Earthwatch Day 4

Cave Creek Ranch is a beautiful place to stay. The owner, Reed Peters, provides a wildlife feeding station in the center of the cabin grounds. Songbird and hummingbird feeders are set up everywhere. Everywhere you look, there are tons of hummingbirds, woodpeckers, and finches. Deer and other special guests appear frequently. At night, bats soar through the air as we sit under the stars trying to identify the constellations. The tricky part is getting back and forth to the Research station four miles away.

We were soon off to the Southwestern Research Station run by the American Museum of Natural History. All our meals would be there, and we would either be working in the lab or collecting specimens in the area nearby. Here are two of the members of our team - Sawaco and Junco from Japan.

We waited anxiously outside the lab for our first assignment.

In the morning, my group set out with Dr. Dave to a trailhead to do some collecting. The collection method that Dr. Lee had explained the previous day involved hitting branches of the vegetation while holding a “beat sheet” underneath. The caterpillars often fall off the branches easily as a defense against predators (quick getaway). But the first hit should always be a surprise, quick and firm enough to dislodge the caterpillars that hang on the branches. The critters fall onto a square white sheet that you scan to see what fell off. Any caterpillars found are put into a plastic bag with some of the host plant and labeled with the date, location, and total number of specimens, then put in a cooler so they don’t overheat.

This spiny fellow was one of my finds of the day!

In the afternoon, our mission was to collect at a campsite up the road. After spying a bunch of caterpillars on some high branches, Jenny decided she needed to climb the tree. Sometimes visual collections work the best!

That evening after dinner, Dr. Wag gave a great slide presentation to the team. He told us a bit about his book, and with some awesome photographs on the screen, launched into a discussion of why the Lepidopteran are so important. Is it their beauty? Their place in a myriad of food webs across the world? Their demonstration of a successful lineage as an order? Their role in pollination? Making silk for us? Or is it the fact that in terms of biomass they make up the highest percentage of herbivores? Pick any explanation, but you don't need to convince me how special these critters are. After some discussion of survival strategies, from mimicry, to toxicity, to behavioral habits, we were all "lepidopteraholics". What an awesome treat to be among these specialists in the field.

After Wag's talk, Jen, Sawako, Junco and I walked back the four miles to Cave Creek instead of taking the ride with the crew. It was a beautiful and peaceful walk, and by the time we got back it was dark. We passed this unusual sign. I forgot how close we were to the border!