Week Nine Madrona Park

Madrona Park
2:30 pm
46 Degrees F

Now that we're nearing winter, the effects of the cold weather and changing season have made that change very apparent. The park is very cold and my two pairs of socks weren't enough to keep my toes warm. It snowed four days ago and there is still snow on the ground and places in the park where the dirt is frozen through. The landscape has varied drastically now since the beginning of my documentation of the site many weeks ago. Here is a comparison of the park during week one, and the park now.

Week one

Now.

Looking up there is no more canopy of leaves, the forest is no longer shaded. It is completely lit up by the sun. Not to say that it's warm, just bright. I'm glad I came to the park early in the day. I was documenting what I saw at 2:30 and the sun was already beginning to set. 

My perception of my spot has changed quite a lot over the course of writing this blog. I don't view the park as a still being like I did at first. What drove the point home for me that the park was changing  over time was that every week when I went back to check up, I saw more varieties of mushrooms, I heard different bird songs, I even noticed more plants than I did on my first inspection. I plan on going back to the park when it starts to get warm again. I want to go in the spring so I can see what it looks like with some flowers and new leaves. 

My knowledge about the entire Puget Sound region has changed over the quarter as well. I was able to travel to other parts of Washington like the Nisqually delta, the mima mounds, Mount Rainier and Eastern Washington to observe plants and wildlife in those regions. What I learned there I was able to apply when visiting Madrona Park. I learned to identify many plants on the trips that were present at the park and I learned to sketch and identify birds as well. The most important takeaway from my time learning about the natural history of the puget sound region was that there is always more diversity than you think there is. I walked into my site on the first day of observation and thought to myself: "How am I ever going to document 50 species here? There are at most 20." I was dead wrong. There are invertebrates of many shapes and sizes under your feet and a diverse collection of birds hanging out in the trees and on the water. I have a much greater respect for the natural world after spending so much time in Madrona Park. I understand better the processes of nature and the importance of those processes to mankind. 

I think it means a lot to intimately know a natural space. It takes a sizable time commitment to really get to know a specific spot. It's been nine weeks for me and I still discover new things every time I visit Madrona Park. This week while I was there I had the realization that there is no English ivy in the forested part of the park. This might seem very arbitrary, but this is an invasive species that has infested many areas in Seattle. I read a reader board in the park that details the removal of ivy in the park and that it's been a struggle, but a success. Last week I spent a little time observing Lake Washington from the park and was able to document a double crested cormorant and a few buffleheads swimming around. It amazes me the amount of organisms there are to see in any given natural area. It takes time and dedication to observe and to understand a spot, but what you learn from one natural area, you can undoubtedly apply to another. I feel very close with the park now and I will be returning in the spring.   

Week Eight Madrona Park

4pm
Madrona Park
11/17/2014
41 Degrees F

This week at Madrona park it was difficult to take good pictures. The bus ran a little slower than usual, we only arrived about ten minutes later than usual but now that it's fall every minute counts when it comes to daylight. The park smelled different this week. Much more earthy than before, I think this is due to the discarded leaves breaking down and biodegrading. Many more leaves have piled up and the ground is now cloaked almost completely in leaves. What was most astonishing to me about the situation in the park this week was something that had not changed. The fallen tree continues to sit blocking the path below my viewing area. I thought that by now the parks department would have taken it away. Birds sing in the canopy above but are above the remaining leaves unseeable. They sing a song that repeats, a simple "skwee skwee skwee skwee skwee" repeatedly.

 The ground is now completely covered in leaves, leaves were falling all around me while I was visiting the park today.

 A Vine Maple that I have photographed before has begun to lose it's green color around the edges.

Vine Maple

My goal this week at the park was to document some birds and their behaviors. I noticed three birds while at the park, the bird I mentioned before with the "Skwee" call, which I was never able to see unfortunately. I was also able to spot a gull flying over lake Washington, I believe it was a glaucous winged gull because it looked quite large and had a darker grey wing color. I wasn't able to get my sketchbook out quick enough to sketch it before it flew out of view. It flew in a circle and was quite a ways in flying just above the lake. It turned and flew off around a corner after a moment. 

The bird I was most able to observe, sketch and identify was a male mallard near the wetland-like shore at the edge of the park. The male mallard duck is a medium sized water fowl with a white belly, brown wings and an emerald green head. It is a duck, so it has a wider, flatter bill and a white ring around it's neck. My favorite part of the mallard is it's orange webbed feet, which allow it to swim faster in the water. The mallard flew in from another area down the shore aways, and landed on the water in front of me, flapping it's wings harder and faster as it got closer to the water. Once landed it swam around in an almost aimless way, before waddling on shore. On the shore the duck wandered some more until it found some grass to munch on. It ate grass for a little while until another mallard showed up to eat grass, (also male)  and then they flew off together. It was interesting to watch the take off and landing of the ducks, I didn't see them take off from the water, but seeing the landing is almost comedic. Of coarse it's a beautiful marvel of nature to see an animal in flight, but the crazed flapping before the duck gently touches the water is a bit silly. 

These are my gesture sketches of the mallard duck

The mallard swimming in the water 

The mallard moments from landing on the water. I labeled it's webbed feet in this picture because they were not visible in my primary sketch. 

I noticed two organisms in the park today that I had not noticed previously, a nice green sedge growing by a stream, and a couple of interesting mushrooms. 

Nice lush sedge

Small spotted scaly red mushroom

A mushroom with a flatter cap with a pattern that resembles a french crepe. 

Week Seven Madrona Park

Madrona Park
11/12/2014
42 Degrees F

The weather has become substantially colder here since last week, bits of the dirt trail have frozen and the ground feels much firmer under my feet. The canopy has thinned even more since last week, and the ground is littered with dead bigleaf maple leaves. Sean and I have come to Madrona park today in search of mushrooms and lichens. The fungi are quite elusive at this time of the season because they are hiding under the damp carpet of decaying leaves that cover the forest floor. Sean and I grab sticks and begin to turn over leaves in a similar manner to when we were hunting invertebrates. I was the first to find a cluster of odd yellow mushrooms growing out of the ground under some sword ferns.

This cluster of mushrooms have a round cap with scales, called a squamose cap. They are brown-yellow and only about an inch and a half to two inches tall. I believe they are Honey Mushrooms or Armillariella mellea that have yellowed because they are beginning to die and whither. 

Sean discovered the next one, a small piece of Oakmoss Lichen in a pile of leaves under a bigleaf maple tree. This lichen is known by it's latin name as Evernia prunastri. It has skinny feelers that branch out in all directions and is a very pretty pale green color. Lichens are a unique group of life because they are a combination of both a plant and a fungus, a fungus that can photosynthesize. This kind of lichen is seen attached to trees all over the puget sound region.

Oakmoss Lichen

I'm not entirely sure what kind of fungus this is, but going by the mushroom guide it appears to be some kind of galerina, these mushrooms were found growing out of the bottom of a decomposing log. They are a light brown and have striate caps (striate means the caps have lines). These little mushrooms don't look like they are doing so well in the cold weather.

Small striate capped mushrooms

This mushrooms was hiding under some fallen leaves. It resembles the mushrooms in the previous picture but has a smooth cap and is taller by about an inch and a half. It looks like it could be a Nolanea mushroom or a Conocybe. It appears quite healthy and isn't slimy or wet. 

Nolanea or Conocybe Mushroom

Many of these mushrooms have a very similar look of brown with round cap. The closer you look the more unique they each become. This fungi's cap stands apart from the last two because it doesn't droop, it sticks out like a tiny little umbrella. Instead of having a conic or bell shaped cap, it has an umbonate cap. It was found growing out of the ground.  

Small mushroom with an umbonate cap

This was my personal favorite find of the day. These lumpy fungi grew on the apple tree in my back yard as a child. I'm always fascinated by them because they are so ugly. Just a big weird lump eating away at your tree. These fungi are similar to an artist's fungus in that they are growing on a log, however, they are too small and lumpy, they aren't as organized looking and they aren't as big. I couldn't find a proper identification for this fungus. It's pale white and grows in both semi-circular growths and round lumps on the tops of logs.  

Unidentified tree and log fungus.

Since this week's blog was about mushrooms, I wanted to share a cool mushroom that I found away from my spot as well, I found this by my dorm at the University of Washington. I got a pretty sweet selfie with it before it was stomped into the ground by someone the day after. 

Here I am with a Fly Amanita or Amanita muscaria mushroom.

  

 

Week Six Madrona Park

The progression of fall has become very apparent in the park, bigleaf maple leaves cover the ground and the canopy is thin and orange. The sounds of birds are louder and less muffled than before, and a thin layer of moisture seems to cover everything. The most obvious change in the area is a fallen tree, now blocking the path just below my spot. It's leafless body lies rigidly on the gravel path seemingly pointing in every direction.

The fallen tree obstructing the way.

The view from my spot has become more barren and washed out in color in contrast to week one, though it still retains most of it's greenery. 

Most of the green in Madrona park now comes from the ferns, which have retained the darkest shade of green as opposed to the beaked hazelnut and black cottonwood trees which have become yellow and brown. 

Leaves cover the ground and provide a nice hiding place for invertebrates now. These leaves that have fallen have made the canopy much more open and allow more light to come into the woods. Unfortunately this makes the park lose it's fantasy appeal of a lush hiding spot for fairies and sparrows, but nonetheless it still remains attractive and comforting. 

The carpet of fallen leaves

The open canopy of browning bigleaf maple trees

Part of the assignment this week is to describe parts of nature as if we were someone who had no conception of what they were observing. I'm going to try my best to write poetically.

"The behemoth lurches before me, cackling as it bends to meet me. The beast bears no witness to me yet it is aware of my presence, and sends me a gift. A small chevron spirals from the monster's tangled mass of feelers towards me. The giant that stands before my eyes has thick wrinkled skin, only grown thicker and stronger through time. I look back to the chevron in my hand to find that it is itself a creature, covered in veins, similar to the wrinkles on the great beast. I feel a great difference in age between us, and begin to understand that I am not the only one bearing witness to the other."

"Reflective and pitch black, the collection of animate sharpened obsidian cocks it's head, before plunging it's blade into the earth. The pointy creature extends it's sharp appendages outward and swoops into the air, gently carrying it's weight. As it lands again it releases a shriek of anger and resumes stabbing the ground. The animal appears perpetually wet, glimmering faintly and arching it's body with every step."

"Thin ridged friends here

pale and white together

here in a place to get by"

It's been forever since I've written a haiku, and I thought that it might be kind of hard to get without a picture. The poem is about these mushrooms:

     

 

Week 5 Eastern Washington Field Trip

This week again, I am away from Madrona park, venturing to the desert-like terrain of Eastern Washington. As we left Seattle in the cars the weather became dark and stormy. Black clouds rolled in and heavy rain began to fall. This was not the case once we arrived East of the Cascades. The area we were in was in a rain shadow from the mountains. It was sunny on the the other side. Though it rained or misted incrementally throughout the day it was relatively warm and sunny for most of our time there.

We explored the Cascade foothills, which are smaller volcanically formed landmasses. Unlike the area in the Puget Sound, the hills and landscape was not formed by a glacier. The tops of some of the hills had more jagged tops than those that can be seen around Seattle, due to the fact that there weren't glaciers eroding the hills into softer, rounder shapes.

This picture may not be the best example of "jagged" but it certainly has a different feel than what is seen in Seattle. This area gets around 20 inches of rainfall per year and is much dryer than the West side of the Cascades. The dominant color around here was tan and grey-brown. Many short shrubs cover large surfaces of the hillsides and spread themselves out to cover large surface area to compete for sunlight and water. 

Many of the trees in this area grow at the bottom of valleys, a very logical adaptation since that's where all of the water goes. The trees that live in the valleys can collect water that runs down the hills during rain and storms. Very lush greenery can be seen in many of the valleys in the foothills. Also note how on the hillside in the photo there are few if any shrubs growing on the hillside, this is an area that doesn't get much sun, so the shrubs grow on the other sun facing side in order to collect as much sunlight as possible.

The Eastern side of the Cascades has many different plants from the Western side, but it also has some familiar ones. I spotted several species that I recognized while there. 

The familiar Tall Oregon Grape

In the same picture as above, the yellowing tree is a Black Cottonwood a tree that enjoys wetter areas, it is in the perfect location for this area, by a river in a valley. Soaking up lots of water.

Another familiar family that I noticed was the Willow, this one is a shrub that is growing close to the ground. I was able to identify it quickly because of it's distinctive long, pointy leaves. 

Willow

The foothills are located in the Ponderosa Pine zone,  and several can be seen intermixed with Aspen trees in this photograph

Tall green Ponderosa Pine and yellowing Quaking Aspen

The plants that made this area interesting are the dry shrubs and unfamiliar trees. The first shrub that we encountered was Rabbit Brush, a smaller shrub with soft bunched leaves that resemble rabbit tails, although apparently the shrub was named as such because people have witnessed rabbits living or sitting underneath the shrub. 

Rabbit Brush

The next shrub we found was much more interesting to me. The shrub is called  Tall Sage Brush, and it grows very slowly. So if you find a larger one it could be a hundred or so years old or older. Tall Sage Brush has many tiny leaves all bunched together. I think that the leaves grow this way so that the plant can catch rain or moisture from the air and have it drip down to it's roots, but also as a way to combat wind and keep itself from drying out or being blown over. The brush has a very strong smell that might deter animals from eating it. It smells kind of bitter and a little sweet. 

Tall Sage Brush

The final shrub we found in this area is called the Serviceberry, medium sized shrub that grows red berries. It didn't have any berries on it when I observed it. The shrub has small ovular leaves and was living at the base of a hill in a good spot to receive a decent amount of water. 

Serviceberry

We discovered three unique organisms to this area during our visit, the first a large, colorful spider sitting comfortably in the middle of it's web. I was not able to identify the spider using my field guide but I got some very nice pictures of it. 

Spider front view

Spider back view

While I was hiking up the trail with my spot buddy Sean, he jumped and yelled loudly when he noticed that he'd stepped on a dead snake (Sean is very afraid of snakes) a medium sized snake it was, it turned out to be a young Rattlesnake that had been killed. 

The Rattlesnake

The snake has a beautiful green and white pattern all over it's body serving as an excellent camouflage in the dry foothills. The snake's rattle can be seen in the above photo, the tail is on the left side of the image. Our professor, Tim was eager to inspect the snake and show us some of the creature's finer details. The Rattlesnake is a viper and has a uniquely shaped angular head and a venomous bite. This snake was still young and had very small needle-like fangs, nothing as scary as the long, sharp fangs of a fully grown Rattlesnake. 

The most entertaining organism of the day was by far the Song Sparrow That I got to help capture with the professor and the TAs. We set up a thin, soft net between two poles on a trail, along with a stuffed sparrow as bait, and played bird calls through a speaker to enrage any males in the area and have them swoop down at the bait bird to make it flee their territory. Within about ten minutes a bird flew into the net. Tim eagerly ran over to grab it and then showed it off to the class as well as explaining some bird holding and measuring techniques to us. 

Song Sparrow

The song sparrow of the Eastern Cascades has different brown markings on it's chest than Western song sparrows do. An interesting fact that does not have an explanation currently.

After taking down the net the class piled back into the cars and we drove off to Umptanum Ridge. An area with darker foothills and more rocks and small ground shrubs. 

The view from Umptanum Ridge

The shrub that populated much of the ground was Thyme Desert Buckwheat a shrub with a thick stalk and roots to keep itself anchored in the ground and to protect itself from wind. This hardy plant can withstand a harsh environment because its small and holds water well. 

Thyme Desert Buckwheat

While at Umptanum ridge we spent much of our time overturning rocks in hope of finding scorpions, but unfortunately we had no such luck.

Our next stop on the trip was to a wetter area of the Ponderosa zone, a nice, relaxing waterfall hike. Much of the plant life on the hike was Quaking Aspen a tree that is considered to be the largest organism on the planet because it reproduces by cloning itself and shooting up new trees out of the ground to cover a large area. All of the trees share the roots of an original tree. The Aspen trees were beginning to yellow and were a truly magnificent addition to the already unique scenery in the Eastern Cascades. 

Quaking Aspen

Quaking Aspen on the hillside

I was so tired by the end of the hike that I forgot to take a picture of the waterfall. The rocks that the waterfall was flowing over was volcanic in origin, a formation known as columnar basalt. It forms in columns and when cut has a multi-sided shape, like a hexagon or an octagon. The columnar basalt at the waterfall was cut into two sections, with an area that appears to have once had a waterfall running over it. We theorized that the waterfall that used to be there eroded the rock so much that it cut it away so that it appears to just mesh with the hillside. 

The trip was lovely and a nice change of scenery from the cold wetness of Seattle. I had a ton of fun and got to bond some more with friends I'd made on the Mount Rainier trip. 

 
 

Week Four

October 21
5:21
62 Degrees F
Madrona Park


It's noticeably colder this week, though this could be due to Sean and I arriving at the park about thirty minutes later than usual. The soil seemed very dry in the park today, even after all the rain that fell last night. The sword ferns at the site have entire arms that have dried out and curled up now, a definite progression from two weeks ago. The view from my spot has become, not quite brownish yet, but certainly less green. The view has become less saturated with green. The contrast between week one and now is evidence of progression into fall.

The view from my spot

I was very happy this week with the amount of knowledge I gained from the Mount Rainier trip. I was able to identify several more species at my site from memory than I could before. I've documented a few below.

this is a shrub with opposite, serrated leaves growing out from a sloped hill. I believe it is a Cascade Oregon Grape

Longer needles growing in two rows with white bottom side.

Grand Fir

This is my favorite find at the site, I learned it from our TA Jorge. A tree with green fuzzy roundish serrated leaves.

Beaked Hazel

I spotted a different kind of fern other than sword fern as I was leaving the site today. It has medium length leaflets with opposite leaves. I'm not sure because of the color, but I think that it is either spiny wood fern or lady fern.

Spiny wood fern or lady fern

Madrona park is also home to some wetland plants as there is a small water runoff coming down from the top of the hill and into lake washington. Lots of horsetail grows there. This spiny prehistoric looking plant is covered in crazy tendrils seemingly reaching in every direction. These plants still look very lush and green even as we approach the fall. The plants are succulent and retain a lot of water since they live by streams.

Horsetail.

The assignment for today at the park was to observe invertebrates and to sketch them. I was able to locate all of the invertebrates at my site by using a stick (I don't want to accidentally touch bugs, gross)to turn over leaves and fallen foliage to expose any creatures that might be hiding under them.

The first one I discovered appeared to be a common pillbug at first look, but I believe it is something else. This invertebrate was larger than any pillbug I have seen before. The invertebrate was a dark brown/ black color with grey sides. It's sides were serrated and connected in sections so that it can roll into a ball to protect itself.

What appears to be a common pillbug, but is a bit too large.

The next invertebrate I saw I did not like. I have a natural aversion to centipedes/millipedes. I'm not entirely sure which one this one was, but it was quite small, pale yellow and was crawling very quickly on the stick I was holding. It had many many tiny legs covering the entire bottom of it's body and it was only around 5 millimeters in length. 

A long invertebrate resembling a millipede or a centipede.

This invertebrate is no stranger to me, I have encountered them inside my own house at times. This is an earwig, a bug that is disconcerting because it has pincers on it's abdomen as well as feelers on it's head. Though small they are very detailed. They have sectioned bodies with a couple of unique colors. A light brown head, a dark brown thorax and abdomen and a shiny gold colored midsection.

Earwig

This nasty invertebrate had Sean and I yelling after it began to run quickly and then change it's mind and curl up. The centipede is a long invert at around 5 millimeters. It has a black body with yellow spots on every section of it's sectioned back. The centipede also has a plurality of legs that make it terrifyingly quick-moving.  

Centipede

Sean was quick enough to warn me of a mosquito before it landed on me to bite me. The mosquito is very tiny and makes a quiet buzzing noise as it flaps it's wings. It has a long mouth used for piercing skin and drinking animal blood. The mosquito has six segmented legs. Similar to the horsetail, mosquitos also enjoy wetlands because it is the perfect place for them to lay their eggs in still water.

Mosquito

We found some very interesting (yet disgusting) finds in the park today, and I'm sure we'll find some more interesting things next week as well.