I explored some of the outer edges of campus, within campus, and the golf course. I tried to record a variety of species, trees, shrubs, grasses, and signs of wildlife. I was more successful in finding trees and shrubs and struggled to find signs of wildlife.
![](https://blog.uvm.edu/ssmestad/files/2024/04/Screenshot-69.png)
My experience was overall good. I think iNaturalist can be a little hard to get used to at the beginning, but after using it for a little bit, it gets much easier. I really appreciate some of the features it has to help people identify species without any prior knowledge. It is very inclusive in that way.
![](https://blog.uvm.edu/ssmestad/files/2024/04/Screenshot-68.png)
I encountered many species but recorded around 75 in iNaturalist. As I said, many of which were shrubs and trees. I hope that in future iNaturalist’s I can contribute more wildlife signs. I was able to catch a skunk on my walk which was incredible!
![](https://blog.uvm.edu/ssmestad/files/2024/04/Screenshot-66.png)
I was really surprised to see that the city in the lead with the highest amount of observations was the Washington DC area. I was surprised to see that there were so many species to record despite it being such an urban area.
![](https://blog.uvm.edu/ssmestad/files/2024/04/Screenshot-67.png)