For the four day urban BioBlitz, I chose to adventure to the forested area long the trail to Rock Point from North Beach. I went with a couple of my friends and we enjoyed the cloudy day to the fullest as the temperature was quite nice.
Using iNaturalist in this location was very helpful as I was able to identify many different species throughout the forest during the Spring season. I was able to identify about a half a dozen different species on my walk, with my most exciting being the three-leaf goldthread as the one that we found had FOUR leaves!
We also saw many other species including…
- Northern White Cedar
- Hepaticas
- Large White Trillium
- and… a White Tailed Deer
Overall my experience with iNaturalist was very positive and productive. I was able to identify species that I did not recognize while logging them for future reference which I find to be very helpful! I found the diversity in species globally to be fascinating as well. I tend to forget that Vermont and Northern new England as a whole has a very niche climate which then leads to a niche localization of species biodiversity, so I was very interested to see how incredibly different the iNaturalist BioBlitz went for others globally.
I am incredibly intrigued to now continue on using iNaturalist to identify unknown species and hold myself accountable to further my education on the land and ecosystem that surrounds me.