Last Blog :(

Place: McCollum Pioneer Park
Date: 6/3/16 Time: 11:05-12:25
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 60s F

I'm sorry in advance for the lack of photos in this blog. I was using an old camera and most of the pictures came out blurry. Also, you'll notice how I describe things as "turning greener and fuller" a lot throughout this journal. The reason is because I'm at a loss of words for how to describe what I'm seeing. Being "fuller and greener" are the only words that can capture part of my awe at what's changing on my site.

I've taken a series of weekly photos. I'm only comparing the first week and last week. Since I changed some spots, the "first" weeks would be either Week 1 and/or Week 2.

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My primary site has changed so drastically since the beginning of the quarter. I wasn't sure how this little project would turn out--I was actually skeptic of any major change--but I'm glad I was wrong about that. I tried to always keep the Western Redcedar to the far right of the pictures. The major difference in these two photos is the forest floor. In the beginning, the soil was exposed a lot so it looks like the trail leeches into the vegetation bed area on both sides of it. By the end of the quarter, there's no visible soil on the vegetation bed and only the trail path is soil exposed! The ground turned from a mostly dirt and dry trailing blackberry to a dark green mix of western trillium, dull oregon grape, false lily-of-the-valley, vanilla leaf and more! I also found it harder to take the same exact picture from beginning to end because there is an Indian Plum on the right that grew too big, preventing me from taking the same picture.
Looking at the background, it changed from skinny twigs to hairy twigs. The middle layer of the picture is a vibrant green color full of leaves that end up covering the trees in the background. I can't see the small Douglas fir in the background as easily as I could in the beginning of the quarter. The western redcedar seemed to have also grown leaves during the quarter, contributing to the covering of trees in the background. I just think it's amazing how the red alders and D. firs that I could see so clearly in the beginning of the quarter in the background are hidden by the shrubs and that grew leaves in the forefront of the picture.

Week 2 Photo

Week 9-10 photo

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You can see the vine maple changed! It grew leaves! The ground is less littered compared to the beginning, and is full of understory little plants. It's not cluttered looking because all the bare twigs are gone! 0.0

Week 2 photo

Week 10 photo

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You can see the main difference between the two photos is the colors present. Week 2 had a mix of brown and green. There are naked maples and beaked hazelnut in the background. There are lots of twiggy skinny tree/shrubs around. The ground looks super messy and is filled with a lot of duff from decomposed plants.

By Week 10, The site looks much cleaner and greener. The duff and debris seem to have disappeared, or are covered by the sword fern. The vine maple and beaked hazelnut grew leaves and are no longer naked little twigs. Look at Week 2 and you can see all the tree trunks in the background, specifically to the left of the snag. When you look back at Week 10, the trees to the left of the snag disappeared! It's still there, but the leaves from the trees up front is covering the trees in the back. What a change in phenology! I never would have even noticed this if it hadn't been for these pictures.

Week 2 Photo

Week 10 Photo 

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Week one this spot was very open. There was moss on the Vine maple and a small tree growing on the D. fir trunk. The sword fern is small and slightly brown. The trees and shrubs in the background are bare. Then on Week 10 you can see how the leaves of the Vine maple have grown, the trees in the background and the shrubs seem fuller and greener. This area isn't as opened.

Week 1

Week 8

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Phenology Update:

What's changed this week? Well this week there wasn't much difference from last week from what I could see. There were more blooming salmonberries on bushes, although they were orange, small and unripened. The ripened ones are still not there. Thimbleberries are similar, in that only the unripened ones were present. I've noticed there were more creeping buttercups blooming in this area that has actual buttercups blooming.

Pacific ninebark caught my eye because of the flowers!

Pacific ninebark is actually a plant/shrub I haven't seen before in the park. I went into a new area and found it next to a creek! How have I not seen this before?! It was the ball of flowers that made me notice it, so that may be the reason. The flowers look either dead or are starting to grow in, I'm not so sure. But this shrub was living right next to the creek flowing down the park. I suppose the budding white and pink of this shrub caught my eye, and so the bush wasn't just another salmonberry/thimbleberry that's abundant in this forest. It just goes to show you how much I've been observing my site but I still don't know everything that's out here.

Bitter fruit of the Indian plum

The Indian Plum, although I haven't documented it weekly, I've noticed the leaves have gotten much bigger and longer. The berries are completely fully grown and a rich purple/blue color. This berry was up high, with the bush extending over 6 ft! There appears to be an abundance of Indian Plum. Perhaps the wildlife also don't like the fruit? I know Hummingbirds enjoy the fruit, but I haven't seen them since the second week of the quarter. I wonder what happened to them? I feel as if the hummingbirds (I think the one I saw on the second week was an Annis hummingbird) went off into the neighborhood where there is more flower sources.

Himalayan Blackberry flowers are starting to bloom!
The buds are opening up.

The Himalayan Blackberry flowers are starting to bloom now. They were blooming last week, but this week there are a couple of flowers fully opened, and the budding ones have opened slightly. There still aren't any berries though. Maybe they'll come out once it's warmer? Or perhaps the wildlife is gathering and taking all the fruit? Either way, I'm noticing these blackberries much more because of the flowers.

A super neat thing I saw was two bumblebees mating. At first when I saw the bee flying around, I thought to myself "wow, that is one long bumblebee". But my friend who was with me pointed out that it was not long--that it was two bees that were mating. It was odd because they were flying around and doing normal bee stuff, like flying from bush to bush. Except one bee was on the back or behind of the other. They were stuck together for the entire time I saw them. This week is the most I've seen bees active! Within the 1 hour I was there, I counted 7 bees (5 bumblebees and 2 honeybees).


Change in Plants;
I remember Week 1-2 being very lackluster. There were no flowers, no berries, and no leaves. Even though it was a time transitioning into spring, everything looked like winter. The coniferous evergreen trees were alive and well, but the plants had very small leaves. The sword ferns in the beginning weeks were mostly, brown, dry, and appeared to be dead. But in this final week, the ferns are rich, full, and vibrantly dark green. The berries are abundant (when not eaten by wildlife), the shrubs are tall and filled with lush green leaf. Broadleaf trees have also grown their leaves! Looking at the repeat photo for the Vine Maple, you can see how week 1 was desolate and very open, but week 10 brought about a large shade area because of the leaves. Assessing the Week 1 and Week 10 photos, I can see how there are less brown plants leaves now.

Change in Wildlife:
In the first weeks of this site, I didn't see squirrels at all. None--nada--zippity no. I always thought it was strange, since squirrels are everywhere at all times. However, Week 10 (this week) is the week I finally found them! I actually saw 3! They were climbing up the trees. One even flew!!!!! (Well it jumped, but it freaked me out. It jumped like 3 feet in front of it!)
As for inverts, Week 1 had very little things flying around. I do remember a couple of bees flying around, and of course mosquitoes, and spiders, but that was it. There wasn't any visible variety of inverts. As the weeks went on, slowly around week 3 or 7 (not the weeks during field trip) the spider population increased 0.0 webs everywhere! I was getting bitten non-stop and running into spider webs, swatting at flying things, etc. In this final week, I found a giant red mosquitoe crane looking thing. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my journal and couldn't take a pic, but it looked like a red crane. There are more beetles and flies out. I'm starting to see a couple more slugs too.
Birds are the most noticeable change in behavior, but not quantity. In the beginning of the weeks, I only heard birds and didn't really see them. They were mostly up in the canopy, and were usually the Towhee or chickadee. I know the woodpeckers were present and calling. Now with the sun up more and the berries and flowers present, the birds are more active near shrubs and are taking the berries! I see more birds now compared to in the first week, but I'm hearing the same types of birds.

Change in Fungi/Lichens:
I still see moss, but there's less lichen and almost no mushrooms left. I haven't seen any new ones since the mushroom week. In fact, most of the mushrooms I documented are gone! It's either people gathering them, the wildlife eating them, or it's not the right conditions for them to survive.

Reflection:
Change in my Perspective/Attitude/Perception: (Q1 also paired with above writing)
In the first weeks I wasn't really interested in what plants were present, or what insects/birds there were. I picked a place and was really bummed to see the site had very little leaves. It was gloomy because there wasn't enough greens. Since I couldn't see the birds, it was also not very fun to go and visit my site. There was no color--only brown and dull green. I actually felt annoyed at having to go to the site every week to document the site. But once the plants started to bloom and flowers were coming up, I found my attitude towards the site changing. Week by week I started getting happier and more excited to see what I could find. As the colors from flowers popped, and leaves turned a bright green color, I was getting happier. By the end of the quarter, there are less brown dead plants and more oranges, greens, pinks, purples, and whites! With more colors on the pathway, there are more wildlife around! It was at this point that I found myself excited to go back to my site. I think I like the idea of a busy nature where everything is active--birds are singing and fighting each other, cool distinct birds are easy to see, lots of colors around, flowers everywhere, and bees super active! (I could do without all the flying diptera and insects though).

Change in sense of Puget Sound Region:

Salt Creek. Mountains are 'U' shaped.

I know, even though I live in the Puget Sound area, I never thought to think how it was shaped. I knew the basic: that it was once a largely forested area with giant trees and Natives shaping the landscape, then POOF! Industrialization and people came, changing it into cities. But since I've learned about the large ice sheet, I can't help but marvel at the bodies of lake I see, wondering if it was shaped by the glaciers. When we were at the Olympic Peninsula at Salt Creek (where we spent the night), I stood and looked out at the mountains over the lake. The valleys of the mountains were rounded and 'U' shaped, something that the ice sheet and/or glaciers crafted. When I look out at oceans I think about the impact of the ice lobe thousands of years ago. Whenever I see stray rocks/boulders on the ground, I wonder if it's an erratic. When I see large cliffs, I think if it was shaped by the water it's near. 

As for the vegetation, I think it's neat how an area that was once a landfill turned into a nice natural area thanks to the help of people. (My site and UBNA were both landfills. McCollum was a landfill 40 years ago, and I didn't know that looking at the creeks and vegetation there). We are constantly changing the environment we're living in, and nature follows suit.

To intimately know a natural place, all you have to do is go there a lot and pay attention. This week I walked by lots of people walking their dogs or with their spouse in McCollum Park and have struck conversations with them. I asked if they walked/ran in the park often. Most do since they live nearby, and some occasionally come. However, both groups of people were able to tell me the same exact change they felt. They were able to tell me the changes they saw--flowers and fruits coming, more birds around, more insects (unfortunately). They were able to tell me how the plants have grown bigger and is much more pleasant to be around. I've been going to this park and observing it for this class, so I had to be attentive. But these people didn't have to be, yet most described to me similar feelings and observations. Although they aren't documenting or taking pictures, they are observing and feeling the difference. They described the same thoughts I had about this place. Of course there were those who vaguely responded by saying everything looks more green, or that they don't remember. But they say they visit because it's nice looking, so they do feel a change in atmosphere of the park. As for me, coming to this park week after week got me to know this place. I feel like I know the major plants and birds. But there are still new things that I discover and find. There are also old things that I find fascinating to watch change. To sum it all up, to intimately know nature is to be aware of the surroundings and pay attention. Because if you go there every week, even if you don't pay much attention, you will be able to spot differences.
But doing these weekly documentations with drawings or photos is super helpful. I've been able to compare weekly photos and notice things I didn't when I was in the park (the weekly pictures that I described earlier is an example). You don't have to know everything about nature or what's there right away--it's the willingness to learn the change of an area that makes you intimately know a natural place, in my opinion.

I honestly think close observations in a city park could make you feel like a real explorer in the outdoors! A lot of species in city parks are similar and present in inspiring far off places. Sometimes, there are even more diversity in city parks (I like to think). I know telling friends that you went out and hiked at Ravenna Park isn't as cool as saying you went to hike at Mt. Rainier, but that's only because they don't know how awesome local parks are. They're a little slice of far off places! City parks are more accessible on a daily basis compared to mountains or far places. Being able to access nature on a daily basis allows people to intimately know the area they are watching. It allows them to visit winter, fall, summer, spring and see the changing landscape. Birds, species, vegetation change with new seasons, and people will be able to document and easily see the changes on a weekly basis. Doing this same thing isn't realistic in far places, unless people want to drive every week in every type of weather. With close by parks, one is able to see what it looks like covered in snow, what it looks like in hot weather, if the wind knocked some trees down, etc. This isn't easy to do on inspiring scenic places for a majority of people. 

The most important personal outcomes from this class for me is an enhanced appreciation for nature and processes that shape it. Whenever I go hiking in a far off place, I pay close attention to the species I'm seeing, and how it's changing as I go further into the forest or up the mountain. I've never thought about doing this before because I've always thought of the site having the same type of species no matter where I go. Now I see the change in zonation patterns from Hemlock to Spruce. This is a very valuable outcome that I took from this class, as I can also apply the thinking to other classes and point it out to normal people who don't study the environment. I also don't generalize plants anymore---something small, green, and leafy isn't the same plant. I can't help but want to ID what the plant is, even if I do get it wrong. The same goes for birds--it's the adventure of searching for the right species that is exciting!

I've had a couple of classes dealing with or similar to this class that focus on humans and nature, and they've all shaped my perception. This class in particular has not changed my overall perception of nature throughout this quarter much. Let me explain: I still believe humans and nature need each other, and it's important for people to become stewards of nature. Humans have always been changing the landscape and its something I've known and studied intensively in previous classes. In respect to humans' role in nature, my perception hasn't changed. But this class didn't really delve deeply into humans and nature--it focused more on individual perception. I do notice that I've been focusing more on seeing what types of animals and plants are in an area when I visit it. I think about if it's native, if people planted it there, and what would happen to the ecosystem if certain organisms disappeared. This entire quarter we've spent watching and observing plants and animals, and I've gained a better appreciation for following the changes and for their existence. I can't explain it with words, but the feeling I have towards seeing plants has changed. It's like I've gotten happier, or excited? But I do know that learning about the history of Puget Sound changed how I viewed large landscapes. Instead of watching and admiring the beauty, I watch and appreciate how the change came to be. 

I really enjoyed this class. It brought about a new perspective on how I personally view nature and its history. I don't think I'll ever look at nature the same way :-)

Week 8: Bird Watching Adventures

Time: 10:20 am

Weather: Cloudy, 61 F

Place McCollum Park

This week at my site there is no drastic changes. Vegetation is greener and taller, that's about it.  Berries are growing on the Tall/dull Oregon Grape, Salal, and snowberries. The salal berries are dark blue/purple resembling blueberries. The salmonberries that were plentiful and slightly unripe last week seemed to all disappear. I only saw a few handful, and they were ripe this week, so I'm assuming the wildlife gathered it for food, especially the birds. The berries are bright red! I ate one and it was still sour though. The birds were very active and were congregated in the canopies around fruit bearing bushes, whereas areas without fruit bushes seems to have less calling birds. Smaller, weedy plants have grown taller, along with the grass! All leaves are fully grown on the trees and bushes. I've identified a lot more plants I haven't seen before.

Weekly growth: taller bushes. Smaller sticky currant are growing fully on the trail.

1 meter site! The leaves are bigger than usual and are in full bloom!

Bracken Fern. Found it growing! I guess everything looked like a sword and lady fern. This has rounded edges, triple pinated.

This is growing everywhere! I've tried ID it from the book, but I spent hours and couldn't find it based on the leaves or the flowers. So I'm enlisting the help of the interweb!

Another picture of the above but with leaves that are 3 leaflets, edged, and tall growing. There are hairs on the little flower stems.

This is one of the sites that I took early on in the quarter but felt it wouldn't change much. I was wrong. It's a beautiful little swamp pond with so much vegetation growing near it!

 Some bird pictures:

Spotted Towhee staring and singing. A pretty chirp chirp dededededede noise it makes! Followed by an ugly car breaking noise ""eeearrrrrrk". It was calling with another bird, exchanging calls back and forth. They were having a conversation! Cute :)

Pilleated Wood pecker. I was hearing the "nuk nuk nuk" dolphin sound of this bird but couldn't find it. While scoping around with my binoculars I spotted it! It was looking for insects on a Beech tree.

Different Bird Poses:

Pileated Woodpecker looking for food. Male.

1. Pileated Woodpecker foraging for food on a Beech. It landed on the top of a tree, then incrementally hopped down the tree to look for food. I didn't know they did this!!! But this is a male bird because I saw his red mustache on his face. It pecked its head in the open tree looking for insects. I didn't see it catch anything so maybe it didn't find anything. It wasn't pecking--I didn't hear a pecking noise that I usually do. Probably because the tree was already split open and it was easy prey for the bird. There wasn't any other woodpecker nearby, so there wasn't any interactions with birds. All the sparrows and chickadees left this bird alone. It's too cool to mess with any little birds. This species isn't competitive with other species since it was relaxed and chill.

Pileated Woodpecker in flight. Nice feathers shown.

2. Pileated Woodpecker in flight! I've never seen it up close in flight before. I've only really heard this bird's "nuk, nuk" dolphin like call. But it was soaring from one tree to another area. I was surprised at how low it was flying. It flew about 6-8 meters high, under the canopy. I would've thought it would fly over the canopy since it is such a big and bulky bird, but it didn't. It beautifully navigated itself through the hanging tree branches and leaves like a boss, yo! This bird is so dope it deserves some street cred! Any who... I was watching it through the binoculars and with my eyes, and it was much more beautiful through my own eyes because I could see the whole picture.
The wings were spread so I could see individual feather "fingers". It was white on the upper half and black on the bottom half. I could definitely see its little red mohawk. As I was following it with my eyes, it flew up and out of the canopy to another part of the park that was too far to run to and still see the bird.

Calmly chirping and singing Song sparrow

3. Song sparrow perched on a Maple tree and chirping/calling. I decided to have a little fun with this birdie and play songs with it from song sparrow, junco, thrush to see how it reacts. When I played the sparrow song, it was frantically flying from one bush to another on the other side (kept going to same bush) to try and hide. When it heard the call, it went under a sword fern and huckleberry bush to hide, then flew to a maple tree and perched itself to look for the predator, repeating this pattern at least 5 times. When I stopped playing the song, it repeated patterns another time, then stopped on the maple and stared at me. No joke, it stared at me probably because it heard the song in my direction. Then it calmly started "chip chip" chipping around. This is when I caught a nice sketch of it since it remained there a long time. It was an adult birdie, but not sure if it was female or male. It was a really plump bird, bigger than what I've been seeing at Ravenna or UBNA, so maybe it was a female about to lay eggs? But I don't know if a female would have been acting in the strange way that it was.
After my fake birdie was gone, this birdie was talking with other birds. It was chirping, then singing and waited for replies in which other birds replied. I listened to this bird and another bird (about 15-20 meters away?) exchanging songs and calls. They did this for over 5 minutes. It was fascinating! But the most awesome part is coming up. Brace yourself...

Fighting Song sparrows. Incredibly fast. Never have I seen before.

4. Song sparrow fighting! Okay, so technically it wasn't this sparrow that was fighting, but it was two smaller males fighting near my plump little birdie friend. This is why I think my bird is female--because two smaller males were fighting near the female and the female just watched. It didn't move from its perched tree, it only re-positioned itself.
Here's what happened: while I was watching my birdie, I suddenly heard a loud wavering flag sound (imagine a flag violently waving in the wind. THAT sound.) When I looked over to my left, I saw a salmonberry bush rumble. Then I saw the two males fighting with each other! I quickly sketched this awesome display. But they were violently fast! Then one bird flew back into the trees/bushes more while the other closely followed suit. Then they flew high up into the upper canopy (40 meters?) and I lost sight of them.
I have a couple of hypotheses for the events. One: my plump birdie friend was the female for one of the male birdie chasing the other out because it was a threat. Two: One male got too close to the other male's territory (the female is already in it) and so they were fighting. Three: the bird songs I was playing with my birdie and aggravated the male bird, so it found a song sparrow nearby that thought was calling to the plump bird so it fought with it (if so, I'm sorry little birdies :( ). Four: it was purely coincidental and two males just happened to be fighting next to my birdie friend while it didn't move.  They could've been male friends, or mates, or just a wandering passerby that didn't care.

Week 7: Invert Hunting!

Place: McCollum Park
Time: 11 am
Weather: Clouds... :(
Temperature: 55F (Mid 50s low 60s)

I haven't been to this park in 2-3 weeks so I was excited to see the changes! And boy did it change.
Salmonberries were in full bloom! There are now fruits on the bushes, but the white flowers of the bush disappeared.

Weekly Phenology Update:
The picture doesn't do the spot justice. The foot shrubs grew about a 0.5-1 foot taller in general. I now recognize Vanilla leaf as one of them! Then there are a bunch of clovers. The small trailing flowers actually disappeared and are replaced with full grown leaves. There are now taller grasses than before! There didn't use to be so much grass. Also, there used to be a couple of dried out, dead ferns in the bottom corner of this picture frame. When I was taking this picture, it was gone! That could only mean one thing..... it regrew and became fully green!!!
There is definitely more green and less woody brown in this area. It's odd though, this area used to be filled with flowers from thimbleberry, salmonberry, and trailing weeds/species. The flowers were pink, white, purple, yellow. Now, there doesn't seem to be much flowers! The only flowers I've been seeing are either dead and withered, or the yellow dandelions. In exchange, the Salmonberry have grown and are now an orange color!
As for the wildlife, I came here in the early afternoon, so there weren't much birds chirping as usual, or as many bugs. But I did see a good variety just looking around.

Landscape: My weekly spot. What I thought were bushes in the back were actually small trees! They have grown.

Following the area around this small maple tree (1 meter). The Sword Ferns grew much taller and are more erect than before. It used to be loose, flattened near the ground, and slightly brown. Now it stands tall and full. The young Acer macrophyllum has leaves now. No more little helicopter like buds, and no longer nakey.

Close up: I haven;t been here for a bit so the angle isn't exactly the same, but the tree and area is. The tree went from a barely budding, empty tree three weeks ago into a blooming tree with an underbrush growing!

The other 1 meter picture. The hazelnut (it's been I while, and it's not here anymore so it's either beaked hazelnut or thimbleberry) seems to have fallen from the wind. The shrubs have grown just as expected. There aren't many flowers around here anymore though.

Again, not exactly the same angle since the "marker" tree/bush I used now looks different and was difficult to find. BUT I assure you this is the same 1 meter area, just a different angle! I'm not making this up XD You can even see the D. Fir stump in the background.

Another view of the same 1 meter area.

INVERTS TIME!

1. Banana slug Banananannanana ! This banana slug was a greenish yellow color. I found it near the roots/trunk of a large Douglas Fir. It's a mollusk. It was somewhat sideways and not moving, or moving very slowly. It moved when I wasn't watching it -___- Other than that, there's not much to describe about the slug, other than it was slightly shiny and wrinkly like an old man (more like a middle-aged man). It had small little dots on the entire body. The underside was whitish/yellow and had gray lines running vertically. It's called the "skirt". Running along the slug's body, it starts from being wide to being narrow once you hit the tail end. The tail end is a rounded point. 

It was super squishy! I kept poking it and it responded by contracting a bit and it moved a bit. There's a weird hole on the mantle (only saw one hole). It's the lungs and pooping hole and reproduction hole for the mollusk. It had two feelers in the front.

Banana Slug! Descriptions in drawing. The only addition I added was the eyes. It doesn't have those black dots. BUT I did see a weird jagged line that looked like a mouth.

 2 and 3: A two-for-one deal! These are quick sketches since the two kept moving too much and too fast, so I didn't have time to turn the page. I later made more detail from what I remembered.
Both have 6 legs and two large main wings that look like one wing when it's closed.

Two inverts:
TOP: Diptera
BOTTOM: Odonata

2. The top is a small fly diptera order (type I don't know). It was orange, about 7-8mm long, and had a large hump on a side view. It was walking around on a leaf and flying away then back. I don't know if the hump is for babies or if it's just a characteristic of it.

Diptera

3. The bottom is of Odonata order: a dragonfly. It was about 2-3cm long (it was really small!!) It had three segments: the head, the abdomen, then the tail. The "tail" was a striped brown and red color similar and was a rounded tip at the end (which leads me to believe it's a baby dragonfly, as I haven't seen any flies look like this). The abdomen is a dark brown color with a white light circular spot (I drew on the picture). It too had 6 legs and wings that hid its tail.

Odonata

 3. My favorite! The Bumblebee bumble bumble bumble.... It's in the Hymenoptera order. Since it was within distance and kept flying in the same vicinity, it was pretty easy to capture the main characteristics to draw it. I counted 6 legs, 4 on top and 2 large ones on the bottom half. It had 2 large wings, and I faintly detected two small wings (I could be wrong). It had 2 antennae. Its body was black with 2 main yellow stripes on each segment. One at the tip of the head, one on what I like to call its butt. Oddly enough, I didn't see a stinger when I was observing it. Perhaps it was hiding or the angle was never right because I do know they have stingers, but unlike honeybees, they don't die after a sting. Bumblebees can sting multiple times without dying since the stingers don't come off when they sting.
The ends of their feet look pointy and also point in two different directions (like a U). This bee was bumbling around a Thimbleberry flower (one of the few ones still around). It had a pink flower/pollen with it. I think it was all the pollen it gathered (so it gathered a lot!!!!!! 0.0) It was actually pretty incredible. I watched and followed it while it was buzzing around collecting pollen for about 10 minutes while I drew. It kept coming back to the same flower at least 4 times after it visited another flower.

Bumblebee: Hymenoptera order

POEM TIME!!!!!!

Poem 1: The Majestic Death of Me, Kelly

Oh how thy efforts go not to waste,

As creating a masterpiece makes not haste.

Diamonds, circles, floating in mid-air--

Its function is a two-fer: one of beauty and of food thy hope to ensnare.

Hanging in the middle as if thy life depends on it,

No humans, nor winds can disturb what thy knit.

Spinning and spinning the art endlessly around,

Thy bring it back up when a better place is found.

Creepy, crawly, thy movements are quick,

When you crawl onto my arm, I scream then I flick.

Thy bottom gives way to the weaves for thy life,

In nature it's beauty; in my home---

I chase you down with a butcher's knife.

When thy hear a ribbit, a caw, or a meow meow

Thy better fear for thy life, as it'll end right nyow.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I tried to make the creature sound pretty and majestic, but I couldn't keep my feelings out of the poem. SCARY!!! D: I admit Spiders are pretty cool, but I've had one too many in my house, and they are the death of me, thus the title. This is more of the silly one that I wrote. It started off nice but ended up weird at the end, but I kept it so you all can enjoy =D

POEM 2: The Life of a Bubble

Safely encased in a frothy bubble,

It looks like a human was there, the kind that makes trouble.

Safely living your life in a warm encasing,

You are protected from the birds that aren't embracing.

You spend your early days in your protection,

Eating the green grass of which you've grown affection.

You suck it up and eat it dry,

It's as though you made it acidify.

When the time comes, your encasing dissolves,

Out comes a small youngster with lots of resolve.

Armed with a pair of wind surfers, and six little helpers,

They allow you to forever fall and land you in shelters.

Shelter from rain and snow and wind,

The six of them support your body and help you find skin--

The skin of all things green and readily available, that is,

And finding a mate to help you procreate!

Small in size, about a millimeter or two,

The strength it takes for you to fly or do.

When you procreate you leave your young somewhere familiar,

With lots of food when they wake, and in a casing you hold dear.

It's the frothy bubbles conglomerated together, the ones you grew up in,

And the cycle continues when a new life begins.

Hopefully I was clear in what this insect is >.< I saw a lot of them on grass in my area, but not ones that were grown. I did see small nymphs in the bubbles though after observing carefully. This is a Spittlebug! Or a Froghopper is another common name. 

Note on second line: I was trying to describe spit as coming from people who often spit in public anywhere at any time. It's not true, but I was trying to portray a troublemaker spitting all over the place because they don't care what they do.

Week 6: Skyroot Farms and Ebey's Landing

This week we went to Whidbey Island to visit beloved Beth's totally rad Skyroot Farm and to explore Ebey's Landing. I live so close to this island, yet I've never actually been to explore it.

Skyroot Farm is a very diverse little world harboring many different ecosystems all within that one land plot. In it we saw riparian habitat, prairie habitat, forest habitat, heavily managed farming habitat, and more but these are the ones I remember most.
When I heard we were going to a farm, my first thought was "uhhhhh, boring! There's nothing to see there!" Boy was I wrong. The first thing I noticed when entering the farm were the chicken--the amazing chickens! One I designated Big Bird because she looks like Big bird from Sesame Street. It's a Chamois Polish Chicken I believe, since those are the only hens that look like Big Bird. But that's not native to the northwest. But I was super happy that I figured out the species of the bird!

It's Big Bird!!!!!!!!!!!

As we walk into the entrance of the farm, I see the actual farm with plants and flowers! But that's not really part of this journal so I'll skip what I saw.

When we split up as groups, I joined the forest group, which turned into the riparian zone group, which turned into a little mini tour group. The first thing I notice in the forest is how young it is. There is virtually no understory, except with a few ferns and knocked down wood here and there. It was littered with slugs! I found a Black slug, which is actually invasive to the area since it outcompetes with the banana slug and also consumes fungi that is important in the ecosystem. They usually prefer moist environments, so most were found near the water but some were found in the drier spots of the forest. I also saw Banana slug . The forest consisted of the typical trees we've learned: Douglas Fir, Redcedar so nothing really new or interesting. The forest was dry and cool from the upper canopy blocking direct sunlight and rain going down.

Black slug. It looks cut in half and dead... Unless it's a baby. It was hanging around near the wet area.

Moving down to the water zone, there is a sudden shift of forest into a riparian zone. What was shaded, uneven, cool,, and big tree filled turned into a semi-open, wet, thin tree area. There in the zone we found lots of common horsetail and Red Alder. This area had bushes blooming so there were more insects around. Butterflies were flying over and around the areas. Butterflies rested on the Lady fern and bushes nearby. Both Horsetail and Alder need constant water sources since they aren't good at retaining water, therefore explaining their abundance in the riparian zone. The creek was actually smaller than I thought. Around it were birds, and is a good spot for birds to nest. The butterfly below was flying around and landing on the bushes. It looks as if its trying to camouflage itself or to gather pollen/nectar and spread it to other places.

Lepidoptera order! It looks like it's hiding from predators (us) or transporting pollen from one place to another.

Exploring the farm was a lot of fun. My favorite was observing bees do their thing. I have an affinity with bees. I think they're so awesome and little, and are my favorite flying critters. Walking around the actual farmed plants, I saw the honeybees flying from flower to flower trying to get some nectar. I also found bumblebees doing the same thing, but bumblebees are predatorial and eat smaller honeybees. Both bees rarely stayed still for me to get a decent picture in.

I liked watching the birds, but it's so difficult knowing what they're doing when they're so far away. The Songsparrow Tim caught was my first time seeing a live bird up so close. I could see the evolutionary history of the bird being related to dinosaurs. The claws are talon like and scaly, as with their legs. The wings are like little fingers for birds filled with bones. I think the best part I saw was when the bird pooped on Hannah and she forgot and touched her hair! The cutest part is when the bird opens its beak. The bird was male because only they would be aggressive enough to fly into a net and get caught. It was obviously stressed out a bit.

Tim and Jorge giving lesson on Songsparrow. How to measure and the history of it.

I really liked Tim's discovery of the little frog. I think it was a red-legged frog? I'm not sure if that was the right identification we came up with. I don't remember anything about it, but it was cute.

Red orange legs of the frog. The way we tried identifying it.

Calmly sitting in Shelby's hand. It's soft, squishy and slimy. The frog kept wanting to jump away.

And although this technically isn't native northwest species interactions, the chickens were the best display of competition I saw all day. The two males constantly competed with each other to be top dog and get the hens. I noticed that when I got close to a hen, the rooster would come out and puff up his chest and look intimidating. It was cute. But when the two roosters were together they didn't seem to fight. They were just calling.

This rooster tried to intimidate me. It seemed to be protecting the hens and acting territorially.

Up on the meadow prairie there were lots of Cleaver. They are edible herbs and are Native! I wonder if Beth planted these, or if these naturally came after they manually cut out all the Blackberries.

Cleaver growing out in the meadow prairie field.

There were lots of these Spittlebug like things on grass. These bugs are drawn to moist areas, so most of them were found in the parts of the farm nearest the water and shaded areas. The bug feeds on the grass. The spit helps to protect the baby bugs called nymphs while they feed until adulthood. These are pests and could greatly hurt Beth's grassy farm. I'm not sure if there are any benefits of having them around.

Cool spit bug things. They live in this spit like thing to protect the babies!

The landscape picture I decided to draw incorporated three different types of habitats. In the far back is the coniferous evergreen forest, where the trees are tall and have pine needles. In front of that are shorter and rounder deciduous broadleaf trees. In the middle is

Skyroot Farms sketch. It's not the best since I have trouble drawing plants. But you can see how there's different landscapes. There's the coniferous forest largely looming in the back. In front you see broadleaf deciduous trees. Then in the middle we see Alders and the water zone, along with a random brown patch of grass I still don't know anything about.

One of the insects we caught was a Pill Bug I assume.

Pill Bug! This bug was fun to watch. Note, it was difficult for me to count the legs, so I drew what I saw. It's not representative of what the legs look like. All other things are as accurate as I could draw.

Next we went to Ebey's Landing. Here we got to see what was on top of the cliff area. It's interesting that the landing had two types of ecosystems: one marine and one mountainside like. Near the walkway up the stairs I see a Red winged blackbird perched and surveying the area. We were in his territory, but there was no other bird around. Walking up the mountain gave a beautiful view of the mountains. Looking across the fields, I notice a farm and the patch of land they work with. Compared to the mountainside, the farm field looked odd. It's a reminder that people are using agriculture to their advantage. Walking up I found very few birds and mammals, but lots of plants. We found the Prickly pear cactus! It was smaller than I thought. These prickly pears enjoy very dry areas. Since they contain and retain water really well, they do not need water.

This little cactus hiding in the midst of the dry grass.

Clusters of Prickly pears congregated in the dry grass up on the hill.

It was hiding in the dry grass, next to the Seashore Lupine. The lupine has little hair all over it. Since the hillside has no coverage from the wind, all plants are exposed to it. The wind can break the stomata of the plant, causing it to lose water and become less efficient. The hair is there to make the wind fly over the plant, causing the plant to stabilize and not move as much. This is a smart plant.
You can definitely see how the landscape on the hillside was changed by the wind. All of the trees are pointing to a certain direction, revealing how the wind constantly blows that way and shapes it. The plants that succeed in the windy hillside area are those well adapted, such as the lupine and cactus.

Close up of the Lupine. You can see the hairs all over the plant.

Ebey's Landing Landscape. Where the Blluffs are located is where we went up the mountain (I think). You can see how the ocean creeps up the sand. In the past it seems the ocean shaped the bluff and the cliff we were standing on.

I couldn't fully enjoy Ebey's Landing because being up on those mountains kicked my allergies into high gear and I was battling a massively stuffy nose and headache, to the point I couldn't breathe or naturally swallow my spit. HOWEVER, I am glad I went on this trip and got to see such a diverse ecosystem within a confined space. It changed my thinking on how to view outside places: give them a chance even if it sounds boring because it might surprise you! I know the farm definitely surprised me! 

I especially enjoyed the chickens, the pig! and of course the honey bees flying around working.

Week 4: Olympic Peninsula Trip!!!

Place: Lake Crescent and Salt Creek
Time: 4/23-4/24
Weather: Rain! Sun, cloud, and more rain...
Temperature: 50-60 F

Initial thoughts: This trip was absolutely incredible. We were able to go to three different looking places! A forested area, an oceanic beachy area, and a field-grove open area. So many places that were completely different, but all close together. That was amazing. Coming back to Seattle was such a weird site. Two days out in nature, then coming back to see buildings and gray air was odd.

Lake Crescent:
Species list: Pseudotsuga menziesii (Douglas fir), Alnus rubra (Red alder), Calypso bulbosa (Fairy slipper lily), Sedum spathulifolium (stone crop), Castilleja miniata (Common red paintbrush), Trillium ovatum (Pacific trillium), Taxus brevifolia (Pacific Yew), Zonotrichia leucophrys (White crowned sparrow), Alectoria sarmentosa (Common witch's hair), Oplopanax horridus (Devil's Club), Lobaria oregana (Dragon skin lichen)

Landscape picture of Lake Crescent: (descriptions below)

Landscape of Lake Crescent. Top: Top view on mountain. Bottom: Dock view of Lake Crescent

I decided to take some drawings of Lake Crescent at two different views: one at the top of Storm King Mountain and another at the bottom of the lake. Honestly, the lake view picture (bottom) was beautiful. The picture was taken early in the morning when the clouds were setting in. I tried my best to recreate what I saw. The clouds wisped around the mountains, setting a beautiful view. There was nothing but the clear blue water, the green mountains with silhouetted Firs in the background, and wisps of clouds. Occasionally there was the Mallard swimming by, and I saw a Bald eagle soaring across the lake, landing on one of the island mountains. 

At the top of Storm King was also beautiful. There's more mountains to see and more definition. I could see the brown dirt spots on the mountains alongside the green trees which I think were mainly Firs. At the top of the mountain were many shrubs, including Manzanita and the Pacific Yew (tree). These shrubs and trees were more adapted to rocky poorer soils. They thrive on top of rocky mountains because there is less competition, and they may not need as much water.

On the one hand there's a view filled with life, and on the other hand is a view of peace and loneliness (the good kind).

The water was so blue and clear. I could see right through into the water, even while looking at the deep end. Maybe the lack of sea plants is what's making this lake so clear and blue looking. Plants are natural filterers, so maybe the trees and plants nearby are filtering the water and putting it back into the lake?

On the bottom zone of Lake Crescent/mountain. 

The bottom zone is much more moist than upper zones, and it probably happened because of the lake's past. The lake was probably high to cover parts of the walking trail, and there's evidence of this along the path where large rocks/cliffs looked shaped by something like the water, where the land looked eroded and the "cliff" looked chipped. (I forgot to take pictures of it!!!!!!)
Here are some species of the bottom zone: (Conifers and water loving places).

• Vanilla Leaf--there was a lot of these all along the trail and near the waterfall area. I found these plants mostly in areas that was near water or got wet. Contrary to its common name, it doesn't smell like vanilla at all. Its other name is "Deer foot" so perhaps deer like to eat these and it tastes like vanilla to them? (**It looks like a deer foot)

Vanilla Leaf. Short plant that grows on hills or the ground in moist areas. It has 3 leaflets that are 3-6 lobed and rounded. It's a paper thin and soft plant. Very flimsy. There is 1-2 main veins with smaller veins branching out of it.

• While near the lake, I got a good picture of the White-crowned Sparrow. It perched on top of a rock. I don't remember the chirp but it wasn't chirping much anyway. I couldn't get a closer look to see what it looked like.
• 

White Crowned Sparrow. As its name implies, it has a black head with white line in the middle. The tail is much longer than the regular sparrow and is kind of cut.

• Calypso bulbosa, also known as the Western Fairy Slipper has a pleasant vanilla like aroma. The flower has no nectar, but the sweet aroma tricks pollinators into pollinating it. The smell lures in bumble bees, who rub against the pollen and takes it to another flower to pollinate. The flower successfully adapted to its lack of nectar. This flower has only one dark green leaf growing out of it. This flower is common in Western areas ranging from Canada to California. I found the flower underneath the largest tree in the Olympic National Park. The tree was shading the flower from direct sun and rain. I'm not sure of any history about it, but the morphology is pretty interesting. (Source: http://www.arkive.org/fairy-slipper-orchid/calypso-bulbosa/)

Fairy slipper. It grew with others, but individually. It has one single leaf at the bottom. It is a purple color with streaks of pink and white. It has a lip. This flower was pretty soft and dainty. The stalk is a purple brown color that droops the flower bulb. The single leaf at the bottom is dark green and tough. It felt and looked waxy.

• Another plant we stumbled upon was the Western Trillium. Tim explained how this flower has a hard time reproducing, so we shouldn't be picking them. The only way the flower gets pollinated/reproduced is by ants. Ants take the seeds of the flower and disperses it wherever. The ants are attracted to the oil the flower produces and carries it with them, making it a reasonable way to disperse its seeds. The flower has a hard time surviving, especially since people keep on picking the flower, and deer keep eating it. Once it's picked, it dies and doesn't grow back. So the way to harvest this flower is to pinch 1-2 leaves and leave it be. There's a Native folk lore that the bulbs of this flower would be used as a love potion, often with women feeding it to men to make them fall in love with the woman. (Note: I didn't color the large leaves because I wanted the veins to show up clearly).

Trillium ovatum. The flower grew on a single stalk. It's hairless and short with 3 green sepals underneath the petals. It's found in the understory underneath trees, giving it shade. There's yellow pollen in the middle of the flower, and it spread onto the petals. I drew it and tried to color the yellow on the petals.
The flower petal has 3 large veins running through, with smaller vein dents coming off it. The sepal has light veins, but not much. The leaves have veins that are curved, with a bunch of sub-veins branching off.
The end of the flower petals have a notch in it (forgot the technical term). I tried to make it clear in the drawing. But I'm not sure if this is typical. It may have just been nicked by something, or the petals were fragile and cut.

Both the Western trillium and Fairy slipper depend on biotic forces for reproduction and seed dispersion. The ant and trillium both benefit and is a symbiotic relationship, with the ant getting food and the flower being brought elsewhere to grow. The case for the Fairyslipper and the bumblebee, the bumblebee gets no benefit but the orchid does. The orchid benefits while the bee has no effect.

• Walking along the flat trail, there were a lot of Devil's Club along the trail. Leaves are maple shaped. The stems are thick. There are 7-9 pointed toothed lobes. It grows in a cluster. The wood is grows on is thick. It was very abundant along the streams.

Devil's Club. There were bundles of them growing along the Lake Crescent trail, which was surprising. They were taller than 5 ft. and not within my reach. Thorny on its stems and underside leaves.

My conclusion to how these plants thrive here: the water from the lake used to go up to the cliffs where Storm King starts. That would explain why so many smaller leafy plants thrive in the bottom layer. The area receives shade from the large Firs so the temperature is much cooler than in the open area on top of the mountain. In this area, insects probably help seed these plants since insects like cooler climates.


Mountainous zone: Walking up the mountain, the plants started to change, marking the start of a different zone. I began seeing more rocky and dry plants. There were Stone crops and figworts growing on the rocky hillside. There were also Yews and Manzanita. There were less thin flowers such as roses and lilies, and more fat plants like succulents who retain moisture well. Going up the mountain the zone changed from a wet and well drained area to a rocky, dry area. I could really tell from how the plants look.

• Common Red paintbrush: This was growing on the rocky hillside while climbing up Storm King. The figwort has a lot of fine hairs on the leaves and stem. Leaves are narrow and pointed, with the ends tinted a red/orange color. It has shallow lobes. It was growing in a clearing and open wood.

•  Broad leaved Stone Crop--Leaves are succulent, and when broken it's fluffy inside with water spots in it. The leaves are circular and alternate and grouped together. No flowers were out. It was growing on a rocky cliff in an opening where there was very little to no soil. There is a bulbous green round shape stemming from it.

 These plants thrive from the sun. It probably likes open areas because it gets more sun, and doesn't have to compete with other plants for water. These plants are well adapted and retain water pretty well.

This trip was for focused exploration and trying to ID plants on our own. It was cool be in the forest that I'm used to, then climb up the mountain too see a completely different species list! I found a bunch of mushrooms while on the bottom of lake crescent easily, but on top of the mountain I found none.
What the best part was seeing the Black tailed Deer! While we were on the "Moments in Time" trail, a small deer (maybe a baby?) came up to the open prairie area and started eating the plants. I saw a baby Western Hemlock the deer nibbled on. The top leaves were gone, leaving the bark. It was amazing being in an area that deer comes up to casually. It must be a "wild" area that the deer don't feel threatened.
Bird watching was fun. There were so many bird calls that I couldn't recognize! I was amply gratified (lol) when I saw a Bald Eagle and Raven! That was awesome. Throughout this trip, I saw so many majestic birds and creatures in such a short amount of time. I also found a Robin's egg on the ground. I didn't know that Robin's eggs were actually bright blue colored. I just thought the Robin Egg candies stores put out for Easter were fun colored for kids. I didn't think they were actually bright blue colored. Jorge taught me how it's a valuable source of calcium for birds. Since this egg is dead, it's valuable for birds to eat it. Birds need calcium to create new shells and babies, so they often eat shells for that scarce resource. Therefore it's important to not take anything out of nature, otherwise you might be indirectly causing harm to creatures.

Robin's egg. It was cold and dead :( 

Salt Creek:
Species list: Haematopus (Oystercatcher), Arbutus menzeisii (Madrone), Orange sea cucumber, Blood Star, Chitons glaucus, Sea urchin, Bull Kelp, Giant kelp, California mussel, Northern Bay Mussel, Purple shore crab

*Note: Most of these species I'm guessing the names of. I'm not at all familiar with sea species and am waiting for the ID on iNaturalist to help me out. Unfortunately I forgot to write down the names of these sea critters :/ So I put what I think are the names of species, and will update names later.

Walking along Salt Creek was difficult. The rocks were slippery and there were many of them! I've fallen and tripped a couple of times...
The ocean created an awesome river ripple. It was completely shaped by the water. At first I thought it was always like that, but now that I think about it I'm pretty sure this was just a landscape change of that day and is not permanent.

The sand is shaped by the water.

You can see how the water is taking the sand clumps. The edges are craggled and taken away.

Closer look, you can see how the water is eating up the sand, creating a cool looking stream path.

I was taking the above pictures and this is what happened. I began sinking and the sand sunk into the water. I wasn't aware that this was a naturally occurring stream that I had to be wary of. I thought it was a permanent structure, if you get what I'm trying to say. It's difficult for me to explain.

This is what happened when I was taking a picture of the small makeshift river the ocean created. 

By the end of the day, the makeshift ocean river engulfed even more sand and made the river bigger. I forgot to take a picture of it! But it definitely got bigger. This was the first time I've ever seen the ocean create something like that, and it was amazing. I wonder if this river brought in more sea creatures for the Gulls, or if it displaced some sea creatures.

I felt bad stepping on the anemones populating the rocks. While looking at the landscape during low tide, I could see so many sea creatures at the intertidal zone.

• There was an Orange cucumber chilling in the small tidepools of rocks alongside anemones. The cucumber was slimy, and had bumps going across. It was hard, but also squishy.  It has a bright orange/red color and was very small. Most of the cucumbers looked attached to the rocks.

• I also stumbled across a Red Blood Star (Henricia sanguinolenta). One was hiding underneath a rock near water and looked alive, while another one was on top of a rock that was unfortunately dead :( 

Live Blood star holding on to life by sitting in a small pool of water left from the tide.

Dried up, dead Star. The star's color changed into a gray color.

You can see the difference between the stars above. It's the same star, but one's alive while the other is dead. Completely different colors. The live one is more slimy, and holds its' bright orange/red and yellow color. You can't see the bumps clearly on the live one. But the dead one's color completely dulled and dried up, allowing the small scaly dots to appear.

The tides probably pushed the benthic stars up to the shore, and stayed in a low tide for a while. The water probably didn't reach all the way up to where the star was so the star dried up.

• Strawberry anemone. There were so many on the tide pools! They were everywhere so it wasn't hard drawing them. I drew one open and one closed with as much detail as I could, but there really wasn't much. It's such a simple creature. It was super mushy and squishy! Me and Yushan had so much fun poking them heheheheh. I made sure not to harm them though. Some of them make a weird high pitched water squirting sound when pushed. They react almost immediately to pokes, so maybe that's a safety feature they have because with each poke they close up, then open up a minute or two later. The underwater anemones are almost always opened up whereas the ones all on the rocks are closed. The tides were low when we were there, but there were so many anemones! Later on in the day the tide came in and the onshore anemones were submerged and opened up.
• The sea anemone is mainly shaped by abiotic forces. When the salt water comes up, the anemone is able to open up and feed (or do whatever they do when they open). When the saltwater retreats, the anemone looks as if it protects itself and tries to retain its moisture. It shrinks in size and is more squishy without water, and grows larger and more tough in water. This species looks to be dispersed by the water.

Strawberry anemone. They were everywhere! They were small on land, big underwater. Dispersed through the water!

The lower portion of this picture is a drawing of where the anemone resides. It's hard to distinguish due to my lack of artistic ability, but at the edges of the land (the tide pool area) are where the anemones were. They were everywhere! On top of rocks alongside barnacles that looked dead. Kelp and seaweed were all over the rocks, and it was super slippery.

The top is a landscape picture of the cliff. I tried to capture the erosion from the ocean. The top part exposed the roots of trees dangling, so I'm guessing the water washed away that part a while ago. Then shrubs started growing on the rock and near the roots who are well adapted to rocky soil. You can see where the water eroded the land by keeping the rocks smoothed and indenting the cliff. It's still brown soil, but with a lot of large rocks in the cliff.

Top: Cliff near ocean. Bottom: Ocean view (beach and rocks)

At the end of this trip, I couldn't get the smell of sea air out of my nose. The crashing waves was a soothing sound, making my sketching a relaxing experience. I found an awesome blue shelled chiton and anemone shell (which I didn't take because it'd probably end up gathering dust or in the trash). I think it's amazing how we spent a whole day in a forest habitat, then drive a couple of minutes to an tidepool area with a completely different ecosystem. We went from Lake Crescent to Salt Creek, to another beach area (where we found sooooo many Gulls and more Eagles!!! but nothing else really), to a plane field that's prairie like, like a farm.

I forgot the name of our last spot, but it was so different from the other three stops. Imagine it like a farm: it was open fields of brown grass and long fields of nothingness. Again, I saw Black tailed deer in this area eating. They were so close to us. I believe the place isn't visited much so the deer come out and can feel calm.

When we were going back to Seattle, I was so used to the natural habitats we visited. Three different ecosystem/fields all within a certain area. It blows my mind how we can go visit all these different areas within a few minutes. This field trip had me appreciate what I find out in nature. I never really explored the beach or forest thoroughly. I usually just strolled through enjoying the scenery, not the creatures living in the ecosystem. This field trip really brought a new light to how I think about nature now. That's why I thought it was so weird going back to Seattle and seeing all the gray buildings and construction. My mood definitely went from happy to gloomy. The trip felt like a getaway, and I really treasure it. More people need to go out and get away from gloomy industrial life to appreciate life in different ecosystems. My mood instantly changed going to and from the peninsula, so maybe others' would too feel that

Although, I think I may have enjoyed the trip even more if I didn't have a midterm on the Monday... That's what was on my mind for a majority of the trip.