Entry for the Final: 6/3/12

Location: Schmitz Park

Coordinates: 47.574455, -122.400299

Weather: It was about maybe 60 degrees. I was there around noon and the sky was clear and mostly blue. It wasn't sunny or hot, just average and cool as the cold dewy morning was fading into warmer midday.

Habitat: The habitat was an old-growth forest with dense, tall trees and a muddy, moist trail. It was very woodsy and had a fresh smell to the area. There were many nature noises happening around me. I could hear trickling streams of water all over the forest, the songs of birds, the rustling of leaves and bushes, and the humming of bees and other insects. I saw maybe 3 or 4 different groups of people. I saw the same jogger running the loop a couple times, a family taking pictures and looking for mushrooms, and a couple forest wanderers. Generally, the area was pretty isolated at that time of the day. I saw many, many birds in this area. At the entrance I could hear the voices of lots of individual robins calling to each other. I could hear crows and seagulls, as this area was close to the beach. I also saw some tiny songbirds (perhaps warblers, nuthatches, or wrens) at the entrance to the trail hopping along maple tree branches. At a certain curve in the trail, I heard a loud squawking coming from a pine tree. I thought it was a harsh call of a starling, but it turned out to be a lovely (but not lovely to hear) stellar's jay! He was big, announcing his presence and defending his territory. He had a dark black head and a brilliant blue body. I kept walking the trail and eventually reached my location. There I saw an Allen's Hummingbird! I heard a loud buzzing which I thought was a bee, but it turned out to be an adorable little hummingbird. He was poking into some rocks where I thought he maybe had a nest, but then he left. I also saw what I thought might be brown creepers jumping around and up and down trees. They had a distinctive call that I could not identify. I also noted that I saw a lot of bumblebees and honey bees. They seem to like to collect pollen from the forest flowers.

Vegetation: The forest seemed to be almost 50/50 deciduous and conifer trees. However, if I had to pick which was more prevalent, I would say there were more deciduous trees, especially big leaf maples. The most prevalent conifer was the western red cedar. I also saw many pines like the douglas fir (and maybe lodgepole pine?) I could not identify and some less common deciduous trees like black cottonwood and red alder. Some more fairly common trees I saw included western hemlock and sitka spruce. The western hemlocks seemed to grown together in clumps and I saw at least one, lone sitka spruce in the middle of the forest right at my coordinates. I saw a lot of skunk cabbages, they seemed to be very common and lined the trail of the forest. I also saw many salmonberries of varying color, from redish to light pink. These were also very common and could be found everywhere. I saw some less common thimbleberry and creeping buttercups. I also saw many ferns. If I had to describe the forest, I might call it the forest of ferns, cedars, and maples. I saw many giant swordferns, which appeared to be thriving in the western washington wet conditions. I also saw bracken, lady ferns, and wood ferns. However, sword ferns were by far the most common and they grew the tallest. I also happened to see a few fungi. On the trail, I found some cut down logs. They were covered on the sides with artists conk and turkey tails. The fungi also seemed to thrive in the damp, dark forest environment, though I didn't see a lot of them.

General Comments: When I learned that this forest was an old growth forest, I was surprised. I never knew that there was such an old forest right in the middle of suburban Seattle. So I decided to do a little research on what makes an old growth forest an old growth forest. There are apparently four major components to an old growth forest. The first is that it is made up of large trees. The pacific northwest's large trees might include douglas firs and such. These large trees are factories, bringing in energy by photosynthesis and storing it in their large structures. The next important component is large snags. Snags are standing dead trees. These are important because they can provide homes to wildlife or provide food. The next component is fallen trees on the forest floor. These are important because they decay on the forest floor, yet take many years to decay. They provide homes for insects and can be hosts for many fungi. These rotten trees can also turn into nurse logs and new, young saplings can grow from them and use their nutrients. I saw many examples of just this in Schmitz Park. The last feature of an old growth forest is a continuous canopy. The forest has so many layers of canopies and brances (largest tree branches on top, smaller ones filling in gaps, smaller shrubs lower down, etc.) that it is essentially continuous. Lichens and mosses live on these branches. I saw many mosses and lichens growing on trees. This is the sign of clean air and a healthy forest.

Species List: Bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum)
Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata)
Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)
Red Alder (Alnus rubra)
Black Cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa)
Steller's Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri)
Brown Creeper (Certhia americana)
American Robin (Turdus migratorius)
Sparrows of unknown species
Wrens of unknown species
American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
Allen's Hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin)
Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis)
Western sword fern (Polystichum munitum)
Lady fern (Athyrium felix-femina)
Wood fern (Dryopteris sp.)
Dwarf Oregon grape (Berberis nervosa)
Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens)
Western Skunk Cabbage (Lysichiton americanus)
Northern Giant Horsetail (Equisetum telmateia braunii)
Bumblebees (Bombus sp.)
Honeybees (Apis sp.)

Publicado el 05 de junio de 2012 a las 08:09 AM por velizo