April 23^th-24^th  the weather was sunny initially and then started raining Saturday evening. Sunday along the coast was cool, windy and rainy most of the day.

Having never taken an environment class here at the UW or really any class like it I was not sure really what to expect going into this fieldtrip. My focus going into the weekend was to absorb as much as I possibly could about the natural history of the area, given that it may be a while before I would get the chance to visit Olympic National Park again. Needless to say I was excited to take it all in.

We decided that we would first head out to the Marymere Falls. Along the shady and damp understory there were many plants I was able to identify from my time in Ravenna Park. There was an abundance of sword fern, different from the lady fern because of its longer and narrower leaflets shaped like a sword, and Devil’s Club, a plant with heftier stems covered in spines and large green leaves with many lobes. While heading to the falls we saw plenty of Douglas Firs, recognized by their cones, a lot of western hemlocks of all sizes, distinguished by their uneven needles and on the shorter trees the floppy top. Some other cool aspects of the understory that we saw were nursing logs and an erratic boulder. As we started to get closer to the water fall we saw there were more ferns and moss because of the dampness.

After the water fall we wanted to hike up to storm king ridge. I did not anticipate, the severity of the slope we had to climb. However, the view at the top of the mountain was absolutely worth it. I loved seeing all of the large pacific Madrones on the sides of the steep hill, where they could get a little more sunlight. Their shedding bark, large leaves, and white flowers were stunning. I noticed that they were often seen on steeper slopes where they could almost grow horizontally where they could get more. Among other notable species, there were some western red cedars and some yellows cedars. While on the way down the hill we saw an albino banana slug too!

Sunday, we went to the tide pools out on the straight of Juan de Fuca. It started raining extremely hard and a few of us got caught out on the rocks in some very stormy weather. The coolest part of the whole weekend was seeing a bald eagle swoop down from flying above the clouds, with its wings fully spread. While looking through the tide pools, we saw a giant sea star, purple sea urchin, anemone, chitons, limpets, hermit crab, and some sort of jellyfish that looked like a shell. There was also an interesting herb like shrub that we found at the river delta we visited. It had a strong herbal smell when we tore it up. The leaves had a shiny topside and the bottom was more a white. I would be curious to know what the species was. We also saw a variety of different gulls out in the delta, feeding on a bunch of clams.

It is Monday April 18^th was my third time visiting my chosen spot off the path through Ravenna Park. I visited mid afternoon between the hours of 2 and 3. It was sunny and extremely warm today, probably in the mid to upper eighties. I did also notice some humidity in the air most likely due to the proximity of my spot to the creek that runs through the ravine. Now in addition to the trees, many of the shrubs are now noticeably larger and over grown. The fallen tree is now almost hidden by all the growth in the brush. One of the prominent bushes is the salmon berry; identified by its pink five pointed flowers and five leaflets shaped like a butterfly. There was also a large amount of both sword ferns that have longer leaflets that look like swords and lady ferns that have smaller leaflets that come to a point. There were also some of the branches from the western hemlock to the left of me (south) that are almost sagging down to the floor now. Additionally, there is now also an incredible amount of the common horsetail growing across the floor. The floor by my feet also surprisingly still had mud despite how hot and sunny it was outside. There were also few birds out. I did not hear any song sparrows singing in the sunshine.

There were not a whole lot of visible fungi or lichen in the immediate surroundings of my chosen spot. However I was able to venture to the south of my spot toward some Red Alders that had some lichen on the bark of the tree truck (picture 1 below). There was a little bit more sun in this slightly more open area. I was also able to spot a couple of fungi, one close to the top of a still standing dead tree truck and another on the side of what seemed to be a healthily living tree (pictures 2 and 3 respectively). There was also some pale green lichen that I found; one being on some small fallen branches and the other growing on some dead leaves on top of the soil on the forest floor (pictures 4 and 5 respectively). I was also able to find some small orange balls that looked like fungi on the side of a fallen tree trunk (picture 6). I was not able to identify these fungi, but looked like some insect egg slime mold because of the shape and bright color.

This past Monday the 11^th of April I found my way back to my chosen spot off the trail in Ravena Park. It was slightly later in the day, just after 1pm, than last week when I made my initial observations. The first thing that jumped out in my mind when initially arriving at my spot was the numerous amounts of crows that were present; much more so than the last time. The last time there were an abundance of different birdcalls, and now there were fewer and dominated by the sound of the black crows. The other thing that initially surprised me was how lower the branches on Western Red Cedar to my left were hanging. Something had pulled them down tremendously. I could tell this was a western red cedar because of the flat leaves and fibrous strips of bark. The Western Hemlock to the right of me also had some branches sagging but not nearly to the extent of the cedar. I could identify this as a western hemlock because of small cone, (see picture in blog post 4/4/16), the unequal length of the needles, and the smoother bark. These branches along with the more over cast skies led to some darker shades of green and brown. Despite being slightly darker, I also noticed that things were also drier than the prior week, probably because of the warmer weather we have been happening. Across the ravine the Big Leaf Maples have some more flowers blooming. I can tell that they are Maples because of the messy bark, lighter color bark, and the larger leaves.

The one square meter by my feet had some more root like plants open up, which I attempted to sketch. The mud that had been in there the previous week had also dried up slightly and I was able to step across it and take some close up photos for my sketches. There were still not many insects on the ground in that immediate one square meter space. 

Below are some of my sketches of the plants near where I was seated. 

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in a suburban town. I was able see some of the natural history along the coast as well as some of the forests. One of the most distinct memories from my early childhood was on a family trip to Calaveras Big Trees. There was one especially interesting tree stump that was probably at least a couple hundred feet wide. That immediately peaked my interest in the natural world, and I started enjoying our family road trips to different natural places around the western region of the United States. Another particularly memorable trip was a road trip through Colorado and Utah, visiting Zion national park and Bryce Canyon. Our trip to Zion was cut a little bit short due to some flash flooding and lighting, which was still cool to watch as a kid. We also saw some of the more local natural beauty of the region, such as the wetlands of Bodega Bay in the Marin headland north of San Francisco, the redwoods in the Muir Woods national forest, and coastal lands of Monterey and Pebble Beach.

My mother’s family used to always have a summer camping trip to Yosemite National park every year when she was a kid, so much of my family has been interested and could appreciate the natural beauty around them in the Bay Area. This has allowed me to have a greater appreciate for the natural world around me.  I think this prior experience speaks to my initial interest in this class about the natural history of the northwest, and my desire to understand and appreciate the natural beauty of the area that I spent four years of my life going to school in.

It is late morning, around 11 am, overcast and slightly breezy. This wasn’t the first time I had been to Ravenna Park. I had ran through many time but had never ventured off the trails, mostly because I was just trying to get home. This time I wandered slightly off the trail into a small clearing between a couple western Hemlock’s and a red cedar. In front of me there is some thick brush in front of me, with some pink colored flowers just starting to bloom. The bushes are so thick that you cannot see further down the hill towards the bottom of the ravine. However, I can see across the ravine to a variety of different types of trees. It looks like there are some big leaf maples on the other side of the ravine because their bark looks messy and a similar color as some of the others I had seen previously. When looking slightly to my left there was a large fallen tree truck that looks like it has been there for a while. There is a ton of moss growing on the tree, and I would imagine that there is a fair amount of insects living inside the log. Behind me is the path and the steeper hillside of the side of the ravine. Lots of ferns on the side of the hillside On my walk off the path towards my spot and I was able to identify some western hemlock cones that are pictured below. I also notice a handful of different bird calls, but could not really see any of the birds making the noises. I suspect that the morning is the best time to hear all of these birds sing. 

There was a lot going on in the one square meter by my feet. I decided to walk up all the up to some mud. The mud was a much dark brown color, and it made me wonder why the mud stopped where it did. There was a bunch of short stalky, root looking plants sticking out of the ground. Additionally there was lots of dried leaves, dried pine needles small twigs along the floor. Some of the short root looking plants was larger than others. Along these plants there was a small patch of longer grass. I’ll be interested to how the spot at my feet changes from week to week.