Week 7

Date: May 20th Weather: Partly Sunny/overcast
Temperature: 60-65 Degrees 
Location: Ravenna Park
Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm

This week I had a lot of fun in my nature area.  I was able to go on a day that was nice and sunny as well as see some really cool lichens, mushrooms, and plant transformations. My findings are below!

I'll start with some of the species that I found that I either have not noticed in my spot yet, or that are now blooming.

Here is Salmon Berry (Rubus spectabilis). I have placed two pictures for comparison. The one on the top was from week five's journal session and the one on the bottom is from my session today. I tried to eat the week five berry but it was far too sour, this weeks was ready to eat! Although it is probably not good that I ate it without washing it.. 

I should note that the picture on the right was taken from my digital camera and the picture on the right was taken with my phone camera. Unfortunately, I took all of the pictures from today's session with my phone camera so I apologize now for the blurry/small pictures that you will witness within this post.

Another plant that I noticed that was flourishing more than the previous visits to my site was the Bleeding Heart (Dicentra Formosa). Here is a picture! When I grew up my grandma had an abundance of this plant, I think this is one of the first plants that I ever learned the name of.

So beautiful!

Next we have the Oregon Grape (Mahonia aquifolium). When I first came to my site this was definitely not in bloom. It could have possibly been in bloom last week but I was unable to locate where this plant was. It does not look like it has fully bloomed but I will check in on its progress within the next few weeks. 

I really like this picture for some reason. I think it is the serrated leaves that make it stand out! I can't wait until it fully blooms, it looks like a deep purple/blue grape. It is hard to tell because I believe my flash was on in this picture. 

Okay, to be honest I actually do not know what this next species is. It was growing off of a tree. I had to take a picture of it because for some reason it reminded me of a firework with the way it disperses. 

If anyone is able to identify this please let me know. I have seen them before but I was unable to identify it by using my guide book. 

ON TO THE MUSHROOMS AND LICHENS!

It was so much fun searching for mushrooms and lichens. I now fully understand why a whistle would be important as Noelle suggested in our lecture. I found myself lost within the first 30 minutes of being at my site. While I was lost I ran into some interesting people to say the least.. one of which was literally camping there... Anyways, I thought I was going to be out of luck because for the first hour I could not find a single mushroom or lichen but then as I wandered into a different area, I found a few! It was exciting! 

The lichen's were easier to spot versus the mushrooms. Here are some lichens!

These oddly remind me of sea creatures. Like the top of a jelly fish or something. The texture was very smooth and foam-like. This lichen was on a tree that had fallen. I believe the tree was a Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii). This Lichen would technically be called corticolous lichen since it was growing at the base/trunk of the tree. 

Here is Lichen of the similar sort above except for half of them are all black. I do not exactly sure why they are all black. What seems the most logical is that possibly once they rot or die they turn all black. 

This picture below is my favorite picture of lichen that I spotted. My camera phone will not do it justice but it almost looks unreal. 

There was so many on this bark, it was ridiculous! It was actually kind of embarrassing because I tried to climb up the hill in order to get one off the tree but it was not working out too well. I pretty much looked like an idiot but oh well, at least I tried! This was also difficult to identify but it resembles the Xanthoria parietina. 

Another picture of Lichen's growing up a tree!

Hard to see actually since they matched the bark fairly well but I promise they are there!

Okay, here are the few mushrooms that I found!

I had trouble with identifying the mushrooms since there was so many categories and details to look at. The first one's I found were all white and grouped together. 

I want to say this is the Puffball Mushroom which is within the Basidiomycota division. It has a depressed (saucer) shape, the cap margin was mainline smooth and even, and the stem was fringed. It may have been Lactarius.

These next mushrooms below remind me of Alice In Wonderland (even though they look nothing like the red mushrooms in that film). These were growing at the base of a Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) these mushrooms are (Ganoderma applanatum's) although the common name I was bought was the Artist's Bracket. They have a cosmopolitian look to them in the way their color fades. They are mostly dark brown with a white underside. They are hard with a woody texture and rather bumpy. The spores are fairly large and I believe they are inedible but I do not think they are poisonous. 

Mushrooms are pretty magical. If I had the patience I would look into becoming a Mycologist. Although I would be terrified to eat any mushrooms that I personally found, even if I was an expert. 

The last mushroom I found was similar to the first mushrooms I had found. Again, it looks like a common Puffball Mushroom but instead of a depressed cap, it has more of a pulvinate cap. 

When I felt this mushroom it felt wet and silky. It smelled like a common mushroom you would buy at the store as well. Very strange texture but I enjoyed it. 

Towards the end of my mushroom/lichen hunt I found some interesting things. Mainly squatters and drug rings.. I ended up getting a little sketched out and left but before I left I snapped a cool picture of someone (probably a teenage kid) who left a bike helmet on a tree deep in the park off the beaten trail. As I looked closer I noticed that a bird had made a nest in it! I was not able to look to see if any eggs were in the nest any there was no sign of birds close by but the nest looked new!

Picture to come..

Lastly, I should note that I did hear some bird calls while I was at my site. I heard the following: The Black-Capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus), The House Sparrow (Passer domestics), and the White-Crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys)!

On a more somber note: the Bushtit nest that I had seen last week was no longer there. :( It could have possible been destroyed by some crows or a person. 

Week 6

Date: May 11th 2013
Weather: Partly Sunny/overcast
Temperature: 72-80 Degrees 
Location: Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge
Time: 10am-7pm (roughly)

Note: these pictures are from various websites. I deemed my pictures as unusable since my camera is garbage and all you could see in the pictures were grass, blurs, and sky (pretty much everything except the birds themselves). I hope my descriptions will accurately describe the birds I saw as of course the pictures will not do them complete justice. Thanks!

I drove separately to Nisqually because I had a commitment after the trip which meant I would have to leave early. I thought everything was going to go smoothly but it was quite the opposite. My morning started by locking my keys in my car just seconds before I was planning on meeting the class at Wallace hall, because of this I was left to rely on my navigation for directions to Nisqually (that is assuming the class was there instead of Rainier). My phone navigation is fairly reliable but I quickly learned that depending solely on modern technology was a mistake. Once I passed Tacoma my GPS fell through, the only thing I remembered was the exit I was supposed to take. After getting off the exit, I thought there would be signs that would lead me to the refuge but I was wrong. I stopped 3 times before getting the correct directions to the refuge. After arriving, I was pleased to see that the UW vans were present and even more pleased to know I had made it to the right location. Anyways, the whole point of this story was to say that I was about 20 minutes late to the trip but after a few failed attempts on various trails at the refuge, it put me about a little over an hour late. During this hour, I actually joined a random birding group. It was a group of older individuals that were from a birding organization near Vancouver, Washington. Very nice people. While I was with them I was able to join in on some of their bird sightings. Below are a few of the birds that I saw while I was with them! (Again, these are not my pictures)

Here is the first bird I saw with them! It is a Red-Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis). This hawk was pretty amazing. We spotted it perched on one of the snags that was present at the refuge. While it was perched, it did not do much other than look around. After 10 minutes of perch action, it flew away. I believe the birding group I was with said that this hawk we saw was an adult hawk because the tail was cinnamon colored. The Hawk was pretty big and I believe they said it was also a male, I have no idea how they knew but I don't think I had any room to question it, they were very serious birders. 

The second bird I saw with the birding organization was called a Purple Finch (Haemorhous purpureus). Honestly it took me like five minutes to even spot this bird because I was literally looking for purple. In this bird's case, purple and red must be interchangeable because I'm pretty sure this bird is red. It is hard to distinguish the Purple Finch from the House Finch in my opinion. Regardless, this purple finch was very pretty and also restless. We spotted it in a small tree and it kept moving from various branches until it finally flew away. This bird was also very noisy but had a pretty call. It was a very "all over the place" type of sound, hard to explain. We saw a male because the females do not have any red on them whatsoever. Also, unlike the one in this picture, the one we saw was a tad bit puffier. 

The last bird I took note of that I saw with the birding group before I figured I should probably find the class was a Pine Siskin (Spinus pinus). This was a very pretty bird. The one we saw (according to the birders) was a very subtle Pine Siskin. For some reason everyone seemed really excited to see this bird, it made me think that it was a rare spotting but I swear this bird is rather common. It had brown streaks throughout with yellow on the outer fringes of its tail and wings. It seemed to be foraging through the trees at the time we spotted it. It was making calls as well which were very high-pitched and rapid. A fact that I learned was that unlike most finches whom have a larger/thicker beak, the Punk Siskin's tend to have slimmer beak. 

Now, below are some of the many birds I saw with the class. 

This is the Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis). Personally, I think the Savannah Sparrows all look different. Maybe they just have a wide-range of variance or something but the one I saw with the class looked like this one but at the same time looked a bit different. My previous encounters with Savannah Sparrows have all been different, either they are puffy or are on the slimmer side. This bird is fairly easy to identify because of its yellow strip before its eye. It has a short notched tail and sometime they appear to have a peak on their head because of their feathers. When we observed this bird we were on the long bridge. The sparrow was flying between small tree's and did not really sit still. Their call was rather distinctive. It is very high-pitched and sounded like a "tssss" sound followed by a somber flat note. 

My favorite bird that we saw was the dowitcher below..

I probably would have been able to get a real picture of the Dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus) but I just wanted to look at them through the binoculars instead of trying to get a good picture for the sake of this journal. This was amazing to see. The short-billed Dowitcher (ironic name since its bill is huge!) was in a large group foraging in the muddy swamp area. Unfortunately, we were not able to hear this shorebirds call sound because it was too busy foraging. 

Here is a list of other birds that I saw with the class that I took note of:

Bald Eagle

Cinnamon Teal

Yellow Throat

Mallard

American Coot

Green-Wingedteal

Northern Pintail

Northern Shoveler

Red-Winged Black Bird

Barn Swallow

Yellow Goldfinch

(Scientific names to come)

I did not get a chance to go to my wildlife spot until this morning, 5/14. I woke up at 5am in order to get to Ravenna park by 6am. I was extremely tired but Ravenna was beautiful. I planned on going to Ravenna to take note of changes that have occurred since the beginning of the quarter but instead I ended up birding! Early morning is the time to go, I was able to see a lot of birds and listen to their calls more closely. Here are some pictures below!

This is just a photo I liked of the trail. It seems that everything is in their full foliage and in bloom!

Here is the Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus). It is in full bloom. 

It is kind of hard to see this picture clearly but here is a Common Robin (Turdus migrators). There was actually A LOT of robins out this morning and they were all very loud. The Robin was mainly perching and making calls. 

This was just a Western Pine (Pinus monticola) I believe. I took a picture of it because of the strange spider web-like branches or vines that were climbing up the tree. So cool!

If you look closely in this picture you can see a dark bird. This was a Song Sparrow (Melospiza melody). These Song Sparrows were also very talkative this morning. 

In this picture, we have the Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis). The berry's aren't exactly ripe BUT I did eat one of them and although they were sour they were pretty good! When I visited my site a few weeks ago you could not even see the berry's present. They are almost ready, I would give it at least another two weeks! Unlike in the Cascades, these Salmon berry's will probably stay abundant because there are no black bears around to eat them!

This picture above is a picture of a Bushtit (Psaltriparus minims) nest! This was the coolest thing I saw this morning. There was actually two bushtits that were going in and out of this nest. It was made out of moss and little sticks and was hanging down from the Western Pine (Pinus monticola).

I liked this picture of this tree. I have no idea what it is though. I want to say it is a Big Leaf Maple. Regardless of this species I just wanted to take a picture of it!

Other details and a few pictures of my site will be posted once I find my camera! Hopefully it will be by tomorrow. :)

Week 5

Date: May 6th 2013
Weather: Partly Sunny
Temperature: 70-72 Degrees 
Location: Ravenna Park
Time: 2pm ish

Well, to be honest I was not a fan of looking for bugs. It was actually more difficult than I thought it would be, it seemed like because of the fact that I was looking for them they were hiding. I did end up finding a few though but they are very common invertebrates so it wasn't exactly thrilling. 

This was a fun Beetle! I remember these Beetles from when I was little. It is called the California Firefly (Elychinia)- This is the species. I was confused while doing more research on this species. I thought it was a beetle and when I found out that it was a "firefly" I then thought it was that BUT it ended up being a beetle. Point being: I did not realize that fireflies were not its own thing, I thought beetles and fireflies were separate species. Very weird. Anyways, I learned a few things about this little guy. He can't glow like other fireflies, he is diurnal and he likes open spaces. :) Also, I found him under a bunch of conifers!

Annnnd here is a slug...

I actually like slugs. I found her by the water. (I'm not really sure of the sexes of these creatures so I don't know why I am specifying but I'm just feeling it out for the sake of this journal and the genders are just jumping at me) I'm not up on my slug game but I believe this is a Leopard Slug (Limax maximus) This Slug does not look like the pictures of the Leopard Slugs on the internet. I identified it using my guide book so I could be mis-identifying it. In fact, I am. I think the Leopard Slugs spots are always black. Clearly this slug has brown spots. The jury is out on this slug. I will have to do some more research.

This looks like a picture of just dirt but it's not. There is an Earthworm (Lumbricina) in there! It is towards the top of the picture. Yeah, not too exciting but I got desperate. What is exciting though is how much I learned post discovery. The anatomy is interesting, I have never looked at the anatomy of an earthworm before! Here is a picture below.

SO COOL.

Side Note: I also forgot that Earthworms are Hermaphrodites. Their reproductive system is fascinating. Also. Obviously I was aware that they were good for the earth but I guess I never really bothered to find out why, so, I found out. Their poop which is called "castings" is the answer. Earthworms eat soil that has organic matter in it and because plants cannot use organic matter directly, the Earthworms castings break it down so they can digest it! 

Alright so this is turning into an I Spy session here (sorry) but there is an ant in this picture. To be more specific there is an Argentine Ant (Linepithema humble) The Argentine Ant is mostly brown (usually light) and it has an uneven thorax which makes them easy to identify. I don't have anything against ants except for the fact that I have everything against them. I've stepped on a few ant holes in my day, am I bitter? Strong yes.

This concludes my hunt. I was disappointed I did not find anything really rare or cool. On a positive note-- I learned facts about very common species that I found intriguing. The research I did literally made me want to learn more about other creepy crawlers. 

   

Week 4

Date: April, 26th-27th 2013
Weather: Cloudy and slight rain at times
Temperature: 42-47 Degrees (Realtime feel=freezing)
Location: Lake Crescent/ Naturebridge/ridge?
Time: Weekend

This journal entry is going to be a little makeshift since my camera was missing during the trip. I took pictures on my phone but since my phone was nearly dying the whole time I took pictures of things that will end up being trivial pertinent to this journal entry. Anyways here is what I got!

Here is something that I was really exited about. I wish I could have stayed longer to just be in the presence of this tree. This I believe was said to be the largest Grand fir (Abies grandis) in the country. It was really amazing to be in front of this tree. 


Competition: Although I did not get a picture of the two trees next to each other, Hemlocks wait for Douglas Firs to die out so they can eventually take over. They are competing tree's in an old growth forest setting. A side not that I learned about hemlocks is that if you see a bunch of them, it means that the forests in which you see them has most likely been left alone for a long time.  I don't know why I highlighted that but for some reason it felt worthy. 

Douglas firs are known to have huge deep bark rivets. Old growth Douglas fir bark is typically thick. They are also resistant to firs, can grow large fat side branches, and are typically killed off by either old age or Fungus. Below is a picture of the thick old growth bark.

Some interesting things I learned regarding the characteristics of an old growth forest and how to tell if it is one are as follows:

BUNS:
1. Big tree's 
2. Understory
3. Nurse logs (a tree with another tree growing on it)
4. Snags (tall standing dead tree's and fallen tree's)

Here is one of my favorite shrubs. There was actually a lot of it on one of the hikes I went on when I had some free time to roam about. It is the Oregon-Dull/Dwarf Grape (Mahonia nervosa) I like this species because it looks like a type of Holly and it is easy to remember. It has serrated leaves (pinnately compound), and a total of 9. The leaves are opposite and are in pairs with the exception of the top leaf. I actually believe they produce a weird yellow flower, I have seen none thus far that has been flowering.

This was by far the best part of the trip. If you look closely at this picture you will find a Grey Jay. While hiking Mount Storm King Trail with Ross and my group we were able to get extremely close to two of them. They actually seemed very comfortable around humans. It may have only seemed that way though because we snuck them a few treats. :x

This was the best photo I took all trip. It shows the outline of the lake in bright blue colors. Below and to the left is actually our camp. You can't see it very well but in this picture I believe there is a Pacific Yew (Taxus brevifolia) on the bottom. 

Some other things that I saw that I do not have a picture for but I made a notes about were:

-Blue Forget Me Knots (Myosotis)

-Licorice Ferns (Polypodium glycyrrhiza)

-Wild Orchids

-Trilium Flower

-Elderberry (Sambucus)

-Salal (Gaultheria shallon)

-Twin Flower (Linnaea)

-Morchella

-Deer Fern (Blechnum spicant)

-Devil's Club (Oplopanax horridus)

This one I did have a picture of!

Disturbances: There was quite a bit of disturbance in some areas of this national park. Mainly, I saw fire and what looked like to be windstorm disturbance. I wasn't able to take any pictures of these but there was a huge open area during my hike (almost like a valley) that was empty due to forest fire disturbance. There was also a huge Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata) we saw that was consumed by a fire. It was interesting though because it was still alive. It still had live tissue under the bark that was transporting food down from the needles and water and nutrients were being brought up from the roots. I can add a sketch in later on. Also, I don't know if this would be considered a disturbance, but there was a dead Octopus along the shore. I guess you could consider the tides a disturbance to the wildlife because it puts them in places among the rocks that could end up killing them like this poor guy below..

:(

Facilitation: I also do not have a picture of this and I believe this would count as facilitation but I am not really sure. I remember Tim talking about Micro-Risey Fungi. He said that is connects underneath so that a tree thats trunk was cut short can naturally heal itself. On top of that there was a bunch of Nitrogen fixing trees that were explained by James that help fix the nutrients in the soil. Also, Dragon Skin Lykin (sp) helps with facilitation as well because it falls from the canopies and keeps the soil rich/fixes nitrogen balances.

Predation: I do not remember of the TA's I was with talking much about predation but I do know that there was predation present in this old growth forest and also on the shore that we went a saw. Specifically with the shore, there was gull predation. Gulls typically eat oysters. They try to crack them open and if they cannot achieve this, they then try to drop the oysters on rocks. I am almost positive about this. At least according to what I have learned from my dad I think this is accurate. Also, pointed out by James, was the predation of the sea stars eating barnacles. I did not know they did this, it would seem like they would have trouble digesting it! Below is a picture of the Blood Star (Henricia).

Such a rad looking Sea Star! 

This is a picture (that I am sure most of our class has posted on their blogs) of the waterfall. I love waterfalls but this one is especially beautiful because of the old growth moss growing all around it. 

Overall I learned a lot of things that I did not previously know during this trip. Overall it was a great just being outside and enjoying nature.