A cut lock, a stuck vehicle

I noticed today that someone had stolen the lock and chain from the southwest gate in the south tract and had opened the gate and tried to drive in.

Judging from the evidence, it doesn't look as though they got very far. There were too deep ruts in the sane just inside the gate and a concrete block and a metal pipe that may have been used to get the vehicle unstuck.

I'll dig around for the chain.

The Lupine Thief

This isn't exactly material for Susan Orlean, but today when we went out to plant the next batch of McFarlin's lupine, we noticed to our horror that someone had dug up some of the plants and taken the identification tags as well.

I don't know whether we'll figure this one out, but it will certainly cause a little more surveillance of this place. Maybe we'll install a webcam.

Moonlight and broken glass

It was a full moon last night. I finished the beetle survey and as I was heading back the moonlight caught the glass shards that dot the landscape. It was not the kind of diamonds in the rough you look forward to seeing.

Beetles about done, it seems

I continued beetle monitoring last night, but had only one at the light and it was lethargic. After flying around a little, it just sat there clinging to the sheet.

I heard both a Chuck-will's-widown and a Common Nighthawk.

While I was walking around looking for flying beetles and checking things out, I found more trash.

Digging, digging, digging

It started out innocently. There was a piece of metal sticking out of the fire lane. I thought I could pull it out. I couldn't. I thought I could quickly dig it out. I couldn't.

Three visits and about six hours of digging later, I unearthed several pieces of metal that would have been easier to pull out if a lawnmower hadn't been buried on top of them. The hole was big enough for my coffin. What a job.

Lupine X 2

An additional 200 McFarlin's lupine will be planted on May 14, according to Cheryl Peterson. I began clearing some more space for the plantings and have sent out e-mails to potential volunteers to help with planting.

The next planting is so there can be some cross-pollination between the two populations to prevent inbreeding. Cheryl told me they have permission to collect some more seeds from the CSX property this spring. I told her I didn't think anything would be happening there very quickly.

Finding more bugs in more places

I spent some time last night with the bug light in the northeast corner near the lupine planting. I had 10 beetles! That was the most I've had in a week or so. I may have hit another hot spot.