During the City Nature Challenge, the only place that I really explored was on campus. The BioBlitz unfortunately fell on a very busy time for me, so I wasn’t able to participate as much as I would have liked. That being said, I definitely made sure to snap pictures of some species that were closer to my dorm and around my walks on campus. I found a total of 10 different species (there was undeniably more, but this is what I found) right in the area around my dorm and the dining hall.
The most interesting species that I found was definitely the serviceberries- I’ve never had one but I’ve heard that they taste really good, so maybe when I come back next semester they’ll still be fruiting and I can taste one.
I’m a big fan of iNaturalist, so I had a nice experience using it. It went very smoothly as I have a decent amount of past experience using the app/browser. Seeing the reports from the other cities is really cool, and it’s really awesome to watch the BioBlitz connect so many people and so many countries across the world. Being able to observe the vast amount of biodiversity across the globe is very interesting.