Burlington Phenologists,

I was amazed to see the number of observations rolling in this month, not just of the birds arriving this spring, but of the resurgence of summer observations being posted during a snowy February. While the clock's bounds pushed ahead with many more wildlife camera photos of foxes and students' birdwatching reports on campus, data was backfilling for large white trillium and purple-flowered raspberry blooms from last year.

We have just a few weeks left before we'll close the books on the 2020 Burlington Seasons Clock. We will welcome the spring weather, migrants and buds, and a new project to continue our community nature research through this calendar year.

Want to make more of a game out of the Seasons Clock? Play our Wildways Bingo game which is updated monthly and highlights species from this phenology project:
https://burlingtonwildways.org/projects/wildways-bingo

Check on the current clock and see a GIF past years' clock data here:
https://burlingtonwildways.org/projects/burlington-seasons-clock-2020

-Gustave Sexauer
Burlington Wildways

That's a wrap! With Spring in the air and on the calendar, we've closed the books on the Seasons Clock and the over 600 observations we added to it since March 19, 2020. I'd like to extend a big thank you to all who participated!

We ended with observations of nearly all of our focal species and saw some differences compared to prior years' observations on iNaturalist (2006-2019) summarized below:

Turkey Vulture - seen into September instead of June
Black-capped Chickadee - sang the "fee-bee" song in September, well outside of the normal March/April
Red-winged Blackbird - seen into June, not just the start of May
Canada Goose - seen March to August, instead of November to June

Northern Leopard Frog - seen into November, not just October
Painted Turtle - seen into October, not just June
Wood Frog - seen June to September, not April to May

Mourning Cloak Butterflies - seen into July, not just May

Pussy Willow buds - seen in March, not April
Silver Maple flowers - seen in March, not April
Basswood flowers - seen in July, not May
Common Milkweed pods - seen into November, not just September

Muskrat - observations into November instead of August
Red Fox - seen year-round, even in August and September

See the full clock here:
https://burlingtonwildways.org/projects/burlington-seasons-clock-2020

Stay tuned for new phenology projects from Burlington Wildways by checking on the project page!
https://burlingtonwildways.org/projects
We have many exciting new projects and content being planned for Spring 2021 and Earth Day 2021 including a collaborative run between Burlington and Winooski at the City Nature Challenge:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2021-burlington-winooski

Enjoy the Spring, get out, and celebrate nature!

-Gustave Sexauer
Burlington Wildways