strange individual(s) seen wandering the wetlands

This just in from local field scientist - Paul Severns:

So….if you see a guy, about 5 ft 7inches, 175 lbs, with dark brown hair, brown eyes, four-day old beard stubble, cargo shorts, a t-shirt that was once white, wearing a tan visor, strolling (seemingly aimless and slowly) either down the bike path or in the middle of a field, staring off in different directions, occasionally writing something down in a bright yellow notebook, don’t worry…(unless I’m muttering to myself)..I’m just doing my job studying West Eugene Wetland butterflies.this photo taken during yesterday's amble. this Great Copper is inside a 'bug toter'.

Since 2002, I’ve been working on describing the patterns of wetland butterflies and understanding why what species are where and what makes them rare. Hopefully, this information will aid in local butterfly conservation and be useful for successful wetland restoration. Right now, it’s late July/early August and it’s uncomfortably warm in the full, afternoon sun, but these are the conditions under which the great copper prefers to fly. No wonder this butterfly was thought to be extinct from the Willamette Valley…why would any Lepidopterist (one who studies butterflies) in their right mind be looking for butterflies in the dry, hot, wetland prairies when they could be up in alpine meadows, soaking up a nice view and 75 degree sun? A question, I often ask myself.

This year, 2008, appears to be a particularly good year for the butterfly. I have observed more great coppers this year than any of the last four years I have visited the remaining three butterfly populations. I have even observed at least six butterflies this year up to one mile away from the sites where they normally reproduce. Hopefully, these dispersing butterflies will found new populations so that I’ll get to spend even more quality time, sweating, ambling about, and confusing onlookers in the West Eugene Wetlands.Paul and his followers. is it a movement?

Dragonfly and River Otters at Finley National Wildlife Refuge

Photos of a dragonfly and curious river otters at McFadden Marsh in Finley National Wildlife Refuge. Thank you to photographer Steve Reed from Albany for sharing these photos! Find a fun river otter photo gallary at www.otternet.com/ROA/PhotoGallery.htm

Restoration in action this morning

How do you change a pile of 800 tires into 800 flowers? Send out the West Eugene Wetlands Partnership, of course!

Last September this team of experts took out over 800 tires along with 1800 cubic yards of fill material ranging from red brick, river rock, 4 inch cobble, south hill clay, household garbage (cans, bottles, plastic bags, wire etc.) and construction debris (lumber, conduit, electric junction boxes, scrap metal etc. ), and hauled away 75 cubic yards of brush and wood. Here's what it looked like durning the excavation:

Future wet prarie?

Now look what's there!

F
a
n
t
a
s
t
i
c
!

Dragonfly Walks at Grimes Pond, July 20

Hey you gu-uys!

If you missed the dragonfly walks at Teal Slough and Grimes Pond last Sunday (July 20th), you missed a whole lot of fun! The leaders were none other than Steve Gordon and Cary Kerst. I mean to tell you, you just can’t beat that! These fellows wrote the book on Dragonflies.

Yep, the book!

There was a 2-hour walk for kids in the morning, and another one for grown-ups in the afternoon. We were each given a net and told to go on down to the pond and catch some bugs. It doesn't get any better than that!

Tim and I played grown-up for the day and attended the afternoon walk:

But we hear that the kids netted way more dragonflies and than we did. AND that fewer kids fell down in the mud! It's slippery out there! Three of us big folks went...
d
o
w
n
...ker-splat, including one of our fearless leaders.

Some decided that muddy toes were better at keeping them
u
p
r
i
g
h
t
than shoes, and ditched their footwear for the day.

Over a dozen different species were netted in all!

One cool thing I learned is that, unlike butterflies, dragonflies are sturdy enough that you can pick them up without hurting them:


Here's a Black Saddlebags dragonfly. You can see how it got its name.







And this is orangy-red one is the
Cardinal Meadow-
hawk.





So, as you see, you can hold them. IF you can net them! Grown-ups, I recommend bringing a kid along!

Mostly, when we released them, they just flew right off to go about their dragonfly business. But one amazing woman had magic hands – they just didn't want to leave her.



Here's a

Twelve-Spotted Skimmer

that stayed....








...and stayed!







This pretty blue-and-green Western Pondhawk was my favorite:




Guess whose hand it's on!







Cary scooped up a bucket of pond water. You never know what you'll find when you do that...
The stick-like fellow at the far left of the bucket is a damselfly nymph. After they hatch, they live underwater for anywhere from 1 to 3 years before they emerge and become creatures of the air!

The whopper of a critter that you see in the bucket is a water scorpion. For amazing facts about water scorpions (did you know they can fly?), check out Cary’s blog entry for April 26, 2008.


There were masses of dragonflies and damselflies at the ponds, but they weren't the only creatures about. We also saw several chorus frogs on willow leaves at Grimes Pond...















...and,
on the banks
of the pond
at Teal Slough,
we saw
what we think
might be a
nutria house.


Keep your eyes on the West Eugene Wetlands events calendar for walks like these. Or sign up for the e-newsletter to get your own personal invitation. You won't be disappointed!

Saturday at Willow Creek, July 26, 2008

The creek is dry above 18th street, but the dragonflies and damselflies are still around.

Lyre-tipped Spreadwing

Red-veined Meadowhawk

Twelve-spotted Skimmer

Lets not ignore the Common Wood Nymph