Week 2: Drawing Time!

Date: Sunday, April 14, 2013

Weather: Partly cloudy and raining

Temperature: ~50ºF

Time: 3:00-5:00 PM

Location: Union Bay Natural Area, Seattle, WA

It’s a little hard to tell from these far-away pictures, but spring is definitely in the air! While the bird chatter was much more subdued this time around (probably an artifact of visiting my site later in the afternoon), there was still much to see!

 The new view this week of my observation site.

As I reached my observation site with an American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) cawing in the background, I noticed pink buds appearing on a nearby tree. Hopefully it will bloom soon, so I can identify it by its true name! On the leaves of this tree sat a peculiar wasp-like insect that was metallic colored with an orange stripe on its abdomen. That’s one more to add to the list to identify!
It was pleasant to see some familiar faces including the Tree Swallows which continually dart around. They spend a vast amount of time spiraling the area above the Common Cattails. It is their breeding season, so I wonder if there are some nests in that area. Perhaps that will be a new area to explore when the weather clears up a bit. Another familiar face is the Great Blue Heron, which may reside in the Common Cattails in my observation site. It soared right into my line of sight and quickly disappeared back into the same patch of Common Cattails that I had found it in last week.

The ground around me was littered with all sorts of surprises today. The first thing I noticed were horn shaped cones that were spread all over the ground. These act like caps to green catkins that were also nearby. It is a curious addition to the catkin and I have yet to understand its purpose and identify it. There were also a few Song Sparrows (Melospiza melodia) pecking at the catkins and caps.

Horn shaped ornaments adorning the ground.

In addition, white flower petals scattered the ground. The small white flowers I saw last week had already shed their petals and all that remained were its anthers. I also wanted to see if there might be a good surprise under all of the wet leaves on the ground, but all I found this time was a fat, juicy Earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) wriggling around. The ground was also covered with two-fold more Common Horsetails (Equisetum arvense) than last week. It looks like many of the fertile stems have given way to sterile stems!

A comparison between the fertile (left) and sterile (right) stem of the Common Horsetail.

Farther away in the marshy area, an adult male Western Pond Turtle (Actinemys marmorata) sat on a log, which can be identified by its light yellow throat. It was sitting so still, I almost missed it altogether.

A sunbathing Western Pond Turtle.

I found two more species of birds as I was leaving my observation area. This includes a pair of American Coots (Fulica Americana), which I saw swimming in a lake. They were very in sync, moving their heads with the same pace and every so often would duck their heads underwater for a fish treat. At the very, very top of a tree, I also saw a hummingbird! I think it was a male Black-chinned Hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri) because of its black head and dark tail, but I couldn’t be sure because the sunlight was directly on the hummingbird. Nonetheless, it was perched very high up and searching around, perhaps for a mate.

At my observation site, I also tested out my art skills with some sketches and identified a few new plants! I wanted to start out something familiar, so I chose to sketch the Common Horsetail. It seemed like a pretty simplistic plant, but the more I stared at it, the more details appeared.

A memory and contour sketch of the Common Horsetail.

A gesture and diagrammatic sketch of the Common Horsetail.

A study drawing of the Common Horsetail. There are so many details to this plant!

I completed four more study sketches of the plants that were around my observation area. The first of which was Purple Deadnettle (Lamium purpureum). Without the close inspection, I wouldn't have even noticed the tiny purple flowers underneath the leaves. I also noticed it had opposite, hairy, and toothed (serrated) margin leaves. The second sketch is of a mystery flower. It had five white petals that were pink colored on the underside and it had a hairy receptacle. It was very pretty, but will need to be identified. The third sketch is of a Red Alder (Alnus rubra) twig. I was able to find a male and female catkin and a sprouting leaf bud. The catkin had well over forty flowers with protruding anthers. The final sketch is of a Willow (it could be a Pacific Willow, but I’m not quite sure) twig. I drew a catkin that only had anthers and no petals. The leaves on the twig were of compound, alternate leaf formation. The leaves also had pinnate leaf veneration, were long-pointed, and were very finely toothed along the margin.

While sketching may not be my forte, it was definitely useful and fun to take the extra time to appreciate the beautiful intricacies of each plant!

A study drawing of a Purple Deadnettle, mystery flower, Red Alder twig, and Willow twig.