The Days of Summer - Day One through Day Ninety-four

I said that I would eventually be compiling my Days of Summer photographs into a single slideshow.  Well here it is, in an approximately 9 minutes 30 seconds long video.  I am not super happy with how the image quality looks on the video, but until I can edit it in another format it will stand as is.

Enjoy!

Nesting Bees

Yesterday afternoon (26 June 2016), I noticed a lot of activity around our native bee nesting box.  Several dozen bees recently emerged as adults.  The male bees were buzzing around the nesting box trying to attract females.  Females were busy clearing nesting sites of last year's nesting materials, collecting pollen, and laying preparing to lay eggs.  Here is a short video showing some of the activity.

Videos of Aquatic Invertebrates

Last week I presented several programs on aquatic invertebrates during the Ziibiwing Center's Mother Earth Week Celebration.  Students were able to find and identify nearly 20 different types of aquatic macroinvertebrates using the University of Wisconsin Extension Key to Life in the Pond.

After I was done working with the students I took the buckets of pond water back to my office and used a digital microscope to take photographs and videos of some of the smaller organisms that could be seen in the water samples.  Here are two of the videos.

First up, this video shows a small crustacean known as a daphnia or "water flea".  This water flea is a female - the dark spots near her back are eggs.

The second video shows another type of small crustacean known as a scud or amphipod.  Scuds resemble small shrimp and are also known as "side-swimmers" for their tendency to swim on their sides.