June 5, 2012

Environment 280 at the University of Washington

This class has been my favorite of all the classes I have taken at UW. While Envir 200 killed my will to be an Environmental Studies major, this class revived it. Being out in the wilderness and doing hands-on learning is one of the best ways anyone can learn. Using the iNaturalist App helped greatly in this class, and was a very smart idea. I have learned many things in this class about how to take notes and sketches, and about plants and animals. This class has made me realize how much I enjoy birds, especially Hummingbirds, and it has introduced me to the Union Bay Natural Area. Finally a class that I will use after college and for the rest of my life.
Thank you Susan and Josh.

Posted on June 5, 2012 10:35 AM by wellska wellska | 0 comments | Leave a comment

Bald Eagle

This Bald Eagle I saw on a cloudy day on a rock on the Sound in the UBNA. He was eating a very large fish, possibly a carp, for at least 20 minutes. I could not find a way to get closer than what I was, when I tried I scared off a Great Blue Heron that I had not seen because I was so focused on the Eagle.

Posted on June 5, 2012 10:31 AM by wellska wellska | 1 observation | 0 comments | Leave a comment

Birds at the UBNA

Starting off my walk into the Union Bay Natural Area, I was greeted by a Killdeer walking on the trail in front of me. Then, I came across a male and female Gadwall eating the grass near the parkinglot. Further down the path to the right, in the field of tall grass were some purple flowers, and a Savannah Sparrow was perched on them. All along my walk were many Red-Winged Blackbirds singing and chasing eachother, being territorial and noisy. At a pond there were many different waterfowl together. Then, on the cat tails by the Sound was a noisy Buick's Wren. A Cinammon Teal pair were just waking up in a closed off area of a pond. Then, a Fox Sparrow was sitting at the top of a tree by a makeshift trail through the tall grass towards the water. I followed this and saw a Bald Eagle across the water. I then did another loop and came across a Hummingbird that had one small patch of color on it's neck, and a female Mallard and her ducklings swimming down the creek. I heard a bird song that sounded different from what I had heard so far and found an American Goldfinch, but it quickly flew away. In the area where we did drawing practice, I almost stepped on a baby bird, possibly a sparrow. In the distance at the top of a tree was a Cedar Waxwing, and finally on my way back out of the UBNA, sitting in some bushes was a yellow breasted small bird. On the way up the hill behind McMahon I saw a red House Finch, but it flew up into the tree before I could get my camera out. I believe it's nest is somewhere back there. Overall, getting up at 6:30am is worth it to see all these birds.

Posted on June 5, 2012 10:28 AM by wellska wellska | 16 observations | 1 comment | Leave a comment

Hummingbirds

I have found I have gotten very good at spotting and hearing hummingbirds. They tend to sit at the very top of trees, on thin branches with no leaves, and they don't seem to have a specific time of day they are out. They also don't sit still for very long, probably because they need a massive amount of food vs their body weight. I have only seen a few types in Seattle though, and none of them were very colorful, but it could be the time of year. I hope to visit the San Diego Zoo's Hummingbirds sometime soon. I am planning on talking to John Marzluff to see if he knows of anyone working on Hummingbirds or small Song Birds and try to volunteer with them. Hopefully I can also get a good enough camera to take better pictures of them.

Posted on June 5, 2012 10:17 AM by wellska wellska | 5 observations | 0 comments | Leave a comment

Barred Owls

If you follow the sound of scolding crows, you will either run across a Bald Eagle or a Barred Owl. Lucky for me, I ran into both. While taking notes for my Final at least 20 crows came flying by chasing a Bald Eagle, so close to me I could feel the wind. Later I followed the scolding and saw a male (based on his small size) and 3 Barred Owl chicks. The Chicks were fairly large but still had their gray fuzz. The male flew at a short tree and a bird flew off and he came back up with a worm. Either he dove for the bird, missed and took the worm, or he was planning on taking the worm from the bird in the first place. He didn't eat the worm though, he just that there with it in his mouth watching me. A great experience that early morning to see 2 different kinds of birds of prey.

Posted on June 5, 2012 10:10 AM by wellska wellska | 1 observation | 0 comments | Leave a comment

May 3, 2012

Moose

11:00am. 50s. Cloudy, snow in the mountains, raining slightly.
Driving along I-90 back from Snoqualmie pass to Seattle, there was a female moose standing on a small hill just outside a very forested mountain area. I had never seen a moose before, and it was very surprising to see a moose that close to the road. She looked like she was grazing, but we drove by pretty fast.

Posted on May 3, 2012 11:23 AM by wellska wellska | 0 comments | Leave a comment

Logging Area

Sunny. Mid 60s F. Got lost driving, ended up on a logging beach near what looked like some kind of Naval Base area.
The tide was out, and so I went about lifting up rocks. Under small rocks were 20 small crabs, and under big rocks were 20 big crabs. There was a ridiculous amount of crabs, and after they all dug themselves into the sand.
Besides the many crabs, there were little baby shrimp, still see-through, that were on the bottoms of the rocks.
Under one rock was a very small gooeyduck, and by another was a muscle.
It was nice to see that even in what looked like a big stretch of muddy sand speckled with rocks, there was tons of life on that beach besides the couple seagulls flying above.

Posted on May 3, 2012 11:19 AM by wellska wellska | 2 observations | 0 comments | Leave a comment

Hummingbird Courtship

Union Bay Natural Area. Partly cloudy, slightly windy. 50s F.
I heard what I recognized as a Hummingbird sound, more like an Annas. I looked up to see a brightly colored hummingbird flying way up into the air, then swooping fast down and squeaking, then flying back up. He did this for quite sometime then he flew off. About 5 minutes later I saw what I thought was the same hummingbird chasing another one, and they were both singing, and they were just flying around trees. Finally, I lost track of them. It was very neat to see a Hummingbird Courtship.

Posted on May 3, 2012 11:11 AM by wellska wellska | 1 observation | 0 comments | Leave a comment

Spiders of UW

Nighttime. Weather and temp. does not seem to matter except when it get s in the 30s F.
The Orb Spider is my friend named Keith. He lives on my third story window pane (on the outside) on 47th. He is small enough that I believe he is male. It is hard to get a good look at him to tell exactly what he is. He looks brownish and he has a white diamond on his back. His web is all the way across the windowpane.
The next spider looked more like a sort of crab spider perhaps. There is a very small post area blocking off a small pond from the road on the way to the Union Bay Natural Area, and there were at least 5 separate spiders and more webs on this post. They were all of the same kind. They were brown and cream speckled. Their webs seemed kind of thick and were mostly in corners.
The Striped Spider I saw was in the Union Bay Area walking on the ground in the dry grass. He had a sort of pointy oval body and had a large brown stripe down his back. He blended very well into the grass.

Posted on May 3, 2012 11:07 AM by wellska wellska | 1 observation | 0 comments | Leave a comment

Flowering on UW Campus

Sunny. High 60s F. West UW Campus, party shady area.
There were tulip trees, rose trees, and cherry trees as well as a couple other flowering trees and bushes. All of them were in bloom. There were quite a few song sparrows singing in the area as well. It is in a nice, hidden away spot between 2 buildings (hence the shade)

Posted on May 3, 2012 10:57 AM by wellska wellska | 1 observation | 0 comments | Leave a comment

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