Bees in the wind

WIND: The wind was so tumultuous yesterday. It tapered by mid-day, but at dawn it was at it's strongest. I was struck by the different ways the leaves of different trees moved with the wind. The compound leaves all had this wispy graceful way of flowing with the wind, while the stout leaves of the buckthorns seemed obstinate and reluctant to bend under the wind's influence. Last year I had girdled a Norway maple, this year the tree had both leafed out and flowered, which was impressive. During the windstorm I put my ear to the exposed wood to listen to the wind strain and contort the tree's long fibers. It sounded like the achings in the belly of a large boat. When I put my ear against the part of the bole that still had bark on it, the sounds were muffled, but still echoed that deep resonant strain on the tree.

BEES: The day quickly warmed and I spent some time watching our three beehives. It was funny watching the guard bees act as bouncers to returning foragers. Each colony has its own scent and the guards would presumably tip off the others if a bee from another hive tried to enter. Most of the time there were two bees guarding the entrance to the hive. The pair was constantly vigilant and would approach each bee entering (if only for a brief moment). I'm not sure how one bee will replace another as guard (how long could a sentry keep its guard up before it started to lose focus?), but I watched a pair on active duty for about 10 minutes without being replaced. Others guards would go into the hive or I'd lose track of who was who every couple of minutes.

In the video, all the bees returning with huge yellow balls attached to their rear legs are foragers carrying pollen back to the hive. Bees collect pollen for raising brood, and it is the colonies only source of protein, fat, vitamins, starches, and essential minerals. Pollen has a slight negative charge, bees have a slight positive charge, so a bee will literally pull the pollen right off a flower's anther. Bees are covered with hairs, which increases their surface area and their for the attractive force to pollen. While out foraging they will clean themselves and pack the pollen into "pollen basket," or corbicula, on their hind legs.

Not all pollen is created equal and protein concentration can range from 2% to over 60% protein!! Plants can be pollinated by animals or the wind, and so not surprisingly, the 2%-ers are wind pollinated (anemophilous), and the 60%-ers are pollinated by insects (entomophilous) and/or vertebrates (zoophilous). I've been out in Centennial Woods checking which species the bees are feeding on and I've spotted them on most of the clovers in flower - birdsfoot trefoil, crown vetch, cow vetch, and red clover. I haven't seen them on the flowers of white clover, but I've noticed an abundance of ants on these. Turns out white clover also has one of the lowest protein concentrations of the clover family (Fabaceae). Members of the pea famliy (Fabaceae), like clover, tend to have pollen with the higher concentrations of protein. Their flowers are also highly specialized for attracting insects. I'll post soon a video of insects manipulating birdsfoot trefoil flowers to show this. Asters also tend to have pretty high concentrations of protein in their pollen.

For a great description of other activities different castes within the bee hierarchy are responsible for, check out: http://bigislandbees.com/buzz/2010/05/19/bee-hive-hierarchy/.

For more on pollen concentrations:
http://www.devonbeekeepers.org.uk/downloads/articles/pollen_nutrition_roulston.pdf

Ireland

What: I took the above photo in Glendalogh, which is just south of Dublin. There are a whole buch of amazing trails that wind up and down the slopes of the valley and lead around the upper and lower lakes. Just below the lower lake there's a 12th century celtic monastery. One of the tombstones was for a monk who lived from 1675 to 1777! 102 always sounds old, but for some reason seems improbably old in 18th century Ireland.

Ecological notes: It was pretty comforting to know that my two years in grad school were not in vain. The heads of my program always talked about how we could (or rather should) be able to get dropped off in some unknown part of the world and be able to use our naturalist skills to interpret the area's history. On the 7 mile hike, I spent most of the time piecing together the story, and was pretty happy with how close I was to figuring out the story being told in the visitor's center.

Initially I was overwhelmed with all the new species of birds, trees, and wildflowers. But I quickly started noticing all these plants that I knew from Vermont (like oxeye daisy, Japanese knotweed, burdock, honeysuckle). Then there were all the species that I knew from their North American look alikes - willows, oaks, thrushes, crows. Once past the wall of green, I started noticing lots of patterns in where they were and where they weren't. Granted Ireland's land use and geologic history are pretty similar to Vermont's, but it was sill a rich experience.

Glendalogh's history was probably the most charismatic of the places I went. There were some really clear patterns and not so subtle clues to the geologic history and human history. The valley has an elegant U-shaped carve to it. and the vegetative community changes abruptly with the transition from a micaceous schist in the lower valley to granite in the upper valley. The valley wall in the background shows an abrupt edge in forest type - remnants of old logging and then sheep pasture. You can barely see a yellow patch in the distance - a stand of the spikey gorse, which was flowering while I was there. Why build a pasture fence when you can grow one? Farmers burn the hedges every few years to regenerate the gorse and keep out other species. The spine of the mountains was covered in fir and rowan while lower in the valleys was an abundance of oak, ash, alders, and hazels. An aldery, birchy swamp bridged the low, wet areas between the two ponds, which were separated by alluvial sediments washed in from a side valley.

I wish I had gotten to spend a bit more time getting to know the trees of Ireland - it was like a new toy I'd gotten for my birthday - the rush of excitement ignoring the directions and just going for it. I'd love to go back, read the instruction manual a bit more thoroughly, and really dig in to the natural history of that place. I did spend a fair amount of time carving spoons, which I'll post pictures of when I finish those up.

Where: Glendalogh, Ireland.

Other notes: A definite highlight was spotting the rather common "wee willy wagtail".

Dragonflies and Butterflies

What: I have been seeing this beautiful, big, white-bodied dragonfly with distinct striping on its wings for over a month now in Centennial Woods. I could tell immediately that this was a dragonfly and not a damselfly (the other major group of Odonates) because of its large abdomen and broad four translucent wings that lay flat when at rest (a damselfly's wings would rise up vertically). I once worked with an ecological researcher who studies dragonfly behavior, but I couldn't remember for the life of me what this particular one was. Was it a darner, a skimmer, a cruiser, an emerald (common groups of dragonflies)? So I scoured the internet trying to remember what this very common white-tailed dragonfly was, and lo and behold, it is the Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia, formally Libellula lydia). It is so common, in fact, that it is found in all of the 48 conterminous United States and most of the Canadian provinces.
            As for the butterfly, it didn't take too long to identify it using this site: http://www.thebutterflysite.com/vermont-butterflies.shtml. I took a look at the names for the different butterflies, and noticed that there was a group called "Swallowtails." If you look a the photo above, you'll see that is a fitting name for this kind of butterfly. Then I looked through the names of Swallowtails, and noticed there were two species named "Tiger Swallowtail," again, the yellow wing with black striping suggests such a name would be apt. One is the Canadian Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio canadensis), and the other is the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus). I tried to read a little bit more on distinguishing the two, but the most common trait identified was the smaller wingspan of the Canadian, which is not of much help to meet with this one fleeting photo I captured. I am happy with my Papilio classification - you can add more if you'd like!

Ecological notes: Common to members of the Odonata, the Common Whitetail dragonfly starts off life as an aquatic "nymph." You'll remember seeing dragonfly and damselfly nymphs in collections of stream macroinvertebrates if you ever did those exercises in school! This particular dragonfly nymph is tolerant to polluted waters, so it is not used as an indicator of stream health (although it doesn't mean the stream is unhealthy if they are present). Both the nymphs and the adults feed on other insects, so remember to not be afraid of these possibly intimidating insects, as they will help keep those mosquito and black fly populations in line!

Where:  I encountered this breeding male (as denoted by the starch-white abdomen) basking on the boardwalks that run through the powerline cut in Centennial Woods, close to the stream. This is really where it thrives, as it is after mosquitos and other insects that are found around ponds and slow-moving streams. This male stayed very close to one piece of boardwalk, and that is also a common behvaior, as breeding males with guard a 10-30 meter stretch of river or pond side as their territory. I saw another male Whitetail about 100 feet up the trail on the other side of the stream, most likely guarding its territory.

Other notes: It was fun to finally explore more of our charismatic minifauna, as I think these two are both beautiful and showy, albeit small in size. These are two great insects to get to know, as they are apparently very common throughout North America. Now it's time to explore more butterflies and dragonflies. Be on the lookout for the Vermont state butterfly - the Monarch - on its massive migration to feed on milkweed later in the summer!

7 bug challenge

What: Several years ago I was up in Morro Bay, CA and I was looking at a salt bush (Atriplex spp.) when I started noticing all these different insects. The longer I stayed the more I saw. I can't remember the number, but it was well over a couple dozen in about 30 minutes. Since then I've often given myself a 7 bug challenge. I choose a shrub or tree and then I can't leave until I spot seven different types of insects (when I get antsy I'll include slugs and snails). This was the first time I'd tried it with an herbaceous plant.

As I was walking in to Centennial Woods this afternoon the sun broke through the clouds and felt absolutely delightful. I stopped at the trail head to sun myself and noticed a big fly sitting on the goutweed doing the same! I decided not to leave until I'd spotted 7 types of flies. I got photos of 6 and stretched it to include a Pimpla sp. (a common type of Ichneumon wasp) because I missed photographing a crane fly.

I'm probably wrong on my identifications here, so please correct me if I'm wrong (I'm using Kaufman's Field Guide to Insects). Scroll over for the name of each.

Ecological notes: True flies are in the order Diptera, which includes the bloodsuckers like black flies, green flies, horse flies, mosquitoes, gnats, deer flies, as well as more benign flies, like crane flies, bottle flies, and s. Other "flies" (e.g. dragonflies, damselflies, mayflies, etc.) are not true flies. All true flies have the word "fly" written as a separate word. True flies also have a single pair of wings and a second pair of balancing rods (really small club like knobs) called halteres. They have cleft claws like the bumblebee I posted on Friday, but their feet are flat


Where: Centennial Woods. Goutweed is a common plant along flood plains and other places with frequent disturbance.

Little bug legs

What: This little bug (well not a true bug, but an insect at least) caught my eye. I spotted a black dot from about 10 feet away then went in for a closer look. On closer inspection it appeared to be the claws of a common eastern bumblebee (Bombus impatiens). I've always been fascinated by the forked claws at the end of the tarsus and at first that was all I could see. I'm not sure who she was (worker or queen) or why she was here rather than cozying up in her den. As I took the photo the very very first drops of rain started to fall - did she get caught too far from home to make it back? Is she a queen out looking for a new colony site? I went back this morning and she was still there (about 12 hours later). The rains look like they took a toll! Reminded me of the rain storm in the movie Microcosmos. 

Ecological notes: I was gone for about 10 days, but now that I'm back it seems like a totally new world. Everything has shot up, the new shoots on my elderberries are about 4' tall! The forest seems so much darker in the understory with all the leaves fully leafed out.

Where: My backyard.

Other notes: I'll update in a couple of days with a mystery photo from Ireland. I was happy to know that my education wasn't a waste if I decide to leave Vermont - turns out that the field naturalist skills I learned in Vermont apply to other places too!