Week 8: Knock, knock. Spring is here!

Date: Saturday, May 25, 2013

Weather: Partly Cloudy

Temperature: 45ºF

Time: 9:00 AM -10:00 AM

Location: Union Bay Natural Area, Seattle, WA

It’s time to take a look at how things have changed over the course of the quarter! Here’s a before and after view of my observation site. Notice how the observation site transitions from bare to lush green!

Left, view from week 1. Right, view from week 8. The forest floor is now completely covered in grasses, shrubs, and horsetails and all of the trees are draped with leaves.

 Left, view from week 1. Right, view from week 8. The grasses and Yellow Iris in the marsh are prolific growers and after a couple of weeks, the surface of the marsh is barely visible because of all of the foliage.

The wave of cotton-like seeds from the Black Cottonwoods have diminished and the foam from the Meadow Spittlebugs has also gone away (they must have hatched!). There are many, many gnats (Dipterid) flying about and there are spider webs along many of the branches. The Himalayan Blackberry flower buds are almost ready to bloom. Despite all of these exciting changes, the main action today was focused on one thing – nest building.

It’s actually become quite difficult to find birds now that there is so much foliage. The grasses have grown up to head height (a little over five feet)! But before I get to the nest building, I want to share a few little surprises I found while trying to follow the birds.

Hiding between two shrubs and growing on a dead log was some Artist’s Conch (Ganoderma applanatum). Since it was growing underneath a Black Cottonwood and commonly grows on poplar trees, I would presume the dead branch fell from the Black Cottonwood sometime earlier. There were around six spore bodies growing on the dead branch and they weren’t more than 2 inches wide. The Artist’s Conch had matured so the top-side was a red-brown color and the underside is its characteristic white that can be used as a drawing medium. Each spore body seemed to start growing from crevices in the branch or at a branch knot.

Tucked away are many Artist’s Conch spore bodies!

The second surprise was also a fungus find. In the leaf litter where I had been looking for invertebrate a few weeks ago, a patch of Mica Cup (Coprinellus micaceus) has sprung out of nowhere. The cluster of Mica Cup is growing near the underground roots of a Black Cottonwood. To confirm that the Mica Cup is new, I took a look at their gill color, which is currently a white to light brown color. As the Mica Cup ages and the spores mature, the gills will turn black.

A cluster of Mica Cup growing along the underground root of a Black Cottonwood.

Now, the only reason I had stumbled upon these fungi is because I was trying to observe a White-Crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys). The first thing that caught my eye was the black and white stripes moving from one branch to another. This White-Crowned Sparrow was hopping from branch to branch within a Himalayan Blackberry shrub and neatly dodged all of the spines. It would peck at the branches every so often and would even hang upside down on a branch. My guess is that it was finding twigs to build a nest nearby and marking its territory when it sang.

A White-Crowned Sparrow (center of picture) that continued to hop along branches and overturn leaves.

Meanwhile, up in the sky, a Bald Eagle (Halieaeetus leucocephalus) flew by carrying a foot-long branch and headed for its nest. Also flying by were a pair (one male and one female) of Northern Shovelers. The pair flew back and forth between the marsh area in my observation site and a nearby pond. It was difficult for me to tell if they were just feeding at different spots, finding a nesting location, or finding vegetation to add to their nest. The sky was also dotted with Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) and Violet-green Swallows. Being the social birds they are, they flew in an irregular pattern up above, chattering away and also darting around to eat insects. I was surprised that the two species of swallows seemed at peace with each other even though they were competing for the same food resource.

Social barn and violet-green swallows flying high above my head.

At the marsh, which is now swamped with tall grasses, some Eastern Painted Turtles were sunbathing on their usual log. Their necks were stretched up to maximize the amount of surface area that the sunlight could reach. The Marsh Wren that lives among the Cattails has probably completed its nest because all he did today was hop around the shore and peck along the ground for insects. The Marsh Wren was no longer flying about from one Cattail to another, trying to acquire cotton and twigs for its nest. Also perched at his usual spot was a male Red-Winged Blackbird, watching over his territory and occasionally making a call if another male Red-Winged Blackbird got too close.

A male Red-Winged Blackbird guarding its territory.

The last thing that caught my eye today was a huge toppled over Black Cottonwood tree. Since it was a little farther out from my site, I hadn’t noticed it until now. The tree could have been toppled over a few weeks ago during the thunder and windstorm. It is a massive tree that is now partially blocking the water flow between Lake Washington and the little marsh nearby. The now stagnant waters appear to be home to many gnats. Since the area has experienced a great disturbance, many Bull Thistle (Cirsium vulgare) have begun to grow.

Even an impressive Black Cottonwood is no match for the extreme weather nature brings.

It is incredible how much my observation site has transformed throughout the past eight weeks. It seems like just yesterday that I entered the site and brown was the major color I saw, but now the grasses are my height and almost every square inch of ground is covered in green. Not to mention, the bird activity (and bird sounds) have tripled over the past eight weeks. When I first began my observations, there were few birds flying about, but this week it is clearly nesting season and many birds are building themselves a new home. Not to mention, the fungi, lichen, and insects have begun to proliferate, which makes the site dynamic and always interesting to observe. In addition to the significant changes in the environment, my identification skills have exponentially grown. I am now able to appreciate many of the intricate interactions that occur at my site!