A conservation biologist. I work to help people appreciate the natural beauty and rare species of our diverse state.
I am participating in #shutdownstem today. I will spend the day educating myself and beginning a plan to make BioBlitz! Oklahoma actively anti-racist. I want all citizen scientists to feel welcome and included at BioBlitz! Oklahoma! https://www.shutdownstem.com/
A couple weeks ago, I started seeing these bees curling up their abdomens and showing off the pollen collected on their fuzzy undersides. The picture doesn’t show it well, but the curling up of the abdomen is really conspicuous. Along with this curling up, I also observed, what appeared to be, aggressive behavior to others … More Bottoms Up!
Working from home and hearing the birds in my neighborhood this spring has me in better tune with the nesting and fledging cycle than when I am gone 8+ hours a day shut in an office building. This year, I was well aware of the cardinal nest in the overgrown rose bush near the front … More So many bird families!
Since I am working at home this spring and summer and not doing regular field work, I am taking the opportunity to learn a little more about my urban biodiversity. I am best at butterflies and birds right now, so keeping those lists are easy. Here are the species of butterflies that I have seen … More 13 Butterflies
Happy World Bee Day! Until a few years ago, I was unenlightened about bees, especially native bees. Like most people, I thought most bees were like European honey bees (Apis mellifera) – lived in hives, made tasty honey, died when they stung you, do a waggle dance to tell their friends where the good flowers … More Learning the bees
Paper wasps are an significant pollinator of our Oklahoma flowers and important biological control agent. The adults feed on nectar, but you may see them chewing holes in plants or gathering fibers from wood. They are gathering the material to build their “paper” nests. Paper wasps are social insects and the nest can hold a … More Paper Wasps – genus Polistes
In honor of Endangered Species Day, I ask you to consider reducing or removing your lawn. The single biggest factor to cause a species to become “endangered” is loss of habitat. Where does that habitat go? To parking lots and grocery stores and hotels and farms and suburban neighborhoods. Will removing your lawn provide habitat … More Endangered Species Day
Two new plant records during this Spring BioBlitz! These species that are new records for Oklahoma were verified by our BioBlitz! expert botanist, Amy Buthod. One snuck over from Arkansas and was recorded by virtual and in-person BioBlitzer Lynn Michael – Smooth Yellow False Foxglove (Aureolaria flava) The other species, Common Cornsalad (Valerianella locusta), was … More Virtual Spring BioBlitz! 2020
We had a record setting BioBlitz! weekend this year at Sequoyah State Park on the shores of Fort Gibson Lake in eastern Oklahoma. This was our biggest group of biologists – both professional and amateur – that has ever attended our BioBlitz! event. We had over 450 citizen scientists and expert biologists participate in our … More BioBlitz! OK 2019
The Field Studies in Conservation Biology class added to the pollinator meadow by filling in some gaps in our Phase 1 area by planting our greenhouse grown native species. We planted these in the early evening of May 30th and watered them regularly for the next 10 days. Photos by Josh Kouri, teaching assistant
