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.