robertmarsh's Journal

Transcribed from April 7 notes.
Time: 630-830 am

Weather this morning was perfectly sunny, and hot for the beginning of april, the 630am weather reflected the day that it would turn into, but at the time was more chilly and full of bird calls. There were a few bird calls that stood out to me most recognizeable. A spirally trill which always came from the very top branches of one of the 27 yr old douglas fir trees, which is best described as spirally because of the way it started with slower intervals of notes and quickly sped up and then slowed and then sped up in a spiraled fashion, also fluctuating in pitch it seemed. I now think that that call belongs to an american gold finch, because I kept seeing the gold breast and black mask of one of them when it shifted its body so that the reflection of the sun would make it more clear against the background sky which often makes it hard to see faraway birds clearly even with binoculars. Another recognizeable call was the loud individual cheaping of the flicker which i saw one time in the top of a nearby douglas fir, but haven't got a photo of yet. The flicker had a long beak that curved slightly downwards, and a clearly black spotted white breast, it was just a fraction smaller than a common crow by estimation. A common call coming from multiple birds this morning that hang around in the canopy of both evergreens and bare deciduous trees was that of the black capped chickadee. The call was very brief series of cheaps that were much shorter than the flicker, they were also much more common and there was often multiple birds calling from the same tree. The black capped chickadee is recognizeable by a white mask over its cheeks expanding as it reaches the back of its head, with a black chin and a black cap; very small birds, white and sometimes yellowy breast, dark and top of tail. There was also the crow like call of the spotted towhee, and there were dark eyed juncos but i didnt recognize their calls.The last call i can recall but didnt identify was always coming from nearby objects on the forest floor, and it can i think be accurately described as sounding similar to a rotating ratcheted wrench, because it sounds very close to the sound made when you turn a ratchet around a bolt with the clicking noise, the bird was small and brown camoflauged all over its body.

The habitat in this location in carnation WA (about 450ft elevation south facing hill less than a mile from the tolt river to the south) is a western hemlock and western redcedar vegetation that was logged in 1985 by weyerhaueser and replanted densely with douglas-fir, which is currently the dominant species, although pockets of multi stemmed bigleaf maple create big zones on inhibition in the doug fir canopy due to their vast circular canopy. There are many hemlocks and western redcedars also, but they do not appear to be as old as the douglas-firs. The understory shrubbery consists of many of the common native plants in western hemlock vegetation: sword fern, salmon berry, salal, vine maple, himalayan blackberry in anthropogenic open areas, herb robert, bracken fern in the summer time but not today in early april, red huckleberry, etc. The plot is a sold off division of old logging land, the larger environment is the same thing, each subdivision being continuous for the most part except for frequent logging roads and increasing human presence.

Species list (for now)
western hemlock vegetation young forest, canopy not closed.

Transcribed from April 24 notes.
Time 630-830am

Our natural history group met in the wetland environment of the Union bay natural area on UW campus, that was adjacent to lake washington; it is a freshwater wetland system dominated by grasses, swamps, stands of deciduous trees, and the lake shore.

comprehensive bird list below, some of the more interesting/rarer birds require more talk. The yellow rumped warbler we identified by site when we were looking for the source of a call belonging to the unidentified bird in the species list below. The yellow rumped warbler was of a very dark bluish color with a faint whitish pattern on its body, but had a very recognizeable small but bright yellow patch square under his chin, and two white circular spots on the underside of his tail, one on each of two apparent tail feathers which were otherwise dark. Very exciting to see this bird, its presence was fleeting, but he liked climbing around on the bigger limbs of a nearby deciduous tree very close to the shore of the lake. The unidentified call that led us to the warbler was very loud and recognizeable as two distinct pitches, usually a high followed by a low, sometimes a followed by a repetitio of the higher pitch again. The pitches were formed by pleasent trills that lasted about 1/2 to 3/4 of a second each, much longer than a cheap. The bird itself was about the size of a flicker, and it had a long orange beak that was not downward curving, and a clear reddish brown breast that was split like two chicken breasts at the bottom where it turned white and having dark spots on that white region where the underside of its tail was. Its head was dark.
The American goldfinch was extremely easy to identify because it landed in a bush only a few yards from us where a spotted towhee and a chickadee were already presiding. The goldfinch was very bright yellow/gold with a bright orange beak and a very recognizeable black face mask and black ends of its wings. Its call was not exactly what I had heard from what I thought to be a goldfinch in carnation on April 7 (see journal), but it was close enough to that spirally call that I did not dismiss my previous identification, in fact it strengthened it a little bit in my opinion.

Bird species list:
black capped chickadee
virginia rail
great blue heron
red winged blackbird
yellow rumped warbler
kinglet
American robin
hummingbird
spotted towhee
American goldfinch
common crow
mallard duck
northern shoveller duck
cinnamon teal duck
unidentified bird (described above)

Transcribed from April 28 notes
time 11am-245pm

Hike on a mountain up to 4100ft elevation, located on a peak on the western perimeter of the cascade mountains, not far from interstate 90. Western hemlock vegetation, managed as part of washington department of natural resources. At the base of the mountain trees are dominated by a mix of large old coniferous and deciduous trees; primarily douglas fir, western hemlock, big leaf maple, and black cottonwood. Beginning of old growth classification. Very biodiverse and prevalent understory with vertical heterogeneity compared to higher elevation of the hike. As the top of the mountain was approached, tree diameter vastly decreased, and the prevalence of disturbance, fire, ligtning, and windthrow, was much more prevalent. The dominant tree species also changed drastically, with hardly any western redcedar present at the top, none beyond 15 years old. Budding of understory and deciduous trees was also far behind plants at the bottom of the mountain, huckleberry had no leaves and no forming berries as it did at the bottom, as a prime example. The snow level seemed to be just under 4000 ft on this mountain at this time of the year. Large presence of human hikers on the weekend encouraged the presence of gray jays and chipmunks, which dined on hiker snack food. also at the top were chickadees, a stellar jay, and a predatory bird of some kind-all black (see observations).

Tine of day: 530-715pm
For a full description of the Union Bay Natural Area habitat see one of my previous posts from a trip to this area. This entry is focused on birds that I saw, and behavioral patterns of some of them.

The first interesting bird was the Red-winged blackbird. on three seperate occasions on the 1.5 hour visit I witnessed a red-winged blackbird chasing through the air, and making aggressive contact with the much larger American Crow. This was surprising because of the size differential, and the fact that there were several crows about, in closer knit groups than the red-winged blackbird. I also heard multiple distinctive calls coming from the red-winged black-bird. I have read that this species has up to 25 different calls due to its complex social interactions, but it was interesting to hear the bird cheap, as well as the usual flute and whistle like call.

Also interesting was the collective behavior of a flock of Barn Swallows and Violet-green Swallows. These birds acted almost identically to each other. They spent almost all their time in the air, such that I could never see one land even if I followed one perceptively. They would fly very close to the water of the pond which they were flocking around, and also they would steeply ascend upwards until they lost gliding speed, then fall back down. Additionally they flocked together every couple of minutes or so. This behavior describes both the barn swallows and the violet-green swallows i saw. Present around them was the pond, a carcass of a canadian goose on the shore, a gang of crows not too far away (30-50m) red-winged blackbirds here and there, ducks, geese, and the prairie wetland habitat in general.

I did see the invasive and very interesting Brown-headed cowbird, about 3 of them. Their call was a sharp, high pitched and rising in tone, human whistle like call. I didnt see them participating in any parasitizing behavior; two were in the branches of shrubs on the shore of the pond.

Bird species list:
White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys)
Brown-headed Cowbird(Molothrus ater)
American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis)
American Robin (Turdus migratorius)
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)
Violet-green Swallow (Tachycineta thalassina)
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodica)
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus)

I was awoken at sunrise because I wasn't used to the bright light that lit up the inside of the tent I was sleeping in on the coast of the Straight of Juan de Fuca. I got out of bed however because of the strange bird noises that I could hear coming from just outside, along with the lapping of waves not much further off from our campsite. This bird noise was like a vibrating series of pulses or beats, but when I got outside the tent it was gone. I went to the adjacent hill and into the beginnings of the forested land next to the shore, comprised of pacific madrone as would be expected in the rain shadow of the olympic Mts, and douglas-fir and western-redcedar. On the ground were nootka roses, snowberry, elder berry, salal, salmon berry, and sword ferns. at the top of the hill, I climbed up a cedar tree in order to get a better look at the view of the sun rising above the Straight and the opposite shore. I had to climb up the south facing branches, because these were the only ones which remained alive at the base because of their access to sunlight. I also had no choice but to climb a cedar, because those trees are the ones that reliably have branches at the bottom of them, probably because they are a wet climate tree, and dont worry about fire, which is extremely rare in places where cedars are in climax. This forest was not in a climax vegetation however. I dont think it ever will be because of its proximity to the ocean, where the harsh edge effects continually recycle the life of the plants. This was very noticeable by the fact that the top of an adjacent douglas-fir snag was tangled amongst this cedar's branches about mid way up. When I had reached a suitable height, I took in the views, but I couldnt sit down safely because of the dramatic downward sweep of cedar branches. Instead I was forced to remain standing and facing trunkwards, that is until I again heard the pulsing that had woken me up from the tent. I turned around, and there was a humming bird hovering not 4ft from me, it's wings making the pulsing sound, which then seemed obvious. It didnt stay long, but it was as if it had come to investigate what I was doing up a tree, it was looking right at me. I once had a similar experience in which a crow circled a tree I was in, but this hummingbird, which was clearly a rufous hummingbird like the one on the cover of my bird guide (bright reddish orange head and upper torso and white breast), didnt seem as bothered by my presence as the crow had been. Retrospectively, the curiousity that hummingbird displayed gave me the feeling that it was the same bird had been the one to get me out of bed that morning, and that it led me from my campsite up the hill and into the tree where it showed itself again. I am unclear on whether an animals ability to insight fantasy because of its personable characteristics has a place in natural history, but similar traits were appreciated in the spotted owl, which had a unique role in the natural history of the same peninsula.

Species list:
Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus)

A walking tour around the Union bay natural area revealed some of the forbs (flowering herbacious species) that exist in this prairie wetland habitat. Focus species included skunk cabbage, and dandelion.
Skunk cabbage: The recognizeable yellow head of this wetland dwelling wild flower consists of a modfied yellow leaf, that wraps aroound a verticle column of spikey yellow small individual flowers. It derives its name from the smell it gives of via sulfurous chemicals to attract it pollinators which are flies and various decomposing beetles. Amazingly, skunk cabbage can live to be over 100 yrs old, with leaf span of up to 5 ft. An interesting evolutionary trait is the skunk cabbage's ability to produce its own body heat, which allows it to persist through snow cover. Also, its root system functions to pull itself into the ground via the contracting of its earth-worm like roots.
Dandelion:The name means tooth of the lion, and is indicative of the leaf shape, which resembles a row of lions teeth, arranged at a slight angle. The dandelion has the ability to self, which means it can pollinate itself, yet it retains its yellow colour probably because of the slight advantage that comes with the ability to share genetic information with neighboring populations that increase the fitness of offspring. A very similar species is the furry cats ear, which is distinguishable because of its furry leaves, which are not quite as neatly arranged like a set of teeth although they are lobed. Also its stem is not hollow and is much more wirey feeling than the dandelion's, which is hollow. Every part of the dandelion is edible.
Forbs Species List:
Big leaf Lupine
Furry Cat's Ear
Dandelion
Clover
Skunk Cabbage
Common Camas
Common Vetch
thimbleberry

This day consisted once again of being outside in carnation pulling himalayan blackberry on my parents forested plot of land. The forest is a residential subdivision sold off by weyerhaueser after a clearcut in 1985, and was replanted along with the neighboring plots as dense douglas-fir stands, fragmented by old logging roads that are now used residentially, and allow for shrubby pioneering species because the road upkeep insists upon pruning the edges of the road much too far back in my opinion. In these open spaces in the forest caused by the roads is where the blackberry are, and where I spent the first part of the day pulling them. I saw all three types of blackberry: Himalayan, trailing, and evergreen, in order of abundance. The trailing blackberry was much easier to identify today because it was in bloom, and the white 5 pointed flowers are easy to recognize because the individual petals are widely spaced, and skinny, and so do not touch each other. The trailing is also much more likely to be a ground cover rather than a tall shrubby plant. The best thing about it is that it's native, because it would be almost impossible to pull it up by the roots if it were included in the campaign to pull up our invasive species. Another native thorny shrub worth mentioning is the wild black raspberry, which is distinguished from the himalayan blackberry because of its powdery white stems, which can also appear blueish. The evergreen blackberry is less common, and is distinguished by its deeply lobed leaves, that are also typicaly a darker green. Everything else is himalayan blackberry. Interestingly, even though the blackberry is an invasive species, it provides a reliable food source for much of the wildlife, and humans. While pulling it up you have lots of time to ponder why on earth you would be pulling it up. My answer: it smothers everything, including the more preferable native trees, and out-competes native food sources and causes a reduction in biodiversity because of its prevalence.

In these cleared areas for the old logging roads however are most of the shrubby biodiversity and wildflowers. The openness allows for Broad-leaved starflower, false solomans zeal, and a wide range of other rarer species that I haven't yet seen in an area of closed canopy, or any non interrupted forest stand. It is worth noting that many shrubby species like salal, indian plum, thimbleberry, sword fern, etc can be found in the understory of the forest without a road.

Species list:
American goldfinch (Carduelis tristis)
American Robin (Turdus migratorius)
steller jay (Cyanocitta stelleri)
winter wren (Troglodytes troglodytes)
American crow (crovus brachyrhynchos)
rufous hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus)
Broad-leaved Starflower
common hawthorne
mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia)
ragwort
dandelion
furry cats ear
buttercup
foxglove
false soloman's zeal
trillium
himalayan blackberry
Trailing blackberry (flowering)
evergreen blackberry
thimbleberry(flowering)
salmonberry(fruiting)
salal
western redcedar (Thuja plicata)
douglas-fir
western hemlock
black cotton wood
Big-leaf maple
bitter cherry (Prunus emarginatus)
garry oak
Grasses
raspberry
Snowberry
Red alder
Elderberry
Indian plum
japanese knotweed
butterfly bush (Buddleja davidii)
vine maple
sword fern
bracken fern
spiny wood fern
huckleberry
hazlenut

Transcribed from notes:
Time, 630-700am Location, Pac Forest WA

Bird watching hike yielded insight into new bird species and their calls for me. Along the short walk away from the pac forest lodgings along the old logging roads birds could be heard calling from nearby trees. The experience was to acknowledge the utilization, and the precision of hearing as a way of identifying birds through their calls. An identified call of a bird provides powerful supplemental evidence to the sight of it when identifying or birdwatching. For example, that morning we could hear a kinglet; it sounded like a very high single tuning fork like call. We never saw the kinglet, but we did also see a brown creeper, which corroborated our kinglet id through the call, because brown creepers are known to follow kinglets. The brown creeper we identified by its behavior, flying vertically along the trunks of trees. The spotted towhee could be identified by its mew call, similar to that of a crow, but very different once you get an ear for it. Then there was the loud repeating chirp of the northern flicker which is a very recognizeable bird by sight and call. Finally, a bird which i have not seen, but recorded that morning because of its call, was the varied thrush. I wrote a description of its call: a single sustained note, almost raspy.

Bird Species List:
Winter Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes)
Dark-eyed Junco
Spotted Towhee
American Robin
Varied Thrush
Kinglet
Brown Creeper
Northern Flicker