Observe Ravenna Park: Week 4

October 22^nd, 2014

3:00pm

Ravenna Park

Raining steadily

This week, it was good to be back at my journaling spot. It has been 2 weeks since I have been at the location and you can see the difference. From week to week, it is more difficult to notice smaller changes, but this week I noticed changes immediately. The first change I noticed was less greenery, as a whole. Grasses and mosses are not growing to the same extent. Leaves from trees have fallen which has caused canopy density to decrease significantly. The less leaves allows me to see a farther into the forest than I ever had before. The ferns, especially the western sword fern, next to the stream have gone from a vivid green to a mostly brown color.

It was the first time I had been to my site while it was raining. If you just sit on a log, all you hear is the rain hitting the leaves of the canopy. Many animals have found shelter from the downpour of rain, particularly birds. In contrast to this idea, I did see a squirrel for the first time at my site. The rain affected many aspects of the forest. To start, while ducking branches and weaving through ferns to get to my location, I walked directly into the mud. As my rain boot stepped into the nutrient rich mud, I sunk about 10 centimeters. It took me about 5 minutes to pull my rain boots out of the mud and continue with my observations. Additionally, the rain caused many of the bugs to hide under logs and leaves. To find the invertebrates that I did, I used a stick and probed the mud. When I did discover an invertebrate, the millipede I found for example, the bugs would scurry away quickly to get out of the rain. The last affect of the rain were raised creek levels and additional floating particles. The creek itself was a muddy brown color, unlike its nearly clear composition in sunny weather. There was evidence of human interaction because I saw a tennis ball floating between logs.

In my last blog post about my Ravenna site, I discussed the branch growing from the western red cedar directly behind me. The branch has now not only grown significantly longer, but also has leaves growing on it. It is an interesting comparison to the rest of the plants in the forest. While the western red cedar is growing leaves, other plants are preparing for the winter chill. Sticks visibly have more mushrooms and many leaves are still falling. A quick scan of the forest floor could show a mix of decomposing leaves and newly fallen ones.

Invertebrates:

This drawing shows the type of invertebrate, in the Epifamily Termitoidae order, called the Pacific Dampwood Termite. The termite was a small white color, which made it easy to find on the dark brown nurse log. Termites tend to create colonies in dead trees. I found more than one termite on the nurse log, so I am assuming that the colony must be somewhere nearby. Even though the termite was tiny, it moved quickly across the log. I found myself having to chase it to just try and get a good view.

This drawing shows the type of invertebrate, in the Callipodia order, called the common Millipede. The millipede was a brown on the top and white on its underside. I found it under many sticks and leaves on the forest floor. From my observations, I have learned that millipedes deliberately stay out of the rain. When I had moved all the leaves and branches, the millipede was exposed and quickly went under a decomposing log. I found it difficult to see the structure of the invertebrate because it was well camouflaged.

This drawing shows the type of invertebrate, in the Vernonicelloidea order, called a Rufous garden slug. The slug was a light brown reddish color with a white underside. Although it was hidden under a leaf, the slug was easy to find because its color was lighter than the nurse log it was on. There is not much to say about the behavior of the slug. It remained in the same location the entire time I examined it.

This drawing shows the type of invertebrate, in the Opisthopora order, called an Earthworm. The earthworm is a light brown color and has an ellogated body. The particular worm I found, part of the body was wider than the rest. The only way I could find the worm was by probing the leaves mud with a stick. While probing the mud, I found the adult worm and what looked like 2 newly hatched worms. I believe that these small worms are newly grown worms out of fertilized eggs from the surrounding mud. The young worms were about 10% the size of the adult earthworm, or about 2 centimeters long. Whether or not the adult earthworm is related to the hatched worms is unclear to me.

This drawing shows the type of invertebrate, in the Araneae order, called a spider. I could not identify specifically what kind of spider, but the body had black and white vertical stripes. When looking at the spider, it is about 1.5 centimeters in width. To find the spider, it is easy to look for the web first. I found the web at the base of a lady fern next to the Ravenna creek. This is a great location to place a web because it is not directly exposed to elements like wind.

Other invertebrates I saw: Pill Bug