Field Trip #1 – A Review

This past Saturday, I spent my first day at the Arboretum. It was riddled with set-backs. I arrived early in the morning, only to discover that the outdoor pipes were still shut off for the winter, and the Hunnewell Buidling (the visitor center, for anyone who’s never visited) didn’t open until noon. Well, without water, I don’t have traps, so I wasn’t particularly thrilled. I used the hours until the Hunnewell Building opened to wander around, searching for blooming willows. During my quest, I came across this beauty:

The first bee of the season (at least that I saw).

Saturday also happened to be the first really nice day of the year, so everyone and their dog was at the Arboretum. Literally. There were so many cute dogs. There were big dogs and little dogs, short-haired dogs and shaggy dogs, hyper dogs and stoic dogs. DOGS EVERYWHERE. It was like it was unofficial Bring-Your-Dog-to-the-Arnold-Arboretum Day or something. Now, I grew up with pets, and one of the weirdest adjustments I had to make when I got to college was not having a cat around all the time. So I get pretty happy when I see dogs. In honor of that joy, and in an effort to bring that joy to you, my loyal bee-enthusiasts, I have compiled a slideshow of adorable dogs. Enjoy!

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There will probably be another field trip this weekend. I’m keeping my eye on the weather. It’ll be a little chilly for bees tomorrow, but Sunday looks good.

That’s all for now!

And We’re Back in Business!

As a note … this post was supposed to be published on Saturday morning. For some reason, WordPress didn’t save my post, and I spent two days thinking I had actually updated this page. Oops!

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It’s been a while.

After a fantastic summer spent collecting and learning about bees, it was time for a break. I spent my sophomore year surviving (and sometimes even enjoying) organic chemistry, the summer in Costa Rica learning how to be a biologist, then I jumped back in at the start of junior year. Most of the last few months have been spent preparing for the spring and figuring out where to go. Well, it is spring, and I have a direction!

Essentially, it’s time to start resampling. My goal is to find out if there are any patterns in the species distribution at the Arboretum. Now that Boston has remembered that winter is over, the bees might even start coming out! This weekend will be nice and warm, so there’s step one. I probably won’t find much this weekend, but it’s always nice to have a start.

This time around, I will be doing 24-hour samples… setting out the bowl traps one day, then coming back the next day to pick them up at the same time. There are advantages and disadvantages, but the biggest advantage is that I don’t have to spend the entire day at the Arboretum to get data. This is especially nice because my spring and fall sampling will have to be balanced with my coursework and studying, so I won’t be limited to just weekends for sampling.

For now, I just have to get my spring field work in and make sure I have a place to live this summer. Some friends and I are exploring apartments around Harvard Square, and I’m waiting to find out if I received some grants for the summer, so here’s to high hopes!

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Obviously, these thoughts are a few days old, but I felt that my first post in a year and half should be introductory. More coming soon on the bees (and the dogs!) from my first field trip.

Welcome to Bee-Search!

What is this blog about?

For the last two months, I have been working for Professor Brian Farrell at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology Laboratories documenting the bees of the Arnold Arboretum.  Along the way, there have been interesting finds, frustrating moments, hilarious conversations, and a plethora of strange looks from passersby.  I’d like to share with you those moments, as well as the knowledge I have gained.

Who am I?

I’m Georgia! I’m a Harvard undergraduate, Class of 2014, living in Winthrop House and concentrating in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology (with a secondary in sleeplessness).  In addition to staring at bees, I’m a musician (oboe, tenor sax, voice), dancer (ballroom), and occasional actor, and I’m never without a book on my lunch break.

Who should read this blog?

Anybody.  I want this to be really accessible to a general audience, particularly since I’m learning at the same time.  If you have any interest in the Arboretum or in bees, bookmark this!  No need to be an expert (because I certainly am not).

Anything else you should know?

I’ll try to update as frequently as possible, but I won’t bore you with mundane things like, “It was really hot at the Arboretum today.”  I’m more likely to bore you with, “It was really hot at the Arboretum today and the bees were smarter than I was and didn’t come out, so I barely caught anything.  It was disappointing.”  I’ll post interesting events, and of course, any knowledge of bees I gather.