This is a map I've drawn of the trails in the park. The stations are marked in red and numbered according to the sections that talk about them. (Station 9 is marked twice because there are birds both in the forest, and on Lake Washington!)
Station 1: Birds of Madrona Park: A good place to start the tour is along the waterfront at Madrona Park. The park sits right on the shore of the lovely Lake Washington. Mount Rainier is visible on many days across the water to the South, and the city of Bellevue is always visible on the other side of the water. So here you are on Lake Washington Boulevard looking out at the water. Several things are available here for your viewing pleasure. Over the water There is a good chance that you can spot several species of birds, specifically some beautiful water foul. On a normal day at Madrona Park you can expect to see Mallard ducks, Buffleheads, Double-crested cormorants, seagulls and the occasional Great blue heron. Cormorants will stand on the swim docks on the water holding their wings out in an almost comical fashion. Cormorants do this because they do not have waterproofed wings and must dry them out. Inside the forested area of the park, it is not uncommon to spot a black capped chickadee. You will hear them singing for sure. Spotting them is the hard part because they are elusive and like to perch in the canopy, which is made of very tall big leaf maple trees.
A double crested cormorant drying it's wings on a swim dock.
Along the shore as you walk you will also encounter some wetland plants like horsetail and salmonberry growing near the water.
Station 2 Land-Use History of the Park: In 1892, Madrona Park played host to a small wooden hotel, but now has a brick dance hall. Madrona Park also used to be the end of the line for a trolley that connected neighborhoods, but now is the end and turnaround point for the number 2 metro bus. The forested area of the park has always been a wooden getaway from civilization, the park is natural and was not planted. When Europeans came to the United States and brought their plants with them, two of the most prolific invasive species came along with them. These can be seen in the park; english ivy and the blackberry bush. Luckily the park is taken care of by volunteer parties and very little of these invasive species can be seen here. I haven't spotted any english ivy plants in the actual forest of the park, a remarkable feat due to the aggressive nature of such plants. The park has always been a spot for relaxation and recreation, as well as a place to appreciate nature.
Station 3: Geology of Madrona Park: The forested area of Madrona park is located on a drumlin, a hill created by glacial activity, so the walk up through the park is a steep one at times. The park slopes down towards Lake Washington. From the waterfront, venture South on Lake Washington Boulevard and you will arrive at a crosswalk and stairs leading into the park's entrance trail. The walk up through the park is challenging, but immediately takes you out of the urban feeling of the Madrona neighborhood and into the wilderness. The twists and curves of the staircase that leads you up make evident the challenges of creating a park pathway out of a steep forest. Immediately you will be greeted by a small wood bridge that crosses a tiny stream.
The wooden bridge.
The small stream, barely visible from the carpet of fallen leaves.
At the spot shown on the map, station 3 is my observation spot, and here you will be able to tell the shape of the park, a curve that slopes down towards the lake, perfect for the streams, the hill gives them the momentum to travel into Lake Washington. At the station you will notice a large rock that seems very out of place in the middle of this forest. That is not so, the rock is an erratic; a deposited rock carried down from the North on the Vashon ice sheet during the last ice age. On a trail below you should be able to see a fallen tree. The area is lovely, bigleaf maple trees create a canopy of leaves during the spring and summer before littering the forest floor with their leaves during the fall.
The Erratic
The Canopy
The view from station 3
Station 4: Plants: Madrona Park is a wonderfully green area, a plethora of plants can be seen on the shoreline and in the forested part of the park. For this section I will focus on the prominent plants that are viewable in the park. The most notable are the huge big leaf maple trees that form the canopy at the top of the hill. Spotted around the lower and higher areas of the park many Western red cedars of varying sizes can be seen. On either side of the trail the medium sized shrubs with the spiky leaves seemingly reaching for you are Tall Oregon Grape shrubs. During the fall the ground is completely covered with gigantic big leaf maple leaves. Looking closer, the trees with the diamond shaped, fuzz-covered leaves are beaked hazelnut trees. Many shrubs with white berries grow along the paths of the park, these shrubs are called common snowberry plants. Other evergreen trees that you will likely spot in Madrona park are grand fir, douglas fir, and western hemlock. Many of the trees have a nice thick coating of moss at the base of the trunk, giving the forest a sense of true age. The most surprising thing about Madrona park is the lack of Madrona trees, more specifically pacific madrone. There seems to be only one Madrona tree in the entire park, and it's located down near the water. The most prominent wetland plant in the park is horsetail, which can be seen growing all along the edges of the stream running through the park.
Western Redceder
Sword fern
Vine maple
Beaked Hazelnut
Tall Oregon Grape
Salal
Grand Fir
Horsetail
Station 5:Invertebrates in the Park: Invertebrates can be found everywhere in Madrona park, you just have to get a little creative. The cool bugs are hiding. The easiest way to find invertebrates in Madrona park is to first find a stick on the ground, or to bring gloves with you(no gloves required for the brave of heart i.e. not me).
The ground will be covered in leaves during late October and early November, all you must do is begin turning the leaves and spreading them apart to reveal the ground underneath. In no time you will find big scaly pill bugs, and if you are lucky (or unlucky) you might even find come millipedes. If you find a millipede, one of two things will happen, it will get scared and curl up in a neat little ball so you can observe it (this is the preferred response) or it will begin running wildly in a direction (possibly towards you). Exercise caution when hunting for invertebrates. A great place to look for invertebrates is at the base of a tree, these are good spots to look because dead leaves accumulate there and dead leaves are raked off the trail which is generally in the direction of a tree.
A curled up Millipede
A sketch of a pillbug
Station 6:Mushrooms and Lichens: Fungi of various shapes and sizes appear all over Madrona Park, generally they sit at the edge of trails in places they won't be stepped on by people. Many of the mushrooms that can be found in the park grow on the logs and branches that have disconnected from the trees and are decomposing on the ground. The most common mushroom shapes in the park are convex, with round umbrella like caps. Oyster mushrooms can be found growing on fallen branches occasionally. These mushrooms grow in stacks and are a pale white. Many thick tree fungi can be found growing around the park, and a plethora of honey mushrooms can be seen hiding underneath the sword ferns and small shrubs around the park, they can be easily distinguished because they grow in clusters and have a yellow tint. On the branches and trunks of living trees, generally big leaf maple, oak moss lichen grows and lots of it is found in clumps on the ground around the fall. This lichen is a pale green and looks like a big messy clump of feelers. Various other small mushrooms cover bits of the park, usually so small it takes a minute to even notice if they're there.
These are some of my favorite finds:
Oyster mushroom on the left and oakmoss lichen on the right
Station 7:Ecological Interactions: The most noticeable ecological interaction between species in the park is the location of most of the mushrooms. Many of the mushrooms can be found growing in shady places, which is generally underneath shrubs like snowberry plants, tall oregon grape, and ferns. Mushrooms are decomposers, so the decompose things like logs and create soil that is more nutrient rich. This nutrient rich soil can then be used by the plant that the mushroom is hiding under, allowing it to grow better. Every honey mushroom I observed in Madrona Park was located underneath a sword fern plant.
These honey mushrooms are hiding in the shade
Station 8: Ecological Disturbances: The park has two great examples of ecological disturbance, both in the form of a fallen tree. Near the beginning of the trail there is a huge fallen tree that has uprooted and has it's gigantic root system pointing at you as you walk by on the stairs. This tree appears to have been blown over by the wind long ago. The tree is very thick and old, so it's possible that it fell because of it's weight and the angle at which it was growing. The park is a hill, so that could have been part of the cause. The other ecological disturbance is a smaller fallen tree just under my spot (Station 2) This tree was blown over recently in a violent windstorm. The tree has fallen, obstructing the trail.
The felled tree has laid it's branches out across the trail making traversing more difficult.
Station 9: Animal Behavior: Along the water of Lake Washington, many birds can be seen exhibiting unique behaviors, glaucous-winged gulls perch on the white posts that stick out of the lake exclusively, the crows in the area seem to have an affinity to the black cottonwood trees and tend to stand and caw in them. Double crested cormorants stand out on the swim docks and spread their wings to dry them out, and can be seen fairly regularly. Buffleheads are commonly seen diving for food in the lake in groups of three or four, sometimes staying under for about 15-20 seconds. In the forested area, The bird that can be heard the most is the black-capped chickadee, singing it's recognizable song. Less common, but much more exciting, is the sighting of flickers. Who will fly tree to tree closer to the forest floor as compared to the other birds who like to stay hidden up high in the canopy.
Buffleheads searching for food together
A glaucous winged gull juvenile always perched in the same spot
A cormorant sticking it's head out of the water
Station 10: The Hollow Tree: The hollow tree is the last stop on the tour because it's fun to wonder about. This tree has a hole big enough in it's base for you to stand inside. Very fun for taking pictures, but it makes you wonder. How is it still standing? It's barely supported, why hasn't the wind blown it over? It's fascinating to me that the tree is still alive. It still makes leaves. This is an interesting spot in the park because this tree, though broken, still plays a valuable role in the ecosystem. It does still live, but even once it dies, it's standing body will continue to provide a hiding spot for small mammals to hide from predators, and a great place for spiders and other invertebrates to make their home. This tree is a symbol of the interconnectedness and importance of every species in an ecosystem.
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