Whidbey Island Feild Trip!

On November 19th, the gang headed out from Wallace Hall at around 7:30 in the morning. We boarded the ferry to Whidbey Island form Mulkelteo, where we saw Glaucous-winged gulls and Cormorants. As the island came closer to view, we could see proof of its glacial formation, which included the stratified alluvial deposits that make up the bluffs on the sides of the island. We couldn't see the drumlins from our viewpoint, but the island is made up of drumlins, some of which exceed 1,000 feet. These drumlins run North to South, so we drove diagonally over them. 

Our first stop was Beth Wheat's farm. I'm not going to lie, I kind of fell in love with that farm. Apple trees dropped their fruit in the driveway, not caring if there was a car underneath. I heard the bleat of goats, and saw a cat at the entrance of the barn. We jumped out of the vans, and what should be our first mission? Pet the goats, obviously. 

We got our first mission knocked out, and then we headed out towards the creek, where we were to lay camera traps. Beth had asked us to set these cameras in order to document the creatures that come through her farm, so she can adapt her agricultural practices to suit their needs as well. This felt like real field work, so I was beyond thrilled to romp through the mud. To get to the creek, which is at the bottom of a drumlin, we walked across a wetland meadow, where rushes thrived on top of the clay soil. The creek also flowed over clay, which was deposited by the Vashon ice sheet. 

We saw several interesting things near the creek. For one camera, we headed into a thicket where snags of old cedars hinted at a relic of the forest that had been. In a newer Douglas Fir, we spotted a beautiful Barred Owl. We attached another camera at a different location, marked by lichen-covered Alnus rubras. The air isn't as polluted as it is in Seattle, so all sorts of lichen thrive on the island. We identified antler's perfume and wax-paper lichen.

One of the most interesting piece of information came as we were leaving, where Tim told us the reason for the organized holes on the apples trees. A type of woodpecker, the Red-breasted Sapsucker, drills small holes in very neat columns and rows. I just thought it was crazy how neat and tidy the marks were, and how they covered the whole trunk of the tree. 

We drove away from the farm, and I felt a twinge of sadness as we did. After forty minutes or so, we reached our main site for the day- Ebey's landing. We parked at the top of the hill, which was marked by gnarled and windblown trees. Many of them are quite old, but don't get very tall due to the wind. The wind plays a major role in the types of plants that grow here; short, with waxy coatings, swelling for water retention, hairs, or no big leaves. Even though Ebey's landing is in the rain-shadow East of the Olympics, the Sitka spruce trees growing there are able to get their moisture from fog that breaks at the top of the bluff.

In a Grand Fir, we spotted a Hairy woodpecker. We could distinguish it from a Downy woodpecker because our specimen had a bill that was equal to/longer than the width of its head. The trees were also coated with long clumps of Ramalina menziesii, a long foliose lichen that forms a web/net. 

We parked at the beach, and walked up the hill along the bluffs, and walked down to the beach once we were past the spit. The cause for the spit was interesting. As debris falls from the bluffs, water current pulled it East, where the water slowed and caused the sediment to accumulate and form the spit. On our right, we walked passed prairies, which were once maintained and burned by Native Americans that inhabited the island. As we passed over the spit, we looked down to see Hooded Mergansers and Greater Yellowlegs feeding in the shallow water.

Since we saw so many different things, I'm going to make a giant list:

BIRDS:

-Horned Grebe

-Pacific Loon

-Greater Yellowlegs

-Harlequin duck

-Bufflehead

-Redbreasted Merganser

-Hooded Merganser

-Cormorant (couldn't ID specifically)

-Mew gull

-Bonaparte gull

-Ring-billed gull

-Western gull

-Glaucous-winged gull

-Bald Eagle

-Barred Owl

-Hairy Woodpecker

-Golden crowned sparrow

PLANTS:

-Gum plant

-Yarrow

-Symphoricarpos albus 

-Searocket

-Glasswort 

-Gaultheria shallon 

-Poison Hemlock

-Opuntia fragilis, native cactus

-Ramalina menziesii

-Lipstick cladonia

-Douglas's Campion 

We did our walk too fast, mainly because it was cold. But we didn't get out of the cold at all, because we ended up sitting by the water for a long while. The clouds broke for a while, and sunlight felt heavenly as I sat on some driftwood.

walk on the beach

the water

the sun

my landscape sketch

We headed out around 4:00, and drove for about an hour towards the Skagit River Wilderness Sanctuary, where our goal would be to spot some swans and possibly a great horned owl. To get there, we crossed over the Skagit river delta, onto Fir island. We drove down a straight road through farmland, watching the sun descend. We could see swans flying away from where we were headed, and we could hear their less-than-beautiful calls. They were most likely Tundra swans, which are more common to see in that area. Trumpeter swans are a little rarer, and are distinguishable by the pure black beaks, unlike the Tundra swan, which has yellow at the base.

It always makes me uncomfortable to find that many nature "sanctuaries" are hunting grounds as well. The Skagit River Wilderness Sanctuary is homed to many types of water fowl, which include Snow Geese in the winter, that migrate from Russia to ride out the winter. It's also SO crazy how far an individual bird can travel. It's mind-boggling.

We all filed out of the vans, and admired the darkening wetland landscape. We saw at least a hundred birds fly by during the half hour that we were there. Our main hope was to see the Great Horned owl that has been known to inhabit the area. We brought out a pretty retro speaker, to which Chris provided the auxiliary cord. Tim played the "hoo...hoo..." call, and sure enough, after three tries, a Great Horned owl appeared. It silently swooped into a snag in the wetland, and appeared to be watching us. Its silhouette was a bit frightening to me, for reasons which I can't describe. It must have been a combination of the lighting and the mythology of owls.

Then, we heard the call of another Great Horned owl, one that we didn't produce. We looked over at the tree where the first one had come from, and when we whipped our heads back around, there were two Great Horned owls in the tree! They showed copulating behavior, which caused us to assume that they were mates. Their tails were upturned, and their backs were arched in the same direction of their tails. At first, I thought it was aggressive behavior towards us. We kept playing our owl call from the speaker, which seemed to confuse them, because after about five minutes, they flew back to the cottonwoods that they came from.

Sketch of Great Horned Owl

Stylized Sketch of Swans

Overall, it was a good day, and we were luckier than Isaac Ebey- we didn't get our heads chopped off! 

     

      

Ravenna, Journal #7: 11/17/16

Thursday, November 17th, 2016

12:30 PM

Mostly cloudy, patches of blue sky

Dark and light cloud cover

49 degrees, very cold breeze that comes through about every 2 minutes

Phenology Update:

Holy cannoli, it's getting colder! There's a crisp chill that is definitely a harbinger of winter. I can feel it in my fingers and toes the most. On top of the chill, I'm getting sick, so this journal might not be a shining star of an entry. It's definitely a take the elevator, ride the bus kind of day. 

At the site, the feathers are still there, and the ground is still extremely mushy. I feel like there's more bird song than usual today, but that's probably just because I've started to pay more attention. I heard a woodpecker foraging for food- I soft pecking, not the loud signaling pecks. 

It's looking pretty sparse and barren here. 

The Rubus spectablis plants are falling over and dying.

All of the Athyrium filix-femina are basically gone, and the Polystichum munitum is even more shriveled than last time. 

My 1 meter investigation reveals similar findings as last week-the feathers are withered, and the leaves are more brown. Nothing really unexpected. 

Detritus isn't really unusual in mid-November. What is unusual is that it's just starting to get colder! We've usually had our first frost by now. Lucky for our fungus unit, I guess! 

Part II: Fungus Foraging and Looking for Lichen!

Specimen #1: A "flowering" fungus, about 2.5 inches tall, the cap is about .75 inches high, conical in shape, with a .5 inch diameter. The mushroom is brown, and fades from a light-brown on the outside edges to almost black towards the center of the cone. The stem is very thin. This mushroom is growing in a patch of moss in a marshy area at my central spot. It's closest to a Thuja plicata, but I don't know if it's a mycorrhizal fungus. This mushroom was here last week, but not two weeks prior. It stands alone, not in multitudes. 

Specimen #2: I think this is the dust lichen. It's growing with moss on the outward-facing side of a limb on a Taxis brevifolia, which is growing right by a slow-moving creek. I think this is crustoce. The tree is fairly wet- the bark looks very damp. 

Specimen #3:  This is a ghost white mushroom with very similar features to specimen #1. However, this fungus is much smaller, at about 1 cm tall. It's growing on the same Taxis brevifolia as specimen #2, on a limb where there isn't a whole lot of moss growing around it. This specimen is growing alone, not in a patch. I liked this one a lot, definitely wanted to show how small and delicate it was.

Specimen #4: Very fine mint-green crustose on my central Thuja plicata, growing closer to the ground than to the top of the tree. The growth pattern is minimal and patchy, but circles around the whole tree. There is more of it growing on the side facing uphill. I wonder if this has anything to do with moisture flowing downhill? 

Specimen #5: Bleach-white crustose that looks like bird droppings. It grows on the underside of Rubus spectabilis plants, where there is exposed bark, and no other limbs extending from it. The Rubus spectabilis hangs over the stream. 

Specimen #6: This one is kind of confusing. I'm pretty sure it's a fungus. It grows with moss that heavily coats an Acer macrophyllum, on the East side of the tree. The growth looks like rings/crescents that are about the size of a soccer ball. The crescents have two layers- the outer layer is lighter, and the inner layer is darker. The tree is at the bottom of a ravine. I wonder if sunlight from the East has anything to do with its growth patter. It seems to be like a mold that is inoculated onto the moss. 

Man, I'm tired and cold. Time for lunch! See you next time, Ravenna. 

11/10/16 Ravenna Entry #6

November 10th, 2016

12:05 PM

Equal parts sunny and hazy sky

61 degrees, very little/no breeze

Phenology Update:

Nothing as drastic as the last two entries, but the brush on the forest floor is very brown, maybe more decayed than last time; can't really quantify that information at this point. I think more leaves have fallen off of all the Rubus spectabilis plants, and the outer limbs of the Polystichum munitum are succumbing to winter's clutches. There are still maple leaves hanging from the Taxis brevifolia, and from the Thuja plicata. I'm making extra effort to use Latin names today. I think it might be the lighting, but moss hanging from all the trees seems to be illuminated-maybe more of the leaves have finally decayed, allowing the emerald surfaces to contrast with the browning Earth below. That last sentences seems a little too artsy for my taste. The ground is spongy, which is strange because it's been pretty dry this week. 

Picture of my go-to place

Maybe this stuff is finally dying?? (The salmon-berry shrubs)

 

I swear it's not my mind playing tricks on me, the moss really is glowing today!

The fun stuff is happening at the 1-meter scale of my spot. Some helicopters (maple tree seed droppings) and leaves litter the site. A new mushroom has appeared in the center. 

As I examine, I notice something new. Strange tube-like structures jut out from the outer edges of the mass of the covered root-base. They seem to be roots of some kind; they are similar to bean-sprouts in appearance and touch- smooth and kind of vine-like. Ones closer to the ground are brown, and the ones farther up are a whitish-peach color. 

BUT WAIT 

It's so ironic that this week's assignment is about birds, because the main thing that's covering my 1-meter site is... BIRD FEATHERS!

They've been compromised by moisture, so they're a bit shriveled, and they're very small. I think they're part of the under-layer of feathers, meant for insulation, and are definitely not meant to get wet. 

Overview of the site 

Closer view of the main feather deposit 

I also found what I believe to be bits of skin. 

Only one full feather was dropped-it's about five inches long, where the vane of the feather only covers four. The feather is pretty wet, so it's hard for me to tell what shape it might have been (for identifying what part of the bird it came from). 

Based on the clues, I think the bird was preening here. But that's weird, because this is kind of an exposed area for a bird to be doing something that would make it so vulnerable. Maybe something was eating it? But then there would be more full flight-feathers left that would have been removed for digestion?? Very strange... 

PART 2: Bird Watching

When I first reached my site, I think I alarmed some chickadees- they started their call with a few high pitched chirps, followed by their iconic "dee-dee-dee". The number of "dees" seemed to vary between odd numbers, but I can't be certain. It might be hard to follow a bird here, because I make too much noise when I move, and the foliage is pretty dense. But I'll try my darnedest. I saw two hummingbirds flitting about a conifer, and I think I heard the tail feather noise. 

I finally found a black capped chickadee in a deciduous tree! It flew back and forth between a cedar tree for about five minutes, before it flew into the brush, and I couldn't find it again. It's flight style was heavy and frequent- they don't sit still that much. It's wing beats were kind of frantic in order to keep its round body up in the air. It hopped around the main trunk and branches of the Thuja plicata, poking holes in bark to get food. I read up on these birds after I got home, and found that half of their diet during the winter is insects and other animal food. So I assume that the chickadee was poking around for inverts to eat. When it grabbed for food with its beak, I saw it simultaneously flick its tail. Chickadees are super acrobatic, and I was witness to this when the bird hung upside-down from a branch in order to poke at it. 

When I got home, I watched  mini-documentary on chickadees because I'm a huge nerd. I found out that chickadees carry their food away from the site they procured it in order to eat. So that's why they always look so busy at bird feeders! Also, they cache their food in the fall, so that's another possibility for what my specimen was doing. 

Here are my four figure sketches-they're pretty small and not very good, had to do them from memory

 

PART III: MISCELLANEOUS

Okay, so I felt that I should write something about this election. I woke up in the morning, and my first concern was about the environment. Humans can fight for humans, but the biosphere has far less of a voice. I'm so worried about the pipeline. I'm scared that the EPA will be turned into a joke.But when I enter the woods, my nerves turn into determination. In the words of Pramila Jayapal: "This is not the fight that I would have chosen, but I will fight it." I want to work hard, learn what I can, and make sure that the next generation gets to walk through the woods, frolic by the water, and breathe clean air. 

     

Ravenna Park Entry 5: 11/2/16

November 2nd, 2016

Wednesday, 3 PM

Cloud cover and rain

~55 degrees

     The drizzle barely descends through the canopy, so it feels like the leaves are just letting go of water from earlier in the day. I came a little later than I would have like, but I'm glad I didn't make it any later in the day. 

     Everything is gone! You can see the trail now, because all the leaves are soggy, and look like soiled paper towels. My Taxus brevifolia looks like a drying rack for these damp and droopy leaves.

Clear trails!

The Pacific Yew 

 

My central spot actually has puddles because it's been raining so much. Plants that are less than two feet tall seem to be drooped towards the ground-flattened-especially towards the marsh area that extends from the right and left of my central Thuja Plicata. The leaves at the tops of the salmonberry bushes are finally yellowing, when they were bright green last week. My strange marsh plants will probably be gone by next week- I'm strangely sad to see them go. Almost all of the lady ferns are brown. The horsetails are fallen over- I never knew that they decayed at the same time as other plants. The green that remains really contrast with the burgundy-brown of the fall droppings ( I'm just really tired of saying dying leaves). The moss at the base of the central cedar seems to be melting into the Earth, as if something extremely heavy has sat on every single section of moss that's covering the roots. All the mushrooms are gone as well- I'm not sure if the loss is due to humans. 

General picture of my site 

Picture of the mossy base area

    

 Fun find: HUGE salmon berry leaf, coming from a bush that has grown about seven feet off the ground, and has started to come into conflict with the droopy branches of the Western Red Cedar. 

PART 2 POETRY 

20,000 Millimeters Under the Dirt:

Burrow, bury, dive

Under-not over

Hide in the muck

Cower in the mire

Old to New

Can tell just by the looks of you

Your home dies

Your body

Fleshy

Like a newborn. 

You

So vulnerable

Writhe in the sunlight

Yearn for a way to escape the bright

and arid 

Land above. 

Prayer to the Cedar:

Mother

Lend your arms to us

Let your fingers dry our tears

Let your loving arms hang low

to reach us

we

Who seek comfort

From rain

From cold

Your arms embrace us

and your blood

flows

through us. 

Prayer to the Stewards:

Give me oak and give me pine

Let these forests stand the test of time

The way summer comes so slowly

But then flees so fast

'til death do us part or until 

Winter leaves at last

Thaw these bodies

Thaw these hearts

Post Party Blues:

Sodden napkins litter the living room

The ladies are crying in a drunken stupor over their dates who went home with someone else

Chairs are toppled over

Wine soaks the carpet

The air smells sweet

The remnants of a beautiful person

that left 

Only two hours ago. 

First is about a worm, second is about the western red cedar, the third to all of us, and the last on the approaching winter.