City Nature Challenge 2018-- Day 2

I was already planning on going to the Exploration Green Grand Opening today, even before I learned about the City Nature Challenge and discovered iNaturalist. The Challenge dovetailed nicely with the idea of a morning spent at Exploration Green. But honestly, because Exploration Green was so new I didn't expect to log more than a handful of observations, then I figured I'd go elsewhere for the bulk of my observations today. But if one really looks (and I did) there are quite a few species in this newly made natural area. (It's a golf course converted to a greenbelt and water retention pond.) I logged 27 observations! While this falls short of my (arbitrary) goal of 3 dozen, it's a respectable number, especially considering that --- for the sake of the challenge--- I did not (or tried not to) log things that I'd observed elsewhere yesterday. We got there before it officially opened at 10 am, met a friend, raided the native plant sale, then walked the winding pathway around the pond. All observations were things that could be seen from that path. We've had an unusually cool spring here (Harris County, Texas), but this wasn't one of those cool days. By the time we left for lunch it was broiling and I'd emptied all my reusable water bottles in a desperate bid to stay hydrated. There are a lot of young trees that have been planted (which I didn't log): they should provide a substantial amount of shade to the path at some point in the future. This is only the beginning of Exploration Green. I've added today's observations to this post.

Posted on April 28, 2018 07:30 PM by gulfcoasttoad