Time: 10:00 - 11:00 AM
Weather: sunny
Temperature: 61 degrees
Location: Ravenna Park
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| Figure 1, April 5th, the first time I came to my site for journal |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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.
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.
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".
 |
| Figure 4, Herb Robert, A.K.A. stinky bob |
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| Figure 5, red clover |
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| 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".
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