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...

Journal Entry 4 Time: Tuesday, November 3rd, from 12-1 pm Location: The far eastern portion of Ravenna Park in Seattle, WA.  Temperature: ~50℉ Weather: Pelting rain and overcast skies. This journal post will focus less upon the more scientific approach I have used up to this point. Today I will instead use a more artistic approach to my observation site, with the inclusion of a narrative poem, emotional description, and other such things. In addition to this I will make some brief comments upon the changes I have observed at my site, not so much to fulfill grading requirements but to make a record for later, lest I somehow forget or lose the pictures. For now I will post some of the pictures I took at my observation site that day.  First 50 m^2 shot. Further yellowing of the Black Cottonwoods in the background, and further leaf loss from the largely bare Red Alders . The Beaked Hazelnuts still retain some of their greener leaves, being seen as the greener trees in thi...

Journal Entry 3 Time: Monday, October 26th, 2020, from 1:30 to 2:30 pm Location: The far eastern portion of Ravenna Park in Seattle, WA.  Temperature: ~48℉ Weather: Generally overcast with little in the way of wind or precipitation.  This week I noticed a few changes regarding the plants within my observation site on Ravenna Creek. The Vine Maples near the upstream waterfall had begun to turn brown along the margins of their seven lobed leaves, standing in stark contrast to the Bigleaf Maple saplings at the site, which showed little in the way of browning. Despite this, I found some Bigleaf Maple leaves that had fallen onto the ground. They had the unmistakable five lobes of the Bigleaf Maple, being at least eight inches across . Gauging from the size of the leaves I would assume that they came from a more adult tree, as the leaves on the saplings on the stream bank had leaves perhaps half that size in width, being about four inches across at their broadest point. From this...