Archivos de diario de julio 2020

18 de julio de 2020

Rambling thoughts: 100 Degrees of Nature

Depending on where you live, you may not have the pleasure of sweating through day after day of near 100-degree temps as we are in DFW. This morning I went out from 8:30am-10:30am and came home drenched, despite staying in the shade 80% of the time. I wish we had a pool, but since we don't, I keep on keepin' on with nature.

It seems like I've been busier than usual lately. I enjoy having "projects" to learn from, and I've get several going at the moment, which you have probably noticed if you are following my observations. I'm in the middle of photographing Hackberry Galls for a "reference" point of what we see in the field versus what Gagne described and photographed in 2013.

I've also been learning about and rearing leafminers to document life-cycles, which I always find interesting. These micromoths and flies are tricky though. I seem to be documenting more parasitoid wasps instead. Oh well! Still interesting!

I've really struggled with the Bluebird monitoring this year. Just as I got all the boxes prepped for the season and volunteers ready to help, COVID19 pulled the rug out from under us. Instead of being able to check the boxes every 3-4 days with the help of 4 resident volunteers, I'm doing good if I can make it by all 50 boxes once a week on my own. I've also had a record breaking year of fledglings, too! 195 so far and another 60 growing big and strong. If not for being able to see those sweet little faces from hatching to adolescence, I'd have given up a long time ago!

And today kicks off National Moth Week! Wooohooo!! I'm much more excited than I have energy for at the moment, though. I'll put out my mothing gear tomorrow and hopefully get to see some very-very-very-missed friends at a covid-minded gathering at the end of the week. A couple of moths ago I joined a project to collect some particular micromoths that will hopefully help the microlepidoptera research community on some gaps and unknown species. I've been slacking on that and I'm looking forward to seeing what's new at the light since I put it out last.

If you hung in there with me this long, tell me what iNat-ish stuff you've been up to lately! I miss seeing my IRL iNatters so much!! Stay cool...

Publicado el julio 18, 2020 01:27 MAÑANA por kimberlietx kimberlietx | 4 comentarios | Deja un comentario