On Thursday, a couple of friends and I got together to wander the parts of Burlington we haven’t yet explored. The ground was frozen solid, and most of the trees had long lost their leaves. A small dusting of snow covered the ground that crunched under our feet as we walked. As per usual, I was so pleasantly surprised and delighted at the amount of wildlife that can be found even in the most urban parts of the city!
First, we visited a pier along Lake Champlain that was mostly frozen. All across the ice was a tapestry of little foot paths left by the residents of Lake Champlain. The most prevalent were these particular tracks pictured below:
They weren’t quite in a bound pattern, signature of the fisher, nor did they have evidence of belly-sliding like a river otter. The group concluded that they are still definitely part of the weasel family one way or another.
On the next stop of our little adventure, we explored a walkway that trailed alongside a wastewater treatment plant. This isn’t a place you would normally expect to see wildlife, but we were pleasantly surprised!
Swimming as if they owned the place, a group of mallards swam laps around one of the facility’s basins. My friends and I thought they looked so absurd and out of place, and we marveled over how wildlife and human activity go so hand in hand from time to time.
The most stunning marvel of them all came at the end of our adventure when a beautiful, full grown bald eagle soared over our heads as we began our walk home.
