WEEK 9

The Final Journal Entry.

Phenological side by side changes!

Top: September 28th

Bottom: December 4th

Left: September 28th

Right: December 4th

1) How has your perception of your observation site changed through the quarter?

I have become more in tune with nature this quarter.  In tune to me meaning that I was self-aware that I was looking around more.  I was looking up to see what the tops of the trees looked like more.  I was looking up more to see if I could see the birds I hear chirping.  I then was also looking down more to see if I could see mushrooms and fungi.  I went to visit my nature spot in Ravenna right after our rainy mycology workshop and I was thinking to myself, oh I should be looking for some mushrooms on my way down to my site, and I immediately saw some I had never seen before.  And then another one.  And then another.  Going home for Thanksgiving, I live north of Seattle, I realized I was missing out on the-usual-relatives-asking-"How is college going?" because I saw a bird or two in the trees outside the dining room window.  The best part about that anecdote but I turned to Same, my brother and was like, "look, birds" and that was all it took for us to start trying to ID them.

2) How has your sense of the Puget Sound Region changed through the quarter?

 Well my sense changed because frankly I knew where it was now.  I have a terrible sense in direction and its taken me, and is still taking me, everyday of keen observation to learn where I am in the world and in Seattle.  I realized when I was on the bus to downtown once that while I was on the bus I could be not only trying to figure out the grid of Seattle and UW, but I could also be taking all that bus time to be figuring out where I was in the Puget Sound Region and the Puget Trough.  That, I must say, was harder than figuring out where on UW campus I was, but I tried, and several times I was able to pull out a map that we looked at in class and orient myself with that map instead of the one on my phone. 

3) What does it mean to intimately know a natural place? 

Intimately knowing a place to me means, knowing it well enough to predict what is going to happen to it next.  I tried a lot each week to imagine what I think would have changed before I even got there so that I could see if I was right, therefore, I was testing myself to see if I even knew the place as well as I thought I did.  I think intimately knowing a place means that you love and care for it.  I have taken trash out of my place because I found it there one day and I was appalled and I did not want that to be in my area of all areas. I also consider myself to have an intimate relationship with the Puget Sound Region. Since this class I have traveled to several, and by no means not all, key and awesome places rich in natural history that have given me a better sense of the region and I have always lived here and I plan to always live here which fosters my love of the region even more.

 Cassie Maylor signing off

WEEK 8

Week 8

All about the bird....stories.

Monday the 16th temperatures in the mid 50s, around 1 pm. 

My photos from week 8 are borderline basic and not very interesting. This is partially due to my iPod, which I take my pictures on, dying, literally right when the birds in my natural area in Ravenna began showing themselves to me.  So instead I will try and tell my complete week 8 bird watching story, and hopefully it will be better than pictures.  I began my bird watching for the day by just standing in the center of my spot, on the log above the creek by a red cedar tree.  As usual I hearing a lot of twittering from the trees above me and in front of me more towards the path that is a ways away.  I stopped myself, got out my sketch journal because I obviously couldn't take pictures, and got ready to see some birds.  Then one came right down to my hip level about 5 feet away from me.  It was pretty consistently tweeting and jumping around from branch to branch, going in and out of my sight.  In these first few minutes I just tried to look at it as much as I could so that I could draw it from memory.  I did, and as usual with my sketching the first was pretty close to being the best one I made.  Since I didn't get a picture of it to use on iNaturalist, I google searched what I couldn't even informally ID it.  I have left a picture I found on google below so that I and can remember this when I see it again and so it will help me when I go to iNat.

This image is not my own, and I
was unable to properly cite it due
to the lack of original source/page.

A couple minutes after this first bird began flitting around me, another joined.  This one looked really pretty much identical to the first one except for the coloring of yellow on the very top of the head was a little more orange.  These two then, literally danced around me for 20 minutes while I watched their behavior, which was just jumping around, up and down, and over and under the thing branches of the fallen tree that I was standing on.  Overall it was a pretty great experience being this close, and I must admit, it would have been more fun if I could have photographed it.

Cassie Maylor

Week 7

Week 7 Journal:  The Last Saturday Field Trip 

Location: Whidbey Island - Ebey's Landing.  Deception Pass, Skagit River Delta

This last Environment 280 Saturday field trip was special to me because we were visiting places that I have been before, which is something that hasn't happened yet on our class field trips.  The trip was all about the birds, but also a little about the natural history of course!
At Ebey's landing we were able to see a very historic area.  One of my favorite parts of this day was learning the history of the family, the land, and most of all their interactions with native indians.  Now unfortunately for me, the two women who live on this land, didn't explain in lecture format, like I would have liked because it was so interesting to me.
We had an hour to two hours to hike, observe, and explore this area and to the left and right are photos of how I spent

my time on this part of the island.  The lagoon to the left was amazing and unexpected and to the right shows my brother Sam and I taking the steep walk from the end of the path to the beach below.

Species from the entire day:
Glaucous Winged Gull
Golden Crown Sparrow
Song sparrow
Bald Eagles
Red-Tailed Hawk
Marsh Wren
Sitka Spruce
Fungi/Lichen
Cackling Geese
King Fisher
Northern Carrier
Shorebirds
Killdeer
Golden-Eye Ducks

The bird catching near the parking lot at Ebey's landing was a very unique experience.  Looking back at my time in nature, it's very rare, if it ever even happened, to remember seeing birds this up close.  Seeing Jorge and Tim do something that is so in their element was inspiring and then to see the outcome, or the pictures to the left/right/below, was pretty rewarding for all who saw.  The other picture below is with my camera through the scope set up, trained on two bald eagles.  So regal and relaxed that it made me wish all of nature was like this.  Either that or I just wish there were way more bald eagles.

One of the places we stopped after Ebey's were bird watching stops along the Skagit River Delta.  It was one of the more interesting bird stops because, while there may not have been as many species as there were around Ebey's, there were some very different sights to observe.  We were all pretty stumped by the shorebird-type-birds that were flying in a huge pack a half mile away.  They stuck together very well and I personally could not see any birds with just my eyes, but when I got some binoculars or the scope up to my eyes, I was surprised I hadn't been able to see anything at all!

Cassie Maylor

Week 6

 Week 6: 

Decompressing in Nature: A post-midterm blog

Day after a very windy and rainy night, around 12:30pm in the afternoon, currently raining, and temperature in the low 50s. 

Noticing Phenological Changes: Every week I see more and more leaves and needles on the ground.  This is the most obvious of all the changes at my nature spot because it is the fall season, and we have been getting lots of harsher weather recently.  However, I have noticed that there are many, many more needles on the ground and I assume that is due to the weather.  Many of the ground plants, for instance this ivy-like one on the fallen tree- have been slowly disappearing.
This directly above (left) is what the tree used to look like (week 1) compared to the directly above, right hand picture in week 6.

The pictures below illustrate close up, and from a distance the phenological changes I mentioned above, with the increased number of needles and leaves covering the ground, leaves, and tree branches.  

PLANT:  It shoots up out of the earth as if someone asked it to be there right then.  You can't quite see the life inside of this organism but you can sense that it has its own specific timeline, separate from the rest of surrounding life, yet somehow through where it comes through the earth with a purpose and a job.

BIRD:   A strange noise comes from somewhere within the trees around me.  It is almost impossible to understand where, why and how this noise has flew through the trees for me to hear.  These moments when this noise graces my ears is amazing because it confirms for me that life is up there somewhere and not just the trees itself.

CREEK:  I can hear it, I can feel it, I can smell it, I could taste it, I can feel it, confirming to me that it is there and it is alive in some form.  Nothing is to say whether or not this constantly moving thing has more purpose than it shows on it's surface. For it flows and runs with purpose and desire like a living thing.  It's purpose is not clearly evident and one has to study what happens on top, within, and on the bottom of this part of nature to figure its life goals.

http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/cmmaylor

Cassie Maylor

Week 5

Journal for Week 5:

Mycology in Ravenna Park : In Class and For the Nature Blog

http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/cmmaylor

 Above are some of the pictures I managed to not accidentally delete from my camera this week while in Ravenna Park.  Below are the sketches I made of the rest of the fungi species I observed while in my Nature spot in Ravenna. 

Unidentified Fungi: The orange one above was found further from the creek, growing in the soil around some of the smaller bushes.

Mycena: A fungi species that is very common in Ravenna Park.  It grows on the ground and whenever I've seen it, it's always been in pretty wet areas.  In my nature spot they grow near the trees that are near the creek.  

Unidentified Fungi:  This fat, flowery looking mushroom was found growing in the soil.  It was very distinctly gilled on the underside, and was damp from the rain on top, but had a slick texture.  It was a pretty sturdy head of the mushroom and a less so sturdy stem. 

Turkey Tail:  Found growing on a broken off branch of a tree aka grows specifically on wood.  This fungi is pretty tough and hard.  When I went to pick one of the heads of the mushroom off the wood, it took some effort to complete.  The bottom is very white around the edges, has rings along the top of the mushroom, and seems to be not too young of a mushroom. Different coloring in the middle compared to the edge of the bottom. 

White (unidentified) Mushroom: This flowery looking mushroom was found growing in the soil, and was surrounded by moss and fallen leaves as you can see above.

Lichen:  Found growing on a douglas fir in my natural area.  Possibly Rag Lichen. Identified on iNat.

Cassie Maylor