With my partner Paul Whitington, I live in a patch of dry sclerophyll forest in south-eastern Australia. By observing and recording animal and plant species and their interactions we are building our knowledge of the local ecology. Invertebrates are a particular passion, but every native species is fair game for our cameras and curiosity.

Our home website: www.southernforestlife.net is an important part of this project. There we post stories and photo essays (170 blogs, and growing!), including records of the forest recovery following the fire of January 2020.

iNaturalist is equally valuable to us: the growing bank of observations from all parts of Australia, with contributions from knowledgable people all over the world. We record our own sightings of plants and animals of all kinds, and contribute identification suggestions in our areas of focus. For me, that's wasps.

Australian crabronids have been my target for some time, but thynnine flower wasps, braconids and other taxa are fair game too. I'm fortunate to have the time to apply the tools, training and experiences of a career in biological science to something that truly fascinates me.

There's a slightly hidden section to our website: our workbook notes. The data we collect, references we employ, and analyses we make in our quest to identify an insect.

And with our burgeoning collection of notes on wasp ID, we recently added some structure to that section: the wasp hub. https://southernforestlife.net/wasp-hub

Although primarily for our own use, we happily share these notes, and regularly link to them when making our ID suggestions on iNaturalist.