Where: Discovery Park near the South parking lot
When: 5:30 pm
Weather: Overcast, but dry
Temperature: 60 degrees
The spot I have chosen to observe this quarter is a beautiful place in Discovery Park that was not quite into the forested area, but still had some trees present. I could hear the water off in the distance, which I knew was there because I had gotten lost in my search for the South Parking lot of Discovery Park and found the beach part of the park. My very first discovery was a bumble bee that seemed to not be doing so well. However, this allowed for close examination and some awesome pictures.
Description of the 1 meter square area around me
There is come moss layering the ground around me with grass speckled throughout. There is a variety of heights of grasses. A lot of dead leaves are on the ground as well with some brown patches of grass as well. The bumble bee has begun the recovery process and is now attempting to make its way to safety. It is fighting its way through tall and short grasses as well as clover. It seems there are several different species of grasses, but I am not able to identify them quite yet. These are some of the grasses/small plants in my area.
A few trees around me have been planted by humans as made obvious by the sticks that are holding them up. However, some look to be very old. I attempted to identify them with my National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Pacific Northwest, but failed. The trees are generally spread out in this area and the grass and small plants dominate most of it.
Description of the 50 meter square area around me
When I expanded my area from 1 meter square to 50 meters square this included more of the forested area and even more of the grassy area. As I spread my search out farther I began to find more variety of plants as well as insects and animals.
I found:
- English Ivy
- Himalayan Blackberry bushes
- Dandelions
- Pacific Madrone
- A bunny
- It was black and pretty big, but sadly no picture was captured.
- A very well behaved mosquito: it sat on a tree for awhile and pictures were attempted, but were unsuccessful.
- Western Red Cedar
- Douglas Fir
- Possibly a Red Alder
There were so many kinds of trees even in this small area. There were evergreen trees, but there were also flowering trees nearby.
I also encountered very wild golden retrievers that attempted to lick me to death. There are a lot of trails in discovery park so a few dogs were spotted and these puppies decided to come and say hello. Hopefully all the wild life I was trying to observe wasn't scared off by them!
Many birds could be heard, but only one was identifies, a Robin. The others were small birds, most likely from the Sparrow Family (Possibly a Dark-eyed Junco in the mix), that could not be seen very well.
At the end of my observation time, the bunny was reencountered and it brought a brown companion with it. This time pictures were captured. The black bunny posed for pictures for quite a long time while the brown bunny was a bit more shy and hid in the bushes farther back.
Also, many crows were around being annoying. Stupid crows.
In my further wanderings of the area a few more plants were found.
A great example of moss was found on a Douglas fir.
Also I found some lichen inhabiting that tree and a piece that fell off.
Then I found a sword fern.
I will show you much more next week and I will also sharpen my identifying skills up by then so I can be more accurate next time!
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