Tuesday, May 21, 2013

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. 










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