Diario de ajwick24

I decided to take a day trip to my cabin on Whidbey Island on April 21 to study all the species the island had to offer. During my times spent up at Whidbey, I would occasionally hike in Saratoga Woods on the South end of the island. These woods are quite diverse-and truly evoke curiosity and adventure. The weather was mainly overcast with some sun breaks while temperature was in the 50s. I believe many of the trees in these woods are old growth. The main site of the forest is a giant glacial rock that was deposited here during the previous ice age. I've had a few wonderful picnics on the top. :) The start to my journey involved finding a light colored fir at the entrance to the trail. I have yet to clearly define it, but it must have been planted there since there were no other trees like it in the forest. I found two different types of snails on my journey, including a still unidentified red flying bug. I wasn't able to see many other creatures, beside MANY bees and a pair of small birds. The first major observation I made was when I stumbled upon a turkey tail fungus growing on a fallen tree on the perimeter of the trail. I also found many shelf fungi, as well as witch's butter. The first trail I found had many Cedars on it, and I decided to switch it up by taking the Pacific Yew trail. This trail was incredibly diverse in that I found 3 different kinds of mosses. There were hardly any undergrowth plants until I found the glacial rock. In this area, there were many tall Oregon Grapes, Red Alder, and Salal. On the trail back (Bent Tree Trail) I found mostly Red Alder and California Huckleberry under giant Western Red Cedars, often bent in strange shapes. I couldn't find a reason for the bent shape other than a human physically manipulated the bark ( as in the bent forest in Europe where someone bent trees for furniture construction). I'd say the major highlight of this observation was seeing all the different kinds of fungi in the forest. This inspired me to be in the Fungi group for the group project. Hopefully it works out!

Today, I took a short journey to Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park, specifically the Wilderness Creek Trail. It's right off highway 900 between Renton and Issaquah. The day is rainy, overcast, and mid-50's temperature. The dominant species in the area are Maple trees, Cedar trees, Hemlock trees, Oregone Grape, ferns, nettle, and western sweet coltsfoot along the trail. I found many slugs and snails along the buffer of the trail. I couldn't see any other animals or insects. Since it's the first day of rain in a week, I hoped to find some fungi in the forest. However, even when I turned over dead logs, I could only find white traces of myccorhizae. I did find witch's butter and a small cluster of white fungi under one log. I found many types of mosses and lichens on the trees on the perimeter of the trail. I sketched what I'm guessing is sweet grass on the trail because it was found sparsely. In addition, there were many small flowering plants in both yellow, pink, and purple varieties. Surprisingly, further up the trail, I found one plant which I assumed to be a weed due to it's likeness of several I've seen closer to the city. It was around 8 inches in height with leaves just as long and 2 inches wide. The leaves are intricate; a record is sketched in my journal. One Cedar I found had a shiny black substance coming out of a hollow part of the tree. I assumed it to be sap, but the consistency, amount, and color was too questionable. Overall, a good day to find some native Puget Sound species!