Live Updates from Utah – Field Blog

Tues July 2nd – It was an early start for everyone but I’m very grateful for the smooth departure. All were joined up at a fairly quiet USAir terminal C and all 24 bags were checked. We breezed through security (okay, all of us but one breezed through… Just one extra pat down for one member of the team) and we are now west of Pittsburgh at 32,000 feet scheduled to arrive a little early in Las Vegas. We will get out of Vegas as quickly as we can to avoid the worst of the afternoon heat. Cooler temps should prevail in the Utah mountains. We will try to update with some photos tonight!  John Gruber

Wed July 3rd

It was a marathon day… Four travel stages and driving through exceptional heat in Mesquite, NV, but all of us were grateful to watch the temperature drop as our elevation rose from the hot Nevada desert floor. We may see low 90 s for high here today, but it is very cool this morning. Waking up for breakfast soon. The drive from Cedar City to Tropic is unimaginably beautiful.

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Just back from a late morning – lunch afternoon collecting outing into Henderson Canyon. We were happy to see lots of Purshia and oak with the juniper and pine. In beating oak branches, Avital found a fantastic Notodontid moth larva – a magnificent specimen. Another team found a green Geometrid larva and Julien netted a large Cerambycid beetle that is an impressive mimic of a yellow jacket or wasp. We picked up several butterflies and a snakefly (very cool) along Center Street before returning to Clarke’s Market for ice cream and drinks. A passing shower is bringing enough rain to rinse the dust of our fleet of cars and truck, and we’ll set out again a little later !

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July 4th – Hurray ! We are doing wonderfully well out here – unexpected rains – monsoons starting up -very productive light sheets last night – fabulous moths and beetles – one flat tire on the Chevy Tahoe on the dirt road – changed and taken off to the garage. Glad to have these lovely cabins and such a fantastic, helpful, thoughtful group.

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Our 4th of July was a great day, starting out with a substantial insect processing task, pinning, sorting and labeling material from Henderson Canyon. We had breakfast and lunch while working on both insects and reorganizing all the gear, then set out for the Grand Staircase and the Kodachrome Basin State Park. A fantastic hike on the Angel’s Palace trail (group photo coming later) and some frisbee in the parking lot, then home to Tropic for coconut rice and spicy black beans before packing up the cars and driving north and climbing to 8800 feet in the Dixie National Forest. The area just east of Pine Lake was a spectacular alpine slope with spruce pine and fir and many mixed understory shrubs. Very good diversity at two light sheets even as the temperatures dropped back into the mid-50s. Some greatest finds included Nemoria unitaria males and females, a magnificent Catocala, some nice sphingids and a wide diversity of other species. We continue to have to work around widespread scattered rain – the local folks in Tropic told us we must have brought it with us as it is early for monsoons and it hadn’t rained a drop until we showed up. We picked the right spot last night as it rained all around us but not at our site. Stars are spectacular at midnight too! Watch for some student bulletins here – hoping to get someone to sit down and share their perspectives a little later.

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Our first night out collecting was interesting for some of us. Our SUV got a flat tire and we had to stay back over an hour to replace the tire, with most of the time figuring out how to get the spare off of the bottom of the car. Sam and Virgil figured out where to mount the jack and John Faulkner and I put the tire on. Once we arrived at the site for the light sheets a group of six or seven grabbed a second light sheet and moved about 100 yards back into the forest to set it up. We had two black lights and a single mercury vapor light mounted in front of the sheet. It only took 10 minutes or so before beetles were covering the light sheet. – Kellan Barr

This morning, I started by writing in my field notebook on the last three days. I tried to write, but I mostly forget what we’ve done in the past couple days so I asked Big Liz if I could use her field notebook as a cheat to copy down what I’ve forgotten. It turns out the past couple of days has been a blur of great activities. We started a full day on the third of July and went to Henderson canyon to beat some plants. We viciously whacked trees and shrubs in hope of a small caterpillar dropping into our collection sheet waiting patiently underneath. Because these caterpillars blend in to their host plant, we must then search for the indistinguishable caterpillar amongst the abundance of leaves and twigs. Later that night we went back to set up our light sheets to attract the abundance of moths, beetles, arachnids and all insects imaginable. Instead of waiting patiently for an interesting bug to come to the light sheet, I went out and explored the deep darkness (it was actually kind of light) twenty five feet from the sheet and found about five rare insects that would not travel to the sheet. These were a scorpion (I thought it would be best to let someone else capture it), a solifugid, a couple of long horned beetles, and a green stink bug with gold edging found much to Greg’s excitement. Sam V

Last night’s collecting at Pine Lake Campground was very exciting because not long after setting up at the second lightsheet site we had three sightings of green Nemoria moths.  When the Nemoria first showed up, we weren’t prepared and we ended up seeing it darting away into the night.  Eventually we would catch our first Nemoria of the night on Greg’s pants.  Insects seemed to be particularly attracted to Greg’s pants for some reason.  Surprisingly, at the beginning of the night there was a wider range of insects at the lightsheet with only the black lights than at the lightsheet with both the black lights and the mercury vapor light.  Maybe that was due to Greg’s pants.  Another interesting behavior we observed with most of the species that showed up was that they seemed extremely reluctant to stay for long on the lightsheet (which was not true at the Henderson Canyon site), so we had to be extra diligent and quick.  I was often sent out on net patrol, to walk around the lightsheet with a flashlight to see what I could find on the ground.   Amy G

Last night, the group drove up to Pine Lake, which is elevated about 8,800 feet. Being one and a half miles above sea level was incredible. Walking through the beautiful pine forest in the fading twilight, I could feel the thinning air. We set up one light sheet between two unidentified pine trees which smelled very strongly of butterscotch and vanilla. The black lights attracted a relatively scarce, yet impressively diverse set of beautiful moths and small black beetles. Towards the beginning of the night (around 10), we caught sight of at least three Nemoria moths (on our “most-wanted list”) practically flying in front of our faces. Our efforts to net them proved to be futile as they refused to settle on the sheet for more than half a second. By the end of the night, however, we gathered five of the Nemoria moths, three of which are female. We encased the females in a food-filled container to allow them to lay eggs for further study. Overall, it was a very successful night out. As I write this entry, the group is in the process of pinning specimens into the boxes on the cabin porch, waiting patiently for our caffeine to wake us up. Seeing these collections come together makes the tedious task of pinning worth all the effort.

They say that time flies when you are having a good time, but this may be a rare counterexample. The past three days have been some of the longest, yet most enjoyable days I have experienced in a long time. There is nothing quite like walking along a dirt path surrounded by pine trees and looking up at the Milky Way. No matter how many pictures I attempt to take, I simply cannot capture the immense scale or the breathtaking depth of this scenery. We even pulled over on our drive back to Tropic last night at about 1 a.m. to stargaze. The stripe of the Milky Way was so crystal clear that it looks like the Earth has a ring around it like Saturn’s. Simply looking up made me question how we can possibly be held against a massive rock in space and not drifting into the infinite blackness above us.

I hope everyone is well at home, and happy (late) Fourth of July! *Georgia*

July 5th – 6th I think each day gets better and better. Yesterday, a beautiful toad appeared at the light sheet, newly emerged no doubt from a dry season hibernation after these few days of substantial rains. It was a good sign.

The Great Basin Spadefoot toad, Spea intermontana.

The light sheet had more diversity and greater numbers than any we have had so far and produced five more Nemoria unitaria specimens. We have been incredibly lucky with the rains, choosing locations each night that the rain has missed and getting to collect without the downpours and lightning that have been scattered around the counties nearby. Ourrains have come thorugh mostly in the afternoon and they have been impressive at times (and washed the dust off the cars too).  Our trip into Bryce Canyon NP yesterday was unforgettable – it is a national treasure.

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I’ve waited my whole life to see a bristlecone pine – yesterday, we saw an impressive group of these ancient trees clinging to a precipitous cliff with an extraordinary view. A highlight for me of the whole week. (Before getting back into the cars at Bristlecone Loop trail, we all did pushups at 9,115 feet – a high elevation  tradition….) Today is moving day – up early, pack all the gear, head to Grover for two more nights. Hope to post more pictures soon!

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July 7 …. No wireless and little cell coverage but we are in a great place. Rain and hail and cool night and amazing visit to Capitol reef NP. Our weather is unexpectedly wet still but we are working with it. More when we get some service…

“Without warning, CRACK, thunder will roll through our cabin. Between Julien jumping and yelling and Nate yelling “OOOHHHH SNAP” it would be completely understandable for our diligent workers to slip up and poke a needle through the wrong part of a specimen. It’s a very delicate process, pinning.  Five or six steps stand between us and a properly pinned and labeled insect, and many of those steps require a calm and true hand. Through all this noise and commotion, those of us working stay focused and pin correctly and wonderfully. This has become a typical sight on our expedition, not the thunder, but the juxtaposition between work and play. It’s near impossible for every student to be active and pinning at all times, so there are always a few outliers relaxing or doing something silly. From the outside this looks like complete chaos, but for us, we see a finely tuned machine.  Nineteen moving parts work in unison to deal with food, work, rest, play, and a thousand other things, but one doesn’t distract from any other. We’re such a fantastic group that we have no trouble recognizing when we’re working and when we’re playing. That’s not to say that those of us pinning are stone cold and without humor, but rather we know when something needs to be done and do it. In the span of a little less than two weeks, this group has moved from a collection of students with individual friendships to a focused and committed expedition crew. This is the second expedition with John that I’ve been on, and this time we’ve struck the most incredible balance between work and play. It’s a wonderful thing to watch, and it’s even more fun to experience.  – Harper

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July 9th – We are back in Las Vegas and it is 107 degrees. Wow. Heading out for celebratory dinner. Mt. Charleston fire very obvious in smoke plume as we drove in.  Group photo below from Kodachrome Basin Sate Park in Cannonville, UT.

 

 

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July 10th – leaving La Quinta for the airport shortly…. USAir return flight 1750; departs LAS 10 July 2013 at 2:30 pm scheduled arrival in PHL 10:13 pm. HOT and smoky in Las Vegas – 101 degrees at 10:45.

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A portion of the 7 am Fed Ex shipment out of Las Vegas – generators, specimens, satellite phone, field guides, larvae to UConn… thanks to Lisa and the friendly early morning staff at FedEx Office on Eastern Ave….

July 10th – (from Liz) As the trip has wound to an end, it has given me time to reflect on all that we have accomplished in these past nine days. Our goal was to collect Nemoria, and that we did, though we did get as much diversity as we hoped for. The true great moments for the trip were times when the group of people, kids and adults alike, we able to spend time together and bond. In our cabins in Grover, the rainy afternoons allowed us all to gather and have a pinning party or all join in a game of cards or play mafia. Then those cold nights at the light sheets once again brought us close together as we all scrambled to find layers and jumped around to keep warm. Then at the light sheet, whenever something looked green there would be an instant shout of glee and someone would call for a jar only to realized that it was just a white moth that looked green in the black lights. But in the moments  waiting, either around the light sheet, in our cabins, cars, or in the inspiring landscape, that our group was able to truly bond and connect.  When Lily on the last night whacked Virgil in the head with a net so hard that it left a mark that was still there in the morning because we thought we saw a Nemoria; or how well all developed or nurtured a caffeine addiction so that we could stay up all night; or turning the light sheets off just so we could all stare at the stars that were more magnificent than anything we have other seen; or each car arguing over who had the best music playing during long car rides on traveling days; or camping out under the stars and laying by the fire until almost 3am; or spending our last night together in the hot tub of the La Quinta hotel playing one last game of mafia; or just marveling and the landscape that surrounded us – from the canyons, arches, and petroglyphs to the amazing destruction of the wildfire that burned in the mountains above Las Vegas. It will be these moments that I will remember the best from our trip because they were shared experiences that can never be replaced. It was the group of people that made this trip something I will never forget.

 

-Liz Flick