During this four-day urban BioBlitz as a part of the City Nature Challenge, I, unfortunately, did not venture very far, only finding myself around campus and downtown. I had a very passive approach to this task. I continued my daily tasks while documenting species I thought were cool as I walked from place to place. Most of my logs are of plant species from the downtown Burlington area and near bus stops.

My experience using iNaturalist was frustrating. I really wish I liked this app, but it’s so hard to figure out how to use it (I am very bad at using phones). Having spotty service was another added factor to my frustrations. Most of the time, I am not surrounded by fellow Rubensteiners, so it was an inconvenience for me to be stopping multiple times on walks to open an app, wait for it to load, take pictures, and attempt to identify something on the spot, then wait for the log to properly upload before continuing whatever task we were on. I also relied a lot on Seek, another app by iNaturalist, to quickly identify things. This required me to open another app and wait for it to load, making my homework even more inconvenient for whoever I was with.

I only ended up logging three species, since my others didn’t upload while I was out exploring. these were a member of the dogwood family (didn’t get down to species), a horse chestnut tree, and a crabapple tree (that I first identified as a member of the rose family by accident).

I was very amazed by the amount of global participation in this project. I think it is very cute how many people have made a hobby out of identifying species and getting to enjoy nature while doing so, wherever they are. I hope to be a more active participant in this project next year hopefully!