Week Six

Date: Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Time: 6:30-8:30pm
Weather: Sunny
Temperature: 68
Location: Snohomish/Southwest County Park

Another beautiful day to spend at my site. Today's main focus was on identifying birds. Below is one page of notes that I took followed by some pictures to help illustrate my visit. After doing a little research, I definitely think that the bird I drew with the black stripe on the face was a White Crowned Sparrow. The habitat of forests matches this species and the defining black stripe was a key feature that stuck out to me as I did my gesture sketch. Re-listening to all the voice recordings that I did, it also makes sense for this species identification to be correct since the White Crowned Sparrow has a song that sounds like "IIIIIIII, am a White Crowned Sparrow". Although it was hard to see many of the birds up high in the tree canopy, having knowledge of bird calls helped to make it not seem as overwhelming. In addition to my notes, another call that was apparent at my site was a House Finch which ended with the classic "Sreet" sound.

More new Salal leaves growing!

Here's a photo of the stream down at the bottom of my site.

Salmon Berries are growing! Still very green though. 

Even the Lady Ferns seem to be larger this week.

Stinging Nettles are gigantic this week!

New Oregon Grape leaves growing.

Indian Plum "berries" growing.

Thimbleberry flowers are blooming, especially those in the sun!

In the photo to the right, you can see evidence of some kind of disturbance. Most likely, similar to the example given on our first field trip to the old growth forest this tree was knocked over during a wind storm. Where the branch begins to grow out, becomes a great habitat for certain birds.

I adventured to another area of Southwest County Park today. In the photo below, you can see a little green sign. On the trail that I walked there were various informative signs identifying many different species. Along with the Big Leaf Maple there were also signs identifying Western Red Cedar, Douglas Fir, Western Hemlock, Salmonberry, and Oregon Grape. Not only were these species labeled, but there were also interesting facts included on the signs helping to make the species easier to remember.

Caterpillar on a Salmonberry leave. 

 The photo to the right is of what I believe to be a Bewick's Wren. This was the only species that I was able to actually follow around. The call that the species was singing was the main giveaway to help with identification. The species was flying around in the understory of the forests among the circular trail within the park. As I was walking on the trail, the species flew across the pathway and landed back in the understory. You can see the size of the species from the picture pretty well which matches the Bewick's Wren size. Most of the time that I was able to spend watching this species, was spent perched. While perched it sang its song and stayed in the same location for quite sometime. I was able to view the species from quite close, and it did not seem like I disrupted it's behavior. After a couple of minutes a bird that looked just smaller than a Robin flew by us and the Bewick's Wren began to follow it and looked almost like it was trying to chase the other bird out of it's territory. The call of the bird also began to sound more competitive. Unfortunately they both flew quite far, so I was not able to follow them. I was so excited to finally see a bird, and so thankful for how close it was!