Fieldwork, round 2

 Went out this afternoon to start collecting data for the fall round of fieldwork. I have a total of twelve transects (though four are shorter , though take longer to walk to). I started with the long ones in the large degraded-grassland area.

I got three done. I maybe COULD have done one more, but I was tired, and it was 3:30, and I felt like if I did three more tomorrow, and then maybe a couple on Tuesday (or Thursday)? I could probably finish the last few in a Saturday trip in a couple weeks.

The worst part is that the stuff has grown up really tall and you can't see the blackberry (Himalayan blackberry, an invasive that doesn't make particularly good fruit). The vines grab your ankles and when you don't have very long legs (I don't) and you can't step high because your hips are a little arthritic (mine are), it's HARD to get around.

Laying out the transect is the worst part because you have to bushwhack through tall vegetation to do it - coming back, or actually taking the samples you have a bit of a path to work along (you have to be careful not to sample on the path where you trampled things). I almost tripped a couple times. I had my cell phone in case I got hurt, and people knew I was out there. I did step down hard in a hole but luckily had my field boots on, so my ankle didn't get injured.

I'm going to go back tomorrow. I'm setting two more transects as a minimal goal, because as you get closer to the treeline, the going gets harder.

I saw lots of insects - honeybees everywhere (I tread carefully in case there were any ground-nesting wasps, or in case they were the so-called "killer" bees - which really only activate if you crush them; the "killer" instinct is because they respond more strongly to the pheromone given off when a bee stings or is crushed, and of course if I saw the tree they were nesting in I'd give it a wide berth). Some wasps, including what was probably a cicada-killer (those big parasitoid wasps, you don't have to worry about: they won't attack unless you really mess with them. But the yellow jackets and hornets you do have to be careful of). Some big katydid sort of things, and I saw one very large Argiope spider in her web.

There were also butterflies - lots of Gulf fritillaries and what I think were the caterpillars on the passionvine out there. And there was this one. I don't recognize it (I suppose it could be a different life stage of the fritillary caterpillar, but it was on a persimmon - but I don't think it was eating)

I admit now that I'm at home, I don't LOVE the idea of going back out and fighting with the blackberry tomorrow, but once I get there and into working on it, it's fine. (Though I admit I do wish I had one other person - someone who could carry stuff and if they were someone taller or stronger than me, they could run the line out for me instead of me having to do it. There's also a certain safety in having another person there....)

I HAVE promised myself if I get this done, later in October I am taking a Saturday and going to Whitesboro to the yarn shop again, first time in more than a year and a half. (Our case load is FINALLY going down, so maybe I feel like I can go out and do a few more things...)