Richford Seed Collecting Trip. On Friday we headed up to Krissy's neck of the woods in Richford, New York to collect Danthonia spicata, or Poverty Oatgrass seed which grows along the old roads of an abandoned seed potato farm with the Natural Areas Crew. Here we are gearing up for our expedition.

Here's a shot of Zeb and Kelsey collecting seed along the road bed.

It was a really nice day, partly cloudy, mid-seventies, lots of blackberries to eat along the way. This shot should give you some idea of how nice the trip was.

We had views "out to Pennsylvania" apparently.

And took our mid-morning repast at the side of a delightful former irrigation pond left over from the potato farming days.

Here's what all the fuss was about, Danthonia spicata - Poverty oatgrass. This fantastic little native is drought tolerant to the extreme, clear thrive in rocky soils and is used in the native lawn display becuase of its naturally low growth habit. when used at a lawn grass it only needs mowing about once a year. all in all an excellent little plant.

But not he only exciting plant we found that day, Polygala sanguinea - Field Milkwort was found in fairly large concentrations in certain spots. A relatively overlooked plant it's beauty and poor soil tolerance may lead to its increased horicultural use in the future. Add to the its use a native nectary and the liklyhood looks even better.

Also on this site I saw one of my all-time favorite plants Spiraea tomentosa, or Steeplebush. This showy sub-shrub has not gained much traction in the nursery trade, passed over time and again for the over-used, over-varietized, increasingly invasive Spiraea japonica - Japanese Spiraea. With more interesting flower shape, and a greater tolerance for soil moisture extremes (as well as fuzzy orange leaf undersides) I think its high time the nursery trade gave this beautiful, versatile native its due.

PEEPS on Patrol This week Krissy and I had the pleasjure of working with the PEEPS. It stands for Plantations Environmental Education Program for Sustainability and is comprised of a group of carefully selected Ithaca-area teens who intern at plantations in all of its various areas and participate in educational experiences. Initially we had them workking on identifying and eradicating the invasive weed Torilis japonica - japanese Hedge Parsley but once they finished that we moved on to collecting seed from Elymus hystrix- Bottlebrush Grass. You can see us harvesting the seeds below.

While we were there a pair of PHD students working on a native bee study were there netting bees and we got to learn a bit about the role of native pollinators. Here is the male half of the PHD team.

Garden Bugs This butterfly was enjoying the anise flavored nectar of Agatache foeniculum - Anise Hyssop. I think the butterfly is Limenitis arthemis arthemis - The White Admiral or Red-spotted Purple, either way its a beaut!

This medium-sized version of a very large spider is Argiope aurantia, the Garden Spider is found throughout north America from Canada to Mexico, from the Atlantic to the Pacific and even on Hawaii. This lovely lady (you can tell its a female by it's overall robustness, specifically in the abdomen) has set up house in one of the Lavendula angustifolia shrubs in the herb garden.

Floral Field Day. This learning Monday we participated in Cornell's Annual Floriculture Field Day. The morning was essentially taken up by lectures, which while interesting, did not offer many opportunities for photos. The afternoon however was spent out at Bluegrass Lane, Cornell's Horticultural test fields. It was windy, but I did manage to get a few shots for the blog. Here we see one of the first-prize winners of the container planting contest. It helps to prove my point that while flowers are enjoyable its always better to think about the effect of longer lasting foliage first. Not a flower on it, but the creative use of bog/emergent plant foliage netted it a goal over more blossom heavy arrangements.

Here's a close up of Sarracenia leucophylla, or White-top Pitcher Plant, one of the bog plants used in this award-winning container.

And here is an unidentified species (at least by me) of the same genus as above as used in the winning container.

The following are a few of the shoits I took of the perennial field collection housed at Bluegrass Lane. Check out my Picasa page in Sept./Oct. for more pics of this site as I'll be up there a lot in Bill Miller's Perennial and Annual ID class.

More Plant Profiles for your general edification. First we have a shot of Rudbeckia laciniata, the Green-headed Coneflower. This tall cut-leaved plant has the distinction of being the only Rudbeckia (the genus of Black-eyed and Brown-eyed Susans) which is truly native to the Cayuga Lake Watershed.

Here is a close up of the blloms of Pycnanthemum muticum, the Clustered or Shot toothed Mountain Mint. This aromatic native is a favorite of many pollinators including: Honeybees, wasp mimic flies, sweat bees, and many other native bees.

Mimulus ringens, or Allegheny Monkeyflower is a beautiful member of the Figwort family (Scrophulariaceae). It is found in floodplains and open swamps throughout the northeast but I feel is very reminiscent of a more tropical clime.

Another native of floodplains Eutrochium purpureum, or Joe Pyeweed is a favorite of pollinators and gardeners. Capable of reaching upwards of 7 feet in ideal conditions this tall perennial is a show stopper along stream beds or in garden beds.

More birds in the Garden! Here's a shot of Megaceryle alcyon, the Belted Kingfisher. I've been trying to get a shot of this particular bird for weeks now but it remained stubbornly camera shy. I finally got this one of it perched on the glacial erratic joined by a Quiscalus quiscula, or Common Grackle.

Cardinalis cardinalis or the Northern Cardinal is seen here exhibiting some odd behavior. Because of the fact that it was perched on the ground and splaying its wings and tail in an odd fashion I thought it might be injured. When i walked closer to take a look the bird flew away and perched in a tree normally and without apparent discomfort. As a result I feel this bird was originally warming itself in the sun or possibly anting. Anting is a habit of many birds, and is known to be practiced infrequently by Cardinals, whereby the birds allow ants to crawl on their feathers and essentially attack them with acids. These acids can act as insecticide, miticide, fungicide, or bactericide for the birds. Occasionally some birds (mainly blue jays) will ant in an effort to get the ants to discharge their acid sacs rendering them more palatable to the jay!

These fellows are a common site on Fall Creek as they prefer to live in running water and are common in our area. These are female Mergus merganser americanus, or Common Mergansers. These narrow-billed diving ducks have toothed beaks which allow them to catch and hold their slippery fish prey.

I believe these fledgling Ardea herodias, or Great Blue Herons are the same one that were raised up at the Lab of Ornithology Nest. Four of them gangled around in the treetops along Fall Creek until my photographic intentions unfortunately caused them to fly on.

Here's a few new plant profiles. First up is Allium cernuum the Nodding Wild Onion. This native of dry woods, rocky outcrops, and prairies is perfectly suited to the hot dry summer we're having. Like all onions it has a thick fleshy bulb the helps support it through droughts. It is also a great attractor for pollinators.

Also drought tolerant and loved by pollinators is this Pycnanthemum muticum(?) or Clustered Mountain Mint. This relative of true mint does have a strong relatively minty smell and as you can see here is a favorite of pollinators.

On Tuesday and Thursday Krissy and I got a chance to work with a group of 13 year old's taking part in a The Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC)summer program. They helped us greatly by scuffle hoeing the paths, pruning, and removing weeds. In return we taught them a variety of plants and let them ride in the Gator. All in all everyone got something fun and productive out of the experience.

Critter Time Again! First we have Rana pipiens the Northern Leopard Frog. This common frog of the northeast is informally grouped with Rana sylvestris (Wood Frog) and Rana palustris (Pickerel Frog)and called meadow frogs. This implies that these frogs unlike some of the others found in the same region can be found in meadows and woodlands and not always directly ajacent to warter. The fellow pictured here however was accidentally scooped out of Beebe Lake when I was doing some watering there the other day.

These little fellows were also accidentally captured during the same Beebe Lake watering episode. They are Daphnia or Water Fleas. there common name comes from the way they "jump" through the water. These miniscule freshwater crustacea are an important link in the food chain of the freshwater ecosystem as many animals depend on them as a food source at various stages of development. They are a particular favorite of salamander larvae and fish fry.

We move from Beebe Lake to the Cornell Filtration Plant retention ponds behind the Hort Center. Here if you look closely you can see a young Vulpes vulpes fulvus -American Red Fox stalking an equally young but inexplicably soaking wet Marmota monax or Groundhog.

In the end the fox decided they were too close in size for now to risk an attack and slunk away.

I got closer to get a picture of the groundhog and saw why the fox thought better of his attack, look at that glare!

We also got to go the quarry on learning Monday to see where the stones come from, which was AWESOME! Here's what the quarry looked like.

Here's the giant diamond-embedded, horror-movie saw they keep in a dark warehouse for cutting up stones (an human bodies).

Here we all are on the tour getting schooled about cutting stone in the winter as opposed to the rest of the year. As the stone below ground tends to contain moisture it has to be protected in the winter and allowed to dry out before it is exposed to freezing temps. If it is not protected the freezing of the water it contains could cause the stone to fracture and crumble.

Finally here's a shot of one of the super-sized fork lifts they use to move stne at the quarry. The truck-loving little kid in me was loving this!

Here we all are bright and early for the Masonry and Stonework Learning Monday!

But seriously it was a really cool, fun, and informational day. Here's a shot of all the tools we got to work with! There were 3lb. Hammers and acute and blunt tipped chisels depending on what kind of a break you are trying to get the stone to do.

Here's a shot of John Dawson, the Plantation head mason demonstrating how to split guillotine block.

Now the interns are all safety goggled up getting ready to break blocks.

And here we are breaking them, everyone did an excellent job although there were a lot of jokes about how prisoners are forced to break blocks as well. To these Marita replied that she didn't think she'd do too well in prison.

Aside from breaking block we also did some work dry laying a field stone wall which is alot like building a very heavy three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. You have here the before pile, the finished product and a shot of us testing it for "structural integrity".

Here are a few interlude shots I took on stone day. The fist is of a really lacy egg case of some invertebrate we found on one of the rock we were working with. I think it looks like a kitchen sponge egg.

This second shot is of one of the immature instars of Omocestus viridulus the Common Green Grasshopper I believe although its possible its something else. Also this grasshopper happens to be in the midst of defecating, how charming!