This plant surrounded the bluebells near my yard. As I touched the plants, their dried seed pods popped off in all directions.
Vibrant red tips gave this lichen away at once. I had never seen anything like it before.
Poor image quality, but this photo was taken just as this beautiful tree was finishing dropping its flower buds. This is definitely one of my favorite trees. Its buds were all white and gave off a wonderful smell.
This slime mold was growing on several different rotting logs that I could see, including this one. They appeared to grow in clusters and were very vibrant in color.
The larger leaves in the image were identified by my TA as fringecups. It would be nice to have another verification however. They appeared to compete with the other low growing plants and mosses of the forest.
I am fairly sure that this is licorice fern. It grew in many stalks that did not appear to be attached at the base and had tightly separated leaflets.
We saw this old man's beard all over the forest at Mt. Rainier National Park. It was quite a common occurrence. I hear that this is an edible plant, but please correct me if I am wrong!
A blossoming skunk cabbage found on the north side of Mt. Rainier National Park's rust colored hot spring. It was the only specimen that I saw that day, and did not smell yet.
This algae? was found on the north side of Mt. Rainier National Park's rust colored, iron enriched spring. We were unable to identify it and there were no other discernible populations that we encountered at the spring. It was truly a sight to see, given its location, near one of the heated spring vents. I do not remember a distinct smell emanating from it.
Bright and freshly blossomed, this red-flowering currant plant is healthy and vibrant! It was the first that I had seen and had been able to identify this year.
Three holly plants all together in a bunch. I am not sure where their mother is though, because I have not seen much holly near here. They all appear healthy and are growing quickly.
There appear to be many aphid-esque colonies on many of the Hedera Helix's new, light green and waxy leaves. The third image is an attempt to capture a photo of the aphid-esque creatures. They are light yellow in color and appear to be living in bubble nests. Any ideas?
There appear to be two small, fruit flies/gnats on the Taraxicum's flower. It looks like they are rubbing their legs on it, perhaps trying to collect pollen?
Red berried plant with long black thornish structures at the end of each berry. The stem of the plant is dark red/purple. Perhaps a wild rose hip?
Rubus ursinus is rather unfortunate in the wake of the Himalayan Blackberry's onslaught through our native landscape. This image shows several vines creeping in below stinging nettles and through some other dead plants and fallen limbs.
These stinging nettles were a large part of the under story of the southern side of the estruary, along with some other grasses. Some looked like wild wheat-type grasses among some other weedy plants.
This beautiful juvenile Red-tailed Hawk sat in a tree very calmly and watched my classmates and me as we took numerous photographs of it. This will surely be a beautiful individual when it becomes an adult!
One of the more dominant tree species in the Nisqually Estruary is Red Alder, or Alnus rubra. This image lacks color for some unfortunate reason or another (probably the lighting of the shot) but the cattails show that it is indeed an Alnus rubra.
There were quite a few cattails around in the estruary interspersed in the marshy areas with other plants and grasses.
We saw this and many other splendid specimens of Osoberry in the estruary. They were all in bloom, although none had berries.
A bit difficult to see in the photo, but the trio of trees on the right side of the image are Big-leaf Maples. They appear to be quite prevalent in this estruary. We also saw three juvenile Great Horned Owls hanging out in a Big-leaf Maple, but I unfortunately could not get a decent photo.
I cannot for the life of me remember what this insect was named. My professor did say it was a favorite of many fish however, and that fisherpeople enjoy using it as a tie for fly-fishing. Please help with the ID!
edit: Stonefly
These two individuals were pecking at the grass and greeted us with several resounding honks. Later on I saw a flock of Canadian Geese flying in a V, but I was not quick enough with my camera sadly.
This individual was spotted in the northeast section of the estruary, across a channel from where we were standing. This photo was taken through a visitor telescope with my phone (hence why the image quality is a bit blurred). It seemed to be stalking around in the shallows looking for a meal while we were watching it.
This little guy was captured by one of my classmates. It was quite healthy and full of vigor (it definitely did not like its picture taken as well)!
Garter Snake caught in some grass near a path at the Nisqually Estruary. This was certainly not his/her greatest day, although it was quite the experience for those individuals in our class that had never seen a Garter Snake before! The individual was about half of a meter in length and was quite ready to escape back into the grass.
Teal colored and hard to the touch.
Young shore pine. Two needles per bunch. Very short tree...perhaps stunted growth?
Ant with black head, black abdomen, and silver colored thorax. Perhaps a carpenter ant?
