On a warm sunny day some group members and I of the UW Waterfowl Natural History group went out to the Union Bay Natural Area (UBNA) to scout out for the potential waterfowl to be found at the UBNA for our group tour project. We visited numerous areas to see where the waterfowl all like to hang out. We found out that the south side of UBNA, the area with the most water, was the strongest location for dense waterfowl population. We went out almost all the way to the center for horticulture to check out all of the water body location. Though in the end we decided to stick with the water bodies close to the trails and also close to each other to maximize our time use. During our scouting trip we also found a couple of species out by a pond. The pacific willow seemed to cover a good amount of space in the pond near the south end of UBNA while the bay side was full of cattail and horse tail as well as a Pacific flowering dogwood that we spotted.
On a cloudy day with a few showers we started off our student led tours with the trees and shrubs group. I was first taken to look at a ginkgo tree near drumheller fountain which I never noticed before, but had a very unique fan like leaf. The speaker of this station, Sarah, also mentioned that the ginkgo trees on campus were only males, because of the fact that the female ginkgo have a bad odor. After the ginkgo we were led to an English elm tree on the side of the road by Stevens way, where I learned that they were one of the fastest growing deciduous tress. After that we visited a Horse Chestnut tree. It was about 50-60 feet tall with huge leaves. It was mentioned that the horse chestnut is a poisonous tree and has these small white flowers. After that we went to observe a Pacific Madrone. The "rubber" trees with very dense wood.
Lastly we visited the Coulter Pine and also the giant sequoia. The coulter pine was about 50 feet tall and had big needles along with large pine cones. The giant sequoia,I learned, that it has very "soft" bark compared to most trees, and has a rich dark red color of bark similar to the western red cedar.
On a gloomy overcast day in the mid 50s I spent a good chunk of my day figuring out how to get to discovery park and then another good portion of my day doing some natural history at my location in the park.
Upon arriving at Discovery Park thanks to a friend, I followed one of its trails that went further into the park via a map they give out there. To be honest I was lost for a short period of time, do to poor direction skills but finally managed to reach my destination. There were two major things that I immediately notice about this area. One side was a dense forested area, while the other side was more of an open field area with a few trees and shrubs. All of this separated by the trail. On the dense forest side the surrounding flora consisted of some stinging nettle, tons of sword ferns, and mostly large big leaf maples. On the field side, it was mainly grass (quackgrass), red clover, one small alder tree, and a few large trees in the distance that consisted of western red cedar, douglas fir and again some more big leaf maples. Besides the two distinct sides I also notices that Himalayan blackberry were very common throughout most of the park, and seems like it has and/or is an issue at the park. I say this because as I was walking to my location there are piles of uprooted and chopped Himalayan blackberries laid in many places off of the trails. Much like the restoration process that is being done at the Union Bay Natural Area, Discovery Park seems to be doing similar things to get rid of the invasive species. Also near my location I walked directly by what seems to be a military facility called Fort Lawton, and thought it was very strange place for a fort to be. Back to my location. On the field side of my location I also observed that there were several baby trees (seedlings) that had been seeded in the ground. As I approached the seedlings I noticed they had pines, and that the pines were also very soft, but not fuzzy. Being a pine/coniferous seedling, I assumed that the seedlings were western hemlocks by the looks of it. Near the seedlings in the field I also spotted several patches of scotch broom, another invasive species. Unlike the scotch broom that I saw at Pack forest, these ones had bloomed their yellow flowers and were common throughout the park and not just in my location. Some uncommon species that I could hardly find were Pacific madrones. In my location I spotted one madrone, and ratio-wise, there weren't very many pacific madrones in the park to start with. Something I found very odd in my location was actually the location of where one species of plants grew. On the side with the dense forest, right before you entered the "dense" area there was a large field of lupine in full bloom (pictured). However there were none on the field side of this location. I had no idea why this had happened, but took note of it to do some research later. With attempted research I couldn't find a viable reason to explain why the lupines were only on one side, but one can just assume it was something to do with dispersal.
Overall having a certain, and almost contain location really makes one think about the different factors and characteristics of an area, and with my location I really enjoy the two diverse forms of vegetation and the challenges and knowledge that natural history can bring.
On this bipolar day of sunshine and overcast I decided to go to the Arboretum to try some natural history. It was sunny, bright for the most part, but had some moments where the sun just went away for a little bit. As I approach the inlet I noticed the large lillypads that blanketed the water. This area was also strongly populated by waterfowl and also many songbirds. Along the sides of this inlet there were many hawthorns along with douglas fir trees and cedar trees. As I crossed the Montlake bridge to enter the arboretum I notice one major change from outside the arboretum compared to the inside. As most people will experience the same thing where you immediately get surrounded by wildflowers of various color. Blue, red, white, violet, yellow you name it. Further into the arboretum you start developing much denser areas with larger vegetation as well as softer soil do the water saturation. The arboretum has a ton of biodiversity and also would've been a great place to have done some of our student led tours here.
Right in front of my house in Olympia is Grass Lake Nature park. On the weekend of Memorial's day I went back home for the weekend to enjoy one extra day off with family. During the weekend on a sunny May day I headed down to the park which I was already familiar with to see if I could identify some things. As I walked through the park I began to notice that many of the plants here I have already identified. So instead of plants I turned to animals. During my quick visit there I noticed one bird with a white and brown chest, with a dark head on the woodland forest walking around. I took a good look at the bird and sketch it as quick as possible, but luckily it didn't move too far away and stayed long enough for me to get a quick sketch and description. After I did the sketch I turned around to head home a different way to see if I could spot something strange or unusual. Then I stumble upon the a wax current off the trail, and not knowing I was fortunate to have a lovely old couple actually identify the plant for me. Later as I got home, though not as many species that I'd wanted to get, I did research on birds at Grass Lake Nature park and found out that the bird was spotted towhee.
This day we spent time learning about field sketching from Maria Martin. Maria is an expedition artist, someone who follows a group of people on some sort of expedition to sketch what they see. Maria taught us the fundamental techniques she uses while sketching which include gestures, contouring, subjective/objective sketches, and value.
Maria actually had Josh pose in front of the class as we did rough sketches of his outframe with her fundamental techniques in mind. She encouraged us to squint and use measurement tools to focus on details and also to have the right proportions. Then on 4/12 (thurs) we went out to UBNA to try out some of her techniques on our own, as we each found our own spots and peacefully drew our surroundings. Then we form large groups later on that cloudy day to do speed sketching where we'd pass around our journals and have fellow classmates and teachers do a quick sketch of something they see out at UBNA.
On our last day of instruction for our Natural history class we went through our last set of tours. The bees group was stationed at the UW farm where the honey bees are kept in their 3 boxed hives. Bees eat nectar and are vital for cross pollination. One of the interesting things I took from the bees groups short presentation was that while the worker bees are making the honey, they flap their wings in order to evaporate the moisture. Thus with all the wing flapping to keep them up in the air, the temperatures in the hive can get up to 98 degrees F as the tour leaders mention. They also cleared up a good distinction about bees whereas solitary bees don't have to produce honey or work because they aren't part of the colony like honey bees.
On the mammals tour we focus on a variety of squirrels due to the fact that our campus has no other mammals to support this group. The mammals group started off with a video of squirrels they took footage of and presented it to us in the classroom. I was very impressed with the footage the complied together and also the fact that it tied it really well with each member and the material they presented at their individual station. As we learned, the Eastern Grey squirrels dominate our campus by stunning people with their cuteness and funny antics. It was told that the western grey squirrels were driven out of our campus area by the Eastern Grey squirrels due to competition and dominance. A very interesting thing I learned was how and why squirrels scar tree branches with the teeth to mark territories and also the fact that some of the squirrels build nests!
