June 5, 2012

May 31st

May 31st
Mammals:
There are no western gray squirrels on campus or in any urban areas. If you’ve seen a squirrel around lately then you saw an eastern gray squirrel. Eastern gray squirrels are not native to Washington State and they are out competing our native squirrels. We do not know why though.
Yellow baby marmots are slightly sexually dimorphic. They hibernate in the winter. They are native to western US and Southwest Canada. They are also known as a “Rock Cuck”. They are omnivores, they have one breeding season and they mate in harems (one male mates with many females).
Douglas’s fir do not hibernate. They are native to Western Washington and they live in coniferous forests. They don’t compete well with the Eastern Gray (but really who does?) Their summer coat is different from their winter coat. The adults all have a distinctive black stripe on their sides. They are solitary animals and they have an omnivorous diet.
The Columbian Brown is native to Eastern Oregon and Washington. They live in alpine meadows and dry grasslands. They are omnivorous and live in colonies. They hibernate for most of the ear, 7-8 months. They can start hibernating as early as July. Their mating season is in early spring.
The Antelope Ground is a very little squirrel. They live in burrows, they are diurnal and they don’t hibernate. They are not native to WA they are a southern species.
Yellow Pine Chipmunks live in meadows and pine/juniper forests. They hibernate 4-5 months either underground or in rock crevices.
Eastern Grays are significantly smaller than westerns. They are both territorial animals but when presented with robotic models of the opposite species they do not attack, they simply bark.
When one wants to catch a squirrel they used a specialized trap. They can put walnuts inside as bait. When the squirrel steps on the weight sensitive plate it will cause the door to shut. It is important for the trapper to check the cage frequently because the squirrel can get eaten if it is left in the trap for too long. After the squirrel is trapped you can check its sex or other characteristics. You can fit it with a tracking collar, which can send radio telemetry signals so you can track it easily.

Bees/Butterflies/Beetles:
There are 4 stages in a butterfly’s life: egg, caterpillar, chrysalise, and adult. Cabbage white butterflies can survive all season whereas most only last for a number of weeks. The painted lady for example only lives for 22 weeks. Painted lady males patrol for females in the afternoons. They can start mating one week after emerging. Butterfly and bee territories tend to overlap. Butterflies are terrible pollinators, especially in comparison to bees. The top flight speed of a butterfly is 12 miles per hour.
Bees are a type of wasp that is non-predatorial and instead subsists off of pollen. There are 20-30 thousand known species of bees. Before bees evolved, beetles were the main pollinators. There are ~100 species of bee that live on campus. There are two main types of bees, solitary and communal. 95% of bees are solitary but colony bees are the best pollinators. The queens in a colony are chosen (seemingly at random) as a larvae, this larvae is fed more than the others so that it can fully develop and be able to produce offspring. All worker bees are females, the males are referred to as drones and they live solely to copulate with the queen and then die. Bees can flap their wings 230 times per second. Bees are very susceptible to the cold so during the winter months the bees will stay in their hive and beat their wings to keep the temperature around 96 degrees. Bees can communicate the location of food by flying or “dancing” in a specific pattern. Solitary females are all fertile, they make their own nests and leave their larvae on their own with some food to subsist on when they first hatch. Honeybees are disappearing because of pesticide use.
All beetles have leathery or shell-like outer wings and mouths that chew. They have 4 life stages: egg, larvae, pupa, and adult. Beetles are found in every environment except for oceans and the poles. The California firefly Ellychnia is a beetle that is native to the pacific northwest. They are not luminescent and they don’t eat as adults. Another native beetle is the Greater Night Stalking Tiger Beetle. They have abnormally small wings, they are slow so they have to ambush their prey, and they are nocturnal. The Alder Flea Beetle hibernates in the winter. They are considered an alder tree pest. They reach maturity in August and they have a metallic green or Cobalt blue coloring.

Posted on June 5, 2012 07:22 AM by mhf5 mhf5 | 0 comments | Leave a comment

May 29

May 29
Birds:
We saw…
American gold finch
American Red Breasted Robin
Golden crown sparrow
Humming Bird
Cedar Waxwing
Back cap chickadee (very common)
Red winged black bird (heavily paristized by cowbirds)
Savannah sparrow
Barn swallows

We heard…
Song sparrow
Yellow warbler

Waterfowl:
We saw
Great blue heron
Mallards
Canadian geese
We learned about
Bufflehead ducks
Shovelers
Wood ducks

Posted on June 5, 2012 06:58 AM by mhf5 mhf5 | 0 comments | Leave a comment

May 24th

May 24th
Fungi:
We saw several different types of mushrooms. One was Artists Conk Ganoderma applanatum which is a shelf fungus. They grow horizontally and they can get really large. When you put pressure on the bottom part of them the area becomes permanently brown so you can leave messages! This type of fungus is parasitic and may have been the cause of death for the tree we saw it was growing on.
We saw turkey tail Trametes versicolor, which has a distinctive turkey tail shape. It has an interesting texture, as some parts are fuzzy while others are not and it goes in an alternating pattern. Turkey tails grow horizontally so if they begin growing on a fallen log and that log gets disturbed, the ones that initially started growing will not do as well as the newer ones that grew after the disturbance.
We saw Laccaria laccata (the Deceiver) which really just made me think of Pandemic 2.5, but I digress. This fungus is a primary succession, so the fact that we found it in UBNA means that the area is doing well and is “returning” to a natural state. One way to determine that it is indeed Laccarai laccata is to smell it apparently it smells like semen.

Forbs:
I did a tour for this section of class but here are my notes from my speech.
Forbs are:
Rather loosely defined term normally refers to

Herbaceous flowering plant, other than a grasses/sedges/rushes
Over 1,100 different species of wildflowers in WA state
COMMON VETCH Vicia Sativa
Native to Europe (introduced for agricultural purposes) – naturalized in US (hardy grower)
Nitrogen fixing legume
Commonly considered a weed
Currently used as livestock fodder, or in Green Manure
Fruit is in a legume pod (seeds are potentially toxic)
Part of human diet since Roman times (definite) evidence of cultivation in early neolithic sites and ancient egypt as well.
Annual herb
Vine wraps around nearby plants
THMBLEBERRY (Salmonberry) Rubus Parviflorus
(rose family)
Native to western and northern North America
Extensive range (found in Alaska and north-south mexico)
Herbaceous plant
Does well in disturbed areas
Grows along roadsides, forest clearings
Early part of ecological succession after forest fires
Fruits are larger/flatter/softer than raspberries (young shoots are edible as well)
(not a true berry)
Fully ripen, turning bright red in late summer
Not cultivated commercially (don’t pack or ship well)
Safe to eat wild (raw or dried) and are often made into jams
Often find them at local farmers markets
Used in hair products and herbal baths
Native americans used this plant for medicinal purposes and are still used today
Used to treat some kinds of skin disorders
Leaves when mashed up and heated can be used to cure/sooth wounds and burns
Leaf powder can be sprinkled on cuts to reduce scarring
Leaves and flowers can be used to treat stomachaches
Roots and bark can be used to help treat diarrhea and dysentery

Have been used to treat toothaches
Very easy and simple jam recipe
Equal parts berry and sugar
Boil for 2 minutes

Posted on June 5, 2012 06:57 AM by mhf5 mhf5 | 0 comments | Leave a comment

May 22nd

May 22nd
Trees:
Madrone Arbutus menziesii (see iNaturalist) have a characteristic bark that peels. They have broad deciduous leaves and they are denser than oaks. When planted they help prevent erosion and their leaves can be chewed to relieve cramps and stomachaches.
Douglas firs Pseudotsuga menziesii are actually members of the pine family. They have cones that are 3-4 inches long.
The Big Cone Pine or Coulter Pine Pinus coulteri is known for having the biggest cones of all the cedar trees. It is native to Southern California and Mexico and its needles are in bundles of 3. The trees take about two years to fully mature.
English Elm Ulmus procera are trees that make suckers. That means that from the roots can grow a genetically identical tree. The branches are known to fall so they can be a hazard, but they are considered beautiful so they are still planted.
Gingko trees Ginkgo biloba are one of the oldest, genetically un-changed trees on earth. Their leaves are forked and their seeds smell like vomit/rancid butter. (yum!) Due to the unappealing smell of their seeds, all of the Gingko trees on our campus are male. Cool side note, the leaves are considered an aphrodisiac.

Mosses & Lichens:
Mosses are Bryophytes. They evolved from Green Algae and they are haploids, which means they have 1 set of chromosomes. Mosses are spore forming and they need water for fertilization. They rely on water and wind for dispersal and are found in a variety of environments. They are particularly hardy because they can go dormant for some time if the conditions are too dry for them to function properly. They don’t have a root system. There are over 700 species of moss in Washington State alone.
One big difference between mosses and lichen is that mosses have sporophytes while lichens do not.
Algae and fungi will go through a process called lichenization in order to form lichen. Lichen can go dormant when it is too dry out jut like mosses can. Lichen obtain water and nutrients from the air, therefore they are very sensitive to air pollution. Their level of stress is directly related to the number of reproductive, abnormal branching and less vibrant coloring. The more complex the structure of a lichen is the less tolerant of pollution it will be.

Posted on June 5, 2012 06:57 AM by mhf5 mhf5 | 0 comments | Leave a comment

May 17th

May 17th
So it’s another class spent inside, here’s what we learned.
From looking at our earliest cave paintings we have been able to determine that lions had little ears, and that 6000 years ago they didn’t have manes. We know that they were depicting male lions and not just females because they were shown doing a courting ritual.
Natural History is still relevant because it can prevent some silly mistakes we have made in the past. For example, when shrimp were introduced as fish food they ended up wiping out the salmon and eagle populations. Since shrimp are nocturnal they only migrate up to the surface during the night. So the diurnal predators never found them. The shrimp also eat zooplankton so they ended up being competitors for food as well. A little Natural History research might have prevented this mistake from being made.
Natural History required investment in our collective knowledge. Without Natural History, we lack a baseline. We didn’t research the bounce back from the oil spill 30-40 years ago, so when it happen again a few years ago we didn’t have a strategy for what to do. We didn’t learn anything.
It is thanks to Natural History that we were able to figure out that cholera attaches to the cocoa-pod and can therefore be strained through a sari cloth.

Posted on June 5, 2012 06:57 AM by mhf5 mhf5 | 0 comments | Leave a comment

May 15th

May 15
On May 15 at 1:30 pm we spent a beautiful day indoors listening to a guest speaker for 2 hours. It was, in my opinion, a waste of daylight. But I digress…
The guest speaker, (a man whose name I failed to catch, let’s call him Bob) was a curator. A curator takes care of museum artifacts. They don’t just take care of these artifacts; they are in charge of everyone else who takes care of the artifacts. They also do research and review the artifacts. So we can assume that Bob is pretty knowledgeable. Here are some fun facts…
Mammals have only been around the last 60 million years.
There are 29 orders and 153 families of mammal.
Characteristics such as hair, milk, single lower jawbone, and their three middle-ear bones define mammals.
Only 1/3 of marsupials are in the Americas, the rest are in Australia.
North America contains 3% of all mammals on the earth, and 9 of their orders.
~100 mammals are extinct due to human intervention.
Kangaroo rats (see journal entry May 15 for art) have huge heads (because they have a large ear apparatus) and they hop like kangaroos.
WA has 146 species of mammal (9 are introduced) therefore we have 137 native species. 32 of which are marine animals and 15 of which are flying mammals. We have 90 species of native land mammals. 28 of which are large (carnivores, ariodactyles, humans) and 62 of which are small (rodents, soricomorphs, regomorphs)
We saw pictures and slides of every order and many species of mammal, too many to remember let alone write down. I will list the names of those that I could catch
Dasyuromorphia = carnivores
Nortory – mole (2 species)
Microbiotheria – 15 species in family
Afrosor
Macroscelidea
Tubulidentata- 1 species in family
Hyracoidea
Sirenia- manatees
Cingulata
Pilosa – sloths & anteaters 4 families, 10 species
Scandentia
Dermoptera
Primates – 15 family, 176 species
Rodentia – rodents
Lagomorphe – 92 species
Erinaceomorphia
Chiroptera – 1116 species
Cetacea – whales
Arriodactyla – hoof 10 families, 240 species
Perissodactyla – horses, rhinos, tapers
-vanishing order
Pholidota – scaly anteaters
Carnivora – 45 families, 206 species
*Diet variety is independent of phylogenetic diversity

Posted on June 5, 2012 06:56 AM by mhf5 mhf5 | 0 comments | Leave a comment

May 14th

May 14th
I saw a rat in one of those sparse plant areas in front of By George. It had a little hole that it darted into in the far left hand corner. I tried hanging out by it for ~5 minutes to see if it would come back out. I wanted to get a picture for iNaturalist. The rat never came out, and I started to feel awkward for crouching next to this rat hole. It’s probably for the best though; I’m not sure how I would have gotten it to stay still for a picture anyways.

Posted on June 5, 2012 06:56 AM by mhf5 mhf5 | 0 comments | Leave a comment

May 12th

May 12th
12:00-4:20
UBNA – personal nature walk

So I missed one of our class field trips and therefore took it upon myself to make up for it by spending the day at the Union Bay Natural Area. UBNA is a part of UW campus, it is a marsh land area growing on top of what once was a landfill. This is a restoration area that is covered with tall grasses, shrubs, deciduous trees and many different types of birds. Until recently, much of the land off of the trails was covered in Himalayan Blackberry Rubus armeniacus an invasive, thorny plant that has become a large problem in the greater Puget Sound area. Due to the conservation efforts of UW students and other dedicated individuals, much of the Himalayan Blackberry has been removed and other native plants have been given an opportunity to flourish in the newly available space. On may 12th the weather was partly cloudy – sunny and the temperature was at a humid 75 degrees with a refreshing light breeze.
I walked along the trails and immediately encountered this yellow iris that I believe to be is Yellow Flag Iris pseudacorus (See journal entry May 12th for sketch and iNaturalist account for picture). It was growing in patches along the banks of the site. It had a tall green stalk with one long tipped, deciduous leaf. The petals were yellow. The three long outer petals had intricate brown markings and the six inner petals were plain yellow, with now markings. If my identification is correct (and according to an agreement on iNaturalist I believe it is…) then this is a non-native plant. Originally from Europe, Asia and Africa; Yellow Flags are herbaceous perennial plants, aka: a forb. It is a very pretty plant and I believe many more will have bloomed by the end of the month.
Next I ran into a plant that I identified to be Common Vetch (Vicia sativa). (See Journal entry May 12 and iNaturalist) It seems to be growing everywhere. I could tell that it is a pea plant from its petals. They are a dark purple with traces of white and are arranged in a very distinct way. In some areas it grows very high, above my waits. In other areas it grows very low, barely visible and by my ankles. The leaves are oblong, much longer than they are wide. And it has vine like tendrils that curl around the nearby grasses and other larger plants.
Not far down the trail I saw a Thimbleberry bush Rubus parviflorus (see iNaturalist) It had white flowers and huge maple-leaf like leaves. The leaves were fuzzy and the stalks had no thorns. The flowers seemed to be a big hit with the bee life. There were many Honey Bees Apis mellifera (see iNaturalist) and bumblebees that couldn’t seem to get enough of this plant. There didn’t seem to be any berries yet, but it doesn’t seem like thimbleberries ripen until late summer anyways.
I also saw this strange plant with very long stalks and small bright-yellow flowers, some seemed to have a splash of red on their petals as well. It would grow in great quantities together and seemed to be fairly successful in some areas of UBNA. This plant is called Scotch Broom Cytisus scoparius (see iNaturalist) According to my Plants of the Pacific NW Coast book Scotch Broom is one of our many invasive plants.
I didn’t just see plants though! UBNA is absolutely crawling with birdlife. Even though I came here to look at forbs my eyes kept darting around trying to locate the source of many different birdcalls. Great Blue Herons Ardea Herodias is one of the most exciting birds to see in UBNA and it’s also one of the easiest to locate. They have a truly horrific call; I think of a Velociraptor every time I hear one of them. They are fairly large birds with long necks that bob up and down when they fly. They have long large beaks that they use to scoop up fish from the water.
I also saw many Red Winged Blackbirds Agelaius phoeniceus the males are dark back with bright red patches on their shoulders. They can be hard to see when they are hanging out up in the trees but every once in a while they will spread their wings in flight and it is really magnificent. The females are small and drab, they have the normal brown speckled markings you normally see on female birds. They have a very distinct call; they really cannot be mistaken for anything else.
I saw Mallard ducks Anas platyrhynchos (see iNaturalist account) these are fairly common birds but for the sake of thoroughness, I will describe them as well. Male mallards have extravagant iridescent green head feathers with white, gray, and black body feathers. The females have the regular, drab, speckled brown and white feathers that are found with almost every sexually dimorphic bird.

Posted on June 5, 2012 06:55 AM by mhf5 mhf5 | 0 comments | Leave a comment

May 10th

May 10th
FUNGI (cont.)

So in our next lecture we learned about Biotrophs which can be either a mutual relationship or a parasitic one. Necrotrophs are aggressive parasites that eventually destroy their prey. We briefly talked about Lichens which are a type of fungus. They are a fusion of Green Algae and Cyano bacterium. We learned about HollyHock Rust and Powerdery Mildews as well which are both plant parasites.
In the UW greenhouse we saw a Dracula Orchid which had white flowers that have gill-like structures. A very interesting looking plant that is fertilized by tricking female fungus gnats into thinking that it is a fungus.
Outside we saw a Rust Hollyhock on one of the plants. The undersides of its big leafy extremities were absolutely covered in orange rust colored spots. These structures produced by the Hollyhock will produce many spores that will continue to attack the plant until it dies.
On the side of the greenhouse there were some young seedlings that we were able to pull out and inspect. We looked at a Birch seedling which had evolved to have a mutual relationship with acto microaizi / endo microaizi fungi. They were visible on the seedlings roots. They formed a thick fungal layer on the roots, which helped expand the roots reach. In return the tree would share its sugars and other nutrients with the fungus.

We also saw several species of Lichens. We were told that they are incredibly pollution sensitive, and because of this, many of the lichens we see on campus are weak, brittle shells of their healthy selves. The ones here are significantly stunted in their growth and in morphology because there is so much pollution from the city. Lichens are primary succession specialists. That means that they are the first organisms to successfully colonize a vacant area. They can colonize any kind of rock and even concrete.

Posted on June 5, 2012 06:55 AM by mhf5 mhf5 | 0 comments | Leave a comment

May 8th

May 8th
FUNGI

Fungi are a diverse group of organisms that I got the pleasure of learning about on may 8th. During a lecture my class and I attended we got to learn about mushrooms in particular and about their function and purpose in nature.
Mushrooms are decomposers, this means that they eat dead, organic matter. This is also referred to as a “Saprothrop”.
When fungi decompose woody materials it can create white rot, soft rot or brown rot depending on the digestion ability of the type of fungus. The fungi that create white rot can strip lignin by oxidation, this breaks the wood down to its basic components. This allows the fungus to absorb virtually all of the nutrients within the wood. Fungi that are not as good as breaking down wood create soft Rot and Brown rot.
So finally we got to go outside. We walked down to a pine-needle covered area not far from the UW greenhouse and saw a “colony” of sorts of a mushroom called “Agrocybe praecox” (see journal entry May 8th for sketch) It had a tan shell with white cracks. The coloration of the mushroom was darkest in the middle and it felt smooth and dry. The clusters of mushrooms spread occupied the entire area available to them. We were told that all the caps present could be part of the same organism! We can tell the age of each cap by their openness/expanse. The further out the cap reaches, the older it is. On the underside of some caps there is a veil tissue, this is an indicator that the mushroom is young, too young to create spores.
The next mushroom we found was called an oyster mushroom or Pleurotus pulmonarius (see journal entry May 8th for sketch) This mushroom was near the UW farm, growing on a piece of log. It seems to have been purposefully cultivated. The Oyster Mushroom produces white rot which we were able to see on the log. The caps we got to see were quite dried out, but when they are healthy they are normally smooth, with a light tan coloration, and flat. A cool use for them, since they are very good decomposers, is that they can be used to de-contaminate soil!
Right next to the Oyster Mushroom was a Turkey Tail Mushroom or Tremetes versicolor (see journale entry May 8th for sketch). This fungi was named for its looks, as it (allegedly) looks like a turkeys tail. It has an interesting pattern on its cap and even a pattern in it’s texture! It goes fuzzy at the base –bare in the middle – fuzzy at the edge. Turkey Tail is a white-rot mushroom as well but it’s truly interesting feature are its medicinal traits. It has been used in Asian medicine for a variety of ailments and it is used in modern medicine in anti-cancer drugs.

Our next stop was in front of a Button Mushroom Agaricus bisporus that was growing on the UW farm compost pile. It has a white/tan cap and is the same type of mushroom as the Portabello Mushrooms that we eat in the store! When they are young the gills are pink and when they mature their gills are chocolate brown.
To top it all off we also saw Inky Caps Coprinus Iagopus, which are dome shaped when young, and flatten out in maturity. They are red brown at the top and blackish on their underside.
The weather was nice, a tad humid with mostly overcast skies.

Posted on June 5, 2012 06:54 AM by mhf5 mhf5 | 0 comments | Leave a comment

Archives