Richard Primack came by to visit the Field Station yesterday and we saw this lovely wild columbine right on the wall by the solar cooker…  I have been working with Richard on his New England Leaf Out Project.  Matthew Shanley and I worked with Richard and Libby Elwood to create an online platform for citizen scientists to submit their observations of when 11 species of trees leaf out in their neighborhoods.  Richard will be able to use this data to understand more about how we can use satellite images to study leaf out (we are essentially ground truthing those satellite images), and of course fit this piece into the larger puzzle that he has been working on for quite some time, comparing seasonal change across many species, trees, plants, butterflies, etc.,  from Thoreau’s time and the observations of all the many Concord naturalists to what is happening now.