bluehoneysugar's Journal

Bees are yellow and black, they make a buzzing sound when they fly, they make honey, they sting, they have a bee hive, and they can trigger life threatening allergic reactions for some people. That pretty much ends the list of the common conceptions of bees, which, therefore is all the knowledge I had. Many of these knowledge scared me a little; whenever I see a flying object in yellow and black, whenever I hear a buzzing noise, or whenever I feel a sting I think it may be a bee and sweat. However, knowing a lot more about bees made me like them a little more, thanks to the great knowledge provided by Evan Sugden.

Evan Sugden is a part time professor at the University of Washington (I believe!) and he is an astounding expert of insects. He occasionally teaches an entomology class at the University, while he is also a beekeeper at the beehive at UW farm.

First off, Evan described the very basic distinction between wasps and bees is that wasps are predators that feed on insects and arthropods, while bees feed on plants. Wasps are relatively larger and more aggressive - the guys you necessarily do not want to mess around. The wasps would not be afraid to sting you. On the contrary, bees are gentle; often times they would not attack you unless you aggressively molest them. This is especially true when bees are feeding on flower nectar since they become so concentrated on collecting the precious food source that they are not easily bothered by whatever happens in the surroundings.

Evan also introduced that all bees are types of wasps. I found this quite surprising as somehow I imagined the order of evolution to be the other way around. I reasoned that pretty much all the traits of wasps: larger bodies, aggressive behaviors, louder buzzing, and brighter yellow and red colors evolved from bees in order to induce fear to other species. However, as mentioned before, bees evolved from wasps for a good reason. The reason lies in the characteristic that separates bees from wasps, which is that bees feed on flowers. Back in time, it made sense for certain wasps to specialize on collecting food from plants, taking advantage of plants' immobility and less competition with other wasps. The plants welcomed bees as great pollinators. As a result of the mutalism formed one of the most important coevolutions in the natural world between plants and bees. Apparently, coevolution led bees to develop furry hairs on their bodies to capture more nectar and pollen.

Within bee species, there are what are called social bees and solitary bees. The names are pretty self-explanatory; social bees include honeybees and bumblebees that hive by packs. Each hive has a queen bee that lays all the eggs for the hive at an incredible rate; two or three per day. What is more interesting is that queen bee only has a week or two of a time span to mate with males from other hives. This period is essential since queen bees use the sperm gained during this period to give birth for the rest of the year.

We tend to associate bees with honey, but it is only the honeybee that produces honey. Bumblebees do as well but less efficiently. Honeybee is especially vulnerable against cold, so they make honey to generate heat so that their nest remains warm. It is the process of making honey that generates heat, not the honey itself. Honey comes from nectar, which then, to my astonishment, bees fan the water to evaporation with their wings until only the sugar remains. Bees can flap their wings about 230 times per second (obviously depends on the species and individuals of bees) and it is this ultra fast wing movement that evaporates the nectar into honey (and it is also this wing movement that causes the buzzing sound). Honeybees are not that big in size compared to other bees and much less so than humans, so one can only imagine that fanning water to evaporation is a huge labor. Translate their worth of labor to human accounts; it would be like being told to evaporate a sugar water in a frying pan with a traditional fan. I simply think honeybees' production of honey is unbelievable.

By the way, bees sleep as well. They sleep in and out of their hives depending on age, but some bees are found sleeping on flowers.

For more interesting bee facts, check UW bees on google blogger.

Species list

genus Bombus - bumblebee
genus Apis - honeybee
suborder Apocrita - wasps

May 12, 2012 8AM - 6PM UW Seattle - Gold Bar - Index Road - Money Creek Campground - Leavenworth - UW Seattle

Contrary to the weather forecast by local news networks predicting for an absolutely beautiful day, the day of Saturday, May 12, 2012 introduced a fair but not a gorgeous morning. Precisely, the sky had enough sunlight making it through the thin and scattered clouds to make a pair of sunglasses a worthwhile entity (a pair of sunglasses on a dark, cloudy day becomes a worthless object). At 8-o-clock in the morning the air is chilly to be walking outside with a t-shirt, unless if you were speed walking hurriedly to the designated meeting spot to catch the van like I was.

The van ride from UW Seattle Campus to Gold Bar was approximately an hour and ten minutes, so the time was 9:10AM when we arrived. The air was still below 60 degrees, I suppose, at Gold Bar and certainly fresh, even though I would not know if the air was truly fresh or if that was just my imagination after sitting in a crammed van for long.
With the car cruising past miles of land on freeways, it certainly gave me an inaccurate prejudice that the local ecosystem in Gold Bar must be quite different from that in Seattle. In fact the ecosystem was somewhat different, but the difference most likely originated due to Gold Bar being a floodplain. Trees were fairly scattered and allowed for ground stories to develop quite extensively once off the graveled main track, including pacific crabapples, japanese knotweeds, bracken ferns, and dogwood. Many trees exposed their roots in the floodplain regions to get nutrients. Almost everything was green, which is to say that not many colorful flowers appealed their presence. The presence of Japanese knotweed was particularly strong. This invasive species seemed to appear at the edges of grassline and thus making a strong impression on me. Only a knee to thigh tall with leaves the size of a person's hand, the Japanese knotweed for some reason has a curled and knotty look to it, even though nothing about it makes a knot in reality. The biggest question, though was whether I had ever seen a Japanese knotweed in Japan because I do not recall seeing such a knotted plant over there. Japan is a vertically long island, so it could very well may be that knotweeds exist higher up in the latitude than where Tokyo is. It would be interesting to go look the next time I return to Japan.

At the next stop at Index Road, the landscape introduced a denser tree pack. On many of the trees like western hemlock and big leaf maple, licorice fern were widespread - these ferns apparently have a reverse cycle of a regular deciduous tree, in which they flourished in winter when moisture is abundant. At ground level, the false lily of the valley covered extensively. False lily of the valley have a spade shape of a playing card suit, and when compared to common ivy they are a slightly taller and greener. Their extensive presence is a surprise because there seemed to be more trees than Gold Bar and hence less sunlight making it through to the ground and yet the understory was pretty extensive.

At Money Creek Campground, there were a lot more lichen to be found. One of them was Platysma glauca, a huge piece of lichen in one of the photos synced to this journal. With a light emerald green color on the front and black on the back, Platysma glauca are very pollution tolerant. Hence they can be found in the Seattle area, although not as big of a size as the ones found in clean environments. Another lichen I found was the Hypogymnia imshaugii, with a common name forked tube lichen. They are in fact a tube; there is air space that has white spore on the inside. Perhaps more lichen indicates that Money Creek gets more rainfall than does the two previous stops.

Finally at Leavenworth, there are species common to Eastern Washington that are not as common in the western counterpart, now that we passed the Cascades. The very first thing to note was that the trees turned coniferous from deciduous in the Cascade forests. Ponderosa pine now appeared right and left. At the understory level, repant oregon grape found its way to be recorded as the third oregon grape species in my field notebook. If dull oregon grape is shorter than tall oregon grape, than repant oregon grape was even shorter, having its own time near a ponderosa pine bark. The yellow flower and its overall shape reminded me of a dandelion. Also balsamroot seemed to be flourishing - their beautiful yellow flowers and scent seem to attract bees like a magnet. I saw at least five bees enjoying their time near a balsamroot, which is pretty peculiar unless there exists a bee hive nearby, which there were not. Bees were numerous, but so were wasps too. Family sphecidae were hovering near ground looking for preys - they were a number of them if you looked closely. These wasps were not big though, perhaps just slightly larger than a bumblebee. Since lizards were abundant in the area as well, I wonder if those wasps ever prey on lizards.

Species List

genus Malus - Crabapple
Fallopia japonica - Japanese knotweed
genus Pteridium - Bracken fern
genus Cornus - Dogwood
Tsuga heterophylla - Western hemlock
Acer macrophyllum - Big leaf maple
Polypodium glycyrrhiza - Licorice fern
Maianthemum dilatatum - False lily of the valley
Platysma glauca - Platysma glauca
Hypogymnia imshaugii - Hypogymnia imshaugii
Pinus ponderosa - Ponderosa pine
Mahonia repens - Repant (creeping) oregon grape
Mahonia nervosa - Dull oregon grape
Mahonia aquifollium - Tall oregon grape
genus Taraxacum - Dandelion
genus Balsamorhiza - Balsamroot
amily Sphecidae - Wasps
genus Bombus - Bumblebee
suborder Lacertilia - Lizards

April 23rd, 4PM-6 30PM

The first of the probably few sequences of journal entries on Union Bay Natural Area (UBNA), which is the second largest natural habitat around the Union Bay. UBNA is under habitat restoration by the University of Washington. I have posptponed publishing this entry since I wanted the UBNA entries to have a back to back linear progression on the website. This entry is from April 23rd, a beautiful spring afternoon with aqua blue sky and some fluff of clouds. During the hours of my natural world experience, which happened to be the warmest time of the day, the real feel of temperature was somewhere around 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Under the sun and without breeze, a thin layer of long sleeve t-shirt and jeans is a suitable attire.

In the wake of spring, the UBNA is gaining enthusiasm from creatures awakening from a long winter break. The most energetic are the birds, which makes sense because these species never truly hibernate and therefore have gotten a jump start at enjoying the beautiful spring weather. If I were to stand still and close my eyes, I could have heard three or four different bird calls at one moment. The combination of bird calls create a harmony of spring theme melody that for some reason makes me feel at home, but at the same time it gives a novice naturalist like me a hard time to distinguish who has what voice and where it is calling from. Clearly the loudest call was from the red-winged blackbird though, and entrusting my ears I was able to encounter multiple of these species. It was not so much about the noise level of their calls but more about the unique, almost machine-like call that made them so distinct from the rest of the calls. Their calls have a special accent to it that if all the birds at UBNA were to formulate an orchestra the red-winged blackbirds would be playing the trumpet, or if it the birds decide to do a band instead the blackbirds would assume a role of a main vocalist. The red-winged blackbirds have a high pitched voice that sounds like "kur-eeeee" with the "eeee" giving the impression of a phlegm tangled in a throat (but not displeasing to hear). It sounds so mechanical that initially I thought it was some machine making the calls and I wondered what machine would be so necessary in UBNA to be so numerous. The most interesting discovery was that red-winged blackbirds are able to chirp as well, which I believe to be their alarming calls to caution their fellow members. Their chirping is quite short with constant intervals like a staccato G quarter note (is what I think, I do not have the musical talent to really assess what note is closest to red-winged blackbirds' chirps). I believe they have a certain radius of invisible territory that they pay extra attention to - whenever I sneaked up close to a certain distance to one of the red-winged blackbirds he started to do the cautioning chirps, even though the bird was sitting on a treetop beyond my reach. At one point I almost figured out where the territorial boundaries are by taking half a step back and forth to see whether he chirped or not, until the bird found me as a surprisingly strange human being so he began chirping no matter what.

Focusing my attention besides the red-winged blackbirds, I find that some trees are yet to foliage, leaving the last glimpse of winter in the area. For example, the tree that the red-winged blackbird is resting (photo synced to this journal entry) is still working its way to full foliage. But trees are not dominant, in fact the ecosystem at UBNA is quite interesting and variety-rich. I would assume that in one word UBNA would qualify as a lowland marsh, but it is amusing to find landscapes change quite significantly by just a turn of a head. Looking straight from the trail where many runners use as their running course, I would see the Union Bay. Turn my head right and there is a marsh; turn my head left and there are tall trees that could be a lowland forest. Between the trail and the trees are turfs that have grown quite long and shrubs with some colorful flowers. It is like a gradient from an absolutely flat marsh to grass to shrubs to tall standing trees. However, it seems like birds enjoy the water of the marsh, as I also saw an american crow bath in the water, scaring some smaller birds away with the sound of splash.

Species List

Agelaius phoeniceus- Red-winged blackbird

May 16, 2012 5PM-7 30PM

The second of the sequence of the Union Bay Natural Area (UBNA) observations. It has been several weeks since my previous observation at UBNA. The day started out with chilly, fair weather, then gained sun as time progressed - by late afternoon/early evening I am sweating with a t-shirt and a jacket. Generally, the real feel of temperature at UBNA could go both ways depending on whether the sun is out. The location and the lowland marsh ecosystem makes UBNA breezy at times as the temperature gradient above water and land creates a pathway of wind. Because of this, the area could become shivering cold without sunshine. On the contrary, sunshine could significantly warm the area with not many objects to create shades. With the sun making its way by the time I arrived, the air felt significantly warmer, which meant that I was happy and so were the birds.

Birds are clearly abundant at UBNA. For example, I discussed about red-winged blackbirds in the previous journal entry, which I think to be the most typical bird species. They are in fact very abundant today, maybe more so than two weeks ago. I managed to observe another red-winged blackbird at a same tree (so possibly the same little boy that I took a photo last time). It might be my imagination that red-winged blackbirds are much more friendly today than they were a few weeks ago. If this is the case though, I would build two hypotheses. One might be that the blackbirds were in a period of breeding/reproduction during my visit in late April. Red-winged blackbirds usually incubate for about 12 days and take care of the chicks for another 12 days until offspring are ready to leave the nest. It would make sense for mother blackbirds to be nervous during the 2 week period of incubation or parenting. Another hypothesis builds upon the bird's seasonal migration habits. Red-winged blackbirds often leave marshes during winter to agricultural areas to peck on grains. The timing in which the birds come back to marshes vary, but late April could have been only a little time since they arrived. The birds may potentially be more wary of their surroundings during the first few weeks of seasonal migration.

But overall I find that some species are "greener" than before. The tall tree (that I do not know its name) synced with this journal entry has given me an impression that it is much more vibrant. Some are taller instead, like the Equisetum telmateia growing near the edge of the land along the Union Bay.

Since I went so deep into red-winged blackbirds in today and April's UBNA entries, I think it is only fair to put spot light onto other species. The great blue heron, which I saw both times resting under a tree growing at an edge of a marsh, is a quite large swan that almost looks like a pelican. Initially I thought it was a pelican due to the light violet body color and large body size that probably reaches a meter of wingspan. I believe they like to avoid sun unlike many other species of their kind, but this is the perception that I have built over the two opportunities of observation. They could very well be feeding on small organisms in water instead of just avoiding the sun. The most interesting component is that even though blue herons are so large, they seem to appear out of nowhere all of a sudden and so gracefully. They seem to prefer shallow water and slow moving rivers, but I can only think of the Union Bay where they could be coming from.

Last but not least, I saw a big and dark creature making a huge sound near the Union Bay coast, which I believe it to be a beaver. It was carrying a big branch on a ground - branch way larger than itself - to the bay where it was probably building its nest. There was a clear path after the beaver left, which indicated how big and heavy the branch was and how powerful the beaver's teeth are to carry that into the water. Being it the first time I have seen a beaver, I could not distinguish what it was for a while, especially because its fur was wet and flat. Once the beaver successfully entered the water it swam smoothly, controlling its path so that the branch did not hit other branches in the water already.

Species List

Agelaius phoeniceus - Red-winged blackbird
Equisetum telmateia - Equisetum telmateia
Ardea herodias - Great blue heron
genus Castor - Beaver

May 26th, 2012 7PM -9PM

It is a warm, beautiful day that is suited for the weather of the first day of three day weekend. By this time of the year, spring is starting to fade and is gradually replaced by summer weather. I have been spending the day in a polo shirt and shorts as it has been the perfect temperature to be in such attire. In this beautiful day I decide to visit the UW arboretum, which is a property of the University of Washington but unfortunately not many people know about it. The UW arboretum is referred to by many names, like Washington Park Arboretum, which I believe to be the official one, and UW Botanic Gardens, which may be the umbrella name for UW arboretum and Center for Urban Horticulture combined. From the UW Seattle campus one would walk across the Montlake bridge or take the 43,48 bus to downtown and get off at Seattle Public Library Montlake branch. The UW arboretum website describes itself as "the hidden gem on the shores of Lake Washington," and I began to think that it is quite impressive that a 230 acre land of arboretum could be a hidden gem.

I have never truly gotten accustomed to the unit of acres. Supposedly 1 acre of land is roughly 4 square kilometers, therefore 230 acre arboretum is very roughly 920 square kilometers of land. Since the Union Bay Natural Area is approximately 50 acres, one can appreciate the size of the arboretum. The whole property has a wide collection of plants not only restricted but with an emphasis on native Northwest plants except for the Japanese Garden. In fact, I used to be involved in a project called Seattle Survey of Native Species when I volunteered for the Arboretum. The project, which I may discuss in other journal entry to compare the state of arboretum, was carried out during the fall of 2011. With different seasons it is only natural to observe plants in different stages of life.

If I were to obtain a birds-eye view of the property today, then I imagine that the area would be covered in healthy green. This consequently means that from ground-level the vast overstory cover shades sunlight and makes some ground pretty dark. Even though coniferous trees are fairly abundant in the park, such as ponderosa/shore pines, western red cedar, and giant sequioa, the vibrant maple leaves make a tremendous difference in the amount of sunshine penetrating through the overstory. Especially the big maple leaves have much more of surface area to block the sun, and therefore the arboretum felt a little cool in a t-shirt. The amount of overstory is one of the ways nature maintains balance in the ecosystem by preventing drastic temperature gradients.

Even then, the arboretum is cheerful with lots of understory shrubs and grass. It is impressive to find different species of plants named berries: snowberry, red huckleberry, evergreen huckleberry, salmonberry, sugarberry, bearberry, etc. I have only tasted the evergreen huckleberry and have had great experiences consuming it. Their berries are tiny and dark purple, almost like a small blueberry. They may taste like blueberries as well, but perhaps a little sour. Evergreen huckleberries are great for picking when you are hungry during a hike. I have heard about the vulnerability of crops and berries to cold weather, especially below zero with snow and frost, but evergreen huckleberries prefer cold and increase their sweetness after being exposed to below zero temperatures. I would assume that berries are producing more nutrients to protect themselves from harsh conditions that make them better tasting.

Another interesting berry is the California bearberry, which I go with the name kinnikinnick. They grow very low to the ground, with dark, small, and alternating leaves. Berries grow to be red but typically only grow to be about half as large as conventional blueberries. I have been told that kinnikinnicks are not much tasty, and I wonder if the berries are universally dissatisfying to all species or just to humans because apparently bears eat kinnikinnick, hence the name bearberry. Their preferred habitats include slightly disturbed areas such as right next to trails. Kinnikinnick does not require too much sunlight along with several of other shrubs - so it raises the question about how much sun do understory layers get at the Arboretum. My hypothesis would be not too much given the Pacific Northwest weather and the overstory coverage, and probably that understory are fairly dominated by species that do not require too much sun to flourish.

Species List

Pinus ponderosa - Ponderosa pine
Pinus contorta - Lodgepole (shore) pine
Sequoiadendron giganteum - Giant sequioa
Thuja plicata - Western red cedar
Acer macrophyllum - Big leaf maple
genus Symphoricarpos - Snowberry
Vaccinium parvifolium - Red huckleberry
Vaccinium ovatum - Evergreen huckleberry
Rubus spectabilis - Salmonberry
Celtis laevigata - Sugarberry
Arctostaphylos uva-ursi - California bearberry (kinnikinnick)
genus Vaccinium - Blueberry

May 26, 2012 7PM-9PM

As in most lowland Puget Sound ecosystem, the Arboretum has numerous conifers like western red cedar, western hemlock, ponderosa pine, shore pine, and douglas fir. As you may know, since coniferous trees are evergreen, scenery dominated by conifers rarely change drastically by seasons. It would be a strecth, though, to claim that the Arboretum is dominated by conifers. There is a whole series of deciduous plant species, native and nonnative to Puget Sound, that creates a beautiful visual harmony during seasons of change. I do not know how much human intervention there has been to shape the current balance of species at the Arboretum, and on UW campus for that matter. I imagine that there has been extensive planning on what species to introduce and where to locate them, as ecosystem is a fragile balance of species. Even though a coniferous forest has its own greatness, one could potentially say that it could be aesthetically boring. Deciduous trees play a huge role in attracting humans to the beauty of tree species, which is something that any arboretum would cherish.

Deciduous trees bring a half year cycle of color to forests. In spring time flowers bloom with pretty colors to attract pollinators. In autumn, deciduous leaves change color from wild green to cheerful yellow and passion red. Both spring and autumn are short seasons that I interpret to be a brief transition period to major super-seasons of summer and winter. The ephemeral of the beauty in these seasons only adds to the nostalgia and fantasy of the harmony of nature. For example, Japan has a tradition of celebrating spring blossoming with "hanami" and autumn foliage with "kouyou."

Examples of deciduous species in the Arboretum are red alder, vine maple, big leaf maple, Japanese maple, salmonberry, serviceberry, ocean spray, and the list goes on. Many of these species lose their leaves while they may be green, or leaves may turn spotty brown that symbolizes maturity. These leaves may become wrinkled compared to the young leaves that emerge in spring.
Big leaf maple and Japanese maple give a colorful ending before their leaves fall. Go type japanese maple in a search engine and you will be provided with breath-taking photos of colorful foliage. If that is not enough, add kiyomizu-dera to the search result to find the collaboration of a world heritage site with nature's incredible beauty. Compare that with the photo of japanese maple leaves synced with entry and it is pretty difficult to believe that they change colors completely. The nostalgia from looking at autumn color leaves skyrockets in the event of encounter with japanese maple for me, perhaps because they are so common in Japan but perhaps because they are one of the best beauty that nature could offer.

Hence, the arboretum provides a different face in fall and spring. It may seem that you would tilt your head up and see colors in autumn while you would look down in spring. Autumn visit to the arboretum may be emotional and soothing, while a visit in the spring is enthusiastic and cheerful with young generations emerging. I believe it is always a great opportunity to see two seasonal faces of the same place.

Species List

Thuja plicata - Western red cedar
Tsuga heterophylla - Western hemlock
Pinus ponderosa - Ponderosa pine
Pinus contorta - Shore pine (lodgepole pine)
genus Pseudotsuga - Douglas fir
Alnus rubra - Red alder
Acer circinatum - Vine maple
Acer macrophyllum - Big leaf maple
Acer palmatum - Japanese maple
Rubus spectabilis - Salmonberry
genus Amelanchier - Serviceberry
Holodiscus discolor - Ocean spray