Field Notes on Invertebrate Species at the UBNA

5/10/14
Weather: Overcast
Time: 11:00-12:00
Temperature: 65 degrees (approx.)

My site has changed considerably phenologically, even since the last journal entry. It is getting harder and harder to access this pond, and the grassland surrounding it has gotten so tall. The Yellow Flag Irises are all blooming now, and the rushes are fully grown, about two feet long. Also, the water levels continue to go down, and as the result much of the pond has become mud banks. The Scouler's Willow has lost its fuzzy flowers, and the leaves of the Garry Oak are now much larger, about 2-3 inches.

The Giant Horsetails are also fully grown, and are almost 2 ft long:

The Tule (Scirpus acutus) is now as tall as me. Its amazing how fast this rush has come in.

There has been a lot of critters visiting my pond. In the mud banks around the pond, I found North American Raccoon or Procyon lotor tracks, some kind of duck tracks, and the tracks of small birds. 

Invertebrates I spotted at my site:
Yellow-Faced Bumblebee
Blue Eyed Darner Dragonfly
Yellow Jacket
Arachnid
Diptera

Here are my sketches-
From left to right: Blue-Eyed Darner, some kind of Diptera, Yellow Faced Bumblebee, and Yellow Jacket. Second page is an arachnid I found, with a faint white stripe (Order Araneae)

Native bumblebee
I found this native bumblebee touching down on the Yellow Flag Irises in my pond site, buzz pollinating these flowers. I searched for its nest site but couldn't find it. She seems very big and buzzy and might have been a queen. She seemed to have a pattern of constantly weaving around the irises, flying low over the ground and occasionally landing on the ground and crawling around the grass and fallen cottonwood leaves. I am guessing that she was looking for a place to nest, but I can't be for sure. I identified this native bumblebee as Bombus vosnessenskii (order Hymenoptera) or the Yellow-faced bumblebee. I also saw another one of these yellow-faced bumblebees around the flowering Lupinus polyphyllus, the purple lupines, near the trail.


Dragonfly
I think I can positively ID this as a Blue-Eyed Darner (Aeshna multicolor, order Odonata). I found this dragonfly near my site, on some tall grasses near the edge of the pond. I'm surprised that the damsel- and dragonflies are out, considering it is still Spring. I think the hot weather lately has brought them out of their overwintering nests. This dragonfly was resting on a piece of grass with its wings out. This dragonfly has a narrow body with blue and light brown stripes and two pairs of transparent, membraneous wings.

Yellow Jacket (Vespula sps, Hymenoptera)
I found this yellow jacket a bit farther from the pond, in the drier grassland area. This yellow jacket was buzzing around the grass, flying faster and higher than the bumblebee I observed earlier. I was able to quickly sketch it when it rested on a blade of grass, but it stayed for only a moment. The yellow jacket seemed to be quickly surveying the area. When this yellow jacket came close to another one, they seemed to be working together rather than being competitive with one another. I imagine there must be a yellow jacket hive somewhere in the UBNA.

Small black spider (Araneae) 
I came upon a small, black/brown spider about 1 mm long near the pond's edge crawling under some dead leaves near a clump of grass. The spider had a dim white line running horizontally up its abdomen, but besides that it didn't have very many strongly characteristic features. The spider was very fast and ran from my sight quickly, hiding from my presence under the grasses.


Fly (Order Diptera) 
I found a small fly, about 1 mm long on a cottonwood leaf on the mud banks of my pond site. Once I looked around, I noticed that there were many similar flies hovering around in the mud. This fly was pretty lethargic and didn't even respond to my presence. These flies had black bodies with transparent wings set in a triangular angle from their bodies. I don't know what these flies were doing, but they were probably feeding and mating. There didn't seem to be competition between the flies, although they seemed to be pretty evenly dispersed around the pond.