Quick trip to south Louisiana

We had our Fall break at Wilkes and had a four day weekend so I decided to go visit my son. Flew into New Orleans, rented a car, and was off. 

Weather was warm - in the upper 80's but not uncomfortable (easy to say driving in an air conditioned car). Went up to Southeastern Louisiana University and met up with one of my old professors and had a nice tour of the new biology building. Picked up some live oak acorns and they've already yielded some weevil larvae, which we'll barcode to species and will probably share the DNA for population studies. 

Did some birdwatching and picked up a few good birds but nothing specific to the area except some white ibis at 70 mph on the road. Still it was great to get out in the swamps and look around. 

Green anole

Bayou as seen from HWY 51 - the road that sits under 55. Slower road with much better views of the marshes and swamps

Tons of dragonflies - I suspect lots of migrating dragonflies

Gulf frittilary (?)

Little blue heron at the Joyce WMA

Magnolia warbler

Monarch butterfly - lots of them were around

Pileated woodpecker - not an Ivory-billed 

Stayed in Donaldsonville the first night in a place between two refineries. It sucked. So I stayed the next night in Gonzales, LA - same town as my son.  This place was one of a dozen or so hotels and outlet stores. Oh well. Next time, I'll go some research and try and find and maybe find a little B&B.

The thing that had the biggest impact on me was seeing the result of the Flood of 2016. Remember that? I didn't until I drove through the area around Gonzales and Denham Springs. One commercial referenced 60,000 homes lost. It was incredible and awful. People's lives pushed to the curb.  

The passing of a great conservationist you never heard of

The latest Ornithological Societies of North America newsletter had an obituary of Luc Hoffman.  

"a member of AOU and Honorary Fellow since 2004, COS since 1952, WB since 1983 and WOS since 1955, passed away at the age of 93 on 21 July 2016 at his home in the Camargue wetlands of southeastern France.  He served as director of Wetlands International, vice-president of IUCN and BirdLife. He was the driving force behind the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and was also a co-founder of World Wildlife Fund.  His love for birds led him to secure incredible gains for conservation."

His Wikipedia entry is here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luc_Hoffmann

His institute is here http://luchoffmanninstitute.org/

A post! Life in the greenhouse

As it happens every semester, I get swamped. But I haven't balanced the busy with the relaxing and trying to remedy that. 

First is spending time with plants. Easy. Go up in the greenhouse. The second will be to get out in the field. Let's see how that goes. 

Today, I was up to check on a few projects. All are going really well. 

Competition experiment for Ecology. Students plant seeds in different concentrations and combinations and will measure biomass at the end

Persimmon. These were seeds this spring. Looking awesome

Four groups of photosynthetic plants here. Small fern in the top left, liverwort in the top right, there's a moss between the two and down a few cm, then there's an algal film throughout. 

Pawpaw seedlings. These just germinated and they've been sitting in damp soil for weeks. Super excited about these guys. I've never seen a pawpaw in the wild. 

Meow meow plague meow

The allusion to Mr. Rogers will only be understandable to those with some gray - like it or not. 

Here's a link to a story about a cat with plague in Colorado. It's out there simmering. 

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/cat-contracts-plague-in-jefferson-county

Turtlehead flowers

Turtlehead flower (Chelone glabra) is one of my favorite native plants and I had to get one when I came across individuals for sale (Edge of the Woods has them in Oresville, PA).

When I was walking out to my truck I noticed a bumblebee visiting the plant and it disappeared! Then I noticed a leg sticking out. 

Two petals of the corolla close down like the jaws of an alligator. The bumblebee is large enough that it has the muscle to lift the top and crawl inside. This is just another mechanism that plants use to exclude some pollinators and increase the probability of having a narrower pool of pollinators. This increases the probability that pollen goes from turtlehead to turtlehead. Other mechanisms include corolla length (long corollas are pollinated by long tongued insects, colors, timing of flowering, and even deception). Cool stuff. 

There's a bumblebee in the front flower and you can see one of her black legs sticking out the left side 

Bee leaving 

Jacob's Property wanderings

Explored Jacob's property in Buck Township, PA. Was there for two hours and picked Tufted Titmouse, Black-capped Chickadee, Eastern Phoebe, Olive-Sided Flycatcher (my first in many years), Pileated Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, American Crow, Blue Jay, Red-breasted Nuthatch (another goodie), White-breasted Nuthatch, Song Sparrow, Common Yellowthroat, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Blue-headed Warbler, mystery thrush. Swung by the pipeline and the grasses they planted are coming up nicely. 

It was also a great day for fungi! 

Coyotes dispersing seeds to the pipeline right-of-way

Flypoison

Bottle Gentian

Alabama for Darwin, historically speaking

I haven't read this article but I want to post it so I go back and read it. 

Alabama fossil's role in the development of Darwin's theory.