aclay232's Journal

Location: Seward Park
Latitude: 47.551 Longitude: -122.261
Date: 4/19/12 Time of Day: 2:30-3:30pm
Weather: Overcast, light drops of rain becoming drizzle, temperature: ~58 degrees~

I thought I’d go to Seward Park to check out the ecology of the park. Taking the first trail I saw, I stopped within about five feet, seeing a few species I recognized but didn’t know the names of. The first was Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus), growing on the side of the trail. It looked like a younger plant, and it didn’t look too common in that particular area. It’s leaves were smaller relative to what I’ve seen in the past, and at first I didn’t see any flowers or berries so I wasn’t completely sure it was what it was. It was a little surprising because for the rest of the hike I didn’t see and more. Neighboring this bush however, was that of the Common Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) whose leaves looked very mature in comparison and grew throughout this trail of the park. I wonder if it’s easier for snowberry to grow for some reason, perhaps because this was on the forest edge as compared to deeper in where there is more tree cover and most likely a wetter climate. I’m wondering if I’d find the growing situation reversed further away from the lake, although in the descriptions for both species say they tend to grow in more open forests and low elevations.
Looking up I saw Big Leaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum) trees, and their old brown leaves covering the ground; and discovered in Pojar that they tend cohabit with Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), as they definitely did from what I could see as Douglas fir cones scattered evenly over the ground. Another tree which I thought for the longest time was part of the maple family was the Common Horse Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) which seemed at least as common as the Bigleaf Maple. Further into the park there was a more open field in which several Shore Pines (Pinus contorta) grow, which was also surprising as I thought they usually grow on the coastline or in drier climates. It does say however, that these trees are ‘highly adaptable, and tolerant to low nutrient conditions’ which somewhat explains why I’ve seen them in places like on the side of the Burke Gilman trail in areas where not too much else seems to be growing. Here and there, there were also several Japanese Flowering Cherry trees and I’m wondering how they got there. Are they a native species? From what I can tell they aren’t so I’m wondering if someone planted them, and I’d like to know more about the history of Seward Park. A naturalist I talked to said Seward Park had bedrock, which I still don’t completely understand.
Other species I saw were Red Huckleberry, a close friend since the nature camps I went to when I was little. Apparently the berries were used as fish bait in the past, and the other parts of the plant such as the leaves and bark were used for sore throats. I can understand the latter, but I thought fish liked worms. I wonder what kinds like the look of bright red berries, and why. Is it because they’re easy to spot in the water?
The Sword and Licorice ferns, were plentiful in the area, the former having up to at least 55 pairs of leaflets, much larger than in other locations I’ve seen them in. They grew with Low Oregon grape (Mahonia nervosa) and a bit of Salal (, although it seemed as if the Salal was having more trouble growing or something, because it was not nearly as common as the ferns and snowberry, and it also had brown splotches on the leaves. Do the splotches mean it isn’t getting enough nutrients? Interestingly, the leaves were somewhat larger despite this deviation from the other plants I’ve seen. I also saw copious amounts of Indian Plum (Oemlaria cerasiformis), and heard there was an Eagle’s nest, although I didn’t quite make it that far.

Species List:
Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus)
Common Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus)
Big Leaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum)
Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)
Common Horse Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum)
Shore Pines (Pinus contorta)
Sword Fern (Polystichum munitum)
Licorice Fern (Polypodium glycyrrhiza)
Japanese Flowering Cherry ()
Salal (Gaultheria shallon)
Indian Plum (Oemlaria cerasiformis)

Daily Account/Journal: Burke Museum 1st Visit
April 24, 2012
2:45pm

Today we went to the Burke Museum to hear about birds and the records/specimens at the museum from the Collections Manager, Robert Faucett. It was really cool to go downstairs and see all the behind the scene things that go on inside the museum. I was a bit surprised when we first stopped at a table where two students/people, were working on the hides (?) of mammals, and we could see the actual tissue as they prepared the specimens. I didn’t realize how hands on the processes are to preserve history through specimens. I also didn’t realize there were so many types of specimens. Rob talked about four different kinds of specimens and what they were used for including the steady skin specimen, used to identify things to a particular species, because if we only had the skeletal specimen, we wouldn’t know what coloring went where and so forth. On the other hand, I hadn’t considered before that the skeletal specimen would be used to determine the size of an animal, something the first specimen can’t do because it acts kind of like a sock. Another not so aesthetic yet useful specimen is the tissue specimen, for looking at DNA, protein structures, etc. Last, which I found interesting in later conversation was the spread wing specimen, for learning about plumage patterns for example of the Black Footed Albatross. Rob pointed out that the Albatross has evolved a way of losing its feathers so precisely and in the best possible way according to the energetic cost to replace feathers, as well as the need to still be able to fly and catch fish, in one in a huge number of possibilities. The technicality of this and the details of the way it works fascinate me, He pointed out the difference in feathers on the wing of the bird, and compared this birds “lifestyle” to that of the Canada Goose, which has a dramatically different behavior of losing all its feathers at once because it only has to eat grass, and can stop somewhere where there are no predators until its feathers come back. It makes me wonder though, what are the predators of a Canada Goose, and if they can stop temporarily to regenerate feathers, why don’t they spend their lives moving from island to island, instead of migrating like they do? Or do they migrate for that reason? It seems awfully far to fly, and costly to their fitness, if there isn’t some other benefit, which there must be, but what is it?
I also didn’t know that in order to fly better, birds need more breast muscle and a hollowed skull? (not sure if its skull or wings), and that their heads/(wings) become more hollow as they age. How fast does this happen? Is this why baby birds have more trouble flying, or is it a combination of other things? Is it simply large breast muscle or is it a ratio of that to size of the bird?
It’s amazing how much you can tell from looking at specimens over time and keeping a record of everything you find. I guess the Burke Museum really is an analogy for a library, but it almost seems different to me, because its “books” or resources are being analyzed continually, but maybe I just haven’t had a close-up enough view of a library.
Man, so many interesting things. The other thing I found really interesting was the history of the Townsends and Hermit Warblers. Apparently, the two species are identical through binoculars looking at their DNA, which still doesn’t completely make sense to me, but they are quite different when it comes to coloring, and behavior patterns, and this is causing a shift of population habitat as a system, which is incredible, moving south. Rob talked about how the there is a separation in habitats with the Townsend's Warblers to the north, the Hermit Warblers south, and also a hybrid group in the middle. He asked us to consider what happens if you’re a bird, singing, and another bird comes and attacks you, what do you do? Well you get out of its territory/move, but in this case the only way to go is south because the Townsend's Warblers, the aggressive ones are north, and there is no lodge pole forest in other directions. I asked if there were any birds as aggressive as the Townsend's Warbler and he said no, however, he did say that the Hermit Warblers are nearing the edge of the lodge pole pine forest which is their habitat, which will make for some very interesting studies later. I’m curious what will happen, and thought about the Hawk dove population and (Evolutionary Stable Strategy) ESS, and wondered whether the species will become one and just be a ratio of more aggressive birds to less aggressive ones, or what else could possibly happen, unless the Hermit Warblers go extinct, which I wouldn’t think would happen. It was cool to see the gradient of pure Townsend's to pure Hermit Warbler though and notice their differences in coloring. I wonder what the temperaments of the hybrids are like in comparison. Rob gave me lots of interesting things to think about and I’m interested to hear more on Thursday.

Species list:

Townsend's Warbler (Dendroica townsendi)
Hermit Warbler (Dendroica occidentalis)
Black-footed Albatross (Diomedea nigripes)
Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)

Daily Account : Seward Park Day 2
Saturday April 28, 2012
Latitude: 47.551 Longitude: -122.261
Weather: Partly sunny, ~62 degrees

Today I went to Seward Park for a second time to take a closer look at the park with a naturalist. I learned and saw a ton more than last time, and the weather decided to cooperate too. Although much of the park is in the shade of the forest, the open areas were warm and full of sun and life. To start from the beginning, I learned that Seward Park has three types of habitats/climates: riparian, since it is located right on Lake Washington; temperate forest, with the many different types of evergreen trees and plants on the 300 acres it occupies; and finally, the park has a bit of prairie left over from when the Indians used to burn the fields to grow Camas (Camassia quamash), a beautiful flower and staple food.
We went on a botany walk and managed to find our ways through the forest and prairie, and saw many cool things. Commencing with native plants, we identified things like Fringe Cup (Tellima grandiflora), Western Trillium (Trillium ovatum), Vine Maple (Acer circinatum), Evergreen Huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum), Kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), Western Flowering Dogwood (Cornus nuttallii), False Lily of the Valley (Maianthemum dilatatum), Nootka Rose (Rosa nutkana), and a few others we couldn’t be certain of. As far as the Nootka Rose goes, I didn’t know that they have two particularly large spines/prickles at the base of each leaf, spines which are much bigger than the spiny stem I’ve noticed in the past. Apparently, spines are actually modified leaflets. This I don’t completely understand as they look nothing like leaves, let alone leaflets, and would like to know more about the “anatomy(?)” of plants so I can understand why they look the way they look. On the same note, we talked about Trillium and False Lily of the Valley, both of which have Monocot leaves. According to the naturalist, as well as a website I checked out later this afternoon, plants with Monocot leaves come from one seed leaf (still not sure what this means exactly), have erect flowers, and grow with veins parallel to each other, with the exception of this detail in Trillium. Corn is also a Monocot. Dicots are most other plants, and include wild ginger (whose leaves have a similar shape to the Trillium), those whose veins are not parallel but more of a net formation or “snakelike.” Apparently Dicots’ flowers are often hidden. Is this true for all of them? I’m definitely going to keep a lookout from now on and try to keep track of the characteristics of both types of plants.
On the way up the trail we also saw an old log with what looked like pinecone bits in it, the work of our Native Douglas Squirrel.
Next we looked at the bark of the different trees around us. On large Douglas Fir we identified, the bark was very fluted/chunky, a giveaway for older trees for which it is difficult to see the needles. An adjacent redwood was quite different, its bark fuzzy and of course very red. What I hadn’t noticed before was how the needles of the Redwood (I think it was a Coast Redwood) grew flat and on a plane, as compared to the Douglas Fir. According to the naturalist, the redwoods in the park were planted by some gardener, as redwood seedlings cannot survive our summers. What I really want to know is why all these trees adapted the way they did. Then again I want to know that about everything so…
We also saw several Madrone trees, however, they didn’t look like they were doing very well, and the naturalist said they have a lot of trouble with pollution, and don’t respond well to disturbances.
The Western Red Cedar, one I’ve seen many times, came with a background I hadn’t heard before. Accodrding to the naturalist, the Western Red Cedar was like the “tree of life” to the native Americans, as they used its bark for everything from baskets and boats to clothing and baby diapers, by peeling off strips of the tree (only a portion at a time so as not to hurt the tree).
We also saw a Bald Eagle on our walk, sitting in a tree which may have had a crows nest in it, because crows kept swooping in and trying to attack the eagle, aims to which the eagle won in domination with its erect posture and loud calls. Apparently eagles can live to be 30-40 years old, and don’t lay a clutch every single year because it is not necessary due to their longevity.
A few things I found were edible that I didn’t know before such as Indian Plum (which by the way smells like pea/cucumber when you crush the leaves), and Fern fronds, also called fiddleheads. The question is whether all ferns have edible fronds or just certain types like the sword fern. We noticed that the Lady fern has slanted leaflets that do not grow on a plane like some other ferns.
We also saw Oceanspray (Holodiscus discolor), and Large-Leaved Avens (Geum macrophylum), the latter whose leaves were oddly more rounded at its base and graduating into pointy as you reach the top. It tricks you into thinking there are two different plants, while it is really only a single stem.
There was also a question about Skunk Cabbage (Lysichiton americanum). Because it smells so bad we were wondering, who pollinates it? Apparently, the answer is flies because it smells like dead flesh, something I still haven’t really experienced significantly enough to appreciate how bad it smells…not that that’s a bad thing. It’s distinct enough with its huge bulb-like flowers.
As we moved towards the drier prairie remains, we saw more Madrone trees, these looking healthier, along with tiny black mushrooms I have yet to identify, Shore Pine (Pinus contorta), Gary Oak (Quercus garryana), Camas (Camassia quamash), a Muscovy Duck (Cairina moschata), and Spring Gold (Lomatium utriculatum). Apparently the Camas only blooms for a short time like a few weeks out of the year.
One last cool fact about the park is that the park has never been logged, mainly because the peninsula it is now used to be an island seasonally, which is interesting and makes me wonder why it doesn’t become an island anymore.

Species List:
Camas (Camassia quamash)
Fringe Cup (Tellima grandiflora)
Western Trillium (Trillium ovatum)
Vine Maple (Acer circinatum)
Evergreen Huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum)
Kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi)
Western Flowering Dogwood (Cornus nuttallii)
False Lily of the Valley (Maianthemum dilatatum)
Nootka Rose (Rosa nutkana)
Oceanspray (Holodiscus discolor)
Large-Leaved Avens (Geum macrophylum)
Skunk Cabbage (Lysichiton americanum)
Shore Pine (Pinus contorta)
Gary Oak (Quercus garryana)
Camas (Camassia quamash)
Muscovy Duck (Cairina moschata)
Spring Gold (Lomatium utriculatum)