City Nature Challenge plans and picking up speed

Huh... finally! Getting out of this slump. With all of that cold icy weather we had in the winter I am now back in action for the long haul of 2022. I have hit a slump in a few ways. One was the ice and cold; in many areas it hindered me from getting out. The snow was not bad but we had a bit of ice in the area that prevented me from getting around in my backyard for my porch and drive were frozen solid with black ice one some days. I have also been really busy with classes. I am finishing up my final year at Tarrant County College. This is my graduating semester. I have already been accepted in UTA and will be going into a wildlife photography field and filmmaking. I am not sure which exact direction I am taking for I still have some things to work out but I have the ball rolling to get to UTA in the fall of this year.

With that said classes have been a bit time consuming but have been rather good and interesting. I am taking an awesome geography class and a very interesting federal gov. class. I am now enjoying a very nice spring and with spring the City Nature Challenge is about to come around the bend. I am already well into training. I am ready to take on this year's contest. If you ask me the last couple of years for the City Nature Challenge were kind of lagging in morale. That was mainly due to the pandemic but I have to say last year even though I was not feeling it at first was my best run yet. This year I hope to break that record I made. I had well over 900 observations even though I didn't get to hit that big thousand.

This year it is no holds bar. I am going to be working double time and bringing my super A game. I have started mothing pretty early this year. This weekend I began mothing and everything is A-okay. Every year I like to check the bulb on my UV light just to make sure it doesn't need to be replaced. It is still working like a charm. I got quite the load the previous night. I was able to get quite a few different things. I didn't get much but I did get quite a few things. It was not that hot or sticky like my little friends like it. However, it was a very good run for the early part of April. I have a few new things I will be using some new tools I have acquired in the last year. For my birthday in 2021 I got a new scope and even a cool little game cam. I will be using these to get some better images and more images. The game cam will come in handy when I am away or asleep. This will be a good tool to use to help boost my numbers somewhat.

I have been using my game cam a Primo's Bulletproof 2. It is a good new tool I have. The scope is great too. I need to find a screw I can use to put my phone holder back together so I can use my cellphone to take photos. This is going to a bigger season for me. I am already going outside of my house more at night now that I am starting to see more and more creatures emerge. I have been really busy trying to round up my observations too. I am at 17,550+ but I am hoping to round up to about 18,000 or more. It is just something I feel will be good to do. I try to round up before the contest anyway. Sometimes I gain species before hand and there are some I am likely to miss. Still it is good to look high and low and to see what you can find before hand. I know it is still a ways off but I am pumped. I like to get in the zone when I do this thing. April is always my busy time anyway. I am hoping for a good City Nature Challenge run this year. I am hoping for a good outcome this year. I am told that we will have some more ground to cover in some areas. I will be going to my the big places again. I am going to try and do more mothing events and what have you. Plans are still taking shape but I am getting a battle plan formulated. This CNC is going to be amazing.

Posted on 04 April, 2022 05:55 by galactic_bug_man