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Today Reina, Mike and I went out to do phenology this morning, along with Gretel, Stuart and Per it went by pretty quick! I found this confused ray florette this morning. And below is a head with just one lone anther…enjoying its last day of flowering. In the afternoon Gretel and I worked on continuing crossing in the qGen experiment. All in all it was a relatively quiet day here in Kensington. Hello everyone! The cold spell that we have been under is still hanging around. Which for me means I can sleep in for once on the weekends; on the flip side the pollinators will not be out, and no data can be collected.
Here is a picture of a pollinator that I saw, unfortunately I did not see her today… On the bright side tomorrow is predicted to be sunny and not windy! I am hoping for a bumper day tomorrow! May the pollinators be every plentiful, This morning we had Tv people film us doing phenology and other various projects such as stipa, crossing, and trichome picture taking. The weather decided to be cloudy in the morning, rain for about an hour, become cloudy again, and then be nice and sunny! The afternoon consisted of more picture taking of trichomes and stipa searching. Kory was even able to pin a few pollinators! It was a productive day overall.
This morning started out with some of the crew at varying remnants working on independent projects and some were at the Hjelm house: Reina and Pam were working on their trichome data, while Sara Z worked on pinning ants, Lydia and I began some crosses but were soon rained out. Before we got rained out however I found this large fly larva in the head of the plant I was crossing…normally they are transparent-ish…this one however had a hay day with the pollen and as you can see is quite orange! Once the rain put a stop to the crosses for the morning we worked on organizing and taking inventory of the pollen that has been collected thus far for the crossing experiment (qGen2). After lunch today Stuart gave the crew a brief introduction into the wonderful world of R…OHHHHH the possibilities…. Then, later in the afternoon, we had many hands on deck helping with crosses that had been prioritized for the day. The most important thing about crossing is that you accessorize well while doing it, and what better way to accessorize than to have a handy bract painting bracelet! Below I am showing proper bracelet wearing technique. These bracelets are all the rage right now at the Hjelm house, and they certainly are not going out of “style” anytime soon! (Or at least not until the crossing experiment is finished). Well, I must say we are very fashion forward here in Kensington, and I’m sure no one will be caught without one tomorrow because of the exciting happenings that are to be taking place tomorrow morning….but I shouldn’t say anymore just yet….stay tuned! Hey everyone! Today was a very beautiful day, sunny and high in the mid 70’s. I am loving these cooler temps, however the cool weather makes it hard to guess when the pollinators will be out and buzzing. I did have an interesting visitor on one of my heads though, I would not have guessed to see a bumblebee visit. Dayvis (who is on the other side of Hegg Lake) also saw one too! Strange times we are living in, strange times. Sarah B is still working on her phonology project and Sara Z has been working hard on her project regarding ants! MIke, Reina, and Marie worked on their projects for most of today as well. Later in the afternoon some people went out to collect pollen for the crossing experiment and even got in a few crosses! Today was a beautiful day in Kensington, with a nice breeze and a high in the upper 70s. The pollinators apparently disagreed with this assessment, as both Dayvis and Kory had trouble finding them at their respective plots in Hegg Lake this morning. Back at the Hjelm House, Marie, Reina, Mike, and Gretel worked on phenology in the common garden. Flowering is finally well under way, although no one has a good estimate for the percentage of flowering heads. The Sara(h)s visited 5 remnants to monitor flowering and capture ants.
In the afternoon, Reina, Mike, and Pam worked on a poster for ESA. Marie and Dayvis went back to Hegg Lake with Sulu to find some well-concealed pallida plants. The rest of the crew worked on crosses in the common garden. Dinner by Dayvis was delicious as usual, although he complained vociferously about the stove burning the lentils he had planned to serve. Reina donated two blocks of fudge given by her mother (Turtle and Dark Chocolate Caramel Sea Salt). Sara Z went missing, and has no idea of the culinary delights that she missed out on. Today was a busy day for Team Echinacea. The morning started off with phenology in the common garden. We have a lot of flowering Echinacea and many of them are far along! It was a nice, cool, dewey morning, a pleasant change from the heat and humidity this week. Too bad the dew didn’t stick to the spider web so that this poor fella’ may have avoided being breakfast…
Afterwards, Lydia continued her aphid addition and exclusion experiment then gave Hattie a hair wrap. Marie finished scanning her plot. Now she has much analyzing to look forward to! Dayvis and Marie also report gopher sightings at Hegg Lake. Sarah and I worked together on our projects. Sarah continued her phenology at the Landfill sites while I followed looking for ants on Echinacea. It was a cool and wet morning so the ants were not very active. We did have several close encounters with an electric fence at Around Landfill, but no on-the-job accidents today.
Currently, Mike and Reina are at the Grant County Fair. Lydia (with the help of Sarah, Dayvis, and Marie) polished off leftover pizza that Marie made. It was Marie’s rendition of dining hall pizza: buffalo tofu; to which Lydia says, “I think it tastes fine.” It’s finally gone, now we are looking forward to Marie’s next culinary creation. Ilse is camping this weekend and Kory is in IL with family. We miss them dearly and await their safe return tomorrow. -Sara Z After a spell of hot weather this past week, today offered the team a nice break from the heat. With temperatures in the 70’s today, it was a beautiful day to work outside. In the morning, Mike and I went out to Hegg Lake to help Kory with his pollinator research. The rest of the team was divided between doing independent data collecting at various sites and collecting pollen in the morning. In the afternoon, the team split and worked on independent projects. After a relaxing cool afternoon, the town hall got an unexpected surprise. From clear to stormy, windy, and ominous looking, the sky turned on us within minutes. Thankfully nothing severe, but very fascinating instead. It added a nice turn of events for the day, and the cool air that accompanied it was most welcome! The last few days have been quite steamy here in Douglas County, but Echinacea continues to flower and so our work doesn’t stop! A lot happened this morning for team echinacea. Sarah B continued her assessment of phenology in the remnants while Dayvis and Kory were at Hegg Lake continuing their independent projects. Gretel led a team to assess phenology in the common garden and Ilse and I went out to Staffanson to collect pollen for the cross experiment.
In the afternoon nearly everyone helped Amy finish searching for her plants out at Hegg Lake and were treated to ice cream afterwards. Ilse and I entered some data and practiced our artistic skills out in the common garden (i.e. painted some bracts). Looks like we’ll start the official crosses tomorrow! I made an enormous amount of fried rice for dinner tonight and a bunch of us crafted pollinator exclusion bags/cages while watching X-men. The forecast for tomorrow says it’s supposed to be a bit cooler, let’s hope so! Whoops! Looks like I forgot to post about Tuesday yesterday… Well, better late than never. Sarah B |
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