bees - take 2

in the last installment of bee musings (here) i was fretting about time...time to make a new queen; time for her to take a mating flight; time for the eggs to mature; and the amount of time workers live. well, our time ran out somewhere between maturing eggs and having enough workers. and our queen was gone...either they kicked her out because she wasn't laying well or she took a second mating flight and didn't make it back. in either case, it seems like there were no fresh eggs for the workers to make into a queen. no queen = no hive. this was a sad development in our hive...especially after our hive did so well through the winter and into the spring. (the part of the hive that swarmed seems to be doing really well in its new home in the sycamore tree.)

this is some of the capped brood we found during our final hive inspection of our first hive. there are a few bees that look like they are emerging, but they didn't make it. in all likelihood there were not enough bees to keep the brood warm so they got too cold and could not emerge. 

our bees definitely did not die because of a lack of food...they had that in droves. we were worried that if we left the nectar and capped honey in the hive that robber bees and all sorts of vermin would help themselves to it. so we decided to harvest the honey before any of that could happen. it only ended up being a few frames that were completely capped so we harvested in the old fashioned way...crush the wax and filter the honey.

frame of capped honey

we scraped the capped honey off the frames and into a pot

we put everything in a fine mesh bag and let it drain for ~ 24 hours

pete pouring the honey into jars

we harvested just over a gallon of honey...
plenty for family, friends, neighbors, and us!

after we knew the hive was destined to fail, we condensed the hive down to one box that contained the frames with the remaining brood and bees and added some queen pheromone to it in the off chance there was a swarm looking for a nice home. unfortunately, we didn't attract a swarm so our next option was to get new bees so we could start a new hive. 

we had missed our chance to get a package by about a month, but fortunately our local feed store scored a line on some nucs (essentially a small hive of bees) and we got ourselves on the list. 

our new bees arrived in mid-may. when we started bee keeping, we got a package of 10,000 worker bees (about three pounds) and a newly mated queen in a cage to whom the workers were not accustomed. a nuc, by contrast, is a small hive with a queen, workers, and baby bees in all stages of development. a nuc is about six weeks ahead of a package in terms of hive development. nucs are really nice late in the spring because the bees don't have as many food resources available so eliminating the spin-up period is helpful. 

our nuc had an extra advantage because they were going to be placed into a hive with frames fully drawn with wax and filled with nectar and honey. in case that wasn't enough for them, we also started feeding them sugar water to sweeten the deal. 

pete moving frames from the nuc to our hive. he got to do the honors this time since he was out of town when we got our first package of bees.

we are almost a month into our new bees and they are doing great! we've been into the hive a few times and there is a lot of brood of all stages and lots of bees. we've added two supers to make more room for them and they are quickly filling it all up. we are unlikely to get another honey harvest this year, but honestly, it is just nice to see lots of bees coming and going from the apiary again. 

beekeeper pete looking for eggs

the marine side of the Galápagos

We started our Galápagos adventure on San Cristóbal Island where our naturalist guides met us at the airport and took us to our floating home, the Flamingo 1 (run by EcoVentura - a great company). Our itinerary included seven islands--San Cristóbal, Española, Floreana, Santa Cruz, Bartolomé, South Plazas, and North Seymour. The boat moved from island to island mainly at night so we didn’t spend a lot of our daylight hours doing long transits. Most days we had four excursions--two land- and two sea-based (snorkeling, kayaking, or panga ride). In between our outings we had delicious snacks and meals, all of which the kitchen staff adapted to my needs. The entire staff was fantastic! Our boat had nineteen guests on board and two naturalists. The small group size was great, particularly when we were hiking on the islands. Most of the time the two groups would travel in opposite directions so the expeditions didn’t feel crowded at all. All of our land and sea activities involved our two pangas (small inflatables). Pete and I have both done a lot of work in inflatables so to say that we were thoroughly impressed by our panga drivers is saying something. They were awesome!  

the Flamingo 1 - our floating home

one of our fabulous panga drivers, orlando

Our first expedition was a snorkel near Playa Carola on San Cristóbal. They gave us 5 mm wetsuits to wear...and we never wore them again. The water temperature in December is usually in the mid-70s fahrenheit so a wetsuit is quite nice if you are going to be in the water for awhile. Because of El Niño, however, the water temperature was in the mid-80s! While this was quite nice for our snorkeling expeditions, it can be bad for many of the marine critters in the Galápagos. The warm water is brought to the Galápagos by the Panamanian Current from the north. In a non-El Niño year, the Galápagos is bathed in cold, nutrient-rich water coming from the Humboldt Current to the south. Without that cold, nutrient-rich water, there isn’t as much food for whales, seabirds, fish, penguins, sea lions, or iguanas so their populations decline substantially during El Niño. Interestingly enough, however, the land critters do really well during El Niño because it rains a lot so they have access to abundant food resources. The reverse is also true; La Niña events (cold and dry) bring weather that is bad for land critters but good for marine critters. The water temperature had not been warm for very long before we arrived, so we got to see a lot of marine life during our trip.

One of the options for our trip was to focus on underwater Galápagos a do a dive charter. We considered it but didn't want to miss out on the land excursions. We were really happy with our choice...we loved our snorkeling time and we stayed a couple extra days on San Cristóbal so we could do a day of diving.

The marine habitat was a bit of a surprise to us. The substrate looked very similar to our temperate marine habitats here in California...rocky reef covered in crustose coralline algae, lots of solitary cup corals, but very few hard coral colonies. I expected a lot more coral since the Galápagos are near the equator, firmly in the coral reef zone. The fish, on the other hand, were exactly what we expected--brightly colored reef fish with species common to us from southern Baja and French Polynesia. It felt very much like a temperate-tropical mash-up. 

cup corals on coralline encrusted rocks

anemones

There were four big highlights for us: 1. Seeing a marine iguana chomping on algae underwater (one of Pete’s travel goals) 2. Getting buzzed by a Galápagos penguin! 3. Swimming through a huge school of salemas. 4. Dropping off the panga into a turbulent patch of water FILLED with fish of all shapes, colors, and sizes. (5. I got to see a hammerhead in the distance on our dive...Pete missed it.)

Our marine iguana sighting was a last ditch effort to cross off Pete’s #1 travel goal. We had seen marine iguanas in the water during our trip, but we never saw one eating underwater. After we got off the boat, we did a hike on San Cristóbal that ultimately led us to a beach. We walked along the beach and saw that there were marine iguanas swimming around. Of course we hadn’t brought our snorkeling gear with us so we made a beeline back to our hotel to get our gear. When we got back to the beach there were fewer iguanas in the water so time was of the essence. We also quickly realized that we would have a hard time seeing the little iguana heads if we were both in the water, so we decided to divide and conquer. Pete went into the water to look underwater and I stayed on the beach to sight them from land. If I saw one on the surface, I would point him in the right direction and he would swim to the spot. Even with the somewhat murky conditions, it worked beautifully! I directed him to one, he found it, and the iguana stayed there long enough for me to swim out and watch. It was so cool! They grip the rock underwater with their long claws and then just chomp, chomp, chomp the algae off the rocks. Their teeth have evolved a crazy shape to make the scraping really efficient. When they are done, they let go of the rock, float to the surface, and swim along with water surface using their big tail as a paddle.  

swimming marine iguana


serious claws for gripping rocks

algae-eating adapted teeth

We got buzzed by a penguin near the end of our snorkel off Bartolomé Island. The best part--both Pete and I saw it! (There are currently two things I have seen on our travels that I failed to show Pete and I will hear about those things until the end of time.) Seeing a penguin “flying” underwater is a pretty cool sight. We later saw the penguin on land, posing very nicely for us.

posing for us after checking us out in the water

The salemas, a small, schooling fish, were really fun. We saw big schools twice during our trip. The first was during a snorkel. The school was near the bottom and a bit too deep for me to reach. Pete was able to get there and swam through the school. It was fun to watch from the surface because the school parted like the Red Sea to let him through and immediately closed behind him. One of our naturalists took my camera down with him and took a video as he was swimming through - so neat! Our second encounter was during one of our SCUBA dives so i had a chance to swim through. The bubbles from SCUBA were a bit disruptive, but it was pretty surreal (and disorientating!) to be surrounded by thousands of 5-6 inch fish.

school of salemas

pete going into the school

school reforming around pete and adrian

pete emerging and the salemas closing in behind him

adrian swimming through the school of salemas

Many of our snorkels were done in areas where the current would slowly take you from one place to another. In a few of these places, we started at the point of an island where currents and waves met, making for very choppy water. These turbulent areas often concentrate food in a small area...a fish buffet of sorts. For us this meant a fantastically diverse, high density cluster of fish that could not have cared less about our presence. It felt like being in a fishbowl!

There were a lot of other great marine critters in our water-side adventures...

the Galápagos fur seals were not at all phased by humans

in fact, i think they quite enjoy our presence...

chocolate chip sea star

green sea turtle

sharks at leon dormido (sleeping lion) rock

puffer and friends

sea fan

cushion sea star

Galápagos fur seal

sally lightfoot crab

mating green sea turtles

our land adventures are up next, so stay tuned...

birthday backpacking

pete wanted to go backpacking this year for his birthday. we've been talking about doing the skyline to the sea trail--a through hike that starts close to our house--for many years. however, neither of us have done much backpacking in the last ten years, so a three day, thirty mile trip seemed a little ambitious to me. we opted instead for the loop trail in big basin, which covers some of the same ground as skyline to the sea. 

our hike to the trail camp was six miles, so we got a rather leisurely start on pete's birthday. as we headed out the door, the rain started. we were prepared, but really?! it hadn't rained in a week and there was no rain in the forecast for the coming week...just the two days we were backpacking. 

the rain turned out to be great...critters like the banana slug and rough-skinned newts were out in force!

 

we also mostly had the trail to ourselves on our first day. the wildflowers were still in bloom, which was an unexpected treat. the rain stopped by the time we got to the trail camp so we could explore a bit and enjoy our dinner and books outside the tent. 

 

birthday boy!

wild iris

balloon flower

red clintonia

copious turkey tail fungus

we woke to rain on day two, but it tapered off relatively soon after we started packing our gear. we did opt for a bar breakfast rather than starting the stove in the rain. the highlight of day two was all the waterfalls--gold, cascade, silver, and berry creek. descending along them was a bit nerve-wracking, especially since the rocks were slick from the rain.

gold falls

cascade falls

silver falls - the sketchiest descent

berry creek falls

less rain the second day made for a lot more hikers and runners on the trail, but it was still enjoyable. the two sides of the loop were very different in flora and fauna and beautiful all around. we are so lucky to have this state park twenty minutes from out house. i think we need to make this an annual event!

Galapagos (Part 1)

Pete and I crossed a long-standing travel destination off our travel wish list at the end of 2015...the Galápagos. The Galápagos Islands, an archipelago of volcanic islands, lie 800 miles west of Ecuador and South America. Because of their geographic isolation, there are numerous species that are unique to the Galápagos. These characteristics have made the Galápagos a playground for evolutionary biologists for centuries. I have a PhD in ecology and evolutionary biology and Pete has a BS in marine biology. The unique critters in the Galápagos helped one of the most famous ecologists develop the theory of natural selection and were the cornerstone of our education. Going to the Galápagos was akin to a trip to Mecca for us. And "Mecca" did not disappoint!

One of the earliest and most prominent scientists to spend time on the Galápagos was Charles Darwin. In fact, his theory of natural selection was largely informed by the species he collected during the five weeks he spent in the Galápagos as a naturalist aboard the HMS Beagle. Darwin hypothesized that species found on the Galápagos were different from those on the South American continent because they had been isolated from those populations for a significant amount of time. By being isolated from mainland populations for generations, species slowly adapted to the conditions in the Galápagos, becoming increasingly different from populations on the mainland with each generation. So, while genes determine the traits of an individual, the variability in those genes makes some individuals better adapted to specific environmental conditions than others (conditions could include things like temperature, humidity, food type and availability, and predators). Being better adapted means higher offspring production and survival, increasing the frequency of traits in the population that are adapted to conditions at the time. For example, a lizard that blends into its surroundings better than the next lizard is more likely to not be eaten by a bird. As long as that coloration is an inherited trait, the offspring of the well-camouflaged lizard will also be less likely to get eaten...as long as the surroundings don't change between generations. And that lizard that got eaten...well, it didn't get to pass its not-well-camouflaged genes to the next generation so that coloration eventually goes away. In the science world we shorten this interaction between genes and the environment to G x E. Genes AND the environment determine the trajectory of species adaptations over time. If two places have different environments and there is little movement between the two places, eventually what was one species becomes two.

Charles Darwin is kind of a big deal here...
his work helped put this place on the map for scientists!

In the Galápagos, G x E was happening on two spatial scales: 1. between the mainland and the islands; and 2. between the individual islands of the archipelago. The most charismatic species that have become differentiated between the mainland, as well as between the islands are the lava lizards, marine iguanas, giant cactus, and the ever lovable giant tortoises.

Let's start with the lava lizards. Below are three photos of males from three different islands. Notice the difference in their coloration.

lava lizard from Española

lava lizard from Bartolomé

lava lizard from Santa Cruz

Next up are the marine iguanas. Their coloration (at least for the breeding males) is also really different between the islands.

marine iguana from Floreana - lots of red

marine iguana from Española - blue and red

marine iguana from Santa Cruz - orange

The giant cactus has two growth forms...the tree variety that keeps the fleshy pads far from the ground and the normal variety with the pads close to the ground. Why the difference? That yellow guy below. Land iguanas love to snack on the cactus pads so on islands where they are present, the tree variety of the giant cactus evolved. On islands without the land iguanas, the cactus grows close to the ground. The species interactions are beautifully simple on the Galápagos, which is another reason why evolutionary ecologists love this place.

   

Land iguanas love to eat cactus pads and would chomp them all if they grew close to the ground.

The Galápagos, which means saddle, are named for the giant tortoises that explorers found when they landed on the islands. The shell of the tortoises takes multiple forms and is different on the different islands (14 different species in total). Some have domed shells, others saddle-backed shells, and others somewhere in the middle. In general, the domed shell tortoises live on the larger islands where vegetation (food) is abundant. The saddle-backed tortoises live on more arid islands where food is more scarce and grows higher from the ground, so they need that extra tilt in their shell to extend their necks higher to reach food.

 
dome-shelled giant tortoise

   

saddle-backed tortoise - look at the long reach of the neck!

The Galápagos finches are perhaps the most famous and best studied group of birds in the Galápagos, thanks to Darwin in the 1800s and Peter and Rosemary Grant over the last 40+ years. There are currently 13 species of finch that are believed to have evolved from a single ancestor that colonized the Galápagos millions of years ago. The main difference between each species is the shape and size of the beak. Each species is adapted to a particular food type (e.g., insects, seeds, fruits), which vary in abundance across the islands and under different climatic conditions. We saw mainly seed eaters, but even they have noticeably different beak shapes.  

medium male ground finch with a thick beak - 

good for crushing big seeds

small female ground finch with a short beak - eats smaller seeds

sharp-beaked ground finch -
the sharp beak allows this guy to get seeds out of harder to reach places

As you may have guessed, we completely nerded out on this trip, including re-reading Darwin's "Voyage of the Beagle." We also regularly discussed long distance migration, survival of the fittest, stepping stone evolution...complete with diagrams. Stay tuned for more from the marine and terrestrial habitats!