Month: May 2022

A final visit to Derway this year! I was so excited to get out on a rainy day to document the changes that have been happening in this place. Even though it was chilly and rainy, the birds were singing and the trail was full of life. I took along some friend to show them what Derway was all about.

We started down the path an immediately I noticed so many changes in the area since the last time I had been there. Being a wet season, we really got to see the characteristics of a floodplain forest.

There were so many fiddle heads popping up, giving the area a little bit of green.

In addition to the fiddleheads there were so many trees beginning to bud! I loved the hints of green popping up all around us.

Further down the trail we were lucky enough to spot a palliated woodpecker.

We reached the Winooski and all took a moment to listen to the rain hitting the water. In that moment I felt very connected to this place. I consider myself a visitor in this place. I know I am not yet a part of it, but maybe if I continue to visit and stay connected to this place I can one day consider myself a part of it.

The best part of this visit had to be our beaver spotting. The beaver popped up in the middle of the river and made its way to the shore, very close to us.

There are many structures that appear beaver made along the shore and in the water. These were not there in the winter, or even the fall when I first visited.

Beavers are very prominent in Derway. We learned this in our lab visit. They are so active that conservationists have to put up chicken wire to prevent them from taking down restorative trees that are planted here.

After our crazy sighting we ended our visit visiting the geese swimming through the wetland!

This was the best visit to end this blog on. I was really happy to share this place with my friends, and appreciate everything Derway has taught me this semester.

I loved ending the trip at this spot in Derway where you see the river open into the lake with the bike path passing over. I think it is a great representation of how culture and nature intertwine in this place. Not only is it a great place for wildlife to reside in the Burlington area, it is also a way for people to connect with nature and the historic cultures of this place. Being in the heart of Burlington, and in such a crucial location of the environment it really holds a lot of the characteristics of both Burlington’s environment and culture.

Also a shoutout to all of the cool fungi we saw on our adventure!

Below I drew out a species interaction diagram of the species that we saw on our trip to Derway. It was really cool to think about not only what species were present in this place, but how they interact to create the ecosystem I have grown to love so much.

I appreciated the BioBlitz on iNaturalist, because it pushed me to pay extra attention to what was around me as I when through my day. I was able to spot many different species, and it made me feel connected to the community. The BioBlitz was a great way to bring the community together.

The first location I found a lot of species was at Centennial woods on Saturday morning. I was bird watching for my biology class and I decided to BioBlitz while I was collecting my data. The project is based in bird ecology so I was able to identify bird species for the BioBlitz. There were a lot of chickadees and song sparrows. There was also goldfinches and a hairy woodpecker.

Above is the location where I was bird watching. Unfortunately I was too far away to get any good pictures of the birds themselves.

Not only only was I looking at the different bird species. I also decided to identify plants and other species I saw as I walked the trail.

The next place I did a lot of identifications was at the Spectacular Nature Day. This event was so much fun, and made it really easy yo BioBlitz.

Above are three of my favorite identifications. I used the iNaturalist to get the specific names of each of the species, but I also had many comments on my post to confirm my identifications.

We also did a lot of pond skimming during nature day. I was able to skim a pond, and the river at Intervals. The pond was full of tad pools, there were so many that the stagnant water seemed to have a current.

Another sighting we had was a bat circling over the pond. I had never seen a daytime bat in one place for so long. It would swoop down and skim the top of the water, probably catching bugs. It was so cool to watch.

And of course all weekend I kept my head down looking out for ants to identify!