Phenology

Monday mornings, rain or shine, hot or cold, are data collection days.  For several years now, a group of us have been collecting data for Nature's Notebook starting at 9:30 every Monday.  We gather at the Education Building, grab the binders for data entry, and head out to the Cottonwood Gallery.  

The CWG is the farthest north public unit in the Garden.  There we make observations on the phenology of over a dozen individual plants.  Our species include:  cottonwood, New Mexico olive, Siberian elm, four-wing saltbush, cane cholla, two milkweeds, and golden currant.   

Phenology is the study of biological timing, such as leafing out, blooming, ripening fruit, or leaf drop.  Nature's Notebook is a national phenology database of thousands and thousands of observations all collected digitally.  I enter data on my smart phone; other members of the team use tablets.  Either way, we also make a written record in pre-printed data sheets as well.  

Until the pandemic, the only interruption in data collection for our group was about a month in the summer of 2019 when a fire in the nearby bosque jumped the fence and burnt a nearby section of the garden.  The fire narrowly missed the CWG proper and it took out a few plants plus a part of the west fence in the Japanese Garden.  

Now with COVID-19 still running amok, a few are brave enough to gather (with masks and socially distant) to resume data collection.  I'm not one of them; still waiting to get vaccinated.  That said, I'm thankful that others have picked up the flag and are carrying on.  Those of us at elevated risk will have to join in later in the season.  I'm hopeful.  

Here's a link to some winter photo spheres taken at the CWG in 2014 -- https://goo.gl/photos/KoAkyqFtkJQuv7Qr7 

CWG Entrance in Summer