This week was pretty busy, but it was really fun! We finally got to go back to the Zumwalt Prairie again!
On Monday and Tuesday, we just worked on more pinning. We worked mostly on our August samples from Boardman and the Umatilla. We are getting so close to being caught up! I also now hold the record for the largest sample pinned in our lab! Last Tuesday, I started pinning a sample collected at plot Degraded 3 at Boardman. There were 555 bees, and of those 555 bees about 430 of them were Agapostemon! Pinning that sample was brutal, but finishing it was a relief!
On Tuesday night, Lauren, Sam, Estany, and I went to the Umatilla County Fair! We saw so many cute animals, and we got to go to the Dustin Lynch concert too!
On Wednesday morning, Lauren, Sam, and I left for the Zumwalt. It is about a three hour drive to Summer Camp, and we got there at about 10:00 am. Since we have three days each time we go to the Zumwalt, we have a little bit more freedom to spread out all of the work that we need to do. So on Wednesday, Sam and I set out pan traps and pitfalls and hand-netted, and Lauren did her percent cover and native/invasive grass surveys.
It is amazing how much drier it is at the Zumwalt now compared to the first time we were there in June (see pictures above). We actually were not allowed to drive to three of our plots because driving is restricted on any unimproved roads because of the extreme fire danger. This means that now we have to hike to at least three of the six plots with all of our equipment in packs.
On Thursday, we did our floral surveys, and we ended up just hiking to all six sites because we did not need much equipment. The floral surveys were much more pleasant this time! We only had to count about a thousand blooms rather the 13,000 blooms that we counted at the Zumwalt in June!
After we finished our work on Thursday, the three of us went to explore Joseph, a little town just southeast of the Zumwalt. We also stopped by Wallowa Lake for a little while!
On Friday, we hiked to the plots to collect the pan traps and refill the pitfalls. Sam and I also fished for grasshoppers on our way out of the preserve! There were a ridiculous number of grasshoppers at the Zumwalt this time, and while we were driving on the dirt roads, they all started jumping up around the tires of the Suburban. So naturally, we decided to use the hand nets to catch some of them for Lauren to feed to her pet spiders! Sam caught 12 grasshoppers!
Overall, we had a pretty good week! It was very pleasant at the Zumwalt, and we had fun staying at Summer Camp and exploring Joseph while we were there!
