Daily life in Colorado - Part 2

Images since the last post.

Scenery

Mount Crested Butte

East River

Wildlife encounter

Bear track at one of my sites.

Unknown scat on my porch in the morning.

Deer.  There is a second one just behind the first one.

Coyote.  It was on the top of the hill and it left once it saw me moving downhill.

Night photography - attempting to do some night photography from my porch.  I now know to turn the noise filter on when I take night photos.  Much better than the last time.

Kebler Pass

My current laptop desktop.

Variation in nature

Saw these mutated Mertensia fusiformis flowers with no floral tube and very short corollas.

White M. brevistyla flowers

Close-up.

In the evening of June 8th, there was a hail and snowstorm.  I was worried about how my plants might do, but they seemed to cope well with the freakish alpine environment.

Research in progress

Research by a Canadian undergraduate on how winter snowpack affects solitary bees and wasps.

Different stages of wasp development.


Undergrad helping me with my project.

Measuring plant height.

Measuring leaf size.

Counting flowers.

This may be a potential hybrid between M. fusiformis and M. brevistyla - one part of my PhD research.

Food

Breakfast is pretty boring here in the field, but on Sunday a field assistant made me this delicious and healthy banana peanut butter oatmeal.  Yum.