A Rainy Day in Centennial
Choosing a BioBlitz Site:
On the morning of April 26th, after a fairly heavy overnight rainfall, I decided to explore the trails and banks of Centennial Woods in hopes of discovering some signs of spring phenological changes and possibly some amphibians due to the recent rain. The last time I had visited Centennial Woods was in February, when there was still around a foot of snowfall on the ground, so I was eager to return and see how the seasons have progressed and what new species I could observe and record on iNaturalist.
Experience with iNaturalist:
Overall, I really enjoy using iNaturalist to record the species I observe during my phenology site visits, hikes, or simply walks around campus. I think it is a great tool to practice my identification skills and observational inquiries, as I look through reference photos or other observers’ comments to identify the species at hand. One of my favorite parts of the site is being able to see everyone else’s observations in our projects and expanding my knowledge about the species in the greater Burlington area. Also, iNaturalist has many information pages about each species and sometimes gives helpful facts based on location and timeframe of the observation regarding species nativeness and conservation. For example, after observing Colts-Foot, iNaturalist indicated that this plant was introduced in Centennial Woods and arrived in the region via anthropogenic means.
Species Encountered:
During about a 1 to 2 hour exploration of Centennial, I encountered numerous species, well over 30, but I specifically made 15 iNaturalist observations. I did not record many tree identifications due to my familiarity with tree identification in this area and other observations in our lab group’s iNaturalist project. Instead, I mainly focused on small, understory plants, wildlife, and any other intriguing or unknown vegetation I found along my way. The majority of these observations we along the primary path, while others were deep into the forest near the stream banks. Click on the images below to be directed to the corresponding iNaturalist observation!
Plants & Vegetation:
Animals & Fungi:
City Nature Challenge – A Look Globally:
After looking at the global reports in the iNaturalist City Nature Challenge, I was impressed by the array of diverse plant, insect, bird, and other animal identifications that have already been made within a day of the challenge’s start. As I scrolled through the numerous well-captured photographs, I was fascinated by the types of organisms found so close to these international urban environments. There were numerous observations of more exotic and foreign animals such as pit vipers, collared peccaries, tree frogs, and even an ostrich. However, it was also interesting to compare my observations here in Burlington to observations of the same species in other regions. Numerous other observers had captured similar pictures of fungi, raspberries, honeysuckle, and other woody vegetation, like I had observed in Centennial. Overall, looking through these observations has helped me gain a new appreciation for how diverse our biological world is and why it is so special and important to have thousands of observers worldwide documenting these amazing species, all connected through one online site.