This week was the City Nature Challenge, a global competition to see who can identify the most species, but mostly just to encourage people to get outdoors and into nature.
On Saturday I had a track meet down at UMass Amherst and was unable to participate in the City Nature Challenge. Despite this, I went birding for around 45 minutes after I had competed and I had some really fun finds. Being further south of Burlington I was able to see some really cool species. The most interesting I feel was a black vulture that I saw soaring overhead. This species isn’t as common in New England which made me really excited to have seen one.
This Sunday I went on a walk in Centennial with two of my friends to go and look at different species. We ended up staying in the woods for around three hours, observing a wide range of species in different locations. Throughout the day I was able to identify 38 species of plants, animals, and insects. I brought my camera along with me so I was able to take some really cool photos of some of the birds that we saw along the way.
I’m disappointed that the year is coming to an end but at the same time I’m really excited for trees to really open their leaves in the next month.
