Week Seven

Date: Sunday May 19th, 2013
Weather: Sunny
Temperature: ~60 degrees F
Time: 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM
Location: Discovery Park

Well, this week we were supposed to focus on mushrooms, but since that's all the good stuff, I'll save it for the end. In the meantime, here are some new phenotypic observations and plants.

First of all, we saw some Vine Maple flowering. An interesting fact is that this species is dioecious, meaning there are two different genders of the plants. However, one is male, while the other is hermaphroditic!

I love how the red flowers pop against the lime green of the leaves

We also found some Froghoppers (Cercopoidea) in their nymph state! Also known as spittlebugs, they are known for the froth that they produce as they develop into adults.

Bigleaf Maples are also fruiting. Their fruits are samaroid schizocarps; samaras are winged fruit, while schizocarps are fruit that splits in half when dry. Since these fruit do both, they are samaroid schizocarps!

Not quite ready to fly

Just a couple of feet away we saw an Araneae building its web.

The Indian Plum fruits are beginning to look a lot more ripe too.

We also saw an example of some not so wild wildlife...

Hard to see, but a kitty is stalking about

Also, another bunny! YayyyyyyyyyyyYY!

I just wanna pet you... and take you home...

Later on, as we continued our search for mushrooms (rather unsuccessfully), what we believed to be a Song Sparrow came along to serenade us. Unfortunately, it ran away when a dog came by. 

Quite a few things are in flower as well!

Victoria spp.

Not really sure what this is

Not sure... maybe goldenrod of some sort?

Twinflower; flowers in twins!

Despite all our trudging around, we only found a couple species of lichens and a single mushroom. In fact, it wasn't until our way out that we saw a mushroom. At first, we thought it was a puffball, but after cutting it open, we found that it was really a gilled mushroom with a full veil. We decided it is probably a Shaggy Parasol. While we were poking around one of the mushrooms, a Diplopoda (millipede) decided to come out and greet us! It scared the both of us since we didn't expect the mushroom to be inhabited, but it gave us a great photo opportunity!

"Who's knocking on my door!?"

Cross section

In full form

We managed to figure out what we thought was Oakmoss Lichen

It took us a little while longer to figure out, but we also found a Hammered Shield Lichen and Methuselah's Beard Lichen. It was really cool to identify them because I've seen these guys a lot, but had no idea what they were, other than some sort of lichen.

Hammered Shield Lichen

Methuselah's Beard Lichen

Since we came up short on mushroom this week, I think I'll include a few other ones we've found in the past, since I don't think I really wrote about them at the time. The list includes Panther Amanita, Marasmius spp., Hare's-Foot Inkcap, and Oyster Mushroom.

Panther Amanita, looks so juicy. It is quite poisonous though. 

Marasmius spp., apparently quite common in grassy areas

Hare's-Foot Inkcap, looks like a truffula tree from Dr. Seuss's The Lorax

Oyster Mushroom

Well, that is all for now. Maybe more later!

Week Six

Date: Friday May 10th, 2013
Weather: Sunny, a few clouds, somewhat windy
Temperature: 70 degrees F
Time: 2:30 PM to 4:30 PM
Location: Discovery Park

So on this wonderful day, we got to chase birds! Or well, as much as you can chase birds before they just fly away. But before I get to the birds, I'll get all the plant and phenological changes out of the way. As we strolled through the forest, we came across some more plant species I was unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, my poor photography limits my ability to identify them, so I'll just post pretty pictures!

An unknown

Another unknown

We did come across a couple of plant species I was familiar with, but hadn't yet come across yet in Discovery Park!

False Soloman's Seal

Wild Ginger, yummy smelling

Lesser Hop Trefoil

Northern Starwort

Nootka Rose

Red Huckleberry

Red-Osier Dogwood

We also came across a few new phenlogical changes.

Salmonberry is fruiting! We saw an almost ripe drupe on one of the bushes. 

Creeping Buttercup is in flower!

That concludes all the new plants! We had hoped to see a few new arthropods, and we did! Ch-ch-check it out!

Six spotted Lady Beetle

Potential Carpenter Ant?

Some sort of Beetle (Coleoptera)

Now to the real stuff for this week: birdz! Almost immediately after we left the parking lot we saw a couple of small sparrow-like birds fly over us in an undulating manner at a height of about 13 feet, moving from a tree on one end of a clearing to a large shrub on the other end. But we were unfamiliar with their tweets and didn't get a good look at them, so identification was not a real possibility. 

Moving on, we found a Black-capped Chickadee that we decided to stalk. Initially, it flew back and forth in a Salmonberry bush, but we couldn't really see what it was up to. Finally it flew up into the bottom portion of a large Bigleaf Maple, and started curiously flitting back and forth along a branch. Under careful observation, it appeared that it was feeding on insects! Mostly small caterpillar like things that were feeding on the tree. It continued this for quite a while, without making a sound or interacting with any other birds. It just flew around the bottom portion of the tree, probably around 10 feet from the ground, eating bugs. I heard another Black-capped chickadee quite a ways away, but it didn't respond. I imagine this is probably because that while it is feeding, it would be disadvantageous to respond, lest it gives away its position to a potential predator. 

Since it seemed like this chickadee was content to continue eating for quite a while, we continued our search for birds. We came across an American Robin, perched at the very top of a Douglas-Fir in the middle of a clearing. It sang its interrupted, cheerful song quite readily for all to hear. We decided to watch what it would do. However, it just kept singing. Every now and then, it would take a break for maybe 20-30 seconds to groom itself and fluff its feathers, probably to look good for a potential mate, but then it would resume its unwavering song. Since both this bird, and the chickadee didn't seem to be doing much, we decided to delve deeper into the forest. 

But before we managed to do that, an American Crow cackled at us. Rather aggressively as well. I have a tiny fear of crows, because I've been attacked by them before. I remember the event quite clearly; it was a Sunday on a warm spring day around 7:00PM. I was walking from my house in Maple Leaf to a bus stop two blocks away. Almost right away, as I left my house, a crow cawed at me. Of course, I thought nothing of it because this has happened a million times. However, the crow began to follow me. After a block, it began to caw again, and another crow came. Together, the two of them began to follow me and caw at me. It was quite unnerving, but I though once I got far away enough they'd leave me alone. How wrong I was. Soon I got to the bus stop, and another two crows showed up to join the chorus of cawing. At this point, two of them flew into a tree above the bus stop and started ripping leaves from the tree and throwing it at me. I was hoping the bus would come soon so I didn't have to deal with this, but they escalated the situation by starting to dive bomb me. At this point, I called it quits and decided I had had enough, and ran for it. This might have encouraged them though, because as I ran across the street, one of them swooped lower than usual, and hit my lower back with its beak, leaving a small welt. Fortunately, I ran the two blocks home and they didn't follow me. I decided to stay home that night. 

I'm watching you...

There were quite a few times we heard an Anna's Hummingbird, but only managed to glimpse it once as it fed from some Himalayan Blackberry bushes. I tried to pull out my camera to capture a snapshot of it, but I was too slow to the draw, and it quickly flitted away. 

After a little bit of trekking, we came across an overlook into a very wooded area with a lot of canopy cover. We decided to sit down and see if any birds would come our way. It took quite a while, but after a while we spotted a Spotted Towhee rummaging through the leaf litter collected under a thicket of blackberry bushes. At this point we decided to see if we could lure it in with some playback calls. At first, we started with some songs, and got no response. But then we used calls, and started getting some responses. It was funny how much of a game of marco polo it seemed like. Eventually, the same towhee came back through the blackberry bushes on the other side of us, and looked at us inquisitively. We wanted to get a picture, so we kept repeating the call. Apparently, that towhee wasn't the only one that heard us though; soon enough we were surrounded by four towhees, one to the right on the ground in blackberry bushes, one to the left in the top of a large shrub, and two behind us (one on the ground, another in a bigleaf maple). At this point we managed to get a snapshot!

One in the tree!

One on the ground! Surrounded!

We decided to stop calling the towhees, because we were afraid that we might end up stressing them out. We tried other calls like hummingbirds, Goldfinches, and Northern Flickers, but without any results. After a while, we tried a Chestnut-backed Chickadee call, and that seemed to attract one of them! It came over quite inquisitively, and ended up observing us from a branch almost right above us as we called to it and it responded. 

Checking out the neighbors

It didn't seem aggressive all though, more curious. It just watched us and groomed itself. In fact, it stayed put long after we stopped calling to it, and didn't leave until we did. After a bit more walking we found ourselves closer to the shoreline, but not actually at it despite our best efforts. From the distance we managed to spot a Western Gull shrieking in the air, but eventually we lost sight of it. Due to time restrictions, we had to turn back, even though we meant to see all the shorebirds and waterfowl that might be on the shoreline.  

Trying to find a meal. 

As we worked our way through the forest again, we looked up to see a Great Blue Heron! What a majestic bird! The UW campus has a rookery that I like to visit every now and then to see what they're up to. 

Despite being a wetland bird, they nest in terrestrial trees!

The last bird we saw were a couple of small nondescript sparrow shaped but robin sized birds that flew through a clearing and right past us into low shrubbery. They were mostly grey, with a black streak over the eye. There were about three initially, but another joined them as they hopped along the ground in the understory. They made a fairly taunting cackling sound that almost sounded like an evil laugh. I was hoping to see them again, but the brush was too thick to see through. Maybe I will come across them again the future?

Week Five

Date: Sunday May 5th, 2013
Weather: Sunny, no clouds
Temperature: 72 degrees F
Time: 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Location: Discovery Park

YES! Finally, we got a beautiful day to do our observations. Without a cloud in the sky and a comfortable temperature, we set off to find some arthropods and record some phenological changes. But not without first stopping to review our arthropods to figure out what we might see! After looking over our notes and munching on a Twix, we then set off. While we were advised to look at creeks and streams for aquatic insects, there isn't much surface moisture that I know of in Discovery Park, other than the shoreline. So we simply decided that we'd blaze a new path and see what we could find.

This picture does not do justice to the Olympic Mountains
but gives you an idea of our backdrop while making our observations

Almost right away, we started to see new things! A lot of grasses are now flowering. Unfortunately, I never really look closely enough to get enough information to identify them. Maybe because their flowers are so dang small?

Moving on, my partner nearly stumbled into a big ditch, which led us to stumbling upon a new plant! I know we were supposed to focus on arthropods this post, but we keep finding new plants! This plant seemed only to be growing in this ditch, which afforded the soil it was in some shade. Maybe that means it is a plant that requires cool soil? Maybe a wetland plant? Either way, it seemed to be doing rather well for just a herbaceous plant, standing almost four feet tall! Unfortunately, it isn't in flower so it is a little hard to ID. Also nearby was some Elderberry that was fruiting!

Can't tell from this picture, but this plant is probably 4 ft tall in a foot deep ditch

Judging from its leaves, it is probably in the Apiaceae (Carrot Family)

The immature Elderberry fruits... Youngin'berrys?

After our near ankle breaking experience, we moved into a more grassland/meadow ecological niche, and began finding new species accordingly! I found something in the Caryophyllaceae (Pink/Carnation Family) that I was unfamiliar with. At first I thought it had 10 petals, but after looking at this picture I realized that it was just 5 petals that have two very defined lobes! I'm not sure what it is, but I tentatively place it in Siliene (the Campion genus). Interesting tid-bit: these type of flowers were placed on champions at public games. We also managed to find a new species of Spiraea spp.

Stellaria media: Check out the 3 lobed stigma!

Some species of Spirea perhaps? Definitely Rosaceae

This is for sure a cultivated Spirea

As we came more clearly into the fields, we came across a Rosemary bush. This was a pollinator jackpot! Crawling all over this 6 foot tall bush were Yellow-faced Bumblebees and Honey bees! All these guys are in the Hymenoptera.

Some sort of Bumblebee - look at the pollen collected on its legs!

A honey bee

Yellow-faced Bumblebee, doing its buzzy thang

Also nearby, we managed to find a Western Yellow Jacket. I was a little scared to get a picture, but managed to snap one while it was crawling on the ground.

Please.... I just want a picture... don't sting me!

We were so distracted with trying to get photographs of the bees that we almost ran straight into a pair of Lepidoptera! From the glimpse that we got of them, we thought they were Indra Swallowtails, and were a mated pair. Apparently they feed on anything in the Apiaceae (Carrot family), but I haven't really seen any Apiaceae in flower? Maybe the vegetative parts are enough? We also saw some Cabbage White briefly. Apparently they feed on things in the Brassicaceae (Mustard family). While I kind of knew it, I didn't fully realize how diverse yet specialized different butterflies are in their diet.

I wonder if the two dots at the bottom are supposed to imitate eyes?

While we were caught up in all this excitement, a House Fly landed on my partner's leg.

I also saw yet another new plant! Once again, I couldn't find it in Pojar, but it is clearly in the Asteraceae. The leaves seem fairly distinctive.

Flowers from last year

Almost cedar like leaves

 Moving further into a field, we saw Rumex acetosella (Sheep Sorrel/ Sour Weed). You see this stuff everywhere, especially around human settlements. We also saw Victoria arvensis (Corn Speedwell)! This species is interesting because they only have two stamens, and asymmetrical flowers with 4 petals. Apparently quite a few species of Victoria can outcompete grasses. Crazy, and I thought nothing could outcompete grasses.

Victoria arvensis: Look at the two stamens!

Also managed to find something in the Fabaceae. For the millionth time, Pojar didn't have it. It is teeny-tiny! We found it in a lawn, and it can probably compete with the grasses because it is likely nitrogen fixing, like most things in the Fabaceae.

Looking closely at the ground can reward you with flowers!

Since it was so windy on the grasslands, we decided to see if we could find any insects in a more forested area, since our search so far had not been very fruitful on that front. Under the shade of some conifers, we managed to find Claytonia sibirica (Candy Flower/ Siberian Miner's-Lettuce). Apparently the Tlingit mixed it with a few other things to treat syphilis sores. Other tribes used it for a variety of things, like making babies soft, inducing labor, constipation, and headaches. We also saw a Pacific Dogwood finally in flower!

Those big white things are actually bracts, not petals (or sepals)!

Also growing under some conifers were some Myosotis laxa (Small-flowered Forget-Me-Not). Myth has it that steel tempered with the juice of forget-me-nots are strong enough to cut stone. Yeah....

The yellow structure in the middle of the flowers is called a corona. Cue beer joke. 

Also saw some Dicentra formosa (Pacific Bleeding-heart), Deer fern, Geum macrophyllum (Large-leaved Avens), Salix sitchensis (Sitka Willow), Rubus discolor (Himalayan Blackberry), Camassia quamash (Common Camas), Lupinus polyphyllus (Large-leaved Lupin), Acer circinatum (Vine Maple), Cedrus deodara (Cedar of Lebanon), maybe Iris tenax (Oregon Iris) and quite a few species of Columbine, including Aquilegia atrata (Dark Columbine) and Aquilegia fragrens (Fragrant Columbine). 

Hummingbirds love those spurs

Columbine!

Also, I found Youth-on-Age (Tolemia menziesii):

I'm done with plants! I swear! We finally managed to find a few other arthropods crawling around, such as some sort of spider in Arachnida and some ants, possibly Western Thatching Ant?

Crawlin away...

Ant feeding off of the nectar of a Vetch 

Sadly, we didn't see that many insects. They're pretty hard to find, being small and what not. But hopefully in the future we see a lot more!