Ravenna Creek 2020

Journal Entry 6 Time: Tuesday, November 24th, 2020, from 9 to 10 am Location: The far eastern portion of Ravenna Park in Seattle, WA.  Temperature: ~45℉ Weather: Overcast with a light mist and no significant wind Overall I would say my observation site looks largely the same from last week in terms of the actual processes that I observed on site. The evergreen plants, such as the Western Redcedar , the Sword Fern and the Tall Oregon-Grape still retained their leaves when I arrived and started my observations. The Black Cottonwoods downstream had finished dropping their leaves, and, for some reason, the Beaked Hazelnuts still retained their leaves. I still am not entirely sure why the Beaked Hazelnuts near Ravenna Creek still possess their leaves. Last post I proposed that this phenomenon was due to the shrub-like trees being near a source of water in the form of the creek. I still hold by that explanation, in part due to the Beaked Hazelnuts growing in the more well-drained u...

Journal Entry 5 Time: Monday, November 16th, 2020, from 3 to 4 pm Location: The far eastern portion of Ravenna Park in Seattle, WA.  Temperature: ~46℉ Weather: Overcast with a light but persistent rain and a lack of wind This week it was again raining, though not nearly as hard as last time. When I looked upstream at the little waterfall I noticed that the Vine Maples were completely bare, having lost all of their leaves during the period since my last visit. Many of the Common Snowberries in the area had lost most, if not all of their characteristic white berries, as well as a number of their leaves, giving the once lush bushes a somewhat patchy and mangy appearance. The Red Alders remained bare, and by this time I noticed no strobiles hanging off of the nearby Western Redcedars ; I can only assume that the last of the strobiles had since dropped and become buried in the dense layer of leaf litter on the ground. Moreover, unlike last week, the last of the Red Alder leaves have...