Throughout the City Nature challenge I spent a lot of time exploring the Burlington Area
My main highlight was walking alongside the Winooski river for hours on end, finding a variety of pretty spots and trails that cross just out of the way from downtown Winooski.
Some of my most interesting observations included spotting a few “Wooly Bear” caterpillars, and a Monarch butterfly (that was too quick for my to get a shot of). I didn’t get too lucky in seeing a lot of animals or organism interaction, but I did certainly find interesting finding a variety of new locations to go back and visit.
Below is a cool shot from under a bridge from off of one of many trails along the Winooski
During the challenge I also explored throughout the Intervale, finding beautiful views of the Winooski river and exploring the ecology of the surrounding riparian buffer forest, below is a shot I took moments after sunset
Using iNaturalist was pretty fascinating, it was very interesting to see observations come in from so many different places, a highlight that I unfortunately forgot to screenshot was someone’s discovery of an absolutely massive stick bug in Southern Texas known as a “Walkingstick”. I never heard of this type of stick bug and the photo presented stuck with me for a bit for being rather scary (the insect was at least 7 inches in length). It was also shocking to learn that this species of stickbug was present throughout most of the Continental US due to its resilience.