Montana Conservation Corp Meets the Bees

Summer, 2013

Note: I was looking for information in an old blog and found this  sitting around as a draft.  This was my all time favorite summer activity and bees are always on my mind, so I think it is still useful and interesting.  I'm again doing a bee survey for Moosehorn NWR but not pinning the bees. 

When the National Bison Range biologists heard that I love working with Citizen Science Projects and that I'd done a bee survey at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge last year, they decided it would be fun to let the Montana Conservation Corp have a day each week when they would participate in a bee study.

And the refuge is also interested in finding out if their bee populations are in decline. So I got to repeat my favorite job, with an even better twist - I get to find out about the bees we have here and also sell kids on helping to protect them and provide habitat for them. And if this catches their interest, they may be encouraged to become biologists or at least participate in Citizen Science Projects as adults.

So far, I've had three groups of high school age MCC kids, two of them at once. Last week was really hectic with twelve of them plus their leaders to show how to net bees, and also to take them to collect the bees from the bowls I had set out the previous day.

I have to put out the cups the morning before I meet with the MCC.  I now do it around  6:00 A.M. because I usually help with the Talk-to-a Biologist Program on Tuesday mornings.

We find the cups, then pour them through the net

These cup only had three bees- rest are ants or other bugs

We spend most of the morning visiting the refuge and netting bees from wherever we find lots of flowers.  We also take time to just enjoy the tour.

Everyone gets fabulous views along with the fun of capturing bees

Waiting for a bee to climb to the top of the net

Staffer Kelsey coaching on how to get bees from net to kill jar

Waiting to pounce

And along the way I get to tell them interesting things about the flowers or bees we come across. One of the stories that is the biggest hit, even with the Refuge Staff, is the how the lupines make the bees go ONLY to the flowers that still need pollinating and prevent them from revisiting the flowers that have already been pollinated.

The bees can't see red, so the lupines start off with white nectar guides. The bees land on the flower and then walk along the guides to drink the nectar and gather the pollen. After the flower is pollinated, the area turns red, effectively hiding the entry to the pollen and nectar from the bees. So when I show the kids the lupines, they can see that the lower flowers have a red spot, while the higher flowers still have a white spot.

Me telling the lupine story of the red and white dots

Then we come back to the bunkhouse, where I've set up tables, chairs and a projector,  and break for lunch.  After lunch, I show them a short movie on how to pin bees and then we get to work.  We try to sort our bees into groups of like ones, then pin them and put them on a Styrofoam pad. Then I collect the bees and put them into the insect boxes.

We have fun looking at magnified bees

Part of what we have to do is to decide if we have a bee, wasp, or fly.  Flies have only two wings and bee have four wings and at least a few hairs, while wasps have four wings and  are smooth. Our hardest insects are bees that look a lot like wasps.  But if we use a side light and magnification, we can find hairs on them.  And I tell them , "when in doubt, just pin them."

Sometimes we make educated guesses as to the group the bee might belong to

One person's bees

I have to fill in a database that represents where they were collected and how they were killed. Then I'll print out labels and add them to each bee.  Later they will get a second label that tells their genus and species.  That will be done by a bee expert.

The first week, we had a professor come to see the kids and do a little reflecting on how their lives are different from the lives of many of their peers. Since he met us in the field, I sat in, and was very moved at the kids' attitudes and how they feel about doing good rather than striving for material things.

Professor-in chair- leading the reflection

 The second week, the groups sent me a thank-you card.  One of the groups had each youth leave me a personal message.  That was another reward, especially the message from Will. "NOT THE BEES!, Just kidding, it was lots of fun".  When I met the MCC on the first day, and told them they would be helping us find out what kinds and numbers of bees were living on the refuge, Will said, "I hate bees".  I told him he needed to change his attitude because bees were responsible for a third of his food.  Later we talked while he was netting  bees and I found out he had been traumatized by a sting as a child. I told him I really respected him for catching bees when he was scared of them. And then he really got into pinning the bees. So he did really change his attitude during that one day.

Thank-You Note

And a BIG thanks to Ally for giving me  a copy of  all the pictures she took of our day.  I am so involved in collecting and processing bees and helping kids get their bees out of their nets and keeping up with the time so I can have them where they need to be,  that I don't get many pictures taken.  But her pictures really tell the story of what the bee survey is all about.

So far, I've only made one really big mistake.  I was trying to save money and only ordered seven nets which I thought would be one for each kid and one for me.  But the leaders also want to net and now we have three weeks of double teams.  So the head biologist let me order more. (He knew  personally how much fun they are because he  caught several bees when Talk-to-a- Biologist Program was on pollinators.)  And now, at least some of the time, I'll get to net bees too.

Postscript: A few weeks after I wrote this blog, I took one of my favorite pictures of all time - again of the MCC kids off to capture bees. On this day we also had a pronghorn antelope that followed us, just off the path, and acting like a little dog, to the top of the High Point Trail. 

The bee survey team being surveyed by bighorn sheep rams

July Fourth Party

July 4, 2016

Two of the summer workers are local women, so I'm getting a lot of good information as well as good invites. Bridget invited us all to her parent's house in Lubec for Independence Day. Christina and I accepted and arrived a few minutes before the FIRST parade, which came right pass Bridget's parent's house.

It had fire trucks and rescue vehicles from a few of the surrounding towns, as well as from Campobello Island, in Canada, but only about a half mile from Lubec.

Firetrucks and rescue vehicles led the parades

Some of the party folks watching the parade from in front of the house

We even had a mermaid enter the parade

The only music was provided by this group

This float somehow tied kayaking and Indian dancing totems together 

A nearby town offers carriage rides and sent one to this parade

This was the only horseback rider 

After that parade, some folks hung around and visited, while the rest went off with plans to come back for supper. Bridget iced cupcakes while Christina and I supervised. Then we toured the entire two block downtown and stopped by a local micro brewery to listen to the live music.

We came back for the better parade  at six o'clock.  No one had to register ahead - just show up. Again it started with firetrucks and some rescue vehicles. But it had several amusing floats. But NO music.

Never quite figured this one out

Who you gonna call?  GOATBUSTER'S

Hilary was in jail, Trump #3 (for the parade) was in the middle, and Bernie was in the back

Then we stuffed ourselves with all kinds of food, including pulled pork from an old pig from Tidemill Farms, which produces the organic unpasteurized milk and Greek yogurt I love. We also had several kinds of salads, corn on the cob, and desserts, as well as appetizers before the parade. I was still feeling a little stuffed and sick Tuesday morning.  But as I'm writing this mid-day Tuesday, and am starting to feel better.  (I ate a few items with wheat in them which messed up my digestive system and made me feel very lethargic.)

Some of the spread - more continued to arrive for another half hour -
required lots of revisits

We ate and visited so much with the forty plus guests that we were late getting to Campobello Island to see the fireworks put on at Eastport. (Lubec, a town to small to have a police force and who gets a visit from some law enforcement once a month, also cannot afford their own fireworks. ) So we spent almost as much time passing through Canadian and American customs as we did watching the fireworks which were several miles away.

Fireworks and lights from the town of Eastport, as seen from several miles away at
Campobello Island

Then Christina and I had a final adventure when I realized I'd forgotten to buy gas and was running on empty. We ended up driving past three CLOSED gas stations before deciding to make it to Calais and look for gas. We did get to an open gas station under our own power, but it was a close call.  We had to drive about thirty-five  miles to the station.  I was driving slowly and carefully and ended up averaging 45.6 miles to the gallon. Hopefully, I'll keep my car over half full in the future.

Hope you had at least this much fun.

The Start of July Fourth Celebrations

July 2, 2016

Bridget, Kirsten, Kristina began the Fourth of July Celebration at St. Andrews, a little town near us in Canada on Friday night, while I was picking up my car in Bangor. But I was able to join them for a fun day at Eastport.

We started our day by making a small detour to visit Sipp Bay Preserve where we enjoyed the view, although we were still under clouds and fog. We enjoyed watching a common loon eat a fish, and then forage for more.

Kirsten and Christina

Our next stop was hike a trail just before we got to Eastport. It wound through a forest to overlooks to Lubec and Campobello Island. We also watched large ships serving a salmon farm. As we hiked, the sun finally got most of the fog burned off and the rest of the day was beautiful.

Trail View

Boats tending the salmon farm

The boats were using big hoses to either add something to the fish pens or to take out fish

A closeup view of the hose

The ladies enjoying a view towards Eastport at the end of the trail

By the time we got to Eastport, we had hiked five miles and were getting hungry. But first we had to stop a a wonderful little mustard factory where we sampled mustards and I bought Heavenly Jalapeno and Chipotle honey mustards, as well as a jar of bread and butter fiddlehead pickles. YUM! Then we went to lunch, where I got the best bowl of seafood chowder I think I've ever had. The other women had hamburgers. Kirsten rushed to eat so she could run back and climb a climbing wall before it closed. I got there in time to get lots of pictures of her as she worked on harder and harder trails – the color of the holds defined the difficulty.

Mustard Factory Sign

A few of the many flavors of mustard manufactured here

Visitors can tour the mustard factory at 2:00 and 3:00 P.M.  We planned to come home but got distracted by the festival and didn't make it back for the tour.  But I'll get there sometime.

The waterfront area

The ferry that runs from Deer Island to Campobello Island - hopefully the site of another adventure

Bridget and Christina admiring the controversial statue of a mermaid

Kirsten climbing the hardest side of the wall

Then we visited the vendor craft booths and a candy store before it was time to watch the pet competition which included prizes for the the best rescue animal, for the best dressed pet, as well as other categories. Most of the pets were dogs, but there was one cat, one goat, and one ferret. But the funniest entry was Larry the lobster, who his owners said was a rescue pet. When asked, where he was rescued from, the answer was IGA, a local grocery store. He was also one of the best dressed pets. The judges were so impressed that they decided to add a Best in Show category and gave that award to Larry.

The cutest kid/dog pair

Kirsten petting the pig dressed in a hula skirt and a lei

This was a beautiful Maine coon cat -  I love the look of love the owner was giving it

Another darling pair 

The ferret

Larry the rescue lobster

We'll continue our celebration on Monday, when we will all join Bridget's parents and watch the Lubec July Fourth Parade from her yard, then get fed before enjoying the fireworks.

On the personal front, I'm all excited because I have sprouting milkweeds. My swamp milkweed is up. I had lots of leftover seeds, so on Friday, I hoed a large patch near Bridget's garden and planted the already sprouting seeds. Hopefully, that spot will provide a stockpile of seeds for future plantings around the refuge. And I'm delighted to have a car back. Also I bought a fishing license and a couple of bass lures to use with my fly rod and hope to get in some fishing this long weekend. Kirsten and I had to go to our boss's house this evening to secure his chickens so I'll be getting up early Sunday morning to get this blog posted.

And this morning I found I have milkweeds SHOOTING up.  YEAH!

Happy Fourth. Hope you have a bang-up one.

Turtle Time

Turtles have been making their presence known across the refuge

June 8, 2016

Turtles have been making their presence known all month as the females crawl out of our many waterways to dig their nests and lay their eggs. 

I have to cross a huge water diversion channel to read the Upper Magurrewok water gauge. It feels like a huge skateboard channel, only for vehicles. As I started down it, I saw a snapping turtle sitting near the bottom. I stopped far enough away to not scare it and took lots of pictures. When I climbed up the other side, I saw several more snapping turtles, many busily digging nest holes or actually sitting and laying eggs. So, of course, it took me about an hour to read that gauge.

This turtle is not going to find a place for her nest here

Her portrait

I think this is a defensive posture - she assumed this position as I got closer

Another turtle laying eggs 

I checked several laying turtles for a peek at their eggs, but all I could see was this

A finished nest - the turtle adds urine to make mud and set it over the eggs

This turtle is returning to the water after laying her eggs

I love their ancient faces

New turtles had appeared while I walked less than a tenth of a mile from where I leave the truck to where the gauge is, in the channel, then returned.

Places where turtles are or have been digging nests

A little later that morning, as I was walking back to the road, after reading the lower Magururrewok gauge which is on Highway 1, I saw a Border Patrol Car start almost across from where I was parked. The patrolwoman jumped out of her car and picked up a small turtle crossing the road and carried it to the side towards which it was heading. I called out “Thank you!”, and she replied, “I have a real soft spot for painted turtles”. After she left, I attempted to locate the turtle but couldn't find it in the high grass along the road.

But some days later, I was able to photograph my own painted turtle before making sure it was safely off a refuge road. I've also seen lots of snapping turtles crossing roads or digging their nests in them, but I'm not brave enough to pick them up.

Painted turtle crossing a refuge road

Love that turtleneck "sweater" - wish I could knit that pattern

On the personal front, I hope to be able to get my car on the day this publishes - I got permission to use a refuge vehicle to come to town for shopping and internet. I'm planning to spend the evening in Bangor, and then get up early to go to Eastport with the summer crew to hike, visit a mustard factory, play laser tag,  and enjoy fireworks, music, and food.  I also got invited to go to St. James, Canada for more Independence celebrations on Friday evening, but since I haven't figured out cloning, I'll have to visit that town another time.