Week 3

Journaling from locations around the Puget Sound Region

Day 1: Nisqually River Delta, Mima Mounds, Gravel Location

NISQUALLY RIVER DELTA

     This first destination was my favorite for day one because of the biodiversity in the area.  The Nisqually River Delta is one of the most biodiverse areas in Washington State.  Being at the river delta made me very nostalgic because I was being reminded of what I learned when I was in elementary school geography and eighth grade Washington State history.

The exciting moment for everyone on this day was the tornado sighting.  It must have been less than a mile away because I could see without binoculars the water and/or dust that the wind was picking up around the eye of the tornado. 

MIMA MOUNDS
     The Mima Mounds was a place I had never heard about until day one of the field trip.  It was really intriguing to see something that I had never witnessed and have to convince myself that they weren't man made.

List of Species Day 1:

Tree frog, Bull frog, Great Blue Heron, Red Alder, Western Hemlock, Northern garder snake, Snail, Caterpillar, Hawk, Bald Eagle, Black Cottonwood, Red Alder, Mallard Duck, Snowberries, Banana Slug, Cedar Waxwings, Osprey, Gulls, Shorebirds, Cinnamon Teals, Marsh Wren, Pin-tailed Ducks, Widgeon

Four Plant Species Day One:  The top two pictured are from the Nisqually River Delta, and the bottom two are from our Mima Mounds destination.  In the case of this snowberry bush in the upper left, I observed that it was growing in close proximity to other bushes. Since they all seemed to be a little crowded together the branches of the snowberry, and the shrubs/bushes around it, were intertwined, and seemed to be growing together.  The bottom left picture is of an Early Blue Violet.  This species stood out to me at the Mima Mounds because it was one of the few species I could see with vibrant color.  They also did not grow in bulk, or whenever I saw one it was usually growing by itself along the path.  The leaves in the top right corner have not been identified yet, but here is a link to my iNaturalist page where I recorded my observations: 
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/cmmaylor.  The picture in the bottom right corner is Coastal Reindeer Lichen.  This lichen was really interesting to me because of how it was growing because it was the plant closest to the ground and could grow across large areas despite all the grasses that grew around it.  In the case of both of these species from Mima Mounds, you can tell they have adapted to climate and their geography.  The Blue Violets were all windswept and blown over looking.  While the Reindeer Lichen I'm sure might grow on trees, but in this destination it is forced to adapt to grow just along with the grasses.  

Above in this sketch of my view from top of the trail looking out at the Nisqually River Delta, you can see the snags that are still standing at pretty close distances to where I was standing.  My favorite part about this landscape sketch, and why I decided to draw it, was the dimension that can be seen from the grasses closest to me, to the trees and water in the middle, to the mountain line and clouds in the distance.  

Day 2: Mount Rainier Old Growth Forest Stop, Paradise, Panorama Point

MT RAINIER AND OLD GROWTH FOREST
     The first stop on day two of this weekend's field trip was my favorite for the day.  It was a very biodiverse and unique old growth forest.  There were many varieties of fungus and mushrooms all around the trees, nursery logs, and ground floor of the forest.

Four Plant Species Day Two:  At the old growth forest there were many opportunities to grab a shot of a mushroom and fungi.  I snapped the two pictures below of a mushroom growing out of the side of a fallen tree.  The one below is most likely in the Bracket family and quite possibly the artist's fungus.  I read that this fungus grows in places where movement is not required, so for this fungus's life it will hang on to this tree for as long as it can.  Below the fungus pictures is a picture of some lettuce lichen which is common in this area and is referred to sometimes as the forest's litter.  I think that this family of lichen has adapted to its ground floor habitat by having the texturized surface.  This particular lichen was very moist, per the day's conditions.  The tree species pictured below are (top) a young Mountain Hemlock and a Subapline Fur (far-away, and close up).  These trees are similar to me, and both species to me seem to have adapted to a cold-weather climate.

Above is a rough landscape sketch done on the bridge on the way to Mount Rainier.  In the middle you see the glacial run off as well as the pretty prominent tree line left over from the Puget lobe of the last ice age.   

Above is the sketch I made from a picture I took when the class trekked out on to an unmaintained trail so that we could observe where the glacier had been and what it is now.  I have labeled what I was attempting to sketch on the paper.  Some of those features include where the differentiation of where the snow and where the rock is.  Unfortunately in this picture/drawing you cannot see the water that is running down the glacier, but I have included a picture above that I took of the scope where you can closely see how the water is flowing.  

This was probably the most important view of the weekend and it has a very crucial natural history story for the Pacific Northwest.  The remainders of the ice masses that engulfed the mountain sides of Mount Rainier are the left overs of the glaciation period five hundred thousand years ago.  But, more importantly to our view and perception of Mount Rainier, is from the more recent little ice age, that has occurred during the last ten thousand years, when glacial advances renew.  

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

Cassie Maylor