It was a rainy week this week at the Stiles farm. Farm intern Georgina and I continued spraying mesquite when we could. Unfortunately, spraying when it’s wet makes for a less effective kill due to the chemical not being able to stick to wet leaves. In addition to spraying mesquite, Georgina and I went to each of my vegetation transects and flipped cover boards in hopes of finding reptiles or amphibians taking shelter from the rain. Finding “herps” depends on a variety of factors including temperature, rainfall, time of day, and habitat being searched. 
Although we didn’t find any this week, we hope that after a few more weeks and a little more rainfall we may have a better chance of success. Another rainy day activity that I spent some time on this week was data entry from my vegetation surveys. By transcribing my initial data to an excel spreadsheet and identifying plants that I couldn’t ID at the time of the survey, I am able to better analyze the data and get an idea of species diversity on the property.
AnMarie Ulery-Wild Life Intern