Today, (May, 9th, approximately 2:00pm) I walked over to the Union Bay Natural Area at UW and every time I come to this place I am so amazed that this site used to be a dump site. The diversity of this place is so amazing. It looks to me like this site was always natural. The weather today is somewhat cloudy but sometimes the sun decides to peak out every once in a while. I'm crossing over the bridge and the birds and ducks are plenty today, I just spotted a bufflehead! Buffleheads are so distinctive, with a black and white body and head. This is the first time I have ever seen a Bufflehead in person, they are such peaceful ducks. And to my left I see a family of Mallard Ducks, the little duckings are so adorable, they follow every movement the mother does. Here at the Union Bay Natural Area, the Mallard Ducks are much more plenty, if you see a duck at any park, it will most likely be a Mallard. The male Mallard has a distinctive green head and that is one way to tell a Mallard apart from the rest of the ducks. Now, back to the Bufflehead, I'm noticing that the Bufflehead keeps diving down into the shallow water, my guess is for food. Buffleheads love insects, mollusks, and crustaceans. As for Mallard Ducks, they don't dive into the water, but do something called dabbling. Unlike the Bufflehead, the Mallard Ducks eat a wide variety of food, however, their diet is mainly seeds. What I'm still curious about is why Mallards are so plentiful around here, and when I do see the Mallard Ducks I rarely see the male duck with the mother and ducklings.
Date and Time: May 11th, 10:00am
Location: Saltwater State Park, Des Moines, WA
Weather: Partly cloudy, air is moist
Soil Conditions: Very moist and damp
Saltwater State Park is about 87.4 acres of land on the Puget Sound, covered in luscious timber and plants. Saltwater State Park is also a campground with fifty two campsites along side the McSorley Creek. This place is very unique as it is by the water and it also has hiking trails through jungles of stinging nettles. And what's great about it is that it is so close to home, basically in your back yard, yet, when you hike these trails you feel as if you are out in a remote area, untouched, and 'wild' as ever.
Today, I decided to walk a small trail in Saltwater State Park and when I was doing this, I noticed the plants around me were very green, untouched, and plentiful. Although, the trail was very muddy and I nearly fell on my bottom a couple of times, I loved this trail. As you walk this trail you can't help but notice the smell of saltwater lingering in the air. I like the smell of fresh air and air by the water. Anyway, back to the trail, the understory of this park was rich, there was an abundance in sword ferns and lady ferns. I know that these were sword ferns and lady ferns because sword ferns are the most abundant ferns in the Pacific Northwest. Sword ferns are single-pinnate, with the pinnate alternating on the stalk, with bundles of ferns sticking straight up from the base like a sword. The tips are slightly bristled and serrated and under each pinnate, the sword ferns produce light yellow spores. As for the Lady fern, they are very broad in width with short rhizomes. The spore clusters are curved and long and the leaflet pairs alternate. Saltwater State Park is a great place for ferns to thrive because sword ferns love the understory of moist coniferous forests at low elevations. Sword ferns are very tough plants as they can withstand occasional dry periods. But their optimum growing conditions are consistent moisture, light sunlight, and cool weather, however not overly hot weather conditions. As for the Lady fern, they favor moist to wet forests, swamps, streambanks, and wet meadows and because Washington State fits this description of the perfect habitat for ferns, they thrive in locations across the Pacific Northwest. If you are hiking around the Pacific Northwest, chances are you will see an abundance of these prehistoric looking plants.
Date and Time: May 12, 1:00pm
Location: Mason Lake, Belfair, WA
Weather: Mostly sunny about 75 degrees
Water temperature: about 40 degrees
Soil conditions: slightly dry
Mason Lake is about a few hours away in Belfair, Washington, in Mason County. the lake is located on the isthmus of the Kitsap Peninsula between the Hood Canal and Pickering Passage of the Case Inlet. Mason Lake is the second largest freshwater lake in Mason County. Mason Lake is a very beautiful place on the way you can see the vegetation change from lands where trees are being restored where they were once logged to rich forest lands with ferns and red cedar trees to shore plants and green algae.
Today, is a very nice day here in Belfair, the songbirds are chirping loudly and the water is peacefully flowing. While sitting on the dock on the lake, a family of Mallard ducks swam by, the mother, about 7 ducklings, and the father Mallard. They were just foraging around the shallow waters for seeds and aquatic foods. One thing I noticed was that the male Mallard duck was keeping his distance from the mother duck and her ducklings. He was never really close to them. Shortly after they swam by another mother duck and her five ducklings swam by, but there was no father Mallard duck with this family. but what really interested me was that the father Mallard Duck of the first family would swim of and try to peck on the mother duck of the second family. I was really confused, why is the father duck leaving his family and messing with the mother of the second family? After observing their behavior for a few hours i had remembered that Mallard duck pairs are generally monogamous however, paired males at times pursue females other than their mates called extra-pair copulations. And male Mallards usually force these copulations. It was clear the male Mallard wanted to mate with the other female Mallard and the male was especially consistent because well, there wasn't another male Mallard to compete with.
Date and Time: May 12, 4:00pm
Location: Mason Lake, Belfair, WA
Weather: Mostly sunny about 75 degrees
Water temperature: about 40 degrees
Soil conditions: slightly dry
A couple hours after observing the Mallard Ducks, I spot these two Canada Geese. I heard their call way in advance before I even saw them. Their distinctive 'honking' call makes the Canada Geese easy to determine. There was a male and female Canada Geese and I could tell this because female geese are smaller than male geese. But really sparked my interest about Canada Geese while observing them, was that they neared the Mallard Ducks and I was really interested about their behavior toward each other. As questions lingered in my head about what the Canada Geese were going to do to the Mallard duck and the little ducklings. It was very clear that the Canada Geese did not like the Mallard Ducks, the Canada Geese were pecking at the little ducklings and the female Mallard Duck was defending her young by flapping her wings and quacking at the geese while the male Mallard was just watching the whole thing. My guess was that it was because the Canada Geese were territorial however, the Mallards were there first! It was just really interesting that the male Mallard didn't do anything. Female Mallards are the ones that make a the quacking sounds and the male Mallards don't quack, they make a more quiet rasping sounding noise. This seems to be quite normal around this time of year because during the Spring, Canada Goose pairs break out from flocks and begin defending territories and this may be an area where the Geese feel it's their territory and the Mallards were trespassing. The size difference between the Mallards and the Canada Geese is a really big difference. Canada Geese weigh about 13 pounds for a male and 11 pounds for a female and Mallards weigh about 2.7 pounds for a male and 2.4 pounds for a female.
Date and Time: May 13, 1:00pm
Location: Mason Lake, Belfair, WA
Weather: Mostly sunny about 72 degrees
Water temperature: about 40 degrees
Soil conditions: Mostly dry
Today, there are an abundance in birds, mostly American Robins and Bald Eagles. American Robins are very easy to distinguish as they have a reddish orange belly and breast and a grayish brown back and tail feathers with a darker colored head. They have a white line down their throat, streaked with black and their under-tail feathers are white. These birds are very abundant around the Pacific Northwest and are one of the first birds in the morning to be foraging for worms in your front yard. In this case, the American Robin had a worm in its mouth and flew away as i approached it too close. However, the main diet of the American Robin is berries, rarely do i ever see them eating berries though, they are mainly worms and insects. After seeing these lovely Robins I recalled information that i had learned awhile back that, the reason Robins are seen searching for worms is that the main diet of robin chicks is worms. Baby Robins eat about 100 meals a day! That is a lot of food for such a little chick! As for the Bald Eagle, while I was sitting on the dock, and saw a Bald Eagle fly over the trees and another one circling around in the sky. The Bald Eagle is very easy to notice with its white head, a large heavy looking brown body, white under-tail feathers, a large head and long, hooked yellow beak. However, when it's flying, the Bald Eagle holds glides in the air with its wings stiffly pointed out straight like a board. The Bald Eagle was gliding in the air for about ten minutes. It was looking for food such as salmon, herring, shad, and catfish. Although, their diets are made up mainly of fish, their diets vary depending on the available resources from birds to reptiles.I love seeing Bald Eagles, they are so majestic and to me are a symbol of power and being strong.