Week 8/ Field Trip: East Slope of the Cascades!

Date:  May 25, 2013
Mostly Clear with Clouds and Sunshine!

We had a long drive ahead of us to the east slope of the cascades/ Ellensburg, but as we started to drive out of the Puget Sound Region, you could tell the changes in trees and topography and weather! When we arrived to the Untamun trail with nice beaming rays of sunshine and excited to see what was in store for us. As I crossed my not-so favorite bridge I began to hear a ton of bird songs and calls. We walked under railroad tracks and passed a creek and even before entering the trail, we were able to Identify a Lazuli Bunting. He was gorgeous and full of color! His head and parts of his back side was a light blue in color. He had a light orange on the upper part of his breast out lining down around his wings and a white belly. He flew away and came back up to the same tree perched. Not to far near the top of another tree Tim and Ross pointed out a GrossBeak.  The GrossBeak was also much of color, it looks similar to a robin but the orange and black were very much more vibrant. He had a black head and what looks to be like an orange ring around his neck down to his belly, black feathers, and a little white specs? on his wings. As we entered the trail I heard chickadees, but they had a slightly different call than our chickadees in the west of the cascades. They seemed to be one note short of the territorial song. There were also a lot of cowbirds around. We began to look around for plants! There was a lot of Sagebrush everywhere! It had a very strong smell of a minty lavender, the leaves had a felty- smooth feel to the touch and where green-gray in color. There was also Rabitbrush , which was quite similar to the sagebrush. The leaves were more straight in shape and not oblang-ish in shape like the sagebrush. There was also a horstail-rush plant that most of us were puzzled by. Sarah pointed out this yellow salsify. It had dandelion like flowers but distinctly different. In the Midst of it all, Tim heard a Yellow breasted chat. I was not able to see it very clearly but I did get a couple of glances here and there. It had a very yellow breast and I think it was grey on its head and the rest of his backside and wings. We were also able to see a Red-tailed hawk soaring near the ridge besides us. There was so many plants that we did not know and was very hard to identify. It took us quite a while to identify this really aromatic plant that smelled close to the same as the sagebrush but had a more settle smell, we thought it was Pearly everlasting. As I moved along the trail with more trouble identifying plants, I spotted some cactus! I'm not quite sure if it was a hedgehog cactus because it did not have many spiney needles and the flowers have not yet bloomed. Not too far from the cactus was some mushrooms! They were very yellow on the caps and had gills on the spores. Than all of sudden, Carter came back and with a Garter Snake! It was a cool and nice find.

Yellow Salsify

Sagebrush

Rabitbrush

A nice view of the amphitheater hillside in the distance 

maybe hedgehog cactus?

mushrooms

Carter and the Garter Snake

A rush/ horsetail?

Our next stop was at a place with a lot of pretty wildflowers and on a spot that was called lithosols vegetation. Which was a very rocky vegetation with little sagebrush.

A type of buckwheat? I don't remember the name

I seemed to have forgot the name of this wildflower too.

Long-leaved phlox?

The top of this was very soft

balsamroot?

A type of onion growing on the lithosol vegetation

Short-horned lizard!

Pretty Bitterroot flowers growing on the lithosols vegetation

At the last stop there was amazing ponderosa pines! If you find one that has been exposed to a lot of sun, you can smell the bark and it smells like vanilla! James estimated the ponderosa pines to be about 250-300 years old. There was also a nice hike to a waterfall.

James standing next to a ponderosa pine!

A view of the waterfall

The ridge behind the waterfall!

Week 7

Date: May 19, 2013
Weather: Cloudy/ Overcast
Time of day: 12pm-1pm
Temperature: about 66 degrees Fahrenheit

Today, although it was not sunny, it was great weather. A lot of people were at Lincoln Park today, enjoying nature, out for a jog, barbecuing, etc. Right when I walked into the park, I was able to hear a lot of chickadees above me in the canopy, but I was not able to spot one. I was also to identify and hear a lot of american robins.  My area has not changed much from last week, but I do see some more plants blooming their flowers and soon have their berries. I was able to spot a bee nearby by it's loud buzzing, it landed on a log and seemed to be digging or "tunneling?" But it soon took off and as it noticed me, observing it overhead. The Thimbleberry had grew more of its white papery flowers, but still no berries. The Salmonberry however had tons of berries that were full and ripened. I was able to find a couple where the birds haven't eaten them up yet. I also noticed that the  tall oregon grape had grew its berries, they were still green and had not ripened yet. It was very frustrating in a way to find mushrooms at my site! I was looking everywhere, under logs, in logs, on trees, on the ground, on the pines, but I was not coming up with any mushrooms. But I did find a good amount of moss at my site, Oregon beaked moss, was the most common moss I noticed. I was very determined to find fungi at my location, and on the log that I had passed by earlier, I noticed some type orange little circular thing on the log, there was a couple of them but not many, they had pores all over them and wouldn't budge when I tried to move them. They were also hard. On a broadleaf tree nearby, was Oakmoss lichen growing on the branches! I was very excited, I though it was old man's beard at first, but it didn't seem to stringy or long, it was more forky looking. I ended up walking around not too far from my location to find some mushrooms. As I was walking I heard something moving in the shrub nearby, then a small bird flew out of it and landed near a salmonberry bush, on a trunk of a douglas fir. The bird had a dark/ black head and white chest, white beak, and brownish/ dark feathers with somewhat of a white streak on it's tail. It seemed to be gathering some nesting materials, I was able to get a picture of it, in hopes someone can help my ID it later. I thought maybe it could have been a Dark-eyed Junco.  As the bird flew away I continued my search for mushrooms, and finally I spotted a couple Artist's conk or Artist's fungus. The cap of the mushroom was flat or somewhat convex in shape and was dark brown to gray-ish in color. Towards the edge of the cap it was more white in color, which continued on underneath the mushroom to it's spores. The spores where white in color and they were pores. This mushroom was directly attached to tree and was very hard and the texture was smooth to a little wrinkly. I was very excited to find these, they grew on different types of trees, I found one on a douglas fir and another on a maple.

I was unable to go down to the beach to check on the mallard female duck and her ducklings, but I was very excited on my observations and findings.

Repeat photo of my site 

A very bad picture of the bee that landed on a log

Pictures of salmonberry with pretty ripened berries!

Interesting find, This was the orange fungi? that I noticed on a log 

A picture of Oakmoss lichen growing on the branches of a broadleaf tree

Oregon beaked moss, was very common among my site.

Two pictures of the bird that I was able to spot, possibly a Dark-eyed Junco. 

Artist's fungus! 

Week 6

Date: May 12, 2013
Weather: Cloudy with light drizzle
Temperature: about 60 degrees Fahrenheit
Time of Day: 9:30 - 1030 am

It was a nice sunday morning with clouds overhead and a light drizzle here and there. As usual there was a lot going on in the canopy above me. It was very hard to identify birds with their calls and songs. I heard one song or call the stood out to me and maybe I'll be able to identify this bird later in the course. It was a constant whistle of such, it would be the 4 same notes with 1 or 2 sec. intervals in between. I was able to follow a bird that had a black head and grey-ish body I believe, I was hesitant to go any closer in results of the bird flying away. The bird was about the size of a sparrow looked a little bit like the Savannah and Song sparrows we saw the other day at Union Bay Natural Area. He stayed low to the ground in the grass and later moved on into a shrub, probably finding food to eat. He had a call that was a quick 'check' 'check' and he left flying through trees and shrubs and I was unable to find him again. Hopefully I will be able to ID this bird soon. While I was walking back to my site I was lucky to look up and saw an Anna's Hummingbird flying above me. He was so pretty and small but soon fluttered away. I reached my site and noticed that understory plants were starting to grow more and more of their flowers. There was also a licorice fern growing on a maple that I never noticed when walking through my site. Still no berries on the Thimbleberry yet but hopefully soon. However the Salmonberry had many berries still in the process of ripening but the ones that were, had already been eaten by birds, which is cool. I also noticed that there were a lot of bees out around my area and throughout the whole park. It is interesting to observe a location and how much it changes with the season. I never or rarely saw any bees at my location in the beginning of this quarter but now, they're all buzzing around me and past me. I dropped my pencil and saw some Western buttercup! I can't believe I did not see them before.

As I walked towards the beach part of the park to check to see if the Mallard Duck and her ducklings were still there, I heard and saw 2 to 3 crows fly across me and headed toward the direction of the beach. When I reached the beach I quickly located the Mallard duck and her duckling wading in the water close by the shore. But as I was observing them, I was only able to count 5 ducklings. Last week there was 6, and I wondered what happened to the 6th duckling. The other ducklings seem to have grown a little bigger in size or more fluffier. I decided to leave them alone as more children started to walk towards the ducks. As I was walking back to the upper part of the park I realized where the 3 crows were heading towards. There was a big group of crows on the beach pecking at the rocks for food. I also noticed that they were a bit aggressive towards each other when one got in the way of the other.

Repeat photo of my location

Some Western Buttercup! 

Licorice fern! 

Red Huckleberry growing its berries

Salmonberry with one almost ripened berry and one half eaten

Week 5

Date: May 07, 2013
Time of Day: 2pm- 3pm
Weather: Clear blue skies, Sunny Spring day
Temperature: about 74 degrees Fahrenheit

It was a gorgeous day to be out enjoying nature! There was many birds out chirping and I was able to spot a couple today around my site. I saw many American Crows, and smaller birds as well but they were to quick for me to identify. I was able to head to the beach part of Lincoln Park to enjoy some of the nice weather by the water. As I found a dry drift log to sit on, I looked around the area where I sat and saw a female Mallard duck sitting about 2 feet away from with 6 little ducklings nearby. I was so excited to see ducklings, they were just the cutest ducklings ever. I watched them closely for about 15 minutes as they walked across the pavement to reach the lawn area. As what seems to me like the ducklings were feeding, an american crow was nearby and began to find it's way closer and closer the the ducklings, but the mother duck was able to scare the crow away for the time being.

Back to my location, I was able to spot a lot of new plants that were growing or the same plants blooming. I never noticed this before, but a lot of the understory had a plant that had leaves as whorls and in the middle there was single thin stems the held a flower with pedals of 6, it looks similar to a Starflower?, but at the same time im not quite sure. For awhile at my site I thought Bracken was a certain type of fern, but no there is just a lot of bracken. I checked on the same thimbleberry and salmonberry to see if they grew any more flowers or started growing their berries. The thimbleberry has finally grew it's white pretty flowers, but not berries yet. The salmonberry has lost most of it's flowers and started to grow berries and a couple berries have ripped (at least in color). The Indian Plum seemed to get a little taller but not by much, and the elderberry has not yet gotten it's berries but it seems that it has been cut or trimmed or some disturbance to the tree/shrub.  I also noticed a couple little bald-hipped rose starting to grow, and one in particular at my site that was quite large and had bloomed it's flowers already. I think I mistaken this bald-hipped rose, on week 4 for a Nootka Rose. The thorns were more fine than armored and sharp like the ones on a Nootka Rose.

Repeat picture of my location

There was a lot of these plants in the understory, possibly Starflower?

Thorns and leaves of the bald hipped rose (smaller plant)

Thimbleberry starting to form its flowers or berries

Salmonberry! with it's berries starting to ripe

Some more Salmonberry with its berries

bald hipped rose flower! 

Thimbleberry flowers!

female mallard duck and her ducklings!

It was very hard to find invertebrates in my location, maybe I was not looking in the right places but I was able to find at least 3 ! 

Possibly a banana slug. I found this slug inside of an old snag or old tree that has fallen down. It was yellow in color and didn't quite have a lot of black spots like most banana slugs but it did have some black lines or dots on its body, though they weren't very apparent. The slug's eyes were stalked or were attached to antenna-like form that was part of its front of the body. This slug was not very active while I was observing. 

I found this pillbug under a nearby log or branch by the fallen tree. It was probably feeding on the log because pillbugs tend to like moist damp areas like the underside of this log. If I tried to touch the pillbug, it would roll up into a ball, which I like to call them "rollie pollie ollies". They have seven pairs of legs I think and segments or parts of their body that allows them to roll in a ball. 

This is not a normal earth worm that we usually see. I found this type of worm underneath a rock, it was very, very, very small. It had a translucent color or a clear whitish body. The tends to like damp areas as well, because underneath the rock, the soil was damp and cool. This worm was very "even" throughout his whole body or segments. As I observed this worm, his motions were very squirmy and sometimes slithery.