Week Nine

Date: Friday June 13 2014
Time: 4:00-6:00pm
Weather: Cloudy
Temperature: 60s

Wow, I can hardly believe that the quarter is over! It's been so wonderful to spend time every week visiting Southwest County Park. Out of all the site visits I made this quarter, today was the only rainy day! Thats awesome! I had been so lucky with weather every other week!

This week's journal entry is a little bit different then previous weeks. While notice phenological changes per normal, there is a second part dedicated to species descriptions, which was a very interesting and different way to get a new perspective of Southwest County Park and a variety of species in the natural world.

Beginning of the quarter

Beginning of the quarter!

This Week!

This Week!

Some of the major phonological differences that I noticed this week were definitely size difference in various shrub species. Stinging nettle, Indian Plum, Salmonberry, and Salal all had increasingly larger leaf sizes. A change from previous weeks is that the Salmonberry berries are now finished at my site. I couldn’t find any on the trails or down by Perrinville Creek. Another big phonological change that I noticed was that Elderberries are not growing berries which are a deep red color and were growing in large bunches. It was bittersweet to be taking my last notes today. I will be curious as to what this site looks like at the end of summer, when I plan on visiting the park again. 

Elderberry berries!

Part Two:

One of my favorite locations at Southwest County Park is on a bench beneath a Big Leaf Maple, Douglas Fir and a Western Hemlock. This spot is the one where I took the photos at the beginning of the quarter. 

Organism One: Plant

What an interesting organism. I have found it growing off of the trail within the park. It is a green color and it is growing out of the ground from a central location with long spiny things sticking out 2-3 feet upwards and out from the center. This particular organism has about 17 of the spiny long things. Off of the spines are many green, flat, arm shaped, paper like material growing directly out from the spine. Beneath all of these green long materials are what look like beads growing in two long rows, parallel with long structure. It looks so interesting and blends well with the surrounding green natural world. The long spines look like they could be used for many things; decorative, structural and almost like it could be used as a broom. 

ID: Sword Fern

Organism Two: Bird

This black creature could be seen from along the trails within the park. It would move from tree to tree as I began walking closer towards it. The body of this creature was round, but it had two flat parts protruding from the center of the body which the creature would move up and down to get from tree to tree. The species walked on two stick like figures which it could use to grab onto tree branches very well with. The creature would make noises that sounded like “caw, caw, caw” which it would make especially when I would move toward it. The species had two circular dots on the top of its body opposite of the stick figures. The size of this creature could be comparable to a child’s head.  

ID: American Crow

Organism Three:

I found this organism squirming across some living vegetation on top of a bench that I was sitting on. The creature had an orange black body with a very fuzzy texture. The shape of this tiny organism was very long, and circular. It did not have anything protruding to help it move. Its body would rise in the middle when moving and then come back down as it moved about a centimeter at a time.   

ID: Catepillar

Part Three:

My perception of nature has changed so much more then I thought it would throughout the quarter. Before this class I always thought that I had a passion for nature and for being outside, but this class has made my nature experience something completely different. I am now able to walk through Southwest County Park and identify so many species. I can sit on the benches in the park and know where to look for certain birds and have a familiarity that I did not have 10 weeks ago. 

While I now can identify so many species, I can also critically think about the ways that certain species are interacting. This goes for the park, but for the whole Pacific Northwest as well. I don’t feel like I’m just a visitor in the park anymore, but I feel do feel like I am almost one with the park. There’s a new connection that I feel I’ve discovered while out in nature. I’m not just going to take a walk, but I notice changes that have happened over time and I see a new way that all species are interconnected. They all contribute to the biodiversity that exists in the Pacific Northwest and all of those small changes make such a huge difference in the ecosystem as a whole. 

My concept of “knowing a place” has changed dramatically this quarter. It’s not about knowing big landmarks and simply being able to identify a species, but it’s about knowing how all of those things are connected. How they work together and knowing how dramatically they change through the seasons. Again, I think it’s having that connection to the place, which allows one to really “know” that place.