The heat started to break finally so it was not blistering hot while we went out into the field this week. On Monday I joined Keelie, Lauren, and Sam out to RDO farms. Lauren is running the same experiments from Boardman there. At this site she is researching how having native lands around the farm benefits pollinators and spiders. We split into two groups, I went with Keelie to set traps in the alfalfa fields while Sam and Lauren went to The Nature Conservancy which boarders the farm. We set out the usually pan traps and pitfalls here. The only difference is there is only 3 pan traps and 2 pitfalls that are only out for two days. Lauren also set out game cameras to see what invertebrate predators are present. For this we used tripods made for the game cameras and adjusted them to point down to the ground. On the ground we had 5 wax worms placed on cardboard for bait. We left the cameras out for 24 hours. Below is a picture of the set up.
On Tuesday Lauren and Keelie did not need help in the field moving the cameras to their second location. I stayed in the lab and worked on the tedious task of bee pinning. This task consumed the whole day!
Wednesday was a day spent at RDO with the gals. Keelie and I completed our sites first since we did not have to move our cameras to another site. We were unable to place the cameras at the last site since they were starting to rip up the alfalfa fields. All we had to do was grab all the traps and cameras which took no time! Since this only took the morning I went back to bee pinning.
To end the week I continued to pin bees. I can’t believe 10 weeks of my internship has already come and gone! I will be continuing to work at HAREC for a couple more weeks to finish off my summer. This experience was great and I am grateful for the opportunity.
