During the four day BioBlitz I was able to explore Centennial Woods! I also was able to go on a hike at the Stowe Pinnacle, which isn’t right in Burlington/Winooski area, but it was interesting to see the nature there as well! My experience with iNaturalist was good because I thought it was really interesting to see what other people notice and observe in an area versus what I observed. The map is particularly interesting since you are able to see relatively the exact spots a certain species was observed.
I chose to look at the iNaturalist for San Francisco (Bay Area), CA, because that is where I was born and lived for the first few years of my life, and I visit there often, so I was curious to see what species I had noticed before as well. What I thought was interesting, is that San Francisco seems like a very flora oriented city, filled with lush landscaping and public gardens. With this in mind, many of the top observed species were plants and flowers. But, looking at the fauna of the region was particularly interesting, since I never pay much attention to that, maybe since it’s such an urban area.
I also decided to look at the Tokyo, Japan, iNaturalist challenge, since I before COVID I was planning to go there prior to college. Being able to look at the native species is interesting, because I feel like that is something I would love to brush up on before traveling there, or anywhere in the world really. What I found is that many of the commonly observed bird species look similar to ones I have seen either on the west or east coast, (maybe because they are migratory?). I was surprised to find out that Tokyo has a species of plovers, since I only really associate plovers with climates and habitats like those found in coastal New England. The plant species differ from what is seen in New England, but that seems pretty obvious since the climates are different.
