Mosquito Hill Nature Center 2012
Mosquito Hill Nature Center
N3880 Rogers Road
New London, WI 54961
Kim Jordan, Jessica Miller
Drought: Monarchs’ Silent Killer?
This summer was incredibly dry in our region of Wisconsin. While monitoring for monarch eggs and larva at Mosquito Hill, New London, WI, I began to wonder, “Does drought affect monarch larva density?” To conduct research, I looked back at data from past years of MLMP data, looking at precipitation and larva density. From the data, I concluded that there is correlation between the amount of precipitation and the density of monarch larva as compiled for Old Field (our study site). My hypothesis, “Drought does affect monarch larva density,” was supported.
How Does Whistling Affect Birds?
Emily R, Anna G, Michayla K
We wanted to know how whistling affected the number of birds we would observe in the wild. Our hypotheses were that more birds would be counted during quiet, or more birds would be counted during whistling, or there would be no difference. To test these hypotheses we went into three different habitats and were quiet for 10 minutes, and then whistled for 10. We observed the number of birds we saw during each interval, and tallied the number of birds we saw in the environment or flying over. In each habitat we counted more birds during the period of quiet than during the period of whistling. We concluded that whistling affects birds in a negative way.
Nathan C, Brendan C
“How many monarch eggs will we find on common milkweed in four different locations?” was our essential question. This seemed to be a great study for the two of us as our family was heading to Yellowstone National Park on a family vacation. Our study involved checking 45 milkweed plants in each of the following locations: Mosquito Hill Nature Center, New London, WI, our house in Appleton, WI, Badlands National Park, SD, and Yellowstone National Park, WY. During the course of our study, we found one single monarch egg at Mosquito Hill Nature Center. There were no other eggs or larva found! We suspect this may have something to do with this summer’s drought.