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:
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Earthworm