Week Six

3:30 PM Monday, May 19
Mostly cloudy, 65 degrees
Magnuson Park

At my site this week I have noticed grasses really starting to take over, especially near the water. Also on the trail walking to my observation spot, the trail keeps becoming narrower from the growing vegetation. Additionally, I noticed a new plant growing by the water that I couldn't seem to find in my field guide. It has long oblong shaped leaves with jagged edges all extending from on central stem. Some of the edges of the leaves are a reddish color. I also noticed a few plants blooming, including snowberry and red osier dogwood. Additionally I noticed two other white flowering plants that I am having a hard time identifying. One looks a lot like black hawthorn, but it has different leaves. I thought it was especially interesting because the flowers were in different stages of blooming all on one plant! I also saw another flowering plant with white flowers that had long eliptical petals.  The rushes out in the water also seemed to have something blooming on them, although it was hard to tell exactly what it was.

Unidentified plant starting to grow by the edge of the water.

Blooms on rushes. 

Red Osier Dowgwood blooming.

Unidentified plant.

Unidentified plant in different stages of bloom. 

I also found many species of birds at my site today. I briefly saw a house finch before it flew away as well as an american robin. It was flying around some cottonwood trees where I believe there was a nest, as I heard some unfamiliar squawking which I think were the robin's babies. I also heard the call of the marsh wren, but I never this species. I followed a black capped chickadee through some trees for a short while before it flew away. It jumped from branch to branch not staying on any of the branches for long, but also not moving a great distance each time it moved to a new branch. I heard its chirping song which it did a lot while it was in the trees. It stayed pretty low to the ground while it was moving around before completely flying away and I could no longer follow it. Its flying was very fast and short. I could see it off on another tree in the distance for a little while just flying in short little bursts. I also followed a pair of gadwalls for a while. They were intensely cleaning themselves while sitting in the water. Sometimes they would dunk their heads under and then continue ruffling their feathers with their bills and just generally splashing around a lot. When the female decided to fly off, the male followed, and they did not go far- just moved to another close pond. where they floated peacefully for some time before flying too far away for me to find/follow. Birds are difficult to observe- it was much harder to follow them than I thought it would be, and even harder to identify when I only catch a glimpse before they fly off!

Gadwall I observed doing some cleaning. 

The best picture I was able to capture of the black capped chickadee.