Natural Observation, Journal 8 (last journal)

Time: 10:00 - 11:00 AM

Weather: sunny

Temperature: 61 degrees

Location: Ravenna Park

Figure 1, April 5th, the first time I came to my site for journal

Figure 2, May 30th, the last time I came to my site for journal

Today, I went to my natural observation spot for my last journal. So, I decided to post my first picture of this spot, which was about 2 months ago. I still remember the first day when I came here, I couldn't name any of those plants, except sword ferns and and Douglas fir. At that time, I took birds' songs for granted. Even if they were singing, I would just walk by without even hearing songs. After these two months, my site has changed and so do I.

Figure 3, the week before this week, not many changes

OK, let's talk about phenological changes first. This time, my feeling is that everything has already reached their limits. If you take a look at Figure 3, you will find that those lady ferns, sword ferns, and salmonberries are just as tall and big as they were last week. I was expecting to see the creek gets blocked by those growing plants, but it seems like it's not gonna happen. However, I did find some ripe salmonberris and I ringed on them. They tasted pretty good even though not as tasty as raspberries, which are my favorite fruits. Overall, the growth of everything seemed coming to an end.

Figure 4, Herb Robert, A.K.A. stinky bob

However, I did find some new wildflowers growing that I've never seen before. The flower in figure 4 is called herb Robert, also known as stinky bob due to its pungent odor when crushed. For me, I didn't smell that odor when I crushed them. It was pretty sad when I learned that this tiny beautiful flower is actually invasive. Because it is shade-tolerant, it is adaptable to many different kinds of environment. So, it could grow rampantly at different conditions. How, other native plants have a hard time growing along with herb Robert. So, I have to say, even though herb Roberts are pretty, we need to control the number of these invasive plants. There are two ways to do it, hand-pulling and pesticide. Since its root system is pretty shallow in the soil, hand-pulling might be a better way to do it.

Figure 5, red clover

Another kind of wildflowers that I was taking for granted is called red clover. Instead of talking about its ball-like flowers, I want to spend some time on its leaflets because it is really easy to identify this flower if you know its leaflets. Usually, clovers have three leaflets, as shown in Figure 5. There are three pale "V"s on each of those leaflets. This is also an useful characteristic when you want to identify a red clover.

Figure 6, the erratic rock

My site's has been changing all the time and so do I. At the beginning of this quarter when I didn't start doing natural observation and learning about nature, this erratic rock was just a big rock. I didn't really care about why it's sitting there. For me, even if I could see it, I didn't really feel its existence. I didn't pay attention to plants and birds too. At that time, those plants and trees were all the same to me. However, as the time went by, my site and I were both growing. I began to feel about the interactions between different plants. For example, I noticed the competition between western hemlocks and bigleaf maples. Since western hemlocks are shade-tolerant, they could grow under the shade of bigleaf maples. They won't dominate the forest until those bigleaf maples die out and surrender. This is why western hemlocks are the climax species in this region. I began to ask myself why certain birds are doing certain things. For example, I once saw a Steller's Jay washing its body in Ravenna Creek. I began to ask myself why it was doing that. From what I learned, if a bird has too much water on its feather, its flight efficiency will decrease a great deal. Maybe the water will help it with preening? After these 8 weeks of natural observation, I realized how much I'd been taking for granted. Nature is always around us. So, we should just open our eyes and pay attention to it.

From this erratic rock, I also began to wonder more about nature in Puget Sound region. After learning about this rock's history, I got interested in the movement of the ice sheet 14 - 18,000 years ago. I really wanted to know about different sediments and how they were formed when the glacier advanced and retreated. So, I went to Discovery Park to observe the famous bluff with different layers on it. After that trip, I found that the real bluff is a little bit different from what we learned in class. For example, there didn't seem to be any glacial tills. Also, I couldn't really see the Esperance Sand layer unless I went on to the bluff.

For me, to intimately know a place requires the identification of most of the species. You have to know what are there to learn what they are doing. And if you don't know what they are doing, you haven't known this place intimately. I'm not saying that natural history should cease after identification. It is not just a subject about knowing everything. There are a lot more beyond just identification. There are two reasons why we are learning the natural neighbors around us. First, we learn them for ourselves. It has been proven since the beginning of human beings' history that human beings are more likely to succeed if they know the natural history. For example, if we had been aware of different layers of sediments in Seattle, we wouldn't have built buildings on top of the sand layer or clay layer. Thus, the Oso disaster wouldn't have happened. However, if we know natural history very well, we could take advantage of it. For instance, Tlakluit learned that fishing in Columbia River Gorge could produce lots of profits since fish like gathering the place where freshwater meets saltwater, which is called estuary. So, they ended up being successful there. Second, we learn natural history for making the environment around us better. If you think of yourself as environmental steward, you will try to live a sustainable live without damaging the environment all the time. Living a sustainable live requires a lot of knowledge about natural history. For example, you have to be able to ID first so that you could collect data to analyze what is going on. Then, you can decide what to do.

Spending time on field trips is definitely different than just observing a small-scale nature. When I was on field trips, I felt like I was see the big picture. For example, you might be able to see the evidence of plant migration due to climate change. Also, when I was on my way to Hurricane Ridge, I could see the large-scale effect of ecological disturbance. Tons of western hemlocks was gone after a forest fire, leaving it just an opening place with nothing. However, small shrubs could take advantage of the sunlight and grow quickly after all those western hemlocks were gone. Even thought field trips could give you a bigger picture of the change in ecology, both scales are needed for naturalists. Spending time in a small-scale spot allows you to learn deeply about this specific spot. Since small-scale spot is easily accessible, you are more likely find daily regular changes such as what kinds of birds usually get up the earliest and when most of the birds go back home afternoon. Observing daily changes is also a necessary thing for naturalists.

The most important personal outcome that I gained from this class is the idea that never taking anything for granted and just always be curious about knowledge. Right now, I don't know how I could ignore birds singing while walking on the street. How could I not want to identify the plant that I didn't know before? I don't play with my smartphone while I'm walking anymore since there is just too much to appreciate. On our campus, there are so many different kinds of birds. There are chickadees, song sparrows, northern flickers, towhees, gulls, and so on. Isn't appreciating the beauty of these birds an amazing thing to do. Even though I am only talking about natural history, I believe that the idea of not taking anything for granted applies to many subjects. We need to ask ourselves "what" and "why" on every subject.

Natural history is also about sharing knowledge, not individual success. One thing I noticed during this quarter is that people who love natural history are willing to share their knowledge with others, unlike some other subjects in which people pursue individual success. I think that most nature lovers know that they need to get more people involved in natural history to make the environment better. Natural history and environment conservation is everyone's. The mission for nature lovers is not just learning the environment and making it better by themselves. The most important part is how to get more people care about natural history and our environment.

I appreciate the opportunities this course offered. It allowed me to see everything as strange and be a traveler in my "familiar places".

Natural Observation, Journal 7

Time: 12:20 - 2:40 PM

Weather: cloudy

Temperature: 65 degrees

Location: Ravenna Park

Figure 1, my natural spot

Figure 2, an about-to-bloom and a blooming western buttercup

Figure 3, a closer look at western buttercup

Figure 4, one type of leaves of western buttercups

Figure 5, another type of leaves for western buttercups

After two weeks, I went back to my natural spot today at noon. I was not amazed by its appearance anymore since it had given me enough surprise. This time, both sword ferns and lady ferns were a little bit bigger than two weeks ago. Not only did the size of plants increased, but the types of plants also increased. For example, at about 5-foot scale of my natural spot, I found some newly-grown western buttercups (maybe not newly-grown, but recently-blooming for sure). As shown in Figure 2, one of those two is blooming while the other one still hasn't opened up its petals yet. Notice how glossy the blooming one's petals are! Also, if you take a closer look at it, you will find many stamens, which are shown in Figure 3. For their leaves, western buttercups have two different kinds of leaf. From what I observed, those leaves growing near flowers are elongated and elliptical leaves. For those leaves growing at the bottom of the stem, they are usually 3-lobed toothed leaves.

Figure 6, western bleeding hearts

Figure 7, leaves of western bleeding hearts

It seemed like that I'd neglected another species of wildflower, the western bleeding heart. When I saw them today, it didn't take me very long to find them in my field guide. With their drooping, pinkish flowers, I found them easily. However, the field guide describes their leaves as "fern-like, elaborately pinnately compound". I couldn't understand why it says fern-like. Could anyone explain to me what it means?

Figure 8, salmonberry popping out

I also observed some newly-formed salmonberries. In figure 8, the berry just came out and it was still unripe. We need to wait for salmonberries to turn red to eat them. However, the shrub part of those salmonberries didn't grow taller this time.

Figure 9, yellow skunk cabbages completely lost their flowers

Some plants are having more and more flowers while others are losing or have already lost their flowers. In this season, skunk cabbages are certainly the later one. In my spot, they'd completely lost all of their yellow flowers, which was blooming several weeks ago. Now, what left are only those big leaves.

Figure 10, robin's feather?

After talking about those phenological changes in my sites, it's time for today's main topic, invertebrates. Since those invertebrates were mostly hidden in the mud, it was super hard to me to find them. Also, even if I could find them, it wasn't easy to take photos of them when they were half in the mud. They moved fast and they tried to get into the mud again. So, I used a bottle lid to catch them and placed them into another place so that I could take photos. All those reasons explained why it took a long time to finish.

Figure 11, the first invertebrate I found

Figure 12, a closer view of my first invertebrate

Figure 13, my sketching of this millipede and centipede

Figure 11 and 12 show the first invertebrate I found. Thanks to the bottle lid, I was able to take a relatively clear photo of it. I spent a long time trying to narrow it down to class. Since I paid so much attention on it, I didn't even notice an American crow calling above me until it pooped right on my head. Oops! My mom told me if you were pooped by a bird on your head, you better not go out for the rest of the day. It was good that nothing bad happened after that. For this invertebrates with many legs, I couldn't tell if it belongs to millipede class or centipede class. According to the bug guide my professor sent to us, millipedes should have two pairs of legs on their first three body segments. This one meets the requirement on this point. However, the bug guide also says that millipedes have 25 -189 body segment. After counting its body segment carefully, I found only 13. This inconsistency makes it really tricky and I couldn't tell if it belongs to millipede class or centipede class, let alone order. After some observation, I released it back to nature. It seemed like it had a tendency to crawl underneath the soil. Maybe it just wanted to get away from me as a human being.

Figure 14, my second invertebrate. Order Coleoptera

Figure 15, my sketching of the beetle

When I saw this beetle, I quickly took out of my smartphone. It was so lucky that I could take this clear photo. About 2 seconds after I pressed the button, it flew away to nowhere. Thus, I couldn't really follow and observe it deeply. In this photo, almost every characteristic shows up. First, this one doesn't have any forceps on its abdomen, which is one of those characteristic of beetle order, or order Coleoptera. It is probably hard for you to look at its abdomen while reading my blog. However, if you download Figure 14 and zoom in, you will find there is nothing on its abdomen. Second, the first pair of wings, the forewings, are as long as its abdomen. So, the abdomen is covered. Third, this beetle also has slender antennae. I was trying to narrow it down to another species. However, beetles of that species have thinker and shorter antenna.

Figure 16, my third invertebrate, Bombus vosnesenskii

                                               

Figure 17, my sketching of the yellow-faced bumble bee

I didn't expect to find this yellow-faced bumble bee when I was at Ravenna Park. At that time, I was trying to identify this wildflower and then I heard some voice which was apparently a bee's voice. Then, I found out it was right in front of me on this unknown wildflower. This yellow-faced bumble bee was like a flower-magnet. It just couldn't fly away from those not-yet-blooming flowers. Every time I flew away from those flowers, it got absorbed right back to them. I still couldn't see any stamens or pistils on those flowers. So, I wondered what the bumble bee was actually interested in. I hope these flowers will bloom next week when I come back. By the way, after asking my professor, we figure out that those flowers might be mock oranges'.

Figure 18, my fourth invertebrate. Order Araneae

Figure 19, my sketching of the spider

                                                   

Figure 20, my sketching of the spider, in a moving position

Figure 18 shows my fourth invertebrate, which is in the order Araneae, the spider order. I could narrow it down furthermore since the picture is not clear enough for me to see every single aspect of this spider. Also, the spider is too small and moves super fast. I caught it by using the bottle lid. However, right after I took this picture, it was gone. Nevertheless, I did observe some of its interesting characteristics. For example, it has eight legs, which is one of the characteristics of order Araceae. I also found that it has two body parts, cephalothorax and abdomen. Its abdomen is much larger than its cephalothorax part. Amazingly, the abdomen part seems semi-transparent to me, even though I couldn't see through its body. Also, there are many white stripes on its relatively big abdomen part. Because of its black abdomen, those white stripes and black "stripes" form a black-white pattern on its abdomen.

Figure 21, my fifth invertebrate. Megadrilacea order, Lumbricus species

Among all those invertebrates above, this one was the easiest invertebrate for me to find. When I was at the park, I picked up a branch of a red alder and churned up the mud nearby the creek. About ten seconds, I found this earthworm on the stick I was holding. So, I lifted my stick carefully and placed this guy on the big erratic rock so that I could take this photo. It didn't move a lot, except wiggling its head. When I took a closer look at it, its numerous body segments showed up. I wish I had brought my magnifier so that I could look deep into its skin. If you zoom in Figure 21, you will find that some segments are redder than others and those redder ones kind of stick together into one segment.

Figure 22, my sixth invertebrate? (I don't really know if this one is another kind of invertebrate or is just another earthworm)

Figure 23, a black-capped chickadee's nest

When I was about to leave, I unintentionally saw a silhouette passing by quickly. It was a black-capped chickadee. Following its flying route, I came to this snag and I found the chickadee was staying in a small hole. It seemed like this tiny little hole was its home. I wondered if it was feeding its babies. However, I didn't see any babies there. Maybe the chickadee had already alarmed them of my existence so that they wouldn't make any noise to draw my attention.

My poem for one of my invertebrates:

It's hard to find it on the ground,
It lives underground,
You have to dig the soil and turn it around,
Then you will find it with a body that's long and round,
Usually its head will move around,
If you want to be nice just put it back into the ground.


Answer is:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Earthworm










                                                     

South Puget Sound Prairies and wildlife

Figure 1, Twin Barns Observation Platform

A few weeks ago, we visited some places at South Puget Sound, including Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, Glacial Heritage Preserve, and Mima Mounds. It was an unforgettable trip since we learned about only only birds and plants but also the evidence of glaciation.

Figure 2, Canada Geese's babies, goslings

The first place we visited was Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. This place has a wide range of habitat diversity, ranging from forest to delta. My favorite part of this place is the Twin Barns Observation Platform, as shown in Figure 1. However, before I get to what I saw at the barns, I want to talk about something interesting. Some goslings! Not ducklings! They are goslings. When I was on the field, I saw them walking around and interacting with their parents. All of them were eating grass in a fast rate. I wondered how long it would take for them to grow as tall and strong as their parents. I uploaded a picture of them but it's not clear enough to see those goslings. However, you could still see their yellowish bodies and the black spots on their heads.

Figure 3, one of the Twin Barns

After seeing those lovely goslings, we moved on to the Twin Barns. At this place, I learned what I couldn't have identified before. There were three or four types of swallows. From what I can remember, there were tree swallows, barn swallows, and cliff swallows. When I was sailing at Union Bay, I could see barn swallows and tree swallows all the time. However, since I couldn't wear my eyeglasses while sailing, I never had a chance to look at the detailed information about them. At the Twin Barns, eyeglasses and binocular enabled me to see the difference. On the appearance, barn swallows were the easiest to tell apart from the other two since they have buffy underparts and long, forked tails. For the other two kinds of birds, I had had a hard time to tell the difference until one of our TAs told me about the buffy rump that could be seen on cliff swallows but not on tree swallows. However, it could only be seen when they are in flight. The other way to tell apart, I heard from my TA, was that tree swallows have a distinct blue-green back. For me, however, it was impossible to see without a binocular. Not only are they different in appearance but they are also different in habit. For example, barn swallows and cliff swallows mostly build their nests on house eaves by using mud. On the contrary, tree swallows mostly build their nests on cavities on trees. In Figure 3, there are many mud nest on the eave of this barn. The birds here are mostly cliff swallows, though sometimes some barn swallows. Anyway, no tree swallows will nest on the eave.

As we moved on, I was able to see an eaglet, a caspian tern, and some double-crested cormorants at the delta habitat. Delta habitat is a place that is rich in biodiversity. Since this is the place where freshwater and saltwater meet, it has a lot of nutrients and draws tons of shorebirds. Also, when shorebirds are migrating, this place could be a great option for them to take a rest. For shorebirds, they have the resting place they want and they can also eat worms beneath the mud, it is really a paradise to them. On my way back to the parking lot, my professor taught me the difference between a western sandpiper and a least sandpiper. At that time, we saw a flock of birds which we'd had a hard time identifying when they were far. After a while, the distance between them and us was close enough to convince us that they were some kinds of sandpiper. They were eating worms beneath the mud! I could even see they stab their long bills into the mud to get those worms. Step by step, we narrowed down to western sandpiper and least sandpiper. According to our field guides, they both have reddish brown feather on their upper bodies. The only difference is the underpart. Western sandpipers have a lot of dark spots, whereas least sandpipers only have a little bit of dark spots on their breasts, not on their underparts.

Figure 4, common camas at Glacial Heritage Preserve

Figure 5, a encroaching Douglas fir

Figure 6, a closer view of a common camas
                                                    

Figure 7, spring gold

                                                     

Figure 8, western buttercup

After spending several hours at Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, we drove to our nest destination, Glacial Heritage Preserve. This place was created when the Vashon ice sheet began to retreat 12,000 years ago. After that, native Americans maintained the biodiversity by burning invasive plants such as Douglas firs. It's interesting to know that Douglas firs are considered some "bad guys" in this certain place, even if they are native plants in Washington state. Since this prairie has so many different kinds of wildflowers, Douglas firs are among those ones who have to be contained. As shown in Figure 4, you can see the invasive Douglas firs on the left. Compared to the great picture in Figure 4, Figure 5 shows a small growing Douglas fir has already invaded into the property of wildflowers. Now, after talking about intruding species and wildflowers, I'm going to introduce three different kinds of wildflowers. First, the most common one in this area, the common camas. What interesting about camas are not only its blue-violet flowers but its bulbs. Native Americans certainly knew that. So, they made use of this tasty part of camas for food. My second wildflower here is called spring gold. Since the top of flowers is flat, spring golds bear an resemblance with umbrella. Another wildflower species is called western buttercup. When I was on the field, I had a hard time finding it on my field guide since there were a lot of species that looked like it. When someone told me the petals are glossy, I finally found it on the field guide. As you can see in Figure 8, those five petals are all glossy and shiny.

Figure 9, some evidence of meadow spittlebug

When we were at the prairie, I also noticed this interesting phenomenon. There were spit all over the place. In the middle of Figure 9, there is some spit right there. My professor told me the spit was left by a bug called meadow spittllebug and is actually the urine. I never had a chance to see those meadow spittlebug.

Figure 10, western serviceberry

I almost forgot to talk about the amazing berry, western service berry. The most interesting thing about this species is not its name. This berry has partly-toothed leaves. As you can see in Figure 10, only part of its leaves is toothed, which is the outer edge of each leaf. Also, since this one is in rose family, it has five-petaled flowers. However, those flowers always stick together, which makes it pretty hard to find the five-petaled pattern.

Figure 11, inner structure of a mysterious mound

As we moved on, we saw this mysterious mound. It's really hard to guess how it was formed. On this picture, top soil on the top, sand, gravel, and clay at the bottom, all of these characteristics make people wonder how it was formed. There were 30 hypothesis including glacial ice, earthquake, and so on. Glaciation theory, for example, states that Mima Mounds were mostly gravel, stones, and soil piled together after ice melted. Those piles are called suncups. However, my favorite one is the pocket gopher one that states those mounds were made by gophers excavating nest chambers.

Figure 12, mysterious Mima Mounds

I once again learned a lot on the field. I am looking forward to the nest one, even thought this is the last one in this course. I hope I can learn more in the field in the future.

                                                     

A Trip to Discovery Park

Date: Saturday May 16

Time: 2:00 - 4:00 PM

Weather: cloudy

Temperature: 60 degrees

Location: Discovery Park

Figure 1, the South Cliff at Discovery Park

The weather today was great overcast all day, best weather for hiking for my perspective.  I took a bus to Discovery Park, trying to find out the South Cliff in this park. I heard from our professor that there would be evidence of glaciation on that cliff. Specifically, there are different layers of sediments showing that glacier was there long time ago.

Figure 2, a closer view of the Olympia Formation, Lawton Clay, and a little bit of Esperance Sand

                                                           

Figure 3, my sketching of the bluff

As  I went closer to the bluff, everything seemed more clear to me. From the bottom up, I could see the Olympia formation, Lawton Clay, and a tiny bit of Esperance Sand that I could barely see.  You might be wondering where the Vashon Till layer is. However, Vashon Till layer is not in this bluff. According to the USGS Seattle Soils Map, there is only a tiny piece of Vashon till in the southern park of Discovery Park and there is basically no till on this bluff at all. As for sand layer, it was also hard for me to see. After talking to my professor, I learned that I would've seen it if I had been to the top of this bluff. Maybe sometimes I will go there again and observe the sand layer.

Figure 4, the Olympia formation

My favorite layer among these four is the Olympia formation. Just looking at its streaks, how gorgeous it is! This layer was formed even before the Vashon ice sheet came 14,000 years ago. It was made up of mostly clay. Those parallel streaks were the evidence of moving water. So, it was supposed to be a lake or something that was running by the Olympia formation before the Vashon ice sheet came into Puget Trough. In class, my professor told us the lake was called Lake Russell. Thanks to Lake Russell, such pretty formation like the Olympia formation was created. Lake Russell was the lake before the Vashon ice sheet came while Lake Bretz was the one after the Vashon ice sheet was gone.

Figure 5, evidence of clay sliding down during landslide

Since clay is the smallest particle among sand, gravel, silt, and clay, it can be carried by slow moving water for the longest distance. That also explains why I could only see Esperance sand at the top of the bluff. Since sand particles are bigger than clay particles, they can't be carried by slow-moving streams. So, they end up being on higher position than clay is. In Discovery Park, Lawton Clay is the layer right above the Olympia formation. However, there is a bad news about clay layer. Because clay is impermeable to water, when it gets wet, it could become really slippery. Figure 3 could be an example of clay falling down during landslide. Seattleites should be aware of this potential danger, not building any houses at the top of clay layers or sand layers. One of the causes for Oso disaster is actually the impermeability of clay. If we had paid attention to those layers beneath our houses, the disaster could have been avoided.

Figure 6, a closer view of clay

Figure 7, some blackberries are able to grow

I noticed that some plants were growing on the bluff. For example, as shown in Figure 7, harsh-environmental-adapted Himalayan blackberries are growing out of those falling clay. In fact, not only can Himalayan blackberries grow here, but some other species are also able to survive here (I found some horsetails growing there too). However, I couldn't identify most of them by using my field guide.
                                                           

Figure 8, newly-grown red alder in the restoration project site

On my way back, I found a restoration project called Capehart Forest Restoration Project. It had already torn down a tract of military housing and was planting native plant species such as Douglas fir, lodgepole, red alder and so on. I'm happy to see that people are caring about the environment and trying to make it better.

Natural Observation, Journal 6

Date: Monday May 11

Time: 3:40 to 4:40 PM

Weather: cloudy

Temperature: 59 degrees

Location: Ravenna Park

Figure 1, my natural spot is much more vibrant right now

Figure 2, horsetails have grown much bigger and taller than before

Figure 3, a horsetail is snapped for some reason, thus unable to compete with others any more

Figure 4, those skunk cabbages have totally lost their flowers

I hadn't been to my natural spot for two weeks until today. When I got here, I noticed this tremendous change in color, number, and size. I went back to the photo of week 1 and I was shocked. Is this the same place that I kept going for 6 weeks? First, color, this place much greener than it was before. More and more plants are still growing up. I'm super excited for what I would end up seeing at the end of this quarter. Second, number, there are numerous sword ferns, lady ferns, and salmonberries than before. I could only find two or three salmonberries on the first day I began my natural observation. Also, the creek between those ferns and shrubs was much wider several weeks ago since there were not a lot of plants back then, not enough to block the creek. However, the creek is narrower right now. I wonder if I can still see the creek after this quarter. Maybe these plants will grow so tall that I won't be able to see the creek but hear the trickling water. Finally, there are a lot of changes in terms of plants' size, both increase and decrease. For example, in figure 2, those horsetails are now much bigger and taller than before. When I first saw them, without know what they are, I could see them sparsely distributed. Right now, they are much denser and taller, creating this huge horsetail crowd! However, some horsetail might be a loser in this game of growth. As shown in Figure 3, this horsetail is snapped in the middle of its stem for some reason. Thus, it lost this competition. Another example demonstrating change in size is skunk cabbage. For now, as shown in figure 4, those skunk cabbages totally have totally lost their year flowering part. Instead, they start to wilt

Video 1, Stellar's jay fluffing its body feather

                                                                             
Now, it's time for today's main topic, which is birding. Since birds are normally perching high up into the canopy and moving all the time, it is hard to take photos of them. So, I only took videos today. Alright, the first bird I saw is my favorite bird ever. It was a Steller's jay. I still remember my first day of birding. It was this bird that drew my interest into bird-watching. At that time, I was able to feed it with some peanuts. However, today was the first time seeing a Steller's jay in the field. I didn't see it before I heard it. When that extremely harsh crow-like call suddenly came in, I knew it was going to be a Stellar's jay. So, I followed the call and tried to track the bird. It didn't take me so long to find it in the bushes right above the creek. It seemed like drinking some water from the creek. Even though he was in the messy bushes of horsetails, salmonberries, and ferns, I could still see its beautiful black crest and those blue stripes on its forehead. Suddenly, it stopped drinking water and began to fluff its feather fiercely. Then, it jumped into the creek! I have never seen a Stellar's jay in the water. What exactly is it doing? Is it taking a shower? When I was trying to figure out its seemingly odd behavior, it flew away and perched on a red alder tree. I guess I might have made too much noise when I approached it. Shortly, it flew away again. However, this time, I couldn't see it at all. My guess would be that it flew right into the canopy layer of this forest. I could barely see him flying on the top of a big leaf maple, but I couldn't describe him anymore. This bird is so volatile!

Video 2, a song sparrow

The second bird that I spent a lot of time with was a song sparrow. I had known this bird before I took this class. However, this quarter was when I started learning detailed information about this bird. Before I saw it, I heard its call first, the distinct three loud voice followed by a series of trills. So, I began to track this bird. It didn't take me so long to find it, singing loudly on a branch of a vine maple 7 feet above the ground. After perching there and singing for two or three minutes, it flew away to nowhere. Even though I couldn't see it anymore, I did notice how it flew. From what I could remember, Instead of being a long and rectangular, its tail was rounded when it flew. Or I could say it was wider than its usual form. Also, during its flight, it flapped its wings in a fast rate and thus made noticeable voice. Since I completely lost it, I decided to play a game with it by pretending to be a invader. I took my smartphone out of my pockets and played the song sparrow call. My professor told us that song sparrows are territorial, meaning that they will defend their territory when they find invaders. Right after I started playing my faked song sparrow's song, it flew back to me. This time, it appeared much more aggressive. It was doing a wing-waving movement and sang like chi, chi, chi. Also, it was restless, flying all around me. Since we were so close, I was able to see many black streaks converging into a dark spots on its breast. Also, it was close enough for me to see its white streaks on its head.

Other birds I saw were three American crows perching on some bigleaf maples' branches twenty feet above the ground. I heard them singing first. By hearing their songs, I really learned how to tell a jay from a crow by just listening. Jays' voice is more harsh than crows. For those three crows, they didn't do much except using their feet to grab their necks and using their beak to pruning their feathers. As for interaction between them, they didn't do something that was obviously related to each other. All they were just perching there for five minutes until suddenly they all flew away. I guess that they might have heard some predators' calls. I didn't hear something at the time when they flew away. However, I didn't see any birds around us. If there was one, it must have been above the canopy. Also, I was wondering who is going to prey on crows. Finally, there was one thing that I noticed, it seemed like one of them later was holding some branches by its mouth. It was flying over to somewhere. I thought it would use those materials to build a nest for its children, but I couldn't test my hypothesis since it was flew to nowhere before I finished packing and started to chase it.

Figure 5, a song sparrow perching on a tree branch

Figure 6, a song sparrow in flight

Figure 7, steller's jay ready to take off

Figure 8, American crow walking on the ground