Blog Post 10

Rhododendron: As I sat and looked at this life form, I noticed its strong base that gave rise to a mass of green. It almost looked like an oddly shaped green lollipop. Scattered throughout the sea of green pieces were small half spheres of color. These spheres varied in color from deep purple to a faint pink. As I moved closer to these magnificent masses of color, I began to see the outlines of individuals, trumpet-like individuals that formed a small portion of the sphere. In the center of the trumpets blaring out like a string of musical notes there were these peculiar one-sided cotton swabs. The one in the very center was the longest and largest. One the tips of the lesser cotton swabs was a bright yellow crumbly substance. Even more peculiar was the fact that the center one didn’t have the crumbly substance at all, but instead a sticky light green surface on the end.

American Goldfinch: A flash of yellow! A rollercoaster with invisible tracks! A creature that is hard to pin down and get a good look at. Black structures with white stripes that allow for graceful and devious flight don’t seem real. They are shaped like a boomerang placed upon the yellow and black ball of fluff’s back, though this boomerang doesn’t seem particularly interested in coming back to me. A noise that seems almost equal to a dog’s squeaky chew toy being played with emerges from a thick and sharp yellow mouth.

The dance of the Red- winged black bird

The ebb and flow of one bird with another. One the leader and the other the follower. Switching roles. Back and forth. A dangerous salsa. Costumes of black with red. One sashays and the other repeats the step. A choreography that has malice laced within it.

Final Reflection:

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

Discovery Park went from being an unknown and mysterious place to a place that I could probably navigate on my own in more ways than one. Not only do I have a greater knowledge on how to actually get around the park (it's pretty big) with all the different sections and trails, I now have a better understanding of the organisms that call Discovery Park home. When I first went to the park, I basically could identify nothing. I could differentiate the plants into only three categories: tree, shrub, and flower. Now I can identify different species of all of these categories and even if I cannot identify it I have what I have learned over this quarter to try and discover its identity. The first journal we did was a bit frustrating because there was so much around me and I had absolutely no idea what everything was. Now going to Discovery Park and observing the plants and animals can be much more enjoyable.

At the beginning of this quarter, the area that I chose to get to know for ten weeks seemed drab and like a patch of gloomy brown land. Now that spring has come out in full force I can truly see the life that is surging through the park. Everywhere I look now there is something exciting and new happening. Discovery Park has become a place that I can go to and enjoy.

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

At the beginning of the quarter I thought I had at least some idea about the Puget Sound Region and all the things that inhabit it, but I soon found out that I was very wrong. I have learned so much about the Natural History of the Puget Sound that I had never been exposed to before. Most of my previous knowledge came from exploring different places in this area with my family and learning as much as my dad could teach me. However, he was more of an animal guy, so the history behind how all of this was formed was unknown to me. I knew a small amount about ice ages and what they entailed, but I had no idea that it was an ice sheet that made the Puget Sound what it is today. It was an ice sheet that shaped the hills and the valleys and determined the Puget Sound's future.

To know many of the intricate details of this area has built a great sense of appreciation for where I live. I listen to every bird that sings a song to me. I try to identify every tree that I walk by. To know the species that are common in the Puget Sound is remarkable. Before I didn’t even know they existed. This quarter has given me a better understanding of the greatness of the Puget Sound and has made me want to explore it even more than I did before.  


3) What does it mean to intimately know a natural place? (Think about this question in terms of the process and the outcome. Also think about it in terms of scale—you have done close observation of one site, as well as developed broader appreciation on field trips around the Puget Sound).

To know a natural place intimately is to know the species that reside there, to know its beginnings, and to know how it changes over the seasons. We have gotten just a small taste of this during the quarter.
To get to know a place intimately is a difficult process. You have to learn how it was formed and how this formation affects the current state of it. You have to start at the bottom. Learn the basics in order to build your knowledge seems unrelated to your goal at first, but once you have gained this knowledge you can better see where it is leading.
Getting to know our sit spots proved to be more of a challenge than I first believed it to be. Finding all the small details and discovering everything you can about a place is harder than it sounds. There are so many parts to a place that you do not realize are there when you are not paying attention and once you start paying attention it all flows in at once.
Getting to know a larger place is not as intimate. I can not get up close and personal with every aspect of the place. I cannot go out and discover for myself what is fantastic about the area. Taking field trips to other places around the Puget Sound sort of grounded what I was learning in something real. I could witness the things we had talked about in lecture for myself. This has made me all the more hungry to get to know the Puget Sound in general even more intimately.