Day 3- Out in the field.

You will never believe the journey that we went on today. First we drove out to the forest and parked on the side of the road. I was thinking..this isn't so bad. We will just walk a few yards to the area we wanted to plot. Well I was wrong! Our team of 4 were ready with our gear; waterproof boots, backpacks and many layers of clothing because it was very cold (for us floridians...about 65 degrees. We trecked through a muddy swamp that was up to our calves and we had to climb over knocked down trees and branches. Thank goodness there weren't any snakes! Then when I thought that I had the hang of it, I stepped down, lost my balance and my foot kept sinking in the cold, muddy, water and my boot started to fill up with water. I grabbed onto the log in front of me and hopped on it. When I thought it couldn't get any worse with a cold, soaking wet foot we now had to walk on a log to get across the swamp. We all made it safely to our destination.

We set up a plot and Rebecca and I took data on herbivory (all the plants and trees within the 10 meter diameter) while the rest of the team collected caterpillars. After about 3 hours in the field we went back for lunch and then made observations and recorded our data (name of the caterpillar, name of the plant, location, and date). It was a packed day with many adventures.

In the video I talk about what we do when we plot an area.

This is the swamp we had to cross.

Do you see my friend on my shoulder? What is it?