Walking Tour Rough Draft

Hi, and welcome to the virtual tour of Ravenna Park! In store for you here are 10 different stations where you can learn about the park, some of it's history, and some of the plants and animals making up this park. Feel free to move through the stations in whatever order and at whatever speed you please. Enjoy!

The first station is about the geology and geomorphology of Ravenna and Cowen park. Geology and geomorphology are about the physical features and physical history of the surface of the Earth. At Ravenna, one of the most interesting aspects of the geological history are reflected in the large hills spread laterally throughout the park and in a very large rock (boulder, if you will) deposited in the stream. These two aspects are visual remnants from when a glacier called the Vashon Glacial Ice Sheet was moving across the Puget Sound Region almost 20,000 years ago! The hills, ellipses stretching in northern/southerly directions, are called drumlins. Drumlins are hills that have been carved by glaciers moving over the ground in the past, dragging and compressing glacial till into the hills that are visible today at Ravenna Park. The aforementioned boulder is also a remnant left behind by a glacier. This boulder is called an erratic. An erratic is a large rock that has been deposited by a glacier moving over the ground. The same glacier that caused drumlins and erratics at Ravenna Park created Ravenna Park itself. Ravenna Park was a drainage ravine that was part of the Green Lake drainage basin emptying into Lake Washington. This ravine was deepened as the glacier moved over the area and later became what we now know as Ravenna and Cowen Park(s). The Ravenna Creek that runs through Ravenna Park and establishes much of its wetland habitat is sourced from the western face of Ravenna Park's ravine system.

The second station in your journey merges history and human interaction. This station covers the land use history of Ravenna and Cowen Park. For decades during the 17th and 18th century, the Ravenna Park ravine was mainly ignored by loggers and farmers. As a result, the area had trees stretching to nearly 400 feet that were featured in the Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition of 1904, which was the World's Fair held in Seattle and covering the development of the Pacific Northwest Region. Controversy over the huge trees in the Ravenna Park area stemmed from the question of harvesting the timber or not; however, this controversy eventually dispersed as the large trees 'mysteriously' disappeared by 1926. The Cowen Park ravine was largely filed in by the mid 1960s and was planned to be part of a stormwater drainage system. However, members of the areas surrounding neighborhoods rallied to successfully protect and restore the park. Since 1991, the Ravenna and Cowen parks have been majorly restored by the community's people and the city.

The third stations is about BIRDS! My favorite bird at Ravenna, which can be found in abundance, is the American Crow, or Corvus brachyrhynchos. Especially during the spring time, one standing on the trail can find multiple groups of American Crows at the Ravenna Park. I have had the most success spotting crows on the main trail that runs along Ravenna Creek. The crows often can be found foraging on the ground for food, perching in the trees, preening themselves in the creek, or can simply be heard all throughout the park calling to each other. American Crows are arguably the smartest birds in this region, which makes them really fun to observe! American Crows have the ability to recognize different human faces, so when you are looking at a crow and they are looking back at you, both parties are observing the individual before them. American Crows are about 10-14 inches from beak to tail, are completely black, and have an easily identifiable "Caw!" call. Crows are smaller, have shorter tails, and have smaller beaks than Ravens- the two species are often confused. Another cool bird to observe that is often more difficult to find is the Anna's Hummingbird. The Anna's Hummingbird is a vibrant forest green. Adult males have gray edged feathers and bright red or dark blackish heads and throats, while adult females have green heads with a small patch of red on their throats. I often describe these birds' calls as the sound of two marbles being rubbed together, phonetically sounding like a "stit". These birds can be found in early spring, flitting between different flowers and feeding. I have had the most luck finding these birds at flowering plants like the Indian Plum or Red Huckleberry, often near Ravenna Creek or on the higher ridges on the sides of the park.

The fourth station you'll be visiting on this walking tour is the PLANT station, through which you'll be covering a lot of area and can really venture throughout the park wherever you please and will still be able to find a ton of plants from this station! There is a plethora of wetland plants that make up the habitat at the base of the drainage area of Ravenna Park, including Sword Ferns, Common Horsetail, Skunk Cabbage, Pacific Yew, Common Buttercups, and Common Daisies. The most common trees in the area are Bigleaf Maple, Western Hemlock, and Western Redcedar. Pacific Yew is common in the wetland area, as it is a tree that loves to be in a moist soil climate. Other plants that can be found include Salmonberry, Red Huckleberry, and Thimbleberry, all of which have edible berries! Red Huckleberry is supposedly delicious. Other plants you can find are Tall Oregon Grape, Dull Oregon Grape, Salal, and Snowberry. Snowberry's berries are poisonous, but one or two have been used to settle the stomach before, surprisingly! Something really cool to observe during the spring is new growth on all of the plants and trees. New growth on the trees is presented as bursting ends of the existing branches of the trees, showing lighter green leaves.

Field Trip 2! Eastern Cascades Foothills

For my second field trip, we went to the Eastern Cascade Foothills. The first area we went to had basalt columns from Cascade volcanoes from 20-50 million years a go. The opposite side of the foothills we were at were similar, but the columns are covered by glacial debris. The area had a river running through, meandering for millions of years, followed by a slow uplifting of the land coupled with downward cutting from the river created the canyon we were able to see. The canyon's vegetation was a shrub-steppe zone, receiving an average of 20 inches per year. Pretty gosh darn dry if you ask me! The main trees in the area were Black cottonwood and Ponderosa Pine, also containing wet microhabitats with Willow trees and Oregon grape. We saw lots of cool different birds when we first arrived there, including Yellow breasted chats (a migratory species) who were having a territorial fight with a wing vibration display. These birds are songbirds and are related to Song Sparrows. We also saw Gold Finches, heard Downy woodpeckers and Black headed Grouses, and saw quite a few  Red tailed hawks (distinguishable by their slightly upturned wings and broad tails with a red tinge) and Trkey Vultures. We also saw a cherry tree and sage (which smelled awesome). The sagebrush was altered and fragmented because of human land use in the area, and had dry climate adaptations like hairy leaves to break wind that would cause moisture loss and a reduced area of leaf size. Sagebrush also has an extensive deep root system and shallow root system, allowing it to gain water from the water table and from closer to the surface. We saw Brown headed cowbirds, who used to feed off bison until but now thrive on cattle and horse ranches. Because these birds rely on constantly moving animals to feed off of, they cannot lay and protect their eggs, and thus lay their eggs in other birds' nests, in which their larger babies usually crowd out parents' actual babies.

Purple Lupin

Biscuitroot

Unknown lichen on Tall Sagebrush

Larkspur

Unknown lichen growing on rock

Indian Paintbrush (parasitic on sagebrush roots)

Interesting white foamy goop oozing from this Black Cottonwood. Unsure what exactly what it was

Yarrow

First landscape

The second place we drove to was a flatter plain area with shrubs of sagebrush and many similar plants, excluding the wetter habitat areas. We saw two little horned lizards, and there were these interesting seed satchels that would disperse seeds if you hit them. I am unsure what plant exactly they were from. We saw brewer sparrows and sage threshers. There are also rattlesnakes in this area (none of which we saw /: ). The field had a curst on the soil of cryptobiotic crust composed of lichens and mosses, holding the soil together and helping grasses and flowers colonize. The last area we went to was a drainage area from the Columbia River, providing an area for a predominantly Douglas-fir forest, also containing White Aspen and Ponderosa Pine. Lewis and Clark found an artifact from a seasonal native village, showing the creek as important to this village's survival. We saw a spotted Towee bird and hunted and found more than five Morel mushrooms. I also found Elk dung, saw a Water Skeeter, a Mountain Chickadee, Black Alder trees, and Wolf Lichen (which apparently makes really good orange dye). 

Second Landscape

Weird seed pods

Lichen growing on rock

Wild onion (Allium) seed pod

Above (opened)

Wee Horned Lizard

Sagebrush

Third Landscape

Bluebells

Ponderosa Pine new cones

It was a hot and pretty tiring day, but it was really cool to see the very different drier landscape created by the blockage of moisture from the Cascades. My favorite part of the trip was probably mushroom hunting at the last spot we went to. I thought the aspen forest was absolutely beautiful.

Journal 7

Interesting growth of this one W. Hemlock limb

Canopy

Developing young Doug-Fir needles

Jumbled/crowded feeling of the forest

It is Tuesday, May 15th, and 8:00 PM at my observation spot. It is a lot colder and overcast outside than my last visit. It is 52 degrees Fahrenheit outside. The soil is very moist and the stream is a lot louder than past, indicating recent past rain. The forest itself is quieter in terms of bird calls and animals, possibly due to coming a lot later than I usually do. There were a lot of gnats flying in moderately sized groups as I walked to my observation spot. The needle buds of Western Hemlocks, Douglas-Firs, Grand Firs, and other trees that had burst last week are becoming more developed into mature needles. The buds are still a much lighter green than the more mature growth. A lot of the deciduous trees are also heading towards full growth. When I was sitting at my observation spot, a dog barked at me for a good minute at least, and after it stopped barking, the birds were quiet for at least 20 seconds following. The sword ferns are pretty dominant on the ground at my observation spot, and it seems to be that the new fern growth is upwards, whereas older growth is more outwards. The forest appears a lot more jumbled and crowded than the beginning of the quarter, thanks to the heavy growth on the floor and the filling in of the canopy. Although the forest is a lot quieter, there are still a fair amount of bird calls- most are back and forth between the same bird, and most of the calls were coming from higher up in the canopy than past visits. The forest is (obviously) more shaded. The forest definitely smells wetter- entering and leaving the forest I smelled a sort of wet moldy kind of scent. The fallen leaves on the ground seem to be decomposing and becoming part of the soil; at the beginning of the quarter, there was an obvious layer of fallen leaves, whereas now they are basically becoming part of the soil layer below them. Leaves of some of the Sword Ferns around me and a couple of the Western Hemlocks that are shaded are yellow, probably because they don't have enough access to sunlight as other plants are growing and shading them.

Unfortunately, I think I didn't see a single bird during my visit, except for one crow flying in. I think this might have been because by the time I went to my observation spot it was already pretty late. All of the bird calls I could hear were in the trees, with very few that I could pinpoint as being close to the ground. Because I didn't see and/or get to follow any birds, I decided to elaborate on a pair of crows that I followed for a good amount of time during one of my last visits. I sketched them multiple times.

The two crows were obviously traveling as a pair. They ventured from each other but always stayed within three meters of one another. They spent the majority of their time perched and rooting in the open floor debris and on fallen logs. They flew to perch on a couple of branches during the time I followed them, from the ground to a branch about 8 feet off the ground to another branch in a different tree about 25 feet off the ground, one following the other's flight. They had very steady, long sweeping motions of their wings when they flew (which helped me identify them as crows, not ravens). During the time that I followed them, they stayed mainly on the ground, not going higher than ~35 ft off the ground. They flew and fed in open areas mainly. Feeding on the ground while I observed them, they turned over pieces of bark and kind of rooted through the debris on the ground. I believe they overturned whatever they could and used sight to locate any food and then ate whatever they saw. I think they mainly eat insects, as I am unaware of very many other organisms living in the floor debris that are easily visible and substantial enough for nutrition. The crows were social with each other, and at one point another pair was nearby and they seemed aware of each other, but did not stick together. They didn't make any vocalizations during the time that I followed them. They are predatory on insects, and must be competitive with other birds that forage and eat in the same way (on the ground for insects. I thought they acted pretty cute as a pair- if one got too far, the other would fly to catch up, and they would occasionally just perch on a branch next to each other for a little bit. I'm well aware that these actions are probably not because they like hanging out with each other, but I thought they were cute nonetheless. It was interesting to be near one, too. I was kind of hanging out near one and it made eye contact with me, observed me, and was aware of me while foraging, though seemingly unafraid. Awesome birds.

Feeding

"Looking at me! (slightly less cheery than portrayed)"

Perching and flying

Journal 6

It is Tuesday, May 9 at 11:50 am at my observation spot. It is clear and 64 degrees Fahrenheit outside and sunny. It feels more moist and cold in the shaded forest.

 The forest is definitely quieter than my visit last week. I haven't seen any squirrels or birds except crows, of which I saw five, and there are significantly less bird calls I can hear. I am assuming this is because many of these birds may have found a mate by now. This visit, I can easily tell what trees are surrounding me because they all have finally grown new leaves. The area I'm observing from is predominantly Western Hemlock and Bigleaf Maple, with some Douglas-fir and Western Redcedar interspersed.

Western Hemlock buds

Western Hemlock buds

Interesting growth of Western Hemlock's branch

Above 3 pictures- dead/dying W. Hemlock needles; in too shaded area?

Douglas-fir baby needles :)

There seem to be about the same amount of fallen leaves on the ground this week, but I have seen Bigleaf Maple and Douglas-fir tree leaves having grown much more heavily than my last visit. There is also an unknown plant to my left. It is about three to four feet tall, has palmately and smoothly lobed leaves, has reddish stems of leaves and green bark further down. There are more lichens on the Western Hemlock I am sitting at the base of. I couldn't identify either of them. Two are about 5 cm in diameter and are shell like growths with a whitish gray surface.

The other lichen is smaller, about 2 cm across, with four spots and a blackish coloring.

I also saw a couple of small (1 inch tall, 1 inch across) mushrooms that I cannot identify.

There are a lot less fallen flower satchels from the Bigleaf Maples this time too. Something interesting I noticed is that I saw far more flower satchels in my area than helicopter pods, which I guess makes sense since wind dispersement would carry the pods away. I have seen no animals this time sitting at my observation spot, so I can't tell if there have been any new species arriving. There are a lot more small flowers. I saw Creeping Buttercup, Herb Robert, and some bell like lavender flowers that I couldn't identify (possibly Figwort family), all growing low to the ground. Many more flowers have grown since my last visit.

Herb Robert and ?

Creeping Buttercup

 Right now I can hear some very high pitched trills of birds responding to each other. There is also another bird with a lower but still high pitched trill.

The first invertebrate I found is a tiny light brown spider. It has a brown abdomen with darker brown dots going vertically. Its head (upper body) is a grayer brown. It has tiny light brown legs with two very long front legs that it seems to feel its way forward with. When I picked up the stick he was on, he pulled his legs in closer and formed a ball. I found it in a pile of leaves and sticks about three feet from a stream. I felt the strong urge to call this little dude a he.

Center at the top of the log- he's tiny!

Sorry for my handwriting- "dark brown dots", "forward reaching legs. thought to be antennae at first"

The second invertebrate I found is a millipede. It is about an inch in length, and is a medium slightly red-brown. It obviously moves and feels its way about with its two antennae. Its body moves in ripples as moving forward passed down its body. I found it in a pile of dead leaves and sticks about 10 feet from a creek. It moves quite slowly, but when it was first exposed by the movement of the leaves it started moving a lot faster. It has a sort of plated back with four legs extending in pairs from each scale on either side (8 legs per scale). The millipede has 16 scales on its entire body, so I think it has 128 total legs (16 X 8 = 128). The antennae are about twice the length of the legs.

"antenna", "scales", "4 legs/scale", "pointed end", "head looks like another scale", "4 legs/ side of scale, pair on each end"

The third invertebrate I saw was a small snail. Its shell was shiny, and banded with dark brown and amber coloring. The snail stayed hidden inside its shell for the entirety of my observation, although I could see the body of it, so I knew it wasn't an empty shell. I found it at the base of a tree amongst some dead leaves and moist soil about 8 feet from a creek. It had a very strong smell, somewhat like a skunk.

The fourth invertebrate I found looks like a pill bug. I found it at the base of the same tree I found the snail at. It is about a centimeter long, and was on a piece of bark under some dead leaves and needles about eight feet from a creek. Its behavior was very strange, because it barely moved. When I lightly touched it with my pencil, it moved just a tiny bit, mostly its antennae. It has kind of hidden legs under its body, but I think it has about 40 total. Its back is a mottled yellowish brown and dark brown.  It literally only moved when I touched it and for little bit following my touching it. Strange critter.

"antennae", "hidden legs", "scaled back", "mottled coloring"