Today during our class period we went down to a place on campus commonly referred to as the Heron Rookery and for good reason. The area is covered with large trees such as big leaf maples, red cedars, and Douglas firs. Perched in the trees were large herons’ nests that were occupied by about a dozen herons. If you did not see them, you could hear their hoarse, distinct call. Moving through the Heron rookery, we saw different types of ferns, holly, ivy, and salal dominating the understory. Also, there were medium sized shrubs that I believe were Indian Plum lining the path through the Heron Rookery. This area is where I first saw signs of spring. Different types of flowers were blooming and budding.
We arrived at the cabins of Pack Forest and settled in. After becoming acclimated we split into smaller groups and entered the forest from a trail beginning at the edge of a large open field. Upon entering the forest, the understory was made up of largely of Oregon grape, sword ferns, and licorice ferns. We continued down the trail and deeper into the woods and the surroundings transitioned from a coniferous forest made up of Douglas firs, western red cedars, and western hemlocks to a more deciduous forest of red alders, big leaf maples, and madrones. The understory in this area seemed to be denser with species like salmonberry dominating it. The path fell along a small stream teeming with different types of moss, lichen, and fungi on nurse logs that also had some saplings growing out of them. Throughout the woods I could hear various birdcalls of robins, chickadees, and towies.
After eating lunch we headed up closer to Mount Rainier to a place called Longmire. The area was snow covered and noticeably colder than Pack Forest. We split into groups again and headed onto a trail that encircled a lake that seemed to have some sort of gases bubbling from it. Along the path there were small streams flowing into the lake and some were a rust-orange color due to the iron-rich water. Lots of the understory was covered by the snowfall, but there were lots of large coniferous trees including pines, firs, and cedars.
After sleeping overnight at Pack Forest, we headed down to the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge, which is near the delta of the river opening up into the Puget Sound. The area was formerly dominated by a large farm and dikes that destroyed much of the rich ecosystem there. Now, the area is recovering from the farm’s impact and is teeming with wildlife. We followed a path that circumnavigated the area of the refuge and upon entering it immediately saw lots of big leaf maples and alder trees. There were also streams running through it and in the trees above there were Great Horned Owls. Also, along the trail I found many interesting types of lichen and moss. As we continued on, we came to an area close to the delta and saw a red-tailed hawk perched in an alder tree. Even further down the path we came to a perpendicular trail that took us out to the delta area which was less vegetated with large trees and more so with shrubbery. Along the path there were Canada Geese and lots of ducks. I saw shovelers and mallards circling in pairs in a body of water and was curious to what they were doing. We also came across a heron spotted across the Nisqually riverbank. We then continued on the trail and back to where we began our day.
Today we met at the greenhouse on campus to look at different types of plants in different ecosystems. The class split into three groups and rotated between a desert, tropical, and swamp environment. I went to the tropical environment first and saw the world’s largest seed that belonged to the family Lodoicea. This plant is indigenous to the Seychelle Islands and can grow a seed of up to 60 pounds! After looking at this plant, we moved on to Monstera deliciosa which grows in Mexico and Colombia. I found this plant super interesting because it is a scototrophic vine (grows toward darkness). Once it finds a tree to grow upon, the monstera switches to phototropism and grows towards the light. The seeds of this plant are poisonous until they bloom and become delicious to eat. After looking at these plants, we moved on to a desert environment and learned about Welwitschia. Welwitschia is a plant that grows under extreme conditions in very dry climates. In order to survive, this plant has evolved to have leaves that reflect sunlight and can open their stomata to capture the moisture of fog. Welwitschia can be found in the Sahara desert of Africa and is very specialized for its environment, so much so that it can live for up to 2000 years. After checking out the desert, we went on to a bog/swamp environment and learned about Sphagnum and Platyserium. Sphagnum lives in a bog environment and creates peat. This peat allows the sphagnum to survive in the acidic and low nutrient environment of a bog. Also the platyserium is a large epiphyte that has armored leaves that funnel water into its base. This plant was very interesting to me because of the way it obtains nutrients. Platyserium decomposes its old leafy material on the inside of itself to provide nutrients for itself without having to draw from the low nutrient bog environment. I found the greenhouse to be a fascinating place and want to go back and explore some more in the near future.
Today we met at Hitchcock Hall for the first half of class. We broke into two groups and started by looking at specimens selected from the university’s herbarium. The herbarium has tons of plants varying from a year old to a hundred years old and are helpful in determining certain characteristics about plants. We were doing different sketches and looking at the different times the plants germinated depending on location, month, and year. It was interesting to see the differences in the same species (such as a cedar) over a geographical scale. Some of the needles of the trees were bunched very tightly and went all the way down to the base of the branch, while others were less densely bunched and had a different pattern. After exploring the herbarium, we went with Josh on quiz walk through campus. We identified species we had already learned about as we made our way back to class. Once we got back, we met with a woman who is an artist that works in a scientific setting. She told us about her work in Greenland with arctic shorebirds, polar bears, and walruses. We did multiple drawing exercises to help us learn how to draw informative pictures when exploring nature.
Today class met all the way at the Union Bay Natural Area near the IMA. It took forever to get down there and we met up with the same woman from Tuesday. Our objective for today’s class period was to find a solitary place and just sketch our surroundings. We started by walking as a group down the trail and just naturally split off as we went. I ended up in a pretty secluded area beneath the cover of some tall grass. I wandered a little further and came to the edge of a pond that was full of activity. Within the lake I saw mallards and shovelers and in the nearby trees I saw some red winged blackbirds. The area was very lively and I sat down to start my sketches. First, I sketched the lake and tried to capture the flight patterns of some of the ducks that were landing in the pond like seaplanes. After struggling to draw this, I proceeded to spot an interesting plant in front of me that had thorns and a reddish base. I carefully drew the three-pronged leaves and thorny stem. I probably spent about half an hour on this drawing and was pleased with the outcome. After about 45 minutes, we returned to the larger group and discussed our drawings for the rest of the class period.
Today Drew and I wandered from our house to the nearby Ravenna Park. It was drizzling outside but bearable. When we go to the entrance of the park we immediately recognized many different species we had seen elsewhere such as big leaf maples, cedars, and madrones. I was surprised by the amount of diversity in the understory of the area and we spent about 45 minutes just at the entrance of the park identifying small plants. We saw things like a fragile fern, herb-Robert, and Saskatoon. As we moved further into the park we came across trees that we could not identify off the top of our heads and were intrigued. We were in an area that reminded me of a tree grove with large trees on either side of the path that dominated the area. The trees turned out to be species like Western Yew, Shore Pine, and Pacific Crab Apple. Ravenna has many areas to explore and I’m excited to go back to further explore!
Today we met at the Burke Museum and split into our project groups. We began by brainstorming with our groups about the different species, areas, and ideas we had to formulate a plan for our website. Our group is doing waterfowl and we came to the conclusion that most of the waterfowl around campus resides in the fountain or in the Union Bay Natural Area. Naturally, we decided to hold our group tour in the natural area. Also we thought of different waterfowl to focus on and came up with mallards, shovelers, Canada geese, and great blue herons. After about 45 minutes of brainstorming, we were led into the back of the museum by the director of the Burke. We came into a room where students were dissecting a deer. After a brief tour, we learned about the importance of the natural history museum. The Burke acts as a reference tool for scientists who are studying changes in species over time. The Burke is home to tens of thousands of species that have been preserved for aid in current studies. I look forward to coming back to the Burke again and actually exploring the different species that they have to offer in the museum.
For our class period we met at the Burke Museum today. Once everyone had arrived, we split into our project groups and rotated between three stations led by Susan, Josh, and an employee of the Burke Museum. The topics for each station were sex, treachery, and death. We entered the back area of the museum which I had never been to and has a large collection of thousands of birds. I began with the employee at the Burke and we examined sexual dimorphism between different types of birds. We learned about size dimorphisms and color dimorphisms. Arctic shorebirds select for a smaller body size in males in order to do mating maneuvers to court female mates. At the next station we learned about treachery with Josh and how certain birds disguise eggs and drop them in other bird’s nests. This is common behavior in cowbirds. Cowbirds wait for a bird to leave and drop their eggs in different nests. Their eggs are thicker and harder to break than warbler eggs and if the warbler try and break them, they can roll and destroy the warbler’s own eggs. Also, there is a theory called the mafia theory when cowbirds discover that there eggs have been destroyed, they come back to the warbler’s nest and kill their young. After learning about how big of jerks cowbirds are, we rotated to Susan’s station to learn about death and population dynamics. We took a look at demographics for different countries such as India and Japan and compared what their expected growth rates might be. We then looked at differences between juvenile and adult birds and mortality rates.
