FAQ: Is it Ok to make an observation without a photo?
Yes!
If you've seen something but don't have a photo you can still share your observation, ideally saying how you were able to recognise it. If you're seeking help with identifying it then try and provide a detailed description, including size, shape and colour.
It's great if you can get a picture of what you've seen - it makes it much more interesting for other people, and for many things it's easier to be sure about identifying it.
However, we know that some species are very difficult to photograph without specialist equipment and weeks of waiting, but are nonetheless fairly easy to identify.
If you can find a public domain photo of what you saw, it's Ok to post that with your observation, but you must:
a) make sure that it isn't restricted by copyright, and
b) make it clear on your observation that the photo isn't the one that you actually saw.
We are planning to make a library of images to help with this in the near future.