Centennial Woods Exploration!
For BioBlitz and City Nature Challenge, I explored Burlington in order to become even more familiar with my site and what species are present there!
Findings
What was identified in Centennial Woods?
Sugar Maple
Although many of the trees hadn’t fully bloomed yet, there was a sugar maple that was identifiable due to the small leaves that had begun to bloom. This leaf was one I pulled off a recently dead branch from the tree. I was able to identify the leaf using my knowledge from tree identification and iNaturalist which confirmed my belief that it was a sugar maple.
May Apple
On the floor of my site there were many fern species unfurling themselves and these May Apples, which were in full bloom with their white flowers. I was able to easily identify these with iNaturalist while I was walking around my site.
Gnat Fly
Office Manager
Although iNaturalist had a hard time helping me to identify the plant pictured, on the plant there were a couple of flied which I researched and found were probably gnat flies based on their size and shape.
Ferns
I really enjoyed looking at the ferns present on my site while I was walking around. At first I didn’t realize what I was looking at were ferns because of the way they were sprouting out of the ground all curled up, but once I noticed some of them had fully grown in, I thought it was really interesting.
City Nature Challenge!
By the end of the City Nature Challenge, I was really shocked by the number of countries that participated, especially in Central and South America. In general, I think it’s surprising how many big cities are able to participate given that cities are associated with having low biodiversity. Therefore, I think it’s really promising that The City Nature Challenge is able to bring so many people and places together to celebrate the nature in their areas and maybe one day Burlington will beat out Cape Town for the top spot!