By the dawn’s early light, I was once again out on the hunt for bees. As soon as I arrived at East of Town Hall I secured my first catch, which, after a morning of searching, turned out to be my last. I returned to Andes with the single bee in tow, wiped her of her pollen, and released her on the way to laundry day at the Elk Lake House.
A windy morning on the prairie
After laundry the Andes crew returned home for a pizza dinner and Pirates of the Caribbean. To partake in the 4th festivities, the four of us climbed up the ski slope and got a full view of the firework display. From our vantage point, we had an unobstructed 360 degree view of the fireworks in the surrounding towns, not to mention font row seats to the sunset– it was definitely worth the hike. Stay tuned tomorrow for a continuation of the celebration!
Happy Friday from Team Echinacea! We started off the day a bit early to beat the heat and get started on phenology in the remnants. Kennedy and I tackled the “Wiley loop” and found that the majority of our plants were flowering. Some were even on their last day of flowering or already done! It is so intersting to be able to watch these plants go from bud, to developing its rays, to a fully fledged pollen-producing flower. What a journey these plants undertake year after year, and we get to be a part of it!
After a lunch of t-shirt and team cheer brainstorming, I headed out with Amy to get some video footage for my scientific method video series that I will be developing during my time with Team Echinacea. I shot some fun B role of Amy collecting pollen, and got a special guest star from some cows! After wrapping up for the day, Mia and I were craving some nice and cool AC, so we headed to Copper Trail Brewing in Alexandria to get some computer work done.
Today was an awesome day, a great way to cap off a super productive week! Have a great weekend, echinacea-lovers!
The Echinacea Flowers are beginning to all begin flowering at a similar time so the phenology is getting intense. The next few weeks we will be doing phenology Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays adding to the most extensive and accurate data base of Echinacea angustifolia in the world (while also cultivating grit). On Wednesday afternoon about half the crew was able to go to P10 (my favorite) located at West Central Area Schools (WCA) Environmental Learning Center to assess how many of the Echinaceas plants survived from our plantings in 2019. P10 is currently being used by WCA students for research projects and the Echinacea Project to determine how fire affects the prairie. A great opportunity for the students from school in collaboration with future Echinacea Project members.
Some of the Echin in P10 were very small, like 1 cm length leaves.
Kennedy (WCA 2022) and Maris (Wooster College 2022) search for Echin plants on one of the 12 plots located at WCA Schools.
And since I sort of promised a Limerick, here goes:
P1, P10, ologyPhen
Buckthorn, Sumac, Goats in the Pen.
P2,P3, Demography.
What, Wait, Where is P3?
Field Flag Organizer two thouSen.
The Field Flag Organizer 2000F
The members of Team Echin working at P10 (minus Mia as she is taking the pict).
Today was quite a busy day! The team split up and took a crew over to P2 (that’s where I was) to start phenology on the flowering plants in the field.
P2 Field Flagged
The plants phenology contained information such as where it was(row and position), a twist tie color to mark individual heads to help separate them when we study, and if the plant was flowering or not(if it was flowering the first, second, and mid day fields were filled). Most of the plants were flagged with a red flag and labeled. The afternoon came fast and lunch began. Stuart talked with us to make sure that everyone knew more safety and talked about who wants to present for projects.
Laura and WesleyS.T.I.P.A.S. Selfie
After lunch another group (super terrific incredible people association squad AKA S.T.I.P.A.S.) went out to do a stipa search in certain remnants. The squad went out for the rest of the afternoon and we went to, Hegg, Loefflers Corner, and Yellow Orchid Hill. We went to each random point that we needed and checked a meter around each point to see if any stipa was growing. If it was we would record, collect, and bag it up.
After a rowdy weekend of off-road races at Andes, I started off the week by gathering data for my independent project for the first time. In the morning I headed out with Jennifer to Loeffler’s Corner East and West to catch bees as they pollinated the flowering Echinacea heads. We noted any flowering plants of other species as well and collected samples of their pollen.
After catching four bees from each site and chilling them in the fridge, I got to work scraping the pollen off each bees’ legs and stomachs. Once I was satisfied with the scraping and had deposited the pollen in its respective receptacle, I toted the bees back to where I found them and released them. It was bittersweet to say goodbye, but they’re probably happier buzzing amongst the Echinacea than with me in the basement of Hjelm.
The pollen I scraped off was then mixed with a dab of fuchsin jelly melted onto a microscope slide. This made the the tiny pollen grains stand out more under the scope. After each pollen sample was accounted for I began to do the same with pollen collected from the flowers in the field, as this will one day comprise my pollen reference library. Can’t wait to go out and catch more tomorrow!
A tiny Halictus spp. friend. Get a load of all that pollen!
A slightly blurry Agapostemon virescens pre release
Today marked the beginning of our third week of the field season. The team began the day with phenology measurements in the remnants. Today we measured 509 flowering Echinacea heads! This is roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of the heads we are monitoring. We expect flowering will peak next week. Stay tuned for more information! During the afternoon, the team worked on independent projects and continued assessing Hesperostipa reproduction in remnants. Emma and Amy measured a plot at landfill east with over 100 culms… oofta!
After a nice restful weekend of hammock naps, lake swims, and puppy snuggles with our house guest, Goose, I am ready for the busy week ahead! Tomorrow promises to be filled with first or second day of flowering Echinacea, based on what we were seeing on Friday, which will mean some serious phenology being done going forward!
Team dust is working on calculating how much dust is being deposited on roadsides. We created a contraption that mimics the shape of an Echinacea,with filter paper as the “head”. On Friday, we put out these contraptions at varying distances from the road at two site. We collected them on Saturday, and are looking forward to analyzing how much dust they collected tomorrow! Stay tuned for what promises to be a fun and busy week!
Kennedy placing our dust collectors along the road at Riley.
Friday morning started with the whole team doing our first full round of phenology. I headed out with Mia to a couple of sites, we managed to find lots of new flowers and do phenology on multiple sites. At North of Golf Course, we managed to find so many new flowers that there are now 5x as many heads at the location as before! At East Elk Lake Rd, Mia and I set up some filters for Team Dust. The filters are measuring how much dust is deposited at multiple locations at different distances from the gravel road.
After lunch Mia, Laura, Kennedy, Wesley, John, and I went out to finish flagging experimental plot 2. I can proudly say that we finished flagging and the plot is completely ready! Kennedy had the highlight of her life occur while out of P2, she almost dropped her water bottle while taking a drink but made an amazing save!
Since we finished flagging before the afternoon was over, each of us split up to help others with other work that needed to be done. I went out with Jared and helped him count Stipa at Landfill. We did not expect just how many plants were at the locations we were searching at, it took a while longer than expected. Once we finished we went back to Hjelm for a little watermelon treat and some good conversation.
Glad to have had a second successful week! Catch you later,
Today was our first chance to use our newly gained phenology skills in the field. In the morning, we split up into pairs and worked together, visiting several sites and making records for any plants that are already flowering, maybe about 10% of the echinacea at this point.
I was paired up with John, which meant riding in his jeep, the famed “Bombus-mobile.” Even though there weren’t too many flowering plants yet, we were able to spend all morning on phenology, taking on a couple extra sites when we finished the ones we’d been assigned.
The Bombus-mobile at Loeffler’s CornerJohn showing off his sock full of stipa seeds. Foreshadowing!
After lunch, there were a couple of tasks that needed getting done. I headed out with a group to finish flagging p2, while others went to weed wild parsnip at Loeffler’s Corner; that stuff can give you a nasty rash! This time at p2, we used very long measuring tapes (50m) to ensure accuracy. We had saved the toughest part for last, a dead zone with nary a plant to base our measurements off of, so it was important to use a tape that could span the whole plot. The plan was a success, and we finished with time to spare!
A team of six carried the 50m tape row to row.All done! Proud Mia!p2 team minus Mia
After wrapping up p2, I headed out with Mia to search for stipa (porcupine grass) in the remnants around random points we had placed flags at earlier in the season. Any time a stipa plant was growing within a meter of a point we were looking at, we would gather data on a number of the plant’s features before collecting the fruits. This took us until the end of the day (a little afterwards, in fact; we ended up having to deal with a relatively large plant).
Measuring one meter from the point.We found a nice stipa!
And last but not least, today’s butterfly!
Another crescent, this time in a remnant. So flashy!
