you're ready to go!

To make sure your observations count towards our total for the Great Yorkshire Creature Count, you need to join our project. 

Once you’ve joined the project, all your submissions over the weekend will be automatically added - you don't need to do anything more!

On the website

1) Hover over 'Community' along the top navigation, then click on 'Projects' underneath.

2) In the search bar, type in 'The Great Yorkshire Creature Count 2023' or if you're part of the Diocese of Leeds count type in 'Great Yorkshire Churchyard Creature Count' and click 'Go'. Our project should appear in your results - click on it. Once you're on our project page, you can join by clicking 'Join' in the About box.

3) Confirm you want to join on the next page, then you're officially part of the Count!

On the app

1) Click on the 'More' icon with the three dots or lines.

2) Select 'Projects' and once you're on the projects page, search for 'The Great Yorkshire Creature Count 2023' or if you're part of the Diocese of Leeds count type in 'Great Yorkshire Churchyard Creature Count'.

Our project should appear in your results - click on it. Once you're on our project page, you can join by clicking 'Join' at the top of the screen.

3) Confirm you want to join on the next page, then you're officially part of the Count!

To submit a species for the Great Yorkshire Creature Count, you'll need to record it as an observation on iNaturalist. 

You don't need to be able to identify a species in order to submit it! When you upload a photo, iNaturalist does the hard work for you and offers suggestions. You can select a particular species, or if you're still not certain, select the family (genus) that it suggests. The community on iNaturalist will help to confirm the identify of your observation. 

You can upload species as you're counting, or take your photos at once and then sit down with a cuppa to upload them! Once you’ve joined the project, all your submissions over the weekend will be automatically added - you don't need to do anything more!

On the website
 

1) Upload your photo: Click on the green 'upload' button in the top right hand corner. Add your photos by clicking on the '+' icon in the middle of the page. You can only add one photo per observation. You can also add sound recordings if you don't have any photos! 

2) Select your species: By clicking in the species name box, iNaturalist will scan the photo or sound recording and offer suggestions for you. Select the species if you know it, or if you don't, select the family (genus) or whether it's a mammal, bird or invertebrate (taxa).

3) Enter time and location: Enter the date that you spotted the creature, and a location (you can search for your location within the location window). At the left of the window you can select the location to be public, obscured (random within a certain radius) or private.

Don’t worry if it doesn’t respond when you press ‘project’ - it will automatically list it to the Great Yorkshire Creature Count!

4) Submit! Click 'Submit observations' in the top right hand corner.

On the app
 

1) Upload your photo. Click the 'Observe' or green plus icon at the bottom of the screen. You can take photos directly from the app, choose a photo from your saved photos or select 'No photo'. 

2) Select your species: By clicking on the on the 'What did you see?' tab, iNaturalist will scan the photo and offer suggestions for you. Select the species if you know it, or if you don't, select the family (genus) or whether it's a mammal, bird or invertebrate (taxa).

3) Enter time and location: Enter the date that you spotted the creature, and a location (you can search for your location within the location window). On the 'Geoprivacy' tab, you can also select the location to be public, obscured (random within a certain radius) or private.

Don’t worry if it doesn’t respond when you press ‘project’ - it will automatically list it to the Great Yorkshire Creature Count!

4) Submit! Click 'Share' at the bottom of the screen.

You don't need to know what creature you've spotted, just an overall idea of whether it's a bird, mammal or invertebrate.

iNaturalist's tool will scan your photo and bring up suggestions for you to choose from. If you're not sure, it's best to select the kind (taxa) or family (genus) that comes up, and a community member on iNaturalist will help to identify the species. 

All photos are welcome, even blurry ones!

iNaturalist may find it harder to scan and identify a blurry photo, but if you know the species you can search and select it yourself.

If not, you can add more detail to the 'description' box. How did it move? Was it making a noise? Where did you find it? This will help the community on iNaturalist to identify it.

You can upload sound to iNaturalist too! Just choose your sound file when you record your submission.

You can add a submission without photo or sound, as long as you know what it is and where you saw it. 

Having a location gives us more information about the wildlife you've spotted. 

However, you don't have to share the exact location of your sightings. You can select the location as 'obscure', which will choose a random location within a nearby radius, or as 'private', which means that only you can see the location.

If you've joined the project, your observations during the weekend will be automatically added - there's nothing more you need to do!

We're using iNaturalist because it provides a useful, common tool for many individuals and organisations to record wildlife and share data. 

iNaturalist helps people of all abilities to identify their sightings, and the community help to verify submissions and ensure the data is good-quality. We can access the sightings that everybody submits as part of the Great Yorkshire Creature Count, but they also form part of the wider database, which helps us to understand how wildlife is faring around the world.

iNaturalist have lots of help available on their website.

iNaturalist doesn't work very well if you use the browser version on your phone. We'd recommend that you use the browser version on your computer, or download the app for your phone.

If you're struggling to use iNaturalist, you can email us your sightings with photos to sightings@ywt.org.uk, and we'll upload them for you.