When you go out looking for herps, you will meet everything else too: plants, mushrooms, birds, mammals, insects, spiders, crayfish. Every one of them is a chance to learn something. Take a clear photo of whatever catches your eye, and figure out what it is when you get home. A shelf of field guides helps. So do phone apps that identify birds by their songs and plants by their leaves. The best habit of all is uploading your photos to iNaturalist. Narrow it down as far as you can, even if that is only "beetle" or "plant," and let the community suggest the rest.
This lesson is part of Certified Junior Herpetologist. Enrollment is self-paced, with no deadline to finish (about 30 hours).
