I am Mayra Pelagio, first year student at UC Davis working towards an Environmental Science and Management degree. As a first year, I felt a little lost in the huge campus and I was eager to find an area of interest that will help me distress from school work.  Thankfully, a friend of mine knew about Sara’s project and that she was looking for interns.  The few months I was in the project were really exciting and I learned a lot about birds and agriculture. My blog post is about my experience as an intern.

The Alfalfa experiment

If you were to go out on a field to count birds in any given day, you would be amazed by the amount and variety of bird populations. This is true for alfalfa fields. Many farmers might see birds such as the red-winged blackbirds, and Brewer’s blackbirds as pest species and might considered the use of bird deterrents or even poisons to control their populations.  Whereas they might recognize that birds like barn swallows are insect-eaters and may help crops. The purpose of the experiment is to see if birds are helping farmers.  Since birds don’t eat alfalfa, the idea is that such birds are on the fields looking for insect food: alfalfa weevils specifically.

Alfalfa weevils are considered one of the most damaging insects to alfalfa. As larvae, the alfalfa weevils feed on alfalfa branches, significantly decreasing the yield of the crop.

In the fields

The team of interns and Sara built exclosures to keep the birds away from the area of study, and the areas covered by these exclosures were the treatment space. Each field has two treatment and two control areas from which alfalfa samples were taken.  The work on the field usually consisted of checking on the exclosures and harvesting the alfalfa.  Farmers calculate their gains depending on the alfalfa yield and we mimicked the process of production by collecting the samples, processing them to identify the weevil population on them and then drying them to observe the resultant yield. The expected results were to have more weevils in the areas birds didn’t have access to.

Bird Watching

While on the fields, Sara and I had various opportunities to observe several birds, especially at the beginning of spring when some birds where laying eggs and for others, eggs were hatching. There were some pretty awesome birds we saw that I’d like to talk about.

Birds observed

The Great horned owl; we saw a female at about midday, sitting in a nest with her great yellow eyes looking right at us. She was beautiful, and from the observations Sara concluded that she was incubating.

Great egrets and Great blue herons; this was perhaps the most amazing bird watching experience for me. On a field day, we noticed an alfalfa field (not part of the experiment) that was full of great egrets and great blue herons. The field was being flood-irrigated and as we later discovered, it was infested with voles.  We stayed there for only a few minutes but in that time we witnessed several birds swallowing voles whole!! Some of them ate the prey right way, others kept it in their beaks for a little longer to completely kill the animal.  I had never witnessed birds hunting in such environment and it was such a great experience.

Loggerhead shrike; this is a small songbird that preys like a raptor. We got to see this little bird and part of its nest one day while we were in the fields.  The loggerhead shrike is one of the few song birds that have the ability, or rather the beak, to prey for large insects and other bigger animals.

Horned Lark; we saw this little guy near a tomato field. Horned Larks have a distinct black-colored frown that makes the bird look mad, even sad. They are beautiful nonetheless.

Other birds that I managed to identify were; king birds, American robins, Western scrub jays, golden crowned sparrows, California quail and over fifty other species. As a first timer, I had seen plenty of birds but never really knew their species, now I am able to identify them and in some cases know more than just their names.

Lab work

The processing of alfalfa was quiet tedious. After we harvested the field, we would end up with an alfalfa sample that we were to process and dry to obtain the yield. In the lab, we took a plastic container, put all the alfalfa in it and shook it for at least thirty times to knock the insects off the plants. After was done, we took the alfalfa out by handfuls and slapped the bunch against the containers walls, again to make sure the insects are off the plant.  After all the alfalfa was taken out, it was weighed and the remaining leaf matter was examined for weevils. The data analysis was done on the amount and size of the weevils found. I did not have the opportunity to work with the data, but the results will be shared with me.

The tomato experiment

Due to the ending of the school year I was only able to help with the tomato experiment for two weeks.  During these two weeks, we went out in the fields examining the tomato plants that were in study, following the same process as the alfalfa. The processing of the data worked differently though.  The plants were examined by observation in the field and the data used was on damage reports.

I won’t be able to help this summer with the rest of the tomato or the sunflower experiments but I am hoping to come back during the winter to continue working on the alfalfa experiment. 

It has been an experience assisting with the #WildAg project. I was to able to do a variety of work including handling data, assisting in the lab, and doing fieldwork. Doing fieldwork was one of my favorite activities and so I thought it would a great idea to share my first experience of going out onto the alfalfa fields. I decided to create a log to document tasks I did, notes that I've taken, new vocabulary words that I learned and new skills that I gained on that first day in the field. My most memorable moment was finding a regurgitated bird pellet, dissecting it and figuring out what the raptor had eaten. It was also exciting to bird watch with Sara and to have her share her knowledge with me about various bird and their behaviors. This experience has led me to think more about what I enjoy most about research and how important it is to be very organized when carrying out experiments.

Date: 3/31/2014

Time: 8am to 11amVocabulary:

· Raptor - Bird of prey that hunts for and feeds on other animals.

· Red winged blackbirds - Males have red and yellow shoulder badges. Males show off their colors to attract mate. Females are streaked and dark brownish all over.

· Northern Harrier - Males are white and gray. Females are brownish all over. We saw a female perched and a male flying around the area around her. From a distance, the bird is described as being “slim and long-tailed”.

· Alfalfa - Related to the pea plant and part of the legume family. Have a symbiotic relationship with Nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Protein rich plant. Can grow up to 1m tall (3 feet).

· Alfalfa weevil - In its young larvae stage, the weevil will feed on terminal buds of the alfalfa crop. In its larger larvae stage, the weevil will feed on the leaflets.

· Pellet (ornithology) - Undigested material that birds of prey regurgitate.

· Sweep nets – Common procedure for monitoring pest insects.

· Hedgerow – Rows of vegetation along the edge of the field that are used for encouraging pollinators, birds and other wildlife.

Fieldwork:

We did the following:

· Collect control (area with birds) and treatment (area without birds) samples of alfalfa.

· Set up exclosures in a newly planted tomato fields.

· Spent time watching birds to ID birds and observe their behavior.

· Look at raptor pellet that we found on top of the exclosure.

· We found the remains of a dead raptor near the entrance to the field. We don't know what killed it, but thought it might have been killed by one of the resident territorial raptors.

Notes:

· Species diversity is calculated using the Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index by looking at species abundance (distribution of species) and richness (number of species in a given area).

· Alfalfa weevils like to climb up to the top of the alfalfa crop to feed on the terminal buds.

· Birds sing to attract mate and to claim territory.

New Skills:

· Random sampling of alfalfa.

· Sampling with sweeping net – Swing net 180 degrees across the alfalfa. With a less vertical angle, strike the alfalfa quickly across.

· Investigating pellet from raptor – Opened up a 6cm pellet which had a dry texture to it. It was mostly colored dark gray with some whites. The pellet contained mostly white and gray fur. There was a small jaw about .5cm across, a pair of beetle wings and some unidentified bones.

· Setting a transect for bird counting. The bird IDers will walk 200m along edge of the field to count all birds that are seen and heard in the edge of the habitat. “They then return to the center of the transect and spend five minutes listening and scanning the field visually for birds, and then spend 5 minutes walking perpendicular to the edge, straight out into the field for 50m to flush birds that are foraging on the ground (get birds to fly out of vegetation).

After spending several weeks working in various fields for Sara, I have come to learn a lot about the different crops farmers are growing every day. I used to not think that much about farmers and the crops they grow, but after spending several hours doing fieldwork, my thoughts have changed tremendously as I learned the importance of crop maintenance and care and how much work is put into growing and harvesting. One crop in particular that I got to become very familiar with is alfalfa.

Alfalfa is commonly grown by many farmers due to its widespread demand and importance as animal feed. Among all the common hay crops, it typically has the highest feeding value and nutritional quality. It is primarily used as feed for high producing dairy cows as well as other grazing animals such as horses, sheep, etc.

The process of harvesting alfalfa is not as simple as just cutting the vegetation. It requires multiple steps before it is baled and shipped off. After the alfalfa have grown a moderate length, it is cut and left on the field for a few days to dry. The drying process is known as curing. Once it is dried, it is baled and stored until ready to be transported. Drying the alfalfa is critical as baling alfalfa that is not sufficiently dry may not be ready transporting. Another processing method for alfalfa once it is cut is through ensiling. Instead of drying the hay, the alfalfa is chopped and fermented in bags where oxygen is limited; thus promoting fermentation. This method retains high levels of nutrient and is more palatable than dry hay. It is however much more difficult to maintain as the fermenting bags can be punctured and disruption of the fermentation process can occur. Also silage is more prone to going rancid and mold growth.

Before being involved in this research project, I would have never have learned about any of this nor realize the importance of agriculture maintenance. I have learned a lot this quarter and hope to continue learning new things. It is also fascinating looking forward to the results of this research study as it can have quite an effect on the agricultural community.