To take part in the City Nature Challenge I decided to set off on a run and try to cover as much ground as I could in the hour I had. I ended up going on the bike path along Spear St. behind Patrick Gym and taking that all the way to the end, then meeting up with the main waterfront bike path at Oakledge Park. I took that path all the way to Waterfront Park, then ran up College St. back to campus. I saw a ton of trees and flowers budding and blooming, and I stopped about every mile or so to make an inaturalist observation.
I love running around Burlington because I get to see a lot of different areas, and so for this project I was able to find species on campus, downtown, and at several of the parks in the city. The weather was not amazing, so I did not see a whole lot of wildlife out and about, but I did see some birds and a random crawdad on College St. I probably encountered dozens of species, but I logged seven for our project. I love using inaturalist because it is like an encyclopedia of wildlife at your fingertips, and it is fun to guess what you are looking at based on the suggestions the app gives. La Paz, Bolivia ended up winning the City Nature Challenge by a landslide. It is interesting to look at their observations since it is such a biodiverse place. Considering the size and population of Burlington, I would say that we did pretty good!
