My lab mates, Glenda and Xiao, and I left early Saturday morning to drive from northern Utah to Portal Arizona. It’s about an 18 hour drive, but the scenery is beautiful, so it’s not that bad. We stopped at Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park along the way, near the Utah-Arizona border. I’d highly recommend a stop!
Between Sunday and Tuesday night, we repaired our trap shed, trapped 127 rodents and counted plants on 13 of the 24 plots. We still have a lot of work to do… Here are a few photographic highlights from the data collection so far:
A desert pocket mouse sits near some very scenic poppies.
Xiao and Glenda count plants on a poppy-filled plot.
Bees really dig the Gordon’s bladderpod (Lesquerella gordoni).
Tags: desert, ecology, escholtzia mexiana, lesquerella gordoni, plant, rodent
The Portal Project 
March 14, 2012 at 8:33 am |
The poppies are quite spectacular this year. The landscape appears carpeted with yellow and orange.
March 17, 2012 at 10:54 am |
Yes, it was quite beautiful and we could see patches of orange on most of the hillsides. I’ll update the rest of the plant data trip blog soon, with some great poppy photos!