Kevin’s Excellent Adventure
Our office mascot Kevin had been cooped up all winter and needed to get out and about for some fresh air. He decided to drag Rita and Adam out with him to do some stream sampling in the mountains west of Summerland, B.C. So Adam and Rita loaded up Rita’s 1960 converted beetle dune buggy getting ready for an Excellent Adventure. Kevin could not wait to drive!
The three of them headed west on Bathville Road looking for places to sample. The first site (Site #1) was a small stream that ran across the road approximately 9 km along Bathville Road (49.600623, -119.849798) MAP . Samples were taken on the south side of the road.
Kevin was happy to find some Chyranda larva that made a nice addition to Cordillera’s office reference collection. He preserved the samples on site using 80% ethanol and confirmed the ID back at the lab.
The second site (Site #2) was a small pond on the east side of the Isintok-Mcnulty Forest service Road (49.577410, -119.909498) MAP . Where the crew found some: Aedes larvae and pupa, a Stratiomys larvae, and some Callibaetis!
From Site #2, Kevin could hear running water over an embankment, so he decided to check it out and found site number three (Site #3).
Site #3 was just down stream from a bridge (49.577327, -119.909998) MAP and although it was a pleasant mountain creek it did not yield any specimens for the reference collection. Kevin seized the opportunity though, and got in on the live collection action.
They all pilled back into the dune buggy and headed to Isintok Lake for lunch where Kevin wasn’t really hungry so he went bouldering while Rita and Adam ate (49.545956, -119.972044). MAP
While Kevin was bouldering he could hear water flowing into the lake (those lopsided ears really pick up sound well!) and wanted to check it out so the three of them hiked around the lake to the source of the sound. On the way Adam and Rita saw some Trichoptera larvae in the lake and took some samples, which gave us Site #4 (49.546128, -119.969670) MAP, and another example of Chyranda for the reference collection. At the source of the water not much was found so Kevin made a call to head back into town.
As the three were leaving from Isintok, Kevin decided that samples should be taken from the out-flow of the lake (49.548994, -119.969494). MAP , which henceforth became known as Site #5. Nothing new was found for the reference collection, but a Chironomid was spotted, which gave Adam some much-needed practice on identifying mountain stream Chironomids. It was a Pseudodiamesa! – he hopes.
Rita suggested the three of them check out Agur Lake (49.583898, -119.831095), MAP, for something just a little different ! It turned out Site #6 was a great idea as the team found four new specimens for the reference collection: three Odonata (Cordulia, Leucorrhinia, and Ischnura) and a Diptera (Caloparyphus)!
As the three were coming back into town, Kevin was very thirsty so they stopped by a natural spring just along the shore of Trout Creek for a quick drink of very refreshing spring water.
All in all a very Excellent Adventure!
A quick recap: 6 sites were sampled, 6 new specimens have been added to the labs reference collection, an altitude of 610 m was traversed from the Site #1 at 945m to Site #4 at 1555m, and three coworkers got to spend a great day out in the back country of British Columbia.