Alex and Leah with one of the first flowering plants of the season!
Happy Stir-Friday, everybody! We had a very productive day here in Kensington. More and more plants are flowering in the remnants, and we started out the morning by assessing phenology at the Riley and East Riley sites. From there we split into groups to check on flowering plants in the other remnants. The team convened for lunch, then split into smaller groups again. Leah, Alex, and I went to the Landfill sites to flag and do phenology. After that, we came back and found more q2 seedlings.
Gretel, Will, Lea, and James went to p2 to tackle flagging and doing phenology there. Word on the street is that it will be another big year for flowering at p2, but fewer than last year. We’ll see! Meanwhile, Scott, Stuart, Alyson, and Laura collected Stipa in p1. While doing so, they discovered that something or someone has been eating the Stipa! Why?! How?! It is so pokey! Current hypotheses propose that deer have been browsing, but the motivation they would have for eating a grass with such bad mouthfeel is unclear.
We finished the day with rootbeer floats. Yum! And because it was stir Fry-day at Town Hall, Alex made us all a tasty stir-fry for dinner. We’re looking forward to a fun weekend and the busy weeks ahead with increased flowering, pollinator observations, and more!
After finding even more grazed plants, with some remaining stems shorter than 10 cm, I suspect 13-lined ground-squirrels might eat Stipa (Hesperostipa spartea) seed.
I’m anxious to get back to Landfill with you, Amy. Not just to look for Echinacea but to find your water bottle too!