Natural Observation, Journal 4

Date: Monday April 27

Time: 1:00 to 3:30 PM

Weather: partly sunny
Temperature: 72 degrees

Location: Ravenna Park

Figure 1, back to my natural spot, everything is a lot greener

Figure 2, leaves of Indian plum

Since the last weekend we went to Olympic National Park, I didn't have a chance to come to my natural spot. So, when I got here this weekend, it changed noticeably after two weeks. By just looking at it, everything is a lot greener and taller. For example, those lady ferns (Atherium filix-femina), identified by its small-big-small boy pattern just like a lady, has grown denser and wider. They now covered much more water surface than before. Also, I found something that I'd taken for granted before. Standing right behind me, this tree-like shrub had elliptical leaves without any teeth on their edges. I felt like our professor taught us what that was in Thursday's class, but I just couldn't figure it out. It confused me all the time until I found some clue in my notes. According to my notes, I crushed those leaves. If it turned out that they had some cucumber-like smell, this plant would be an Indian plum (Oemleria cerasiformis). It was by crushing leaves and smelling that I found out it was an Indian plum. There were something growing and there were certainly someting withering. For example, the previously blooming skunk cabbages (Lysichoton americanum) now lost their yellow flowers. Now, there were only pieces of huge leaves and a withed greenish flower. All those yellow parts were gone. As shown below, there was a good example to illustrate this withering situation for this type of plants.

Figure 3, withered skunk cabbage

Figure 4, a closer look of that withered skunk cabbage

When I was concentrating on the skunk cabbage, chickadees flew close to my natural spot. I looked up and found there were actually four of them, all were black-capped chickadees. They all seemed pretty happy since they sang all the time. Also, they were jumping on the branches of a western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), higher and higher until I could barely see them. Finally, I couldn't only hear chick-dee-dee-dee.

Figure 5, a tiny mushroom growing on a leaf

Figure 6, another look at this tiny mushroom

Now, since our homework was about finding six different types mushrooms, lichens, and mosses in total, I need to shift the topic to them. Before I found my first target, I'd been searching for one hour and I couldn't find anything similar to those three types of plants. It seemed like mushrooms, lichens, and mosses all like growing near the water. When I was about to give up, a tiny mushroom drew my attention. Amazingly, when I tried to find out how it connected to the soil, it turned out that the mushroom was actually not connected to the soil. It was connected to an almost dead leaf! How could that be? Since I could identify what this mushroom is, I will describe it briefly: convex and smooth cap with white surface, brownish black gills, no distinct ring, slender stalk. Also, it had some liquid at the end of its stalk. That part was originally connected to an almost dead leaf until I disconnected them. I hope someone could help me to identify this one.

Figure 7, an artist's conk on a Douglas fir

This is the second fungus I found. It was just stuck in the trunk as it always does. Since its characteristic is distinct, it didn't take me very long to find what it's called in my field guide. Artist's conks always have a flat cap. Instead of gills on the underside of its cap, it has a smooth and white plate-like thing that people can draw pictures on. As shown in my picture above, the white underside is just like the white edge in this picture. What an amazing fungus!

Figure 8, an unknown lichen

I found a lichen when I was 50 feet from my spot. At first look, I thought it would be lettuce lichen since I watched a video about lettuce lichen the night before and they bore some resemblance. Since I'd already mistaken leaves for lettuce lichens before, I had to take a careful look at it before making conclusion. I was trying to find some clues of leaves but it didn't have any. It didn't have veins or twigs. Also, even if it'd been a piece of dead leaf, its color shouldn't have been like this. So, I concluded that it was not just a normal piece of leaf. So, what was it? I wanted to say a lettuce lichen but the shape and color were so different that I couldn't really identify.

Figure 9, another lichen I couldn't identify

This is another lichen I couldn't tell. At first, I thought it was just some tree barks. However, after using my hands to actually touch it, I found that this one was much crisp and brittle than tree barks. When I tried to break a tree bark, I needed to use a great amount of strength. For this lichen, all I needed to do was just pinching it. Then, it broken into parts. As for identification, I really couldn't find any clues.

Figure 10, a different lichen

This one bears an resemblance with Bull's-eye lichen. However, if you look at it carefully, it's definitely not a bull's eye lichen. First, the bull's eye lichen has a brown growth in center. On contrary, this lichen doesn't have that brown part. Second, for bull's eye lichen, there will be some tan or green spots between the brown central growth and its edge. However, this one doesn't have any spots on it. Third, on the one hand, the bull's eye lichen has scalloped edge around it. On the other hand, this lichen has rugged edge around. I'm pretty sure that this one is some kind of lichen but I can't identify it.

Figure 11, Icicle moss? My guess

Even if I spent two hours, I could only find 5 different types of fungi and lichens. So, the last one isn't any fungi or lichen. It's a moss. Specifically, I think it's icicle moss. I found it on a small bigleaf maple. Even though it was messed up, it was shiny and green.

After I finished my tasks, a female mallard duck drew my attention. I wondered why she was here since my spot is pretty deep into Ravenna park. Mallards don't usually show up in some place like this. More curiously, she was by herself! I couldn't find her companion. So, I followed her to see what she was up to. When I got closer, I saw the blue wing patch on her right side. I was expecting such pretty thing to belong to male only and it turned out I was wrong. After a while, she stopped at the creek and began to drink incessantly. It was lucky that I could take a video of her drinking. She wasn't afraid of me at all.

Not only did I take a video of that female mallard, but I also took a video of a yellow-faced bumble bee, which I'd never seen before (maybe I had, but I just took for granted). When I saw it, it looked like it was digging a hole and looking for something by digging a hole. When I saw its yellow face and its yellow bands at its hip, I really could tell what it was. It was a beautify creature! I was pretty happy that I could see it.

There is also something which I'm not sure what it is.

Figure 12, what is it? Growing fungus?

Natural Observation, Journal 3 (field trip at Olympic National Park)

Date: Saturday (April 18) and Sunday (April 19)

Time: all day long

Weather: mostly sunny

Temperature: 54 degrees on average
Location: Olympic National Park

Figure 1, at Mount Storm King, overlooking Lake Crescent

This field trip was simply an awesome and unforgettable experience. By spending two days with nature at Olympic National Park, I realized how much I'd taken for granted when I was traveling around in the past. There are always things to learn and nature tells you everything about what happened and what is going on.

Figure 2, a blown-down trunk (my guess is Douglas fir)

Figure 3, the far end of the fallen tree

Our first main natural spot is Lake Crescent. Right after we entered into the old growth forest, we found a blown-down trunk laying down on the ground, as figure 2 shown above. From what I noticed, there weren't any new planting species growing on this huge fallen trunk. So, I concluded that it was not a nurse log yet, one kind of legacies where parasite interactions happen. It must have fallen down very recently. I was able to walk along the trunk to its far end and took pictures. When I got to the far side, I found that all those roots seemed pretty new. There was still nothing growing there. However, I'm sure that it'll become a nurse log in the future.

Figure 4, not a typical snag actually, since it was made by human beings

                                         Video 1, a hairy woodpecker cleaning its nest

Figure 5, artist's conk

As we moved on, we found many snags, another legacy of old growth forests. Interesting, not all of them were made by nature. The first one we saw was actually made by human beings. In figure 4, most parts of this western red cedar had already been cut. According to our professor, who happened to be in this picture, the hole underneath the top of this stump was made by early settlers inserting springboards to the trunk. By doing this, they could step on those springboards and avoid cutting the thickest part of this big tree and still got most of its wood. The next snag we found was much different from the first one. It wasn't made by human beings, probably by wind. After this tree was destroyed, some species would lose their homes while others would build their homes. Hairy woodpeckers are certainly the ones that benefit from those destroyed trees. I posted a video above about a hairy woodpecker cleaning its nest. Our TA told us that the woodpecker was trying to build an relatively clean environment that was better for his babies inside the hole. What he was doing was taking out poops out of the nest. Finally,  As shown in Figure 5, one snag was affected by an artist's conk. This was another example of parasitic interaction in which the artist's conk hurt the plant by simply living on it. As time goes by, the artist's conk will take enough nutrients out of the plant and they will die together.

Figure 5, a madrone

Figure 6, madrone's variation, manzanita

After our professor and TAs taught us diverse types of natural knowledge for about 2 hours, it was our turn to discover what was around and draw a landscape thumbnail and an organism. I chose to hike on the trail of Mount Storm King since I wanted to be able to overlook the amazing Lake Crescent and draw a thumbnail of it. I found many plants species as we hiked up the trail. There were tall and dull Oregon grapes, lots of pacific madrones, and some pacific madrone's variations called manzanita. Overall, the manzanita looked so similar to a pacific madrone. However, it was smaller in size, more like a shrub. Also, the trunk of the manzanita was slightly more reddish than that of madrone. Another thing that is interesting about madrones and manzanita is that both of them like growing in dried spots. For instance, when we were at the bottom of Mount Storm King where weather was pretty wet, we could barely see any madrones or manzanita. Nevertheless, as we moved on, the weather got drier and drier. As a result, we began to see more and more madrones and manzanitas. After we hiked up to where we could go, I drew a thumbnail of Lake Crescent and a sketch of a yellow cedar.

Figure 7, thumbnail of Lake Crescent

Figure 8, sketch of yellow cedar

                                          Video 2, white-crowned sparrow singing

Figure 9, bird's feathers all over the ground, evidence of predator-prey interaction

After a five-and-a-half hour sleep, we got up at 5:30 am for a bird walk since birds are most active in the morning. Even though I still felt super sleepy, this one-hour bird walk was unforgettable. The first bird we saw was white-crowned sparrow. Being able to listen to its song was very important to me as I heard that song all the time on my way to Union Bay for sailing but I hadn't figured out what kind of bird it was. As we roamed around in the forest, we heard some songs and calls of varied thrushes and pacific wrens. It was too bad that we couldn't see them since they were always moving quickly at the canopy level. We also found some evidences of predator-prey interaction, which were many feathers laying on the ground as shown in figure 9. Our professor told us that it might be an American robin being preyed on by a common crow. So, as we finished our bird walk, we moved on to Salt Creek, the famous intertidal pool.

Figure 10, Dall's acorn barnacles

Figure 11, pacific goose barnacles

Figure 12, an Ocher sea star eating a blue mussel

Figure 13, a giant green anemone

The most important lesson that I learned at Salt Creek was the zonation of organisms. Since one day has two high tides and two low tides, organisms here have to be able to withstand waves and avoid drying out. So, different organisms live in different zones. Mainly, there are four zones: high tide zone, mid tide zone, low tide zone, and subtidal zone. When I got there, the first zone I noticed was the high tide zone. Since the environment in high tide zone is the harshest, with heavy waves and long exposure to sunlight, organism living here are mostly barnacles and mussels. As figure 9 and 10 showed, those barnacles could fix themselves to the ground to prevent from being blown away by waves or winds. Also, they could expose themselves to sunlight for a relatively long time. As for mid tide zone, there were some amazing organisms. For example, I saw an Ocher sea star at this zone. What was amazing about this Ocher sea star was that it was eating a blue mussel by covering the mussel with its whole body and stretching out its stomach to digest. Isn't that amazing? Not only sea stars, but also anemones could be found here in mid tide zone. The one that I found is called giant green anemone. When I touched it, it tried to catch me by its sticky tentacles. If I touched the edge around it, it would contract its tentacles. After playing with this special organisms for a while, I drew a sketch of it. After seeing the high tide zone and mid tide zone, I tried to explore the low tide zone where I was supposed to find something else. However, I was unable to get there since the waves were pretty strong. I even dropped my field guide twice when I was trying to find out what was there in low tide zone. So, I didn't take many photos of organisms at low tide zone and subtidal zone. Nonetheless, I did see some kind of kelps which I couldn't identify.

Figure 14, sketch of a giant green anemone

Figure 15, some kind of kelps that I couldn't identify

Figure 16, a common raven, much more awesome than a common crow

There are still so many things I didn't write about here in my journal. If I were to write about every single one of them, it would take me forever to include all of them since there are so many awesome things we experienced in this trip. Being with nature is such a cool thing to do!

Figure 17, the sunset we saw on the ferry back to Seattle

Natural Observation, Journal 2

Date: Sunday April 12

Time: 09:20 - 10:20 AM

Weather: Clouds and sun, a little windy

Temperature: 49 degrees

Location: Ravenna Park

Figure 1, what I saw at my natural observation spot today

Today, I came back to my natural spot which I'm going to come back again and again over this quarter. I was expected it to change dramatically from last time. However, I didn't find the overwhelming change I expected. Nevertheless, after putting this picture above and the previous one together, changes became more obvious to me. Since last time I focused more on birds, this time I focused more on plants.

First, compared with the previous picture, this one is much greener. More and more ferns have grown up from the soil. Those pre-existing ones is now taller than before. Still, I can't name the other fern besides sword fern, but considering that I will be able to identify all of those plants, I feel pretty excited.

Figure 2, a small salmonberry flower coming out (I guess it is salmonberry but I'm not sure)

Second, when I was looking at the big picture, I noticed some pinkish or reddish tiny spots were among those plants. Those are flowers! They are about to bloom! After getting close enough to one flower, I could observe its detail and try to identify it by its leaves. The first thing I noticed about it was its thorny stems. I remember my homestay Nancy told me that usually those thorny stems means rose family. So, I turned my field guide to rose family. Based on the color of the flower, the only one alike is salmonberry. Also, each flower with five petals is the characteristic of salmonberry. As for its leaves, they are all fined-toothed like what being said in the field guide. 

Figure 3, I didn't even notice this guy when I was observing the salmonberry. When I saw it, I was scared

Figure 4, a growing fern

Finally, as I delved into pieces of detail in this park, I found the way how ferns grow, just like figure 4 above. In this picture, its top is first curled. So do its fronds. Then, as it grows, stems become taller and fronds become longer. Eventually, the top part of its stem will no longer be curled and its fronds will be flattened. When I first saw this, I thought it was some new plant species. However, every time I saw this type of plant, it was with other ferns. After carefully observing its leaflets, I believed that it was a growing fern. I also took a picture with growing fern and matured fern altogether.

Figure 5, same ferns at different life steps.

Figure 6, when I packed up and got ready to leave, I saw a bunch of horsetails.

Alright, it is time to shift the topic to birds. It was super weird that there was not a lot of birds singing. Even there were, they were at the top of those big evergreen trees. I couldn't observe them. Maybe they knew that I wanted to watch plants this time. So, they hided. The only birds I saw were an American crow and a black-capped chickadee. By hearing its chick-dee-dee-dee, I almost took a picture of that tiny bird. However, right before I pressed the button, it flew away to nowhere with some chick-chick sounds. So, I couldn't observe it for a good amount of time to learn what exactly it was doing. However, my guess was that it was trying to find some seeds to eat.

Figure 7, a yellow leaf and this new part coming out of a living skunk cabbage

Second journal is over. I have already noticed some changes in my natural spots. I am looking forward to see more and more changes as the quarter goes. I might not be able to recognize my own spot after this quarter.

Here come nine of my field drawings. I am really really bad at drawing but I tried my best.

3 - 8

Horsetail

A stem of a lady fern

Skunk cabbage

                               





                                                        

Natural Observation, Journal 1

Date: Sunday April 5

Time: 10:20 – 11:20 AM

Weather: Partly sunny

Temperature: 47 degrees

Location: Ravenna Park

Figure 1, my natural observation spot, an enormous erratic rock

Figure 2, what I could see by sitting on my natural spot (50 square meters scale)

I feel like this homework is awesome! Today, as this course requires, my friends and I went out to a natural area, which is the Ravenna Park. Located north to UW campus, this park is pretty convenient for us. Even though we didn’t take the short-cut, it only took us 15 minutes to get there. After going inside the park, we walked by the Ravenna Creek along the trail, trying to find our natural spots. I quickly found my spot, an enormous rock (someone told me it’s an erratic rock left behind by receding glaciers). So, I climbed on the rock and began my observation.

Song sparrow singing? I guess

Let me talk about animals first. Sitting on this big rock and closing my eyes, I could hear at least five different kinds of birds within my 50-square-meter scale. There were many song sparrows, at least two spotted towhees, lots of crows, some chickadees, and two bushtits. Even if I could hear their voice, I couldn’t see most of them. Also, besides the songs and calls from those birds, there were still others that I couldn’t identify. For example, I guessed a successive and loud voice was from an American robin. However, it was too different from its usual voice. After getting a general idea about bird species, I took out of my binocular to track a song sparrow (I wanted to see its black spot on its belly and listen to its song). It didn’t take me too long before I found it. However, since it turned its back to me, I couldn’t see its black spot. An excellent bird watcher once told me that the best way to identify a song sparrow is by its black spot. Finally, the song sparrow turned its face to me and began to sing. I’m so glad that I could not only see its black spot but also record its song. Before today, I had a hard time memorizing song sparrow’s song. Now, if I cannot remember what the tone is, I can simply check my recorder. The tune starts with two high-pitched sounds and a lower one next. Then, it starts to vibrate. What a beautiful song! Suddenly, I felt like some scraps of tree barks was falling down. I looked upwards. Wow! There is an eastern gray squirrel climbing down the tree! I guessed it was trying to find some food on the ground. This time, I took a wonderful picture of this cute creature. I also took many pictures of birds. However, since birds always perch very far from me, all of my pictures are pretty vague. So, I’m not going to show them here.

Figure 3, a cute eastern gray squirrel

The second part of my observation was about plants. I learned giant horsetail, western sword fern, and so on. However, for many plant species, I simply couldn’t identify them. For example, in my one-square-meter scale, there was a fern with greenish stalk and bi-pinnate fronds. According to field guide, the only one in this area that has those characteristics is bracken fern. So, I was guessing that it could be a bracken fern. However, the field guide also said that bracken fern’s fronds divide into three triangular, bi- or tri-pinnate leaflets. This part confused me a lot. I didn't quite understand what the triangular leaflets are. Also, the picture in the field guide didn’t seem like what I saw in the real world. So, I'm still not sure what kind of fern it is. I’m going to post some pictures about this fern and I need someone’s help.

Figure 4, the fern that I could not identify

Figure 5, the leaflets of that mythical fern

Figure 6, a giant horsetail

Figure 7, what is this?

This is really a great experience! Being outside and spending time with nature that we often overlook. It is not only a process to learn about those species around me but also a process to slow down my life and listen to the voice of nature.

My Experience in Nature

My Experience in Nature

I wasn't interested in nature before I came to Seattle. Growing up in Beijing, I didn't have much chance to get in touch with nature in the big city even though sometimes I took part in some tree-planting programs. In the last few years, Beijing has been infected with smog pollution and its bad air quality is still a serious problem. Since I love this city and I know it was better in the past, I want to improve its air pollution back to the state in the past. Beijing’s environmental issue is part of the reasons why I chose to major in environmental studies.

Figure 1, Steller's jay carrying a peanut at Nancy's backyard.

After I came to Seattle for college, my homestay Nancy introduced me about the topic of nature, especially bird-watching. I remember seeing four Steller’s jays at my first day of bird-watching. At that time, I was just chatting with her about my school life. Suddenly, I heard some harsh sound coming from her backyard. Then, I saw two birds with black crests and blue bodies. They were perching on the branches, staring at Nancy’s peanuts in a big bowl. Sooner, I found two more perching one the far side. How pretty they are! That was the first time I began to notice the creatures around me and Steller’s jay is the first bird I learned. I wasn't satisfied with just seeing them eating those peanut, I wanted to feed them! However, right after I opened the door to the backyard, all four of them flew away. Nancy told me that since those birds are so smart that I couldn't just go out and feed them. The only thing I could do is leaving those peanuts on the bowl and watching those birds eating peanuts from the window. After the day turned dark and the birds all flew away, Nancy told me that those four beauties don’t come to her yard very often. If they come, they don’t rarely come together. I must have been super lucky to see those birds at my first day of birding. After that first day of birding, I began to go birding with Nancy to many places such as Green Lake and Washington Park Arboretum.

Figure 2, A bird I saw in Oklahoma. Both Terri and I couldn't identify it. Can anyone help me?

Another story about my birding experience is my self-trip to Oklahoma in this spring break. During this trip, I met with Terri, a very kind and talented birder from Oklahoma City Audubon Society. She drove me around to many places and introduced me so many birds that I couldn’t even check all of them in the checklist of the bird book she gave me. For me, the most amazing bird that she introduced to me was the cardinal. With bright red feather all over their body, cardinals seemed very proud of their feather. Every time I saw them, they were standing upright. When they sang, they looked upward with their head up. What an amazing creatures! I love their songs so much!

Being around with nature is a wonderful thing! I’m looking forward to learning much more about nature. Although I can identify some birds, I still need to be able to identify them by their shapes, flights and songs, and calls. Also, I’m looking forward to know more about plants and their relationship with animals such as birds.