365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Saturday, May 21, 2016
Bio-Blitz Big Day
Day 221: Under an ominous weather forecast, today's Bio-Blitz teams were wondering if the event was going to turn into a swim meet before they returned with their species surveys. It had been raining rather vigorously when I left home, but during the preliminary briefings, precipitation dwindled to a light drizzle. We dispersed to our various assignments, and my crew headed up Rampart Ridge. Our goal was to make the entire loop, but it quickly became apparent that we had too much to document in the time allotted to us, so after taking close to two hours to complete the first mile, we began considering alternatives. By the time we reached the overlook, we had recorded over 70 images of lichens, bryophytes, fungi and mycoheterotrophic plants and it was time to turn around. We took a brief lunch in a light shower, the only real rain we'd experienced up to that point.
Among the species we documented were Round-leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia), both Pilophorus acicularis and clavatus (Matchstick lichens), and one solitary specimen of Usnea. We found two examples of a colour variation of Corallorhiza maculata (canary yellow!) and a number of emergent Allotropa virgata (Candystick) and Hypopitys monotropa (Pinesap). All in all, it was a very rewarding day, and it only started raining in earnest as we made our final approach to the Longmire parking area. Bio-Blitz was a blast!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment