Nisqually Delta and Mt. Rainier

On Saturday, May 17 I travelled south with my Natural History class. We spent the first part of the day at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge where the Nisqually river becomes a wetland and flows into the Puget Sound. Then we travelled southeast to Mt. Rainier National Park where we stopped at Paradise on Mt. Rainier to learn about glacial history.

Nisqually Delta - Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge

Date: Satuday, May 17, 2014

Time: 10:00 am - 1:00 pm

Weather: Sun, overcast, slight rain

Our journey started at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge where our class got to see where the Nisqually river completes its long trip from Paradise, Mt. Rainier and merges into the Puget Sound! This land was previously farmland but is now an area for restoration. We spent the morning on a natural walk through this land, observing species and interactions. 

View of the wetland with the Nisqually Delta to the right

Second view of wetland with the Nisqually Delta to the right

There were several sitings of Tent Caterpillars (Family: Lasiocampidae) on our nature walk (Figures 1 & 2). These caterpillars have brown/orange bodies with hair. They build tents in tree branches. 

Figure 1. Tent Caterpillars making a tent in a tree branch

Figure 2. Tent Caterpillars close up

One of the students was able to catch a damselfly for us to see up close. It was so fragile and beautiful with its delicate wings and blue coloring. We knew this was a damselfly, specifically a Pacific Forktail (Figure 3), because it holds its wings together and back as oppose to a dragonfly, like the Common Green Darner in figure 4, which holds its wings flat and out to the sides (Figure 4).

Figure 3. Damselfly: Pacific Forktail 

Figure 4. Dragonfly: Common Green Darner

Pacific Treefrog found in the grass

Rabbit seen in bushes near Nisqually delta

We saw plenty of waterfowl in the wetland. In figure 5 are about 10 baby waterfowl huddle together in the wetland. They were too far away to identify, however. Initially an adult was present, but then left the juveniles by themselves. We were also able to spot an American Wigeon with its black tail, brown/orange body, and white center, face and head, and green eye stripe. We saw a Northern Shoveler with its large beak, green head, and white breast. and many Canada Geese with their goslings (they were adorable!). I also saw some Cinnamon Teal,  female Hooded Merganser, and Mallards. Note types of feeding: Dabblers are waterfowl who stay afloat when feeding but put their rears in the air and then sift through the water with their beaks for food like Northern Shovelers. Divers submerge themselves all the way in the water and dive for food like grebes.

 Figure 5. Huddle of baby water fowl in wetland

The Tree Swallow in figure 6 is seen perched in its nest cavity (figure 6). Notice it has a black/blue cap that is pulled all the way up and over the eyes. The Tree Swallow also as a split tail. On the other hand, the Cliff Swallow as a triangle shaped tail when in flight. The Cliff Swallow makes gourd-shaped mud nests and they have a v-shaped light mark on their face. We also saw Wilson's Warbler and Yellow Warbler which are both Neotropical migrants. Osprey flew overhead and could be identified by their white bellies, black wings, black face markings, fairly narrow wings, long fingertips (primary fingers) and the fact that they are almost always near water. The Townsend Warbler had a raccoon-like  gray/black eye patch only around the eyes. The Common Yellow Throat were yellow/brown in color and males had a black eye mask. The Red-winged Blackbird could be heard and seen around the wetland with its "conk-ler-ee" call, males with their black bodies and red wing patches, and females with their brown patterned bodies.

Figure 6. Tree Swallow emerging from its nest cavity

In this wetland habitat there were plenty of Pacific Willows and Red Oiser Dogwood.
Nightshade lined the bank of the wetland and are in the same family as tomatoes and potatoes (Figure 7)! Lupin were also seen with their beautiful purple petals and claw-like dark purple inside piece (Figure 8 & 9).

Figure 7. Nightshade

Figure 8. Lupin

Figure 9. Lupin flower close up

Mt. Rainier - Paradise

Date: Saturday, May 17, 2014
Time: 4:00pm - 5:30 pm
Weather: Cold, light clouds, sun, 6.5 ft snow on ground

For the second part of the day we travelled to Paradise on Mt. Rainier to look at the evidence of glacial retreating. We stopped at the flowing Nisqually river near the entrance (figure 10) of the park and then travelled up to its source of snowmelt at Paradise (Figure 11).

Figure 10. Nisqually river near entrance of Rainier Park

My car group and I by the Nisqually river with Mt. Rainier in the background on the right

Wild strawberry near riverbank

You can see how tall the glacier was by looking at the baseline of the trees at the right in the photo (Figure 11).  The glacier carved this area years ago dropped erratics as it retreated.

Figure 11. View where the glacier was

View of peaks around Mt. Rainier

Me with Mt. Rainier (Tahoma) in the background

Student "selfie" at Mt. Rainier

The trip ended with a glorious all-class snowball fight. It was a great day of learning in nature!

Week 5

Date: Monday, May 12, 2014
Time: 2:15 pm - 3:00 pm
Weather: Sun, clear sky
Temperature: 73 F
Location: Wolf Tree Nature Trail - Discovery Park

Phenological Observations:

Figure 1. Week 5 Salmonberry and Wood Sorrel.

What a beautiful day for field observations! The sun was hot but the forest canopy provided cool shade this afternoon.

Salmonberry leaves continue to fill in the area around my 1m^2 sit spot near the fallen log (Figure 1). Wood sorrel continues to cover the ground near my sit spot, however I still have not seen the blooms on these plants (Figure 1).

Week 1: The same salmonberry and wood sorrel at my sit spot

Figure 2. Dry decomposing leaves on forest floor

The surface of the ground is dry but I can feel it sink beneath me as I walk to my sit spot, probably due to sunken moisture and soft decomposing matter in the forest floor (Figure 2). 











A barred owl's call could be heard from from sit spot (~50-100 m away) for the first ten minutes of my visit. One day I hope to finally feast my eyes on this majestic bird! I can hear several American Robins calling through the forest to one another on this sunny day. Their "cheerily, cheer-up" song is becoming very recognizable to me now!

Figure 3. Week 5 icicle moss, notice the moisture content!

The icicle moss on the red alder tree next to my sit spot is so much dryer than the first week of my observations due to the amount of sun and heat in the Seattle area lately (Figure 3). And Sword Fern is sprouting out of the moss and is growing larger each week (Figure 3). 

Red alder seeds (male and female catkins) are draped around the salmonberry bushes as they have fallen from the canopy in hopes of finding a place to sprout their own roots (Figures 4, 5, 6). 

Figure 4. Mature female Red Alder catkin

Figure 5. Male Red Alder catkin

Figure 6. Draped Red Alder male catkin

Figure 7. Dry orange substance growing on medium-sized red alder tree to the right

I noticed an dry burnt orange colored substance covering a nearby red alder (Figure 7). I wonder if this is a type of lichen. 

Figure 8. Week 5 dried Western Bleedingheart blooms

The Western Bleedingheart that I observed a couple of weeks ago (with its beautiful pink blooms) is now dried, shriveled, and a grayish black color! What a drastic change over two weeks! (Figure 8).

Close up of young Big Leaf Maple tree leaves

Different stages of growing salmonberry berries from the previous bloom!

Canopy full of green Big Leaf Maple and Red Alder leaves, blue skies in background!

Week 5 Western Red Cedar sapling growing!

Photo of crossing tree trunks to find light described in Week 4's journal

Week 1: View from log (sit spot) 

Week 4: The same view from sit spot log 

Week 5: The same view from sit spot log

Close up of log/sit spot

Week 5 skunk cabbage patch after flowers have bloomed and gone

A special look at invertebrates:


Order: Araneae
Legs and out rim of body tan. Pieces on center of body are an orange/tan color. This insect has 8 legs which helped me in the identification of a spider. The body length is ~1cm. The length including front and back legs is ~1inch. This insect was observed standing still on this Red Alder seed which was draped on a Salmonberry stem. 

Order: Hymenoptera

Order: Hymenoptera

I first noticed this insect as sit crawled up my shin and I put it on my hand to study it closer. It occasionally disembarked from my hand and few around me, to shortly land back on my arm. I observed it cleaning its wings by moving its rear end up and down and pulling its back legs up and over its wings. It repeated this ritual for about 2 minutes.

Order: Coleoptera

Small black insect

As I searched around in the salmonberry leaves in front of me for another insect to study, I was pleasantly surprised to see a small insect on my note paper with a black body and black legs. This insect initially seemed to have 8 legs, however once it started crawling across my paper, I could see than the longer extensions were not legs, but antennas. The 6 other short extensions are legs. This insect used its antennas to feel the surface in front of it as it walked across my paper. I was unable to get certain order identification for this insect. I am stilling waiting on identification help on iNaturalist for this species.

Suborder: Auchenorrhyncha

White foamy casing seen on forked stem of a salmonberry. About 1 inch in diameter. The insect was not seen, but was inside the white foam/bubbled casing.

Order: Araneae

This spider (8 legs) was seen hanging upside down on a salmonberry leaf. The front and back two legs are longer than the center four legs. The middle and head sections as well as the legs are clear in color. The rear section of the body is tan with 3-4 white colored spots on the center rear. The spider's length is 0.5cm.

Order: Araneae