|
|
Today we started off by dividing and conquering phenology in all of the remnants and in p1 and p2. Gretel and Stuart did phenology in p1 while Ashley and I took the Northwest loop, Will started solo then met up with Wes and Anna at p2. Meanwhile, Tracie and Alex discovered that Staffanson has lots of ticks this year. Stuart and Gretel took Hattie to camp, so the rest of the team had an extra short lunch then started measuring in p8. I finished GPSing points for the yellow pan traps as well. Overall we had a smooth day, with a few raindrops at the very end.
 A small head being pollinated by one of our native solitary bees!
 Cows were not particularly happy about phenology Monday…
Like Wes said yesterday, it’s pretty clear the crew living at the Andes ski condo enjoys quiet and relaxing mornings. After I made myself waffles and enjoyed a tall cup of hazelnut coffee, Lea and I ventured out to Alexandria to run errands. We stopped by the trusty laundromat to wash our clothes, some of which had wild parsnip oil on it. While our clothes were in the wash, we went grocery shopping for the week. I’m making pasta salad on Wednesday, and I had fun searching the store for all the ingredients I needed. When we checked-out of the store, we returned to our trusty laundromat and switched our clothes to the dryer. To utilize our time, we stepped next door to the coffee shop. There, Lea thought through some of her research questions, and I worked on my experimental design for my summer REU project.
 Lea working in the coffee shop When we collected our laundry, we came back to Andes, and we all enjoyed the braut dinner Wes made. After dinner, we all drank tall glasses of chocolate milk. Yum. 🙂
It’s fair to say that the portion of the team staying at Andes Hill Ski condo enjoys slow mornings and quiet time. Tracie, Lea, Alex, and I all went into Alexandria to get groceries, work on project organization, and do laundry. Ashley enjoyed a peaceful day at the condo finishing up a paper for a study abroad trip she took earlier in the summer.
I took part of my afternoon and went for a hike at Carlos Lake State Park just north of Alexandria. The park is located on Carlos Lake and has both old-growth hardwood forest and restored prairie.
Lake Carlos State Park In the evening, I drove to Starbuck to play with the Morris Community Band in a parade.
 Starbuck, MN 4th of July Parade Then Ashley, Lea, Alex, Tracie, and I met up in Alexandria to try out Copper Trail Brewery.
Copper Trail Brewery Happy 4th of July weekend!
Wes
Today was the first day that we went out to do phenology at all the remnants, p1, and p2. The weather was really nice, the first day all week that we have seen the sun for more than a brief moment. We saw lots of flowering Echinacea, and since the weather was so warm (and had been so cold) we saw lots of pollinators! I saw one plant with two bees on it at once while Ashley and I visited our Aanenson remnant.
 Two tiny pollinators! We finished phenology before lunch and after lunch Tracie and I went to Staffanson to GPS the new flowering plants that Gretel and Anna found this morning, we also found a couple new flowering plants. Alex went out solo with the GPS to survey the points for the yellow pan traps and Lea’s vegetation surveys. The rest of the team worked in p1 verifying positions of flowering Echinacea and the positions of plants that will be used in the Aphid exclusion and addition experiment that has been going on for several years.
Happy Friday!
Will
We started the morning by going into P1 to look and record and flowering or basal Stipa. This task involved locating the Stipa, counting the stems, healthy, aborted, along with missing fruits, and then collecting the healthy fruits for planting. Information collected will be used to estimate the fitness of stipa. Working together we finished the entire plot and recorded 147 stipa plants. The largest plant had 31 stems and 301 fruits!
 (Left to right) The stipa seeds seperated for counting, a large stipa plant, Will and Wes working in P1 After lunch some of us worked on individual projects and a couple went into P8 to plant they freshly harvested stipa seeds. This was done by broadcasting (aka distributing) them evenly throughout the entire plot. Later in the afternoon Will, Ashley, and myself, went back into P1 to locate the plants part of the aphid project. Â These randomly selected Echinacea will be monitored for aphid activity throughout the summer. Will claims to have found one, in his own words, that had over a billion aphids! Which is honestly not the best for any plant…
(left to right) Broadcasting the stipa in p8, the pile of harvested stipa seeds, a stipa plant that had 163 seeds
Looking forward to more phenology and flowering Echinacea!
Today we had a slightly late start because we were concerned about weather. But, the rain held out and we managed to have a productive day! Ashley, Anna, Alex and I started the day with phenology and searching for Echinacea at Aanansen. This remnant is particularly interesting this year because many trees were removed from the top of the hill, making the landscape look totally different! After lunch, I went around solo for a bit and worked on vegetation analysis at some of my roadside sites. I’ll explain the project in more detail in a future flog post, so stay tuned! Finally, we ended the day by identifying all of the flowering Echinacea up at p2.
After work, the Andes crew headed in to Alexandria to do some errands and try Culver’s (many of us for the first time!)
 Sunset at Andes!
I’d like to introduce everyone following the Flog to Blue, Gretel and Stuart’s wonderful puppy of less than five months.
In the morning we split up into two groups. One went to Staffanson to conduct transect phenology and the other group went to plot 2 at Hegg Lake to conduct phenology.
At Hegg Lake there were hundreds and hundreds of Echinacea heads, including one of the first blooming plants of the summer!
While double checking twist ties on heads (used to differentiate heads on one plant), Gretel and I found a bumble bee sleeping in a morning glory. How cute!
On our way back to Hjelm House for lunch, we stopped at a hillside to see Wood Lily (Lilium philadelphicum)Â blooming in a remnant at Hegg Lake.
We also saw blooming Locoweed!
After lunch, we went out and searched for small, nonflowering Echinacea in plot 8. Tracie was definitely enjoying herself, but Alex was a little harder to read…
On our way home, large storm clouds were moving in on use with lightening and threatening thunder.
Hoping for clear weather tomorrow!
Wes
The name of today was phenology! Wes, Ashley, Anna, and I started off the morning finding and documenting Echinacea buds at the East Elk Lake Road fragment. We had heard tell of a four headed plant living on the edge of the corn field, and low and behold there it was! We only found about 20 plants, but I’m sure we will find more as the season progresses.
In the afternoon, we split into 2 groups: one group went to conduct phenology at p2, and the other group went to stake and find plants at the Staffanson transect plot. Staffanson was absolutely beautiful; there were a few puffy white clouds, the temperature was perfect, and the Echinacea buds were out! The p2 team reported that there would be an above average number of flowering Echinacea plants this year, while we found typical numbers of Echinacea buds at Staffanson. It was a great day of fieldwork and a nice way to start the week.
Stuart and Tracie at Staffanson Prairie doing phenology and staking the transect (26 June 2017).
Today was a busy day for the Andes folks. Some of us started the morning off doing laundry, picking up groceries, and working on proposals in the coffee shop in Alex.
Ashley working on her proposal.
A lot of cool experiment-planning going on for Ashley’s project on style persistence.
Ashley’s drawings for hand-pollination of Echinacea heads.
There were also many dirt bike races going on all day at Andes, making for a loud afternoon in the condo.
Dirt biking from our window.
But, Wes came back from St. Olaf with quiche for dinner!
Delicious quiche made by Wes.
AND cookies!
Delicious cookies made by Wes.
Some of us were quite sleepy by the end of the day.
Bellamy being cute and sleepy.
Team Echinacea had a busy Saturday doing various things. I drove back from St. Paul, MN. I was there for a friends birthday. Wes saved the St. Olaf band camp with the magic of his tuba. Other members of the team did laundry in Alexandria and went out to eat at Mi Mexico (conveniently located 50 meters from the laundromat).
Some members did actual work also! Lea found the locations where yellow pan traps, which are used to sample pollinators, were placed in 2004. She plans to use these sites along with some others for her study on community composition along roadsides. Alex is also going to be using those locations to put out yellow pan traps again this summer, he plans to compare pollinators caught this summer to those caught in 2004.
Will
|
|
