This week we’re collecting insects in Jasper National Park, which is a definite change of scenery from Prince Albert. We’ve been fortunate enough to get to travel through the Rockies, and the trails we collect on have offered very scenic views of the surrounding mountains. Today we traveled to Maligne Lake where we spent the day hand collecting, followed by some aquatic sampling in a glacial pond.
Later on, we set up a night sheet to catch some nocturnal insects. After setting up the trap, we have to wait about an hour before we go back and check what we’ve attracted. After a long day of work, we were all feeling a bit drowsy by the time midnight rolled around. In order to keep ourselves awake, we decided to turn collecting into a game. We had noticed the sound of crickets calling from the trees, and the four of us decided to track them down. Our night time hunt led us from tree to tree with flashlights, trying to follow the sound of the cricket’s chirp. We finally found the culprit about five feet up a pine tree, and triumphantly added him to our collection. We managed to track down one more before deciding it was time to check on our night sheet. It definitely livened up our wait, and it was fun to try out a different kind of collecting!
– Jen
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