Field Notes

October 9th
Madison Zink, Visitor Services Intern

Without the ability to host classes in the Visitor’s Center right now, Nancy – the visitor services coordinator – and I have been brainstorming some fun ideas to keep the public involved and surprised when they come visit us in the prairie! With this goal I began to scope out some books in order to make Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge’s first every Storybook Trail! Storytime with the kiddos has always been one of my favorite events. I believe that growing a child’s imagination is just as important as scientific skills! With this goal in mind, creating the trail became an all-staff teamwork event! I dug up some old signs in our maintenance building that we don’t use anymore. Evie and Scott helped me paint them before I taped on all the laminated pages. Then finally, despite the lack of rain, Evie and I persevered and installed the book signs in the dry dirt — Steve, the maintenance worker, had some tips and tricks to help us too. Now, visitors can walk the Overlook Trail, and enjoy the view of the prairie while also exploring Old Bag of Bones retold by Janet Stevens. This story is based on the Shoshoni tale “Old Man Coyote and Buffalo Power” and follows an elderly coyote, who believes himself to be just an old bag of bones. As he laments, he seeks help from a powerful bison to turn him young again. Will he learn the true wisdom that comes from age, or will he simply be the same trickster he always was?

Storywalk

October 10
Danica Linn

We go out once a week to do a bison and elk survey in order to keep track of herd numbers and to see how well their body condition is. By looking at the bisons body condition you can tell how healthy each individual is. We keep track of this by doing a survey on the iPad of health conditions and things to look out for.

October 7
Evelyn Ince, Biology Intern

We spent time spreading a seed called Blue Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium campestre). It is a gorgeous little plant that looks like a grass but is actually part of the Iris family! This species blooms in May-July, before most others, making it an important plant for early pollinators. Because of its small stature, it needs openings in the plant communities from either soil disturbance (bison, gophers, badgers, etc) or fire.

It also likes to be in full sun on well draining soil. In order to maximize germination, the seed should be spread before the first freeze in the fall or after the last freeze in the fall (preferably in the spring after the last frost). I talked with Scott about burn priorities for the upcoming year. Danica and I then went two one of those units to spread this seed directly onto the soil on rocky/sandy slopes. We then notate where we spread the seeds for future monitoring. This spring, the unit will burn and give this small early blooming plant a space to germinate.

October 2
Evelyn Ince, Biology Intern

About three weeks ago, I recorded a species we don't usually get in a monarch survey. During monarch surveys we monitor what vegetation is blooming at that moment so we can understand the correlation between blooming species and monarch abundance.

After struggling to key the species out on my own, Tenlea suggested including Pauline and asking for her opinion. We went out last week and keyed out the species with Pauline. Here are some pictures of this. Unfortunately, the plant is an invasive that we do know about but isn't a top priority at this point. It is officially ID'd as Shrub Lespedeza (Lespedeza bicolor). I've documented it on our invasive species map so that the next biologist has an idea that it is still here and apparently doing well in this unit.

Blue Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium campestre) picture from Prairie Moon Nursery