4/23/12
Location: Magnuson Park
Coordinates: (47.6812231, -122.2477698)
Weather: The weather that day was really nice and sunny, which prompted me to go to the park in Sandpoint in Seattle, WA. It was fairly warm, perhaps in the high 60's F. I went in the mid afternoon, around 4 pm. It was not very cloudy and it was not breezy at all.
Habitat: There were about 3 different habitats at Magnuson Park. The first one I went to was a wetlands with cattails and horsetails. There was a trail along the lake bed and there were many ducks in the ponds. The wetlands/marshy area was also home to geese and red-winged black birds. This area had a lot of tall grasses and berry bushes. The next area was more of a beach-y area by Lake Washington. The trail leads to the edge of the lake bed where there were rocks and the water comes right up to the edge. There were seagulls and more ducks around here. There were a few conifers as opposed to mostly deciduous trees now. The last area was a forest area. It felt very natural and dense. There were many conifers and less deciduous trees. There were also many ferns, bracken, and madrone. The animals I could see were sparrows and robins hopping around in the tree branches and on the forest floor. There were also many prickly blackberry bushes.
Vegetation: In the wetlands area, the dominant vegetation were cattails, small deciduous trees, large deciduous trees, berry bushes, and horsetails. The vegetation was green, and flowering. I also saw many fungi growing on dead logs and stumps. They seem to like wet, moist areas with some shade. In the beach area, there was less vegetation. There were more conifers, like Douglas Firs, and a lot of grassy meadows leading up to the lake edge. There were many small wildflowers like moneyplant and daisies. In the forest area, there was a vast amount of conifers. There were also common deciduous trees like madrone and ocean spray. Other plant life in that area included sword ferns, salmonberry, himalayan blackberry, and horsetails.
General Comments: I felt like the most natural area of the park was the forest part. I even got lost in this area because of the overgrowth. It felt more secluded from the rest of the park and from civilization and people. It was shady and filled with tall conifers. I also really like seeing the different fungi from the wetlands part of the park. Additionally, I liked seeing the ducks swim around in the ponds. I was able to get fairly close to Shovelers and see that their feather colors are quite different from a Mallard's. The male Shoveler's appear to be much more purple-blue than the Mallard's iridescent green. I also learned that what I thought were female Mallard's spending a lot of time with Gadwalls were actually a pair of female and male Gadwalls. Apparently female Gadwalls look a lot like female Mallards.
Species List: Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola)
Gadwall (Anas strepera)
Unknown mushroom
Unknown Fungi
White-crowned sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys)
Ocean spray (Holodiscus discolor)
Pholiota terrestris
Some plants I have not yet identified
Comentarios
Añade un comentario