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.