Week 1: Visiting McCollum Park

Time: 6:00pm-7:00pm

Place: McCollum Park

Temperature: Low 66, High 70 F

Weather: Partly cloudy, mostly sunny.

The spot I decided to focus on was McCollum Park in Everett. It's off of a busy freeway and transit stop. I haven't visited this park since high school, so I was excited to see it again! I've only been there running on the trail during cross country meets, so there wasn't much time for me to appreciate the plants and nature I saw (unless I fell, of course). I'd like to see how my perception has changed and what I've been missing these years. 
Upon entering the park entrance, there's a fielded area with a baseball field and bmx dirt rode area on one side, then the other a forested hiking trail that's popular with runners. As I walk to the forest entrance, a calming feeling overtakes my body. The previous loud cheers of people playing frisbee on the fielded lawn dissipated, and I was left alone with my thoughts and the sounds of birds chirping. After several minutes, I finally found a perfect spot for my central site. In this spot there are various plant underbrushes that I can yet identify, and different trees within the vicinity. It's a good spot to look for insects because there is a snag nearby.

I walked along the forest and decided on a couple of sites that I want to follow the changes of. But the main one I want to focus on is this:

In this spot I see sword ferns that look like they're withering away. They are a dull green color with brown tips and spots all over. The ferns look weak. The background trees, and the forest, is dominated with Western Redcedar. Everywhere along the trail there are redcedars that averages 2.5-3 feet in diameter. This is definitely a new growth forest, as the tree trunks are smaller and the height aren't as tall as an old-growth. The tree in the middle of this picture is covered in moss and is tangly. I'm not sure what the tree is, but it definitely gives off a creepy vibe. The underbrush doesn't look full right now. It looks bare exposing the dirt underneath. There are spots of green, but it's about 40% covered with plants and 60% soil/dirt. 

There wasn't anywhere to sit in this area, so I stood for about 15 minutes letting the surroundings be. As I stood under a redcedar tree, swarms of flies flew over my head. It was annoying, but the buzzing of the flies oddly gave me comfort. Another buzzing noise came, but this time it was harsh and loud. It was a bumblebee! I couldn't get a picture of it since it kept on moving, but I did learn that bees are coming out of hibernation in the ground right about now. Maybe there was a queen nearby?

I found some red alders and western red cedars in this picture. The alders have that characteristic white fungi scab on gray bark, It felt rough and bumpy, but also smooth at the same time.

I took a picture behind my spot. You can't see it in this picture, but there are actually houses behind this scruff of nature. This sure is an urban forest.

I found a small underbrush growing on a snag. I'm not sure what it is yet, but the leaves are bright green and small and pointy. This was going to be my central spot, but it looked too bare so I moved on deeper into the forest.
 

I took an overhead picture to show how young the forest looks.

Young forest. These trees are redcedars, alders, maple?

Sword ferns dominate the understory of this forest. The ferns are pretty small and wimpy right now. Most have brown coming from the roots. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't sword ferns indicative of the soil quality? Meaning the soil here is polluted.

This scenery unnerves me a bit. The trees are perfectly in line and all with similar diameters. The understory looks too perfectly created in this area. I'm pretty sure this was a restoration area, but it looks more like a plantation. Hopefully when the tree grows more it would look a little more natural. At least the underbrush looks healthy due to the Nitrogen in the soil by the alders.

It's odd. I see Douglas Fir pine cones, but I couldn't find any trees. Maybe I'm identifying the cones wrong?

I'm not sure what these plants are. But I think they are berry plants. These were one of the few blooming flowers on the bushes. I expect as the weeks go on, more will blossom. There were definitely a lot of the rounded, dark green leaves of the white flower and serrated leaves like the pink flower. The pink flower leaves felt rough and bumpy, while the white flower leaves were waxy and rough.

Salmonberry bush maybe? The leaves look like basil and mint leaves.

Moss growing on the redcedar. I wonder if licorice fern will grow on it too?

After about 40 minutes of walking through the forest, I headed back and found a nice little swamp/marsh area. The are was filled in dirty water, with a lot of plant debris (from what it looked like). There was a white foam on top of the water, and no wildlife on it except for flies hovering over. Maybe I'll follow this through the next 10 weeks. There was beaked hazelnut (I think) around this area.

The redcedar leaves are shown well here, with their characteristic scaly, waxy leaves. I'm not an insect specialist so I don't know what this spider is. But it made its home on the leaves of the Western Redcedar, waiting for the flies and mosquitoes that were buzzing over my head.

This little fella just hanging around near me. It barely moved as I was taking this picture.

The trails leading to my spot (50 sq. meters around my spot). I would say there's definitely more understory coverage of bushes than big trees. While walking, I didn't find any animals except for insects and birds. I'm used to squirrels being everywhere, so this is a bit odd. But the dominant tree species is Western Redcedar, the second is alder from what I observed. Currently the bushes are starting to blossom, but only a few have done so. Things are looking a dull green.

This is a nice forested trail. You can see where park trail staff logged a tree because it was a danger to people. It was probably in the middle of the trail.

Towards the beginning of the forest trail. Trees on left, bushes on right. And a random log hanging over. Looks dangerous.

While I was walking through the forest, I heard a chorus of birds chirping. It was magnificent! But it was sad I couldn't identify them yet :-( There were definitely 4 different types of chirps I heard.
One was a high pitched, short cheep chirp. I think it was a chickadee? Because I saw a lot of little sized birds flying around.
There was another bird that had a mocking laugh, deep sounding and mechanical, like a "ha ha ha you can't find me" kind of laugh. I think it's a woodpecker because I've heard this kind of laugh before in Seward Park, and people ID'd it as a woodpecker.
Another type of bird I heard had a melodic chirping. It was long, with distinct chirping that descended in tone. Looking in the bird guide, I think it's an American Robin.

I chased it down from the forest since I heard a lot of these suckers fluttering around but couldn't find it. To my luck, I found it in the open field, chirping. It had a complicated yet melodic chirping. It was long, with repeated cheeps that descends in tone. It sounded like how I would imagine a UFO sounds like.

Hopefully as I journey through this class my identification improves and I'll be able to ID the plants and birds I found in the park.