Greetings!
I am happy to say I enjoyed this years insect season. This October has been nicely full of great outreach and community connections.
I am doing a review of the insect work I did this past season. I hope that it not only is fun to see the connections we have but also to help folks understand how they might use Dragons Wynd in their community.
To summarize my winter
I sewed a lot. I made over 30 pairs of butterfly and beetle wings. They have worked well and look great. Also some jewelry work.
I kept in touch with other aquatic scientist and engineers via zoom. Folks from the USA, New Zealand, and Australia connected by meeting at Symposiums on Urban Stream Ecology https://www.urbanstreamecology.org/ and or the annual meeting of the Society of Freshwater Science https://freshwater-science.org/
Feb 27-29 attended the Pollinator summit
April 22-May 1 Earth Day trip down to Phinizy swamp https://phinizycenter.org/ Nearly an annual adventure making Augusta Georgia feel like a sister city. It is always so nice to see leaves on the trees somewhere this time of year. The weather is often warm but not too hot. I was out for dinner the night before the event and a Luna moth had been found after it fulfilled it’s duty for the next generation. I am delighted to be reminded that we share many insects throughout North America. Even in such a different climates as Minnesota and Georgia
May
Consulted on a garden plan
May 31-June 7 Society for Freshwater Science annual meeting in Philadelphia. I go as a vendor and scientist. This year was the best sales year for me. My first year I only sold postcards so it has only improved since then. I was also able to attend a great number of the presentations as the location that hosted us had a good layout. As a person who has limited mobility at times I have missed talks in the past because the convention center has the talks quite some distance from each other. I may be remembering joint conferences and in team work needing larger spots to hold all of these wonderful people working towards the health of the world it’s land and it’s people. My academic family was there as we mourned the loss of Dr Len Ferrington and celebrated his legacy by hosting amazing presentations on Chironomids.
June 11-13 camping and teaching at Whitewater State Park. https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/park.html?id=spk00280#homepage
June 26 Dragonfly Bonanza Great annual event with great partners and an energetic audience.
June 23 Worked with the Golden Valley Garden club table as part of a three year project looking at the insect populations on “pocket gardens” or newly planted ~ 3′ x 3′ gardens. I went out twice to count insects this year and am working on the data currently (Oct 2024)
June 25 Helped a troop of Girl scouts ear their insect badge.
June 30, July 12, and July 15. Solar and parkland Pollinator count with the Pollinator Friendly Alliance.
July worked with Metropolitan Council https://metrocouncil.org/ to bee present for a neighborhood pollinator pop-up info event. The intent was to be available to the neighborhood to share information on pollinator habitat.
July 13, August 10 and September 14 Fins and Feathers with the National Park service. Nicely set up series with a great group of partners . Engaging activities like practice casting or identifying fur pelts from animals in Minnesota. I had with my Glass topped insect collections and my new activity the insect food tree. I will try to remember to post some images too.
July 26 Park after Dark with the National Park service. A great event!! It has been so great to see it turn into such a wonderful full evening of hanging out next to the Mississippi River.
July 27th Outreach at Heidi ‘s Growhaus https://www.growhausmn.com/ Fun regular event with delightful other entomologist like Erin Rupp https://www.pollinatemn.org/pollinate-minnesota
Presented on insects and the great ecosystems we can nurture, improve and create. Attendees were from the area and some were regulars for shopping there and looking out for their events.
I haven’t been mentioning the bug clubs but they happened too.
August 28 and 29 DNR invited and hosted me at the Minnesota State Fair and many others for Water day and Pollinator day. Wednesday I chatted with around 350 folks was much busier of the two days. Thursday I was closer to the stage as there were fewer presenters for Pollinator day. I figured I talked with around 150 Thursday.
September 1 & 2 State Fair with Common Table
https://www.mnstatefair.org/location/the-common-table/
Shout out to two of the greatest volunteers for Dragons Wynd. I didn’t get permission before I wrote this but you know who you are. Multiple years of help and fun times. We talked about how insect connect to our food production and the greater ecosystem that can modify success of growth. Pollinators are well known to folks and people are hip to knowledge, like planting native flowers, that benefit the health of these insects. We were there to answer questions and participate in conversations about these insects and to share some other insects and the ways they contribute to our food resources. This year I got pretty excited to learn Cecropia Moth caterpillar frass is in the shape of a star. Like a spritz cookie maker cutout.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1457530857620194&set=pcb.1457530990953514
This must be a great shape to enrich soil.
Sunday we clicked 911 folks and Monday 711
September 7 Monarch festival Wild Ones hosted Dragons Wynd under their tent. It was lovely to work for this local event. I Figured I interacted with 400 people. It was a beautiful and very well attended. I was busy the whole time and pleased I had packed food as the lines were long.
September 10 was the second insect survey date for Golden Valley.
Bioblitz with Minneapolis Parks.
Minnehaha Falls September 14, Theodore Wirth Regional Park 28th and North Mississippi Regional Park October 12.
Leading volunteers on insect records for bioblitz. iNatrualist is the platform that is being used for recording the data.
September 25 Metro Children’s Water festival https://metrocwf.org/
Great annual event and usually my example of being able to educate in small increments in time. say 5-10 seconds. I set up in what they call the water arcade. It is an area, 2024 in the eco building at the state fair, with 5-8 stations where kids can connect with water in some way. Often there is a fishing station where the kids can cast fishing poles. Another shows water tension by using a hula hoop raised from a kiddy pool of soapy water while the child stands on a cinder block in the center of the pool.
It was rewarding and fun.
October 7 I helped a girl scout troop earn their insect badge.
October 8 I started and ended the day with coffee chats hosted by metro Blooms. https://metroblooms.org/ I have partnered with them for over 10 years and we continue to grow together and support each others work.
October 8th I was also able to jump in and help Ramsey-Washington metro watershed district and visit some classrooms of 5th graders and share how aquatic insects reflect water health and how they play a roll in storm water.
October 9th was the most recent Watershed partners meetings this month held on zoom. They are a great group that I like to stay in touch with so I know the current projects around Minnesota.
October 10, updating the website and heading out of the cities to do more outreach and education at a school.