On Friday, February 21, a friend and I went to the Burlington Country Club to observe signs of wildlife. I chose the country club because of its lack of human activity in the winter months. I thought the mostly undisturbed area may attract some wildlife because of the large open spaces, trees, and plant species. While there, we observed multiple signs of wildlife activity. Most of the animal tracks observed were from domestic dogs, as the location is a popular dog-walking trail. However, we also observed tracks from species that we were unable to identify because of the recent snow and density of the tracks and snow. The tracks we found were in a diagonal walking pattern, indicating that the species could have been a deer or fox. Personally, I think it is more likely a fox than a deer due to the length of stride being relatively small. We heard multiple bird songs but were unable to identify them, and also observed an American Robin at our site. This is a bird that wouldn’t be uncommon to find here. Navigating this identification process in Burlington was somewhat difficult because of the similarity of tracks between species and the lack of activity at our chosen site. This could have been due to the old snow that had slightly melted and frozen again, or even the fences surrounding the country club, preventing wildlife from entering the area from multiple places.


