05/05/2023
During the four-day BioBlitz challenge, I explored the life on campus. I found many plants around Harris Millis and the surrounding fields. I tagged many trees as cultivated/captive, which posted them to iNaturalist but did not count them towards the City Nature Challenge. I had ten species that were included in the CNC. I had the easiest time documenting plants, which were abundant and did not move around like birds. The only bird I observed were herring gulls.
Using iNaturalist was simple and straightforward. Sometimes it had trouble identifying immature plants and trees, and I had to move on.
I found the ratios of observations interesting when compared to the population of cities like New York. Burlington did not seem to be very competitive compared to larger areas at first, but once we considered these factors, our city had a lot of engagement. Cape Town was a very competitive city, which was also something that was surprising. It does make sense due to the high biodiversity in the area though.
