Location: My house in Bryn Mawr Skyway, close to South Seattle.
Coordinates: (47.4927114, -122.239218)
Weather: It was partly cloudy and 61 degrees F. Every now and then the clouds would part and it would be quite warm. Overall it was a pleasantly warm day.
Habitat: Down the gravel road from the busy street, is my house. My driveway is surrounded on all sides by brambles and blackberry bushes. Tall trees grow in piles of common Ivy. As the driveway proceeds, the trees seem to get taller. The tallest trees are Big Leaf Maples. They are the home to many small sparrows and other small mammals. Lining my yard are medium shrubs and prickly brambles. Birds like to perch there and chat with each other. Surrounding my house is a giant grassy yard. The yard is always green and growing. In the middle is a bird feeder so that squirrels can't get to it. It attract songbirds from all over the area. Ever since we set it up, I've been seeing newer and more colorful birds. The back yard is just as large as the front yard. A very tall laurel hedge divides our house and yard from our neighbor's. Birds and other creatures like to hide in there. There is a very suspicious trail from the beneath the shed to the laurel hedge. It never goes away even when we mow the lawn because I assume it is well traveled by some strange creature at night. I also often hear coyotes calling to each other at nighttime. Sometimes I hear them by my window in the middle of the night and they sound like crying babies. It's rather scary.
Vegetation: The large plantlife is mostly deciduous trees. Many of them are native, like the Big Leaf Maple and Black Cottonwood. However, some are also planted by my family like Dogwoods and fruit trees. Somehow, in my backyard, wild grapes of some kind decided to grow from my neighbor's yard and climb up our ancient apple tree. Next to our apple tree grows cherry, plum, and pear trees. There are also little, non-tree plants growing everywhere at my house. There are many bushes and shrubs, wildflowers, berry bushes, and blackberry bushes.
General Comments: I have seen and heard a wider variety and greater amount of birds at my house than I have at state parks. My house really feels like a natural area away from the city and away from a lot of people. It's a great place to bird watch and see all kinds of birds, from hummingbirds to eagles. Before this class, I never knew the wide variety of nature growing right at my house.
Species List: Carpenter Ant (Camponotus floridanus)
Steller's Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri)
Black House Spider (Badumna insignis)
Lawrence's Goldfinch (Carduelis lawrencei)
House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)
American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis)
Lesser Goldfinch (Carduelis psaltria)
Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla)
American Robin (Turdus migratorius)
Leycesteria formosa
Form Prunus laurocerasus rotundifolia
Oregon Grape (Berberis aquifolium)
An unidentified berrying plant
American Plum (Prunus americana)
Common Pear (Pyrus communis)
Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota)
An unidentified moth
Location: The Cedar River Trail in Renton, WA close to the Landing shopping center and Boeing.
Coordinates: 47.4662048, -122.1375128
Weather: It was in the high 50's to low 60 degrees F. It was very warm. It was partly cloudy at some times during the day, but it was mostly clear and nice.
Habitat: The area I went to was close to my house. I walked along a trail by a river that opens out to Lake Washington. I walked from the Renton Highschool football stadium parking lot until the end of the trail by Boeing. It ended at a pier where I could look out at Lake Washington. The habitat along the river was sort of a wetlands. It was a river habitat with aquatic plants growing close to the bank. There were also many deciduous trees like willows and alders further from the river bank close to the trail. The river habitat is home to many ducks, gadwalls, small rabbits, small birds, seagulls, and squirrels. Although I didn't see any, I could also assume that the river is home to frogs, fish, lizards and other elusive amphibians.
Vegetation: The dominant plant life included large deciduous trees. The large trees grew along the trail, close to the river. There were some few conifers further away from the river bank, but they were smaller and more like bushes than trees. There were also non-native, planted saplings and young blossoming trees along the trail for decoration. Smaller plant life I saw included river bank plants like horsetails and cattails. There were also a few berry bushes like blackberries and salmonberries.
Species List: Scotch Broom (Cytisus scoparius)
Shore Pine (Pinus contorta contorta)
An unknown plant
Aesculus hippocastanum
around 7 unknown flowering plants
Silver-spotted Tiger Moth (Lophocampa argentata)
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
Gadwall (Anas strepera)
Camellias (Genus Camellia)
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
Brush Rabbit (Sylvilagus bachmani)
Location: Union Bay Natural Area
Coordinates: (47.65128707885742, -122.31150817871094)
Weather: I went to the Union Bay Natural Area after 6pm on Wednesday. It was cold and windy. It was about 50 degrees F. The weather was overcast, cloudy, and basically a normal Seattle day.
Habitat: The habitat is a wetlands with a lot of grassy meadows, cattails, horsetails, and deciduous trees. There were many stagnant ponds with ducks and coots swimming around in them. At the edge of the natural area was the bank to Union Bay. From this point, I could see a wider variety of water birds like seagulls, cormorants, and buffleheads. The cattails around the ponds and lake bed were home to red-winged blackbirds. The birds would perch on the tops of the cattails and call to the females. Small sparrows also jumped around the trail and pecked at the ground. Other hummingbirds could also be seen buzzing around floral trees.
Vegetation: The dominant plantlife were cattails, grasses, and horsetails. there were a lot more marshy plants than large trees. The dominant trees were deciduous. Many were small and floral by the lake beds. Other trees were larger and further from the lake bed. In the grassy meadows was an abundance of dry, brown queen anne's lace.
General Comments: I had been to the Union Bay Natural Area before with the class when we did the sketching exercises. I really liked it so I came back a few times to get pictures and try to see new birds. When I came back, I saw new birds like more Great Blue Herons, Canada Geese, Shovelers, Buffleheads, Coots, and Double-crested Cormorants. Seeing these birds made me more enthusiastic about bird watching and taking pictures. I was really happy to just observe them and watch them do what they do everyday. I saw the cormorants just sitting on a little island in the bay close to land. At first I wondered why they just sat there. Then I learned that they had to dry their wings in order to fly because they can't fly with wet wings after they dive. I also saw the Great Blue Herons fishing for small fish. I saw Canada Geese flying in pairs and I saw Buffleheads and coots for the first time ever. Diving birds are a rare and new sight for me.
Species List: Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)
Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus)
Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius)
Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis)
American Robin (Turdus migratorius)
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola)
Common cattail (Typha latifolia)
Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus)
Red-winged Black Bird (Agelaius phoeniceus)
Black-capped Chickadee (Parus atricapillus)
Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus)
Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata)
Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota)
American Coot (Fulica americana)
American Wigeon (Anas americana)
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
Location: Raveena Park
Coordinates: (Lat: 47.6715421, Lon: -122.303767)
Weather: It was in the mid 50's that day. It was overcast, cloudy, and sprinkled rain slightly. I went from around 5pm to 7pm.
Habitat: The habitat along the trail in the park was very forest-y and woodsy. There were tall conifers and small creeks where I expected frogs to live, but never saw any. There were many ferns and horsetails. The area was rather quiet and there was not a lot of human traffic. I only saw the occasional jogger or dog-walker. I saw some colorful, flowering plants, but there weren't many. The tall trees provided too much shade from their canopy to let enough light in to led all the small, forest floor plants get big and flowery. When just standing and listening in the forest, I could hear woodpeckers and the songs from small birds trying to attract mates. I didn't see any mammals along the trail. I could hear a lot of birds singing way high up in the trees, but could hardly see any. The forest trail lead to a park with a baseball field that led back to civilization with streets and cars and food. Everything at the end of the trail was definitely planted.
Vegetation: The vegetation was probably half conifers and half deciduous trees. There were also small wetland plants growing around a small stream that ran along the trail. These plants included horsetails, skunk cabbage, aquatic grasses, and other things. Many of these might have been planted in order to maintain native species. I also saw many berrying plants like blackberries, huckleberries, and salmonberries.
General Comments: The most awesome creature I saw that day by far was the Barred Owl. A jogger along the trail had told us that she saw an owl a ways away so I went to go look for it. It ended up being pretty much at eye level, blending into the tree behind it. It was sleeping on a branch and when I stopped to stare, it opened its eyes and would blink at me. I was surprised that it never flew away or made any sounds. I learned that it may have been so silent and camouflaged in order to keep small birds away. Apparently during the days, when owls are blinded by the sun, they are quite vulnerable. Small, vicious, songbirds like to come peck at and harass owls and other birds of prey during the daytime. So I assume it was very tired and that I wasn't worth the effort to fly away and risk being seen by birds that could bother it. I really enjoyed seeing this owl as I have never seen one in the wild before and it was the highlight of my adventure. I hope to see more birds I have never seen before and learn about them.
Species List: Common lilac (Syringa vulgaris)
Japanese Cherry (Prunus serrulata)
Skunk Cabbage (Lysichiton americanus)
Western Lady Fern (Athyrium filix-femina)
Barred Owl (Strix varia)
Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis)
Moneyplant (Lunaria annua)
Serviceberry (Genus Amelanchier)
Red-flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum)
Lesser stitchwort (Stellaria graminea)
