Week 1

Date: Saturday, 6 April 2014

Time of Day:  15:00-16:00

Temperature: 45 F

Place: Union Bay trails

Weather: overcast and sprinkling

Description of site (1 sq meter):

Main site; Union Bay Trails

Pink flowers on tree (to be identified)

The site I've chosen is on the Union Bay trails, near a small pond. Funnily enough, I have not really been to the Union Bay area during my time at UW, even though it is so close to campus, so I am excited to be able to explore it and hopefully understand its ecosystem in depth this quarter. I am also interested in learning more about its history in social/cultural terms, which could add to my understanding of its natural history. 

In a one square meter area, I was able to see tufts of thick-bladed grass, dead branches snapped off of trees (one with pink buds and flowers but no leaves and one with small green sprouts on otherwise bare branches; I was unable to identify these), mud, blackberry bush branches, and a red-winged black bird overhead. The most active plants seemed to be the grass. I did not see much sign of life in the mud, though I’m sure there was. I didn’t dig around very much because I felt bad disturbing anything in the mud. This location was close to the pond.

  

Red-winged black bird (can't see the
red in the photo, but it's there!)

There were quite a few birds around, and I heard various sounds like caws from American crows, and from other birds, sprinkler-like chirps, scream-whistles, and laughing calls. I am not sure how many types of birds were around, but I am guessing about 4-5. Listening to these birds was a pretty cool experience because I had never done that before, and I hadn’t realized how varied their calls are, even within species. It made me wonder about individual birds and if their own vocal capacities vary as much as the vocal capacities of humans (i.e. voices that are naturally more easily projected than others, or ones that are naturally higher or lower pitches).

Description of site (50 sq meters):

In a 50 square meter area, I also observed dead-looking, spear-like ferns near

Spear ferns (to be identified)

the edge of the water; small and bare trees with most of their branches at the top of the tree; sprouts in the water (possibly a type of algae?); and the gravel trail going through the land. Most of the varied vegetation was on the pond side of the trail, while the other side of the trail consisted of mostly uniform vegetation—the flat, broad leaves of grass, which were taller than on the other side and were growing on uneven ground. On the other side, I also saw some ducks, geese, and sparrows were also around and active, and possibly looking to mate. The specific species were a couple of mallards (a female and a male) and two Canadian Geese. There was also a completely black duck (black feathers, black beak) that I was unable to identify.

Canadian Geese

Later on in the quarter, I expect to see more flying critters like gnats, mosquitos, butterflies, and dragonflies, especially if I go to my site around dusk. I also hope to see some animals in the pond, like frogs or fish.

View of site from across the trail

Tree with low branches that extend out

I think this was a good experience for a first observation of my site—looking back at my notes, I realize now that next time, I should note everything down, despite whether or not I think it is important, and note down the finers details of shrubs and plants, like leaf shape. For instance, I saw a purple flower in the mud that looked like it had come from somewhere else, but because I did not stop to observe it because I thought it was unimportant. Looking back at it now though, I wish I had at least taken a picture of it so that I could identify it and figure out if it really was from the area or not. My description of the grass also was poor, and though I think it may be Bluebunch Wheatgrass(?), I am not sure of my identification. I am sure that experience and more time making observations will help, as one of the reasons why I took poor notes was because I felt overwhelmed by all the different species there, and by how the same ones can sometimes look very different in different stages of life, which makes it seem like there is even more than there really is. I also felt like I was lacking the vocabulary to describe certain features, like the trees. The Audubon guide was a little helpful in this area, but still left me with some questions. For example, I am not sure how to describe the tree pictured at the right. My first instinct would be to note that it has one short main bole that turns into other smaller boles (or are they called branches?), or that it is a tree with low branches that extend out, but I am not sure if this would make sense to other naturalists, or what the standard is for describing a tree like this. Hopefully we will learn these things soon in the course!

Nature experiences as a child:

Example of typical Maine Coast
(from http://latitudesjourney.
blogspot.com/2009/
08/sorento-french-harbor-
bill-and-buckle.html)

Some of my most memorable childhood experiences in nature occurred in Maine. My family often went to a small island near Bar Harbor and would spend the summer months there. My experiences in nature there and in Seattle are very separate and distinct memories, based not only on the different vegetation, organisms, and landscapes of each locale, but the culture as well.

In Maine for example, my father and I had a tradition of sailing to a natural harbor and anchoring there for a few nights. There were small, uninhabited islands nearby that we explored and eventually got to know well over the years. Two of them were connected by a low rock “bridge” that was only accessible at low tide, and we had to time ourselves right to get back to the dinghy if we decided to cross over to the other island. Another island had what we called “fairy houses,” or little, doll-sized structures that people built out of leaves and sticks and whatever other natural materials were there. I often used the blue mussel shells and seaglass I found on the beach. Sometimes weathered lobsterpot buoys—I considered these part of nature—added to the decoration as well, but whole ones were rare to find. We also usually hiked up trails on a small mountain composed of the flat, large boulders characteristic of the Maine coast. Pine trees were and are very common there, and we would see the boulders’ crevices filled with long, flat pine needles.

While some of these features described above can also be found in Washington, I have very strong associations of them with Maine. My experiences in Seattle were in structured nature—usually parks or my backyard. Such places felt more man-made and already-explored, and I tend to think of my nature experiences as having happened in Maine. I still feel similarly, but think I will still enjoy going to my observation site this quarter.