I’ve been having such fun going to a tank in the Preserve every morning to document what might be visiting. (For those who might not know, a tank is a man made reservoir created in ranching days for watering livestock). We had a good bit of rain in early October which almost filled the tank. Even small bodies of water will entice migrating water birds to stop and I have documented a few species so far. Mallard Ducks, Green-winged Teal Ducks, Least Sandpiper and Killdeer.
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Much of the Preserve was once used for ranching so if you’ve done a lot of hiking, you’ve no doubt come across a Tank (a man made retention pond created for the purpose of watering their cattle). We’ve had some heavy rains in the last month and a half so there is a good deal of water in some of them. Since discovering a tank during a recent insect survey outing, I’ve been frequenting it regularly for the purpose of documenting water birds for our Bird Survey. (http://ezpixels.com/mscblog/beating-the-bushes/).
I also enjoy looking for interesting shapes and patterns so I went back specifically to photograph the abstracts I knew I’d find in the cracking ground. There were lots to photograph but when I looked really closely at the surface through my macro lens, I was fascinated by what looked like tiny green eggs.
I sent an email to Ron Rutowski to see if he knew what they were and he passed my request to a couple of his Aquatic Ecology colleagues who confirmed it as a colony of Cyanobacteria which is commonly called Blue-Green Algae. Like the Red-spotted Toad, these Algae can lay dormant for years and then come back to life with the least bit of water. I love learning something new! To learn more about this algae, click on the highlighted/bold word in the previous sentence.
Our last Flying Insect survey of the year (led by Ron Rutowski) was conducted in the evening using Light Trapping. Sangmi Lee, manager, and 3 students (Andrew Jansen, Michael Schillingburg and Naomi Pier) from the Nico Franz entomology lab at ASU led us into the Preserve and set up two locations to trap flying insects. Two different light sources were used. Mercury Vapor and Black Light. It was interesting to learn that each attracted different insects!
It was a slow night for insects but it was so much fun and we did get to observe a few interesting species including a Praying Mantis and a weird looking cricket. The majority of flying visitors were moths and other extremely small flying insects. Some of the moths were scooped into plastic containers easily but the tiny ones were collected using a glass vial aspirator…..a tool I had never seen. We were all given the opportunity to try it and only a few did including a child who came with his parents. I was happy just taking photos 🙂 I quickly learned I didn’t have nearly enough light but I learned from the experience and will be prepared for when we do it again (approx May).
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Melanie Tluczek explains what we will be doing.
Happy volunteers heading out to trap flying insects
Setting up the Mercury Vapor light trap
Waiting for visitors to the Mercury Vapor light trap
Geometrid Moth. This is what an inchworm turns into.
Small Praying Mantis
Small Praying Mantis
Unidentified cricket was our largest visitor
Aspirating insects into a glass vial
A brave little boy aspirating tiny insects into a glass vial.
Bush beating into a net was also used. The majority of insects were hardly visible. Pictured are Melanie Tluczek (L), Michael Schillingburg and Naomi Pier
Waiting for visitors to the black light trap
Andrew Jansen Observing and talking about captured flying insects
Michael Schillingburg and Naomi Pier Observing and Aspirating insects on black light trap
Sangmi Lee and Melanie Tluczec observing flying insects on black light trap
Ron Rutowski observing flying insects on Black Light Trap
The survey for Large Flying Insects continued last evening with volunteers beating on bushes and trees. The hope was something large would come out! It was a really fun afternoon with the biggest surprise being a large amount of water in a tank. Tanks are man made depressions (from cattle ranching days) created for the purpose of capturing and retaining water. The first thing we noticed was a small flock of Mallard Ducks (are you kidding me?!) and then we saw numerous tracks around the tank, including Bobcat and Deer. Melanie, our survey coordinator, was quick to also notice a tiny Red-spotted Toad. CLICK HERE to read how these miniscule creators survive in our desert!
We didn’t encounter as many large flying insects as hoped but it is late in the season so it was understandable. Butterfly sightings included: American Snout, Marine Blue, Reakert’s Blue, Dainty Sulphur, Orange Sulphur (?) and Painted Lady. Also spotted were numerous unidentified tiny bugs and beetles. The largest sighting was a very large Robber Fly eating a Honey Bee and a very large green grasshopper which was new to the list.
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