This week we went out to the The Nature Conservancy in Boardman, OR for our July field work. We went out on Wednesday and Friday. Boy it was hot! For both days it was in the 100’s. To get through the sites faster we split into two groups and started our days early. I went with Sam and Sandy while Keelie and Lauren went out together. On Wednesday both groups set out pan traps and pitfalls. We also did a bloom survey and hand netted for bees. For the bloom survey we measured out a square 50 meter transect. In this transect we spread out together for several passes to note what flowers were blooming and how many blooms. Once that was complete we hand netted for 15 minutes. This was the same process as we did at Starky. We only captured bees that were on flowers. Once a bee was caught we noted what flower it was on.
Friday was thankfully a short day were Sandy and I picked up the pan traps. To pick up pan traps we filter out the water with a strainer and place the collected insects in plastic bags to freeze later. Freezing the insects preserves them. This day we also refilled the pitfalls with antifreeze. We did this since the antifreeze evaporates with it being so hot.
In between field work days I worked on pinning bees. The bees I worked on were captured by Keelie and Lauren at two other study sites. The two sites are at The Nature Conservancy in Umatilla and at RDO farms. I have yet to go out to these sites. These sites are smaller where only two people are needed. Below are how the bees are pinned in the cardboard pinning boxes.
