fall water bear hunt , this dog can,t hunt!

[charlie g]

Yes it's getting cold often here in finger lakes/US...good doggie and I elected to go on a 'water bear twitching' collection hike. Closer to our home we maintain 'chumed with nutrient soil/ plant nutrient watered' tree base, tree trunk, and fallen tree nurse-log 'water bear parks' ...but native moss-lichen assemblages further away offer stock to...ere...import to my pampered outdoor water bear parks.

A few clean small collection jars with lids, a bottle of clean water.. all stowed in a bucket, and good doggie companion off to water bear twitching. Located assemblages are drenched with a jar pressed tight into the assemblage to catch the flush...then finger pick a few shards of these lichen-moss carpets off rocks or tree trunks..add to the collection jar. Less than 10 oz. volume amounts are the rule.. This permits the native communities to maintain their established communities.

This 10/18 fall collection hike sampled large rocks placed by farmers over scores, to centuries of years in the established tree/shrub line...'wind break to control wind soil errosion'..trre/shrub line to foster native wildlife good habitat...and a plain and pragmatic divider of crop fields. This field corn crop was the first placed since this field was awakenened from a fallow state for years...perhaps that is why the grower cut the corn stalks more than 12" above ground?!

[charlie g]

Sadly for perhaps three years..Monarch butterflies have been spotted less than prior years...sigghhh..this Monarch just happened to alight near where we entered the cropfeilds wind-break..sadly. this Monarch .alone with no mate..I have not seen pairs of Monarchs in over three years here in finger lakes/US...not a trace of a Monarch caterpillar on all their favored milkweeds which we have maintained in areas...there is a reason for this species distribution collapse...sigghhh.

[charlie g]

Let a lichen-moss assemblage ( did I hear the term: cryptogams?!!) stand at your bench well watered for at leadt 24 hours. Then with a pasteur pipett place a long water sample on your 'scan microscope slide'...now the hunt for water bears or other new to you protists/ meiofauna!

My first scan slide sample hosted a huge ciliate...new to me...I took an image capture of this 'tree line hog'...okay, I'll calm down.

[charlie g]

My suggestion and my 'shout out', is for all urban, suburban, or rural hobbyist/microscopists to please consider collection flushes' or your moss-lichen carpeted trees, stones..grounds. Perhaps you too might easily coax and pamper a moss patch on a home area stone, or tree base, or tree stump. Important to leave the sample to rest at your bench at least 24 hours before you sample for unique encounters.

My suggestion is to employ a long sample droplet on your initial 'scan slide'...easy to delfty slurp up an area of this sample where a unique organism or object is observed..verify transfer to the second slide before you add a 'viscosity tool'/ methyl cellulose which permits easy high magnification tracking/ observations . Live area protists and meiofauna share our home areas..try to encounter your protists and meiofauna..you really need methyl cellulose to slow these neighbors down IMHO. Thanks for visiting doggie and my collection hike...alas..no water bears..and it's silly to maintain these samples more than a week..the system radically becomes unnatural due to ecology changes in a tiny cup of outdoor life. I told my dog he gets half a milk-bone treat..as no bears on this hunt.

Charlie Guevara, finger lakes/US

[75RR]

Good to hear that you and your doggie bravely set forth on a new bear (or would that be bearless?) hunt.
Tis sad indeed about the monarch butterflies ...

Is that one of your modified pipettes or is it off the shelf? Looks very handy

[mrsonchus]

Aha Mr-G!
Great post my friend - inspiring for certain. Here in the U.K. the onset of Autumn/Winter is bringing the mosses to life again - not long now 'til they begin to elongate their setae and capsules become easy to spot.....

I must agree with all of your above sentiments, this technique of collecting, 'swamping' and leaving - even for as little as an hour, will bring-forth (from the shadows as it were...) such choice beasties as the 'water-bear' I find.

I bought a trinocular (Amscope) stereo-zoom last week and have just fitted incident and transmission lighting - tested last night the 'scope's performing beautifully. The ability to simultaneously use both lighting systems and to balance them via the use of their respective dimmers is I've found a huge advantage.

If I get the chance today I'm going to follow your lead and have a rummage around my garden for a few choice moss/beastie treasures!

Thanks for the inspiration Mr-G - more please!

John B.

[charlie g]

Good to hear that you and your doggie bravely set forth on a new bear (or would that be bearless?) hunt.
Tis sad indeed about the monarch butterflies ...

Is that one of your modified pipettes or is it off the shelf? Looks very handy

Hi, 75RR and Mr.Sonchus...years ago ( these pastuer pipetts are still low cost) I bought 9" and 5.25 " borosilicate pastuer pipetts...with a good fitting rubber bulb..these are terrific for fluid work.

And yes at an alcohol flame, or your kitchen gass range..they melt easy to be drawn to microtips..or spherical glass beads to make single lens DIY microscopes as a cheer to our worlds Anton L. .

But disposable capillary glass tubes ( soda lime glass are low cost and standard size for microtransfers where need. With hand drawn microorofices..even with capillary tube orifices..you still need a control to express/suction . You, 75RR purchased a clunky (my bad, sorry) clinical lab device which I find too cumbersome for using with specimen samples seated on a stand under a: 2X, 4X, 10X objective. Globe Scientific, Paramus,NJ ( their web site shows in an image I plopped in this posting) sells a low cost rubber bulb device for use with capillary tubes.

So I go full circle back to use of pastuer pipetts rather than of capillary glass tubes. It's the protocol of a scan slide with an elongated water droplet on it...from which you slurp up a fluid area where object you want to study resides. Long drawn out 'glass hairs' from pastuer pipetts are great for moving things about under 4X, and 10X objectives..for diatom placements..for lots of things my microscopy doesn't emtail usually...hmmm...I recall those 'new to me epibiont rotifers attached between the limb bases of Gammerus freshwater shrimp..I did not think to make a glass fiber-tool to scrub the rotifers off their hosts.

[charlie g]

Soda lime heameatological capillary tubes have orifices much smaller than Pasteur pipetts...yet their orifices are larger than that of the longer 10 micron L capillary tubes. I simply do not have a need for any of these low cost fluid items. You do need a dedicated device to express fluids from these tiny tubes..the Globe Scientific device is low cost.

Speaking of low cost..quite enjoyable are all the circa 1990 texts eBay available..here are two..free shipping and less than $5 USD each! They arrived this week and each has sections pertinent to doggie and my water-hunts, and water bear parks.

all the best, Charlie Guevara finger lakes/US

[charlie g]

Entry to the cropfield windbreaks offers moss/lichen assemblages to collect samples of for bench observations, for outdoor maintenance nearer to home, for indoor terrarium maintenance.


Once doggie and I enter the cropfield windbreak, there is a curiouse sense of cathedral hallway as we glance uphill within this quiet corridor of microclimate between cropfields.



A variety of mosses and lichen assemblages thrive on rocks hefted from the fields decades ago, other pads of mosses grow on the floor of this windbreak habitat.



Now (11/18) the hunting season forbids our hike to this unique area ..for our personal safety! And wearing bright orange cloth , we still would ruin hunters free and clear stalks of game.


Water bears closer to home are the option during hunting season. charlie guevara whose dog did.nt hunt this collection hike.

[charlie g]

Yes, yes, that is not an umbrella slung on this chaps shoulder...the tree corridors of crop fields now are sensible to hike only for game hunting. Even in our orchard and meadows...doggie must wear orange colors on any hikes.

We elect to continue our hunt for water bears, keeping close to home.

Perhaps as we are staying closer to home...perhaps a sort of field microscope may be employed on wet days when waters puddle on the lichen/moss assemblages? Charlie Guevara/ finger lakes,US

[charlie g]

Crop cycles, growth seasons, the deep time rock cycles,our microscopy amidst lichen and moss establishments on large hefted rocks in crop field windbreaks...these water bear hunts lead to thoughts of earth and how we share it. It seems now earth scientists are sorting out the specifics of 'super continent cycles'...the last two being Pangaea, and before it's formation the super continent Rodinia.



Charlie Guevara, finger lakes/US

[75RR]

Thanks for the update on your "bear hunt"

I get that the new coat is to protect him from hunters - don't get what "game" he would be confused with. Do you have short shaggy deer in your neighborhood?

[charlie g]

Hi, 75RR, a cardinal rule of hunting is to only shoot when you know what you are shooting at...too many do not adhere to such a sensible rule of safety...every season has tragedies of hunter error!

Thanks for visiting our water bear hunt. In a few days I'll sample the rock lichen/moss patches..it's been a little above freezing during most of this week. Charlie guevara