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