I think the City Nature Challenge is an amazing event because of how successful it has been at gathering data and getting people outside. It is amazing for bringing people together from around, without being physically together in these times of a pandemic. Unfortunately, I do not have a phone that allows me to post on iNaturalist, but I still explored some of the beautiful urban nature around us.
For my explorations during the time period, I went to a few cool places, the first being Centennial Woods. My friend and I went there and sat in the grass near a water reservoir. Everything felt so alive. The most memorable observation was seeing a duck fly.
The next place I went was to the Winooski River. It was my birthday so I wanted to chill outside. I went with some friends and we went to the same bridge we walked under for our lab. This time we came prepared and jumped in the river. We saw a black cormorant.
The final place I went was by the water reservoir near Redstone Campus. There is a spot I like to sit and look our over both the natural and manmade ecosystems. This is where I saw my most memorable observation: a baby fox. He was not quite a baby, but looked pretty young. He did not notice me a first because he was fascinated by a bird. We made eye contact and it was a 10/10 experiance.
