While exploring for the Bioblitz this weekend, I chose to stay down near the lake on and around the bike path. While down towards the lake, I could see and hear many different species. First, I was able to take note of animals like Eastern gray squirrels, an abundance of American Robins, a beautiful Scarlet Tanager, a Black-throated Blue Warbler, and a group of seagulls. I was also able to hear the calls of birds like chickadees, the Black-throated Blue Warbler, and American Robins.

Some of the species I spotted are pictured below:

Maybe this Eastern gray squirrel spotted me instead of the other way around? And these blurry seagulls to the right wouldn’t stop moving!

And this beautiful Scarlet Tanager was super easy to spot in these old branches and vines.

My Bioblitz Reflection

During the Bioblitz, I had a lot of fun being able to see all of the observations both my classmates and people around the world were making. However, I had some struggles with iNaturalist. No matter what device I was on, or if I was on the app vs. the website, I wasn’t able to upload any of my observations to our lab group’s project, or to the NR 1020 project.

Something that I felt was very interesting about the City Nature Challenge was the sheer amount of people participating. Around 2.5 million observations have been made by around 15,000 people, and it feels really special and fun to be able to be a part of it. In Vermont and at UVM, it often feels almost like a bubble when it comes to caring about environmental issues. However, seeing this challenge and how widespread it is gives me so much hope for the future of environmental work. It was nice to also see such a diverse group of observations, displaying beautiful biodiversity around the world.