Journal 1 

10/12/2020

I have had experience with nature since a relatively young age. Back in elementary school I would often spend most of my time in the woods reading the works of authors such as Gary Paulsen, author of Hatchet, as well as the works of Mark Twain; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was one of my favorites. In conjunction with this reading I participated in both the Cub Scouts and the Boy Scouts, though I had significantly less enthusiasm and spent less time in the Boy Scouts due to a variety of reasons, ranging from the overtly religious nature of the organization to the excessive amount of bureaucracy for what I largely viewed as a camping club. I was also a major fan of the Survivorman television show by Les Stroud, where Les would venture into the wilderness alone with his camera gear and minimal equipment to demonstrate the difficulty of survival under less than ideal circumstances. One of my favorite parts of these shows and books were their descriptions of plants and animals, which I found fascinating. I also enjoyed books detailing the early expeditions of European explorers in the Americas, such as Cortez and his conquest of the Aztecs, books that not only contained natural history information but also historical and ethnographic accounts from these explorers; in this way my early interest in the natural world mirrored my early interest in history and human culture, much in the same way that my major in Environmental Studies mirrors my minor and hopefully future Masters in Anthropology. Before transferring to the University of Washington I took Environmental Science and Physical Geography courses at my community college, Green River College, and I did field observations for the former in the large forests surrounding the college.

I was born in the Puget Sound region and grew up familiar with the local environment. The general look and feel of our temperate rainforests became what I thought of as a “normal” forest, and I generally viewed the forests of the eastern half of the United States as being somewhat plastic and artificial, much in the same way my Virginian friends view our native forests as being scary and “unkempt,” a thought that I still regard as being exceptionally idiotic to this very day. My time in the scouts gave me a very basic knowledge of natural history, mainly in terms of edible plants. I personally enjoyed spending afternoons in patches of Red Huckleberries, eating the small red balls of goodness for hours on end, even going as far as chasing off a black bear that had the gall to come into my patch of berries during one particular scouting expedition. I remember berries such as the Low Orgeon-grape with far less fondness, not so much remembering the flavor of the small berries so much as the fact that I never ate the berries after my initial sampling of them; Salmonberries hold a similar place in my mind. In this regard it should be hardly surprising that I chose the stream in Ravenna park for my observations; in many ways it reminds me of Soos Creek, which was a small waterway that ran near my elementary school that I often visited. Ravenna reminds me of my younger days of scouting, exploration, and bear chasing, hence why I immediately decided to conduct my observations there after my initial visit in the park.

Journal Entry 1

Time: Monday, October 12th, 2020, from 3 to 4 pm

Location: The far eastern portion of Ravenna Park in Seattle, WA. 

Temperature: ~60℉

Weather: Clear skies with little to no cloud cover and a light breeze.

In Ravenna park I decided to conduct observations close to Ravenna creek itself and away from the main path. The entire park consists of a large gorge with the namesake of the park running along the length of the park at the bottom of the gorge. In my pursuit of an observation site close to the stream and away from the main thoroughfares of the park I was able to find a relatively untouched area that was perfect for my intended purpose, if not for everything else. After crossing the stream multiple times by means of fallen logs and jumping I was able to reach a site that was largely absent of people or human disturbance whilst being close to the stream. I decided to make my main vantage point a point bar in a meander of the stream, with there being a large boulder right on the edge of the point bar, right next to the stream. Of course, one must note here that there is little definitional difference, if any, between that of a stream and a creek, and I will use both terms in my description of the site here. 

Sitting upon the rock and facing the stream one would see a steep hill that formulates the cut bank on the outside edge of the meander. The point bar that I stood upon was not so much a solid piece of ground as a massive mud pit, with my boots sinking in at least three inches into the dark brown mud. The ground honestly felt like quicksand, with the mud holding fast if I tried to draw my boots quickly from it, only relenting when I pulled my feet out slowly. When I did manage to draw my boots the ground produced a loud noise that sounded not unlike a person passing gas, whilst the ground honestly had the color of feces. I boulder that I sat upon was wet and covered in moss, leaving my backside thoroughly soaked by the end of my observations.

Upstream there were a set of small waterfalls that welcomed the stream into the small clearing I was in. Bigleaf maple saplings, still retaining their leaves, hung over the stream near these waterfalls, with the stream produced the distinct sound of falling and flowing water; this sound was what attracted me to the site during my initial search for an observation site. 

 

Bigleaf maples hanging over the waterfall

 

 

A closer shot of one of the Bigleaf maple saplings

I identified these saplings primarily upon the bulbous ends of the leaf stalks where the attached to the main stem, with these woody stems holding aloft broad, five-pointed leaves. The leaves themselves were not as large as one would expect, but one must consider that these maples are still saplings and are not fully grown. The leaves were still green and had yet to loose their chlorophyll and fall away. 

Looking downstream one could see multiple sets of meanders, point bars and cut banks, with the point bank I was sinking into being the first in the entire set of point bars in the clearing.  Around the stream I found plenty of Red Western Ceder, as well as the aforementioned Bigleaf Maple.

Looking downstream into the rest of the clearing

 

Better shot of one of the Western Red Ceders to the left

 

Close up of the Western Red Ceder pictured above

Whilst sitting near the creek I heard a variety of bird calls. I have yet to learn bird calls, but I remember one of the calls being very high pitched and short, consisting of one note that dropped slightly in pitch towards the end. I did not see the source of this call and can therefore not provide a description of the bird's appearance. There was of course the rough call of the American Crow, but I also did not see the source of that call.

 

Looking downwards as opposed to upstream or downstream I saw a variety of things. For my close up shots I decided to picture the end of a log that was jutting out into the creek somewhat and the patch of ground near it. The log was covered in moss and a set of mushrooms I did not recognize. The top of the caps were a blotchy yellow to white color, whilst the bottom of the caps were a pale brown color. The caps were at least a few inches in diameter and the stems were somewhat long and projected out over the creek. 

Multiple pictures of the mushrooms I described

Focusing upon the ground itself, I found countless leaves of the Red Alder, with their distinctive blunt toothed edge. I can only assume that these leaves belonged to the various largely barren deciduous trees near the banks of the stream; I am not good enough at identifying deciduous trees yet to discern them based upon tree structure and bark alone. Considering how the ground was completely covered in Red Alder leaves and lacked those of the Bigleaf maple, it would follow that the Red Alder drops its leaves before the Bigleaf maple. I dug into the ground with a stick and found no insect life; the ground was completely waterlogged. The ground smelled of wet leaves and decaying leaf litter, I would imagine due to the ground was covered in wet, decaying leaves. The earth had a thick, grainy feel that clumped together like wet rice. 

Log at right, stream at far right, cut bank with Red Alder leaves at left

On leaving the site I decided to take a few more pictures. Whilst I did not spot any firs near the stream, high up on the cut bank, far away from the water and right next to my path out of the observation site, there was what appeared to be a young Douglas Fir. Up on the cut bank I also spied many Sword Ferns and I snapped a picture of one of the nicer looking examples. I also took a picture of the the stream itself. In the picture you can see the lighter band of sediment in the middle of the frame, consisting of the interior of the meander, and the heavier sediment at the right of the picture, consisting of the outside of the meander. The faster moving waters of the outside of the bend wears away on the cut bank, whilst the slower moving inner waters deposit sediment and build the point bar, pictured at left.

Overhead shot of the stream

Close up of what I think is a Douglas Fir

Young Douglas Fir

Sword Fern

Overall I saw the stream in an interesting spot. The forest is just transitioning into a fall state, with some species, such as the Red Alder, seeming to drop their leaves before the Bigleaf maple, which I observed as retaining their leaves as of recently. There was bird activity and various bird calls, though I was not experienced enough at that point to properly identify them, and I did not actually see any birds. I went as far as bringing paper to sketch on and binoculars, but I saw nothing to sketch, otherwise I would include them. The long shots of the waterfalls and the meanders in the clearing were a joy to take, though sticking my face near the mushrooms and digging into (and out of) the mud was less pleasant. I am very happy with my site overall and I eagerly anticipate visiting it next week to observe further changes.