During the BioBlitz, Annie and I went for a walk around Centennial Woods. Unfortunately I was out of town for most of the weekend of the City Nature Challenge, so I got some good exploring in in East Montpelier but not as much as I would have liked in Burlington.
Given that we went in the evening, we didn’t see a ton of species that you may usually see, like squirrels or frogs. But we did see some cool creatures that you usually won’t see during the day. We saw a red tailed hawk swoop low over East Ave and perch on a tree in someones front yard. It was really cool to see it from so close up. Red tailed hawks tend to hunt at dusk because most of their prey are nocturnal, so I imagine that this one was starting its evening at the same time we were.
When we actually went into centennial woods, there wasn’t a lot of movement. There were a lot of moths flying around, but it is really hard to get a picture of a moth so you’ll have to just trust me on that one. We poked around near the brook looking for frogs or paw prints of any kind, but couldn’t find any. I know that there are often raccoons in Centennial, but I think we were a little too early in the evening to see them. We found some cool mushrooms, I think they were shelf fungus.
Probably the highlight of exploring that night was seeing bats! Bats always remind me of summer, so the combination of the warm weather and seeing them made it feel very summery in Centennial. We were in the clearing on the south side of the woods near the parking lot off of Carrigan Drive. At first I though they were birds that were just going in to roost very late, but after watching the way that they moved (very erratically and much after than most small birds) and seeing the outline of their wings, I identified them as bats. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly where they were coming from, but there is a large dense pine tree on the edge of this clearing that I think would be the most favorable and safe place for them.
We watched the bats for a while, but then they sort of started to swoop us and neither of us wanted to risk getting a bat to the face, we left them alone to catch bugs in peace.
It was interesting to look at the range of species that people observed all over Burlington and Vermont as a whole state. It was also interesting to look at cities on the west coast, because the observations of plant life shows just how far along in spring some of the US is, while it still feels pretty grey here. In Seattle, for example, it was reflected through various observations that most of the trees are completely leafed out and flowers have already come and gone. Compared to here, where trees still barely have visible greenery, it’s quite a difference.
Using iNatrualist, though it gives a look at nature all over the world, feels a little silly to me. I’m not in love with the idea of going out into nature for the sole purpose of documenting everything you see and putting it on the internet. It is really helpful for identifying things, but personally I’m not often out to identify, I’m just there to observe an appreciate. I like using iNatrualist more after the fact, meaning uploading pictures after I am done exploring, so I can appreciate things in the moment.