Journal 7

Ebey's Landing and Skagit River Delta
Saturday November 8th
Weather- Clear Skies, even warm at times, kinda windy though

On Saturday November 8th, at 730 am, that was early, we went to Whidbey Island so we could go to Ebey's Landing there. We were asked if any of us had ever been to Whidbey Island. I didn't raise my hand, because I don't remember a lot about my teenage years. So, we arrived at Ebey's Landing, and I did recognize the homestead there. As a Boy Scout when I was younger, many years ago, we loved to camp at Fort Casey, and we learned that Fort Ebey was near there, so we went there one year, and were sorely disappointed. I think we found Ebey's landing, not the fort.
Bird watching is a very interesting hobby. I personally have never been a bird watcher, yet I have always loved birds. Now that I am in a class that includes bird watching, I may be able to get a better appreciation for it. My greatest memory from this trip was seeing the Virginia Rail bird at The Skagit River Delta, and I am saddened that I wasn't able to get a picture of it.

Taking pictures of anything is very new to me, and I have heard that getting good ones of birds is very challenging in general. So here are some sketches:

  

These sketches are horrible, but again I meant well. The Virginia Rail I saw didn't look anything like the picture above, but it was easier to sketch. Here is a good picture of one:

This looks a lot like what I saw, I think I was looking head on, or at its back though!!

 

 

Journal 6

Thursday November 6, 2014
Ronald Bog Park   3pm
Weather- Mostly Cloudy and Very Windy


When I arrived at Ronald Bog Park today, I was sure after the crappy weather we have been having there would be a lot of physical changes there. I was not mistaken. Last week there were some trees in the bog itself, and this week it seemed like more were. There were also trees that instead of being up in the air like they have been, were actually bent down towards the ground, there were cracks in the branches to show how mush stress the wood actually took. As well as the trees being misplaced, there were a lot of large branches all over the place, and a lot of leaves. The geese were there, and the ducks from last week were grazing with them, I want to say one male and one female mallard, one was a tan kind of color, and the other had a green neck. There were also a lot more mushrooms today, maybe with the wet and the moss everywhere, mushrooms grow easily there.

This picture shows the 2 ducks among the geese. They are on the bottom, in the middle of screen.

These are the series of pictures I took of a tree, and then the mushrooms growing in the moss. I thought it was a neat series.









Here are some that show the fungi I have seen today.

This one shows some cool looking fungus, kind of looks like a mushroom on the log.

 This is another kind of fungus, I have never seen this kind before.

 This one looked like a yellow berry or bean.

And, this one looked like gel or slime









And, I finally found an invertebrate.

These look like potato bugs, or pill bugs. With all of the crappy weather as of late, there were actually logs to turn over. It looked like a family of them.








For part 2
This was very hard

Several small hats
lots of color
varying in shape
and color

Loud and large
black and white
group of creatures
 sounding like a car horn

Miniature armadillo shaped
wood dwelling creature
gray with an oval back
fast little things




This was definitely difficult for me, I meant well!!

Journal 5

Monday October 27th 2014
Ronald Bog Park 1:30 pm   
Weather- Mostly Sunny/ Some Clouds


Still not being very good at this journal assignment, I thought I would try a different approach.
Last week I had problems finding insects, I think it was too wet, so that is where I start here.

The main insect that I have noticed since first coming to Ronald Bog Park is the gnat. Each time I go I seem to get eaten alive. When I arrived on Monday, I started looking for other types, but still no luck, I must be doing something wrong. I did walk into a spider web though. The other insect I have seen is the dragonfly, unfortunately this little guy was very fast, so I was unable to get a picture of it.
Here is a picture of a gnat and a dragonfly.

Because it was drier today than the last time I was here, I was able to get some other pictures of the trees and branches that had fell into the bog. When I first came here, the bog was pretty much just that,  a bog of only water, and now it looks like there are plants growing in it.

 These pictures are from last time I was at the park.

These were taken on Monday showing branches waterlogged. Gotta love the weather here!!








As I read the requirements for this weeks journal, I saw that we were supposed to get pictures of mushrooms, so next I went on a quest to find some. I took some pictures of mushrooms last week, but I saw that we were going to work with the mushrooms in class, so I wanted to retake pictures and then get the mushrooms themselves.

This one I couldn't find again, maybe it was edible. From my October 22 pictures.








These are the mushrooms I got on Monday the 27th.

Moving these around is a pain in the butt!!
I mean well though!!
Someone actually asked me if I was looking for "magic mushrooms," I said nope.









Lastly, I was able to see some birds today, usually just Canada Geese, but today I saw some ducks as well, and some little birds too. The ducks had a green neck, and I thought a red ring around neck. Unfortunately my only picture isn't good, the birds were scared easily.

 It looks like maybe a male and female?? The rest flew the coop!!




Below here are my little bird pictures. I really need to get a camera, watching birds is interesting.

 I think the right and bottom left are the same bird, but I have never been able to get a great picture of a bird, so I took 2.

I hope this entry into my journal is a bit better.
Sketching and narrating are definitely something for me to work on.

Journal 4

October 22, 2014 - 1 pm
Ronald Bog Park
Weather - Mostly Rainy and Very Wet

When I arrived at Ronald Bog Park today I wasn't sure what to expect, after all I have been away for 2 weeks. I wanted to arrive earlier than I have been, and also I wanted to come earlier in the week to get a different sense of what goes on in the park, but I have been feeling lousy, so I had to go today.

The big thing I noticed today was how some tree branches have fallen, either from the wind or rain we have been having. The last time I was here, the tree branches were out of the water.

   

                                      

These are the same image, but one is close up.

Another thing that was different was the geese were not as populous, maybe they have been heading south for the winter??

Last, there were about 4 kinds of mushroom species I saw today.

 Some of these pictures turned out very bad, but I think I got 4 different mushrooms.

It was hard to get good images in the rain.

I was out at Ronald Bog Park for about 45 minutes on Wednesday October 22, and I was not able to find any invertebrates. I think it may have been just too wet for me, and I didn't read the fine print of the assignment until I returned home saying to look in leaves. I will have to go back, or just put them on next post.

Journal 3

October 11-12 Weekend Trip Around Mt Rainier and The Nisqually River
The weather was mostly cloudy, with some showers, and sun breaks

When I registered for this class, I knew that a good majority of it was to be held outdoors, and I loved the idea of this kind of class. As a younger guy, I was in the boy scouts, and we learned a lot about nature and the environment in the scouts as well. Plus, we went on trips, and camped up near Mt Baker, and Chuckanut Mountain.

I have always loved watching birds, I just have never actually brought binoculars and other equipment to watch them. And learning more about plants and our natural environment is another plus for this course.

We started off our journey by going to the Nisqually River delta, where the river water first starts to encounter sea water. There were all kinds of birds, we even saw what looked like schools of birds circling around the prairie in all kinds of fashions. Even though it looked chaotic, I am sure there was some order to the chaos. But, the big thing that happened on Saturday the 11th was the tornado sighting out in the delta. For some reason most of my class mates got tornado warnings on their cell phones, I unfortunately did not.

Here are 3 of my sketches from around the area. The fourth one will be on the next picture.
After we left the Nisqually Delta, we went to the Mima Mounds, which were very neat to look at, and we even went to try and actually see inside of one. From there we went to camp. I think the biggest thing found at the mounds was the preying mantis.

Day 2 brought us up the mountain to get views of the Nisqually River Glacier, and we did quite a bit of hiking to get better views of it.
                                                                                    Bittersweet Nightshade

 I didn't actually have time to try and identify these. When I realized I needed more plant photos, or sketches, I took this one near the entrance to the glacier area.








All in all, I had a fantastic time. As I mentioned earlier, I have been around Mt Baker, but I never have been to Mt Rainier. It seemed to me like I was back in the boy scouts, and everyone who was there had a great time as well.

Landscape Sketches

I feel like such an idiot, but oh well!!
These are my landscape pictures, and my sketches are below them in the same order

Lastly, here are my picture and sketch of the glacier itself.

This looks like a better entry, but I have a long way to go!!

Journal 2

Ronald Bog Park
Wednesday October 8th 2014
Mostly Sunny
2:45pm

Today when I went to Ronald Bog Park, I wasn't sure if I would see any changes, because I haven't really watched a certain spot like this over a period of time, and it has only been a week.
The weather was pleasant, not too hot, and a gentle breeze blew over the bog.
The geese that were there previously were still there, and today I saw some dragonflies. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take a picture of one, they are pretty quick and small.
The main thing I noticed today that was different from last week was all of the white colored leaves that were on the ground, it definitely seems like Fall is here. Also, there didn't seem to be as many birds singing today, pretty quiet, except for the damn cars.

For my exercises 3-8, I chose to do this plant. I think they are the same plant. 

 I couldn't figure out how to scan these to my printer.

And then my sketches

The three pictures numbered 1 to 3 from left to right.

I meant well :)