Week One

Date: Sunday April 7th, 2013
Weather: Cloudy with light rain
Temperature: ~46 degrees F
Time: 3:20 PM - 4:20 PM
Location: Discovery Park

My study site for this quarter is Discovery Park, a huge 500+ acre park that sits on the former Fort Lawton and incorporates a wide variety of ecological niches, such as woodland, sandy dunes, grasslands, and tidal zones. That being said, I've decided to restrict my 50 square meters to mostly woodlands and drier grassland areas. Most people that have lived in Seattle for a while know about this park, because it truly is a gem!

While I was hoping to go on a more warmer, sunnier day, the rain still added an interesting element to wandering around and trying to identify the immediate flora and fauna. And by interesting element, I mean wet socks.

The general habitat is somewhat temperate rainforest. The area is dominated by a variety of shrubs, interspersed with a variety of conifers such as Douglas-Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata), and surprisingly, a single Alaskan Yellow Cedar (Xanthocyparis nootkatensis). I was super excited to see the Alaskan Yellow Cedar, it seems that all anyone plants is Western Red Cedar. I also noticed that iNaturalist has the wrong latin name for Alaskan Yellow Cedar; it was formerly Cuprussus nootkatensis until the recent discovery of a more closely related species in China in a different genus.

Alaskan Yellow Cedar. Note how the scales are particularly pointy. 

At the next layer of understory, there was a diversity of shrubs and younger trees. This included Indian Plum (Oemleria cerasiformis), Bigleaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum), Red Flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum), English Holly (Ilex aquifolium), Tall Oregon Grape (Mahonia aquifolium) and what looked like a Cherry Blossom tree (Prunus spp.). The Indian Plum flowers were drying up, while the Currant, Oregon Grape, and unknown Cherry were in full blossom. The Holly already had fruit! I was somewhat sad to see the Holly, as it is pretty invasive since it is a strong competitor and a good disperser. I have a holly bush growing in my backyard and little holly plants keep popping up everywhere! It gets pretty annoying after a while, but thankfully they are pretty easy to pull while they are still young. The cherry tree was somewhat odd, it looked pretty out of place. I wonder how it got there?

Cherry tree? All by its lonesome, being dwarfed by a Western Red Cedar.

The 40+ fresh flowers of a single catkin on a Bigleaf Maple. Look at the cute little leaves coming out in the background; looks like it is a littleleaf maple right now!

Despite all the towering plants around me, I was surprised how much biodiversity I could find by just look down and around me for about a meter! I ended up finding Western Bittercress (Cardamine oligosperma), American Vetch (Vicia americana), Cleavers (Galium aparine), Sword Fern (Polystichum munitum), Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), some sort of Thistle (perhaps Onopordum acanthium?) and an unknown Rosaceae plant that formed a small thicket. Again, it was a little odd to see invasives such as dandelions and bittercress in an area which would otherwise have a substantial amount of diversity. Unfortunately, the grass was rather short and wasn't flowering, otherwise I would have tried to identify the different grass species. But I'd guess there are at least three different grass species in that tiny one meter plot! My guess is that the grass was pretty short because of this little guy...

Bunny!!!! OMG!

I believe that these Domestic Rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) were probably house pets at some point, and were set free when people decided they didn't want to care for them anymore. From what I understand, this is pretty large problem for many parks around Seattle. But how could something so small and cute be such a big problem?

Flowers of the unknown Rosaceae. Gah! What are you!?

Leaves of the unknown Rosaceae. Note the serrated leaf margins. 

Basal leaves of the unknown Thistle. Look at all the bugs on that thing! I have no idea what they are though. 

The new fiddle heads of the Sword Fern!

After carefully examining our little location extensively, we strolled around to see what other flora and fauna we could find. We came across Seashore Lupine (Lupinus littoralis), Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius), Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contorta), Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica), Herb Robert (Geranium robertum), and Himalayan Blackberry (Rubus armenicus), and White Clover (Trifolium repens). The white clover was covering an entire path that was somewhat unused. Both the Scotch broom and Himalayan Blackberry were almost covering entire fields, although not the same fields. The Scotch broom was already flowering for a few specimens. 

Me and a field of Scotch broom. Yay. 

Seashore Lupine. I wish it were in flower, they are so beautiful!

Unfortunately, we didn't see all that many birds. I imagine with the poor weather, they were all hiding out in the cover of trees. Pretty much the only birds we actually saw were American Crows and American Robins. However, we did hear a few others such as the Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Pine Siskin, Stellar's Jay, and some sort of hummingbird, maybe Anna's Hummingbird? It seems like birding is a lot harder than plant identification; plants never run away! 

I was pretty excited to find some fungi too! Sadly, I have pretty much no experience with identifying fungi, so  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

Mmm, looks juicy... I wonder if I can eat it...?

Some sort of Lichen. I see these everywhere! What are youuuuu?

Overall, I was surprised to see so many invasive plants. I suppose this makes sense though, given that they are large problem in many Seattle parks. In fact, there are relatively few invasives compared to some other parks like Magnuson Park, where entire areas are overrun by Blackberry. In addition, there are relatively few things in flower right now, so I hope next time we return there will be a lot more color to see! Hopefully the weather will be nicer too, so we can spot some birds! Or maybe we just need to go earlier in the morning when birds are more active. I guess we'll find out!