Field lab day

 Today was (for the first half of the class) the tree sampling lab (I split the class into two for this, it's easier with a smaller group of people. 

Even as I really enjoy getting out in the field, and being able to point things out like how you can tell post oaks and blackjack oaks apart even if there aren't leaves on the trees, it does make me a little apprehensive. Because I'm responsible for the students - I'm driving the van, so I have to get them there safely and back safely and I have to keep an eye out to be sure people are safe in the field. I will say I have VERY rarely - like maybe twice in nearly 30 years teaching - had someone who was acting a fool in the field and whom I had to tell "either stop doing that or you will have to go back and sit at the van until we're done" but there are cases of things that HAPPEN that are unexpected. 

Or things like having a student tell you less than 10 minutes before you leave "oh by the way, I'm allergic to bee and wasp stings" (it was okay; there really weren't any bees or wasps out there, they claimed they had their medication with them, and I figured if things went really bad we could call an ambulance to meet us closer to town and I could load them up and haul butt to the meeting point)

But nothing bad happened, and the students always enjoy the field labs. 

And leaves are starting to come out. Here's winged elm:

 And what I THINK is the new little leaves on black hickory, Carya texana

 We saw other stuff, the best being mayapples (Podophyllum peltatum), they are already flowering, and are earlier than a friend in northern OK has seen them, and earlier than a friend in NC:

 I also spotted some kind of fruticose (?) lichen that had fallen down out of a tree. Lichens are pretty common here; once upon a time I knew many of the common species but since I've not worked with them in a long time, I've forgotten most of them

 I also made the joke on Bluesky of quoting the tagline from MC Hammer's "Can't Touch This" with two plants:

 nanananana nana na na - Can't touch this

 (poison ivy)

and 

nanananana nana na na - Can't touch this

 (A thorny, older, greenbriar vine)

Also, a mystery - this must have been some kind of predation event and things like birds don't eat the wings, but this was a swallowtail:

 I saw that on the way back out at the end of the day. I also spotted (and warned the students not to step on it, because gross) a used prophylactic someone had left in the parking area (it's a horseback trail so usually the only ground hazard we see is horse poo, which is actually less gross to me). One of the guys in the class made a joke about "some people have no shame" because it was exposed to a fairly busy roadway...

I also saw a few Gulf fritillaries (a favorite butterfly of mine) but they were too active to be able to photograph.