Journal 4: Bird Follow
11/1/22
Journal 4
Location: Yesler Swamp - 3501 NE 41st Street, Seattle, WA 98195
Time: Tuesday, November 1st at 2:43-4:15
Temperature: 47-48F
Weather: Sunny small amount of clouds
Upon entering my field site a multitude of grass species have already died off. The main plant species staying alive in the front entrance of the field site and possibly growing seems to be the Chicory and the Himalayan Blackberries.Compared to my last visit I did not hear the calls of Crows I did see like one or two. A Willow plant near the entrance appears to have grown because it reached more into the walking trail. I was able to identify Wood Sorrel, the green clover-like plant growing underneath a thicker part of the tree canopy. Snowberry was identifiable because of its white berries and its Yogos-like shape and the small oval leaves. I did notice that in a Vine Maple plant, the lobed leaves were changing color some were a yellow/red shade. A couple of red huckleberry plants I noticed had lost a serious amount of leaves.I only saw one out of the usual four turtles laying on the pipe. It could be that some of them have migrated. I noticed around five squirrels that were running around in the treetops. One of them ran up a tree with an acorn so, I imagine they are preparing for winter and stashing acorns. There were the usual ducks across the water somewhere diving for food. One species I saw was a dabbling duck with a gray body; the tail was black and a little section with white. I did not see the upper-half of its body, so it could be a Gadwall or a similar species. I was able to identify an Ocean Spray plant because of the dead hanging flowers that are now brown and resemble the motion of a waterfall and the alternate leafing with grooves in them. I believe I stumbled upon a very young Oregon Ash tree mainly because of the shaping and the look of the compound leaves.This tree species did also appear to be changing leaf color as some were more yellow and others were green, some leaves on the bottom were brown spotted and appeared to be dying off. The dirt in my one meter area did appear to have some moisture in it was a little darker than the first site visit. A tree close to the area has a fungus that has a dark top that has been growing larger on the tree trunk. The Western Red Cedar doesn’t seem to have changed much. I heard the bird calls of one that sounded like a really high pitched yappy dog and one that sounded like the gear wheels of a plastic toy moving. I wasn’t able to visibly see these birds.
I ventured further out into the field site near the back where all the tall trees were. I spotted an American Robin. It was I’d say, a medium sized bird that most noticeably had an orange underbelly. Its eyes had a patch of white below and above the eye the body was a dark gray color. I spotted the American Robin up perched in a tree branch surveying the other birds flying around. Down by the water I thought a duck was walking closer and got excited. However, when I got closer the body was a little too skinny to look like the average duck and its beak was too skinny. The body pattern was similar to the brown body portion of the female mallard duck. The feet were skinny and it reminded me of chicken feet. I believe the bird was a Virginia Rail. The Virginia Rail was walking around on the land area underneath some shrubbery and was pecking at the ground. It swam up to the land, shrub overhead and started walking around. I didn’t see it fly around. I spotted a brown bird near the forest floor perched on the shrubs but wouldn’t really fly long distances and it was sending warning calls. It had a brown body striped with white on the chest. Streaks/stripes on the head and smaller bird. I believe the bird is a Song Sparrow. I identified a Red-naped sapsucker due to the red patch at the top of its head and the black body with white down the back. I could tell it was a woodpecker because it was jabbing at the tree bark but I only caught a small glimpse before it flew off.
I observed the American Robin I first spotted perched on a branch close to the ground but was apart of a bush. The bird then flew around eight feet to an area that was by a stairwell. Another smaller brown bird flew in the vicinity and the American Bird took off to the bottom of a rock wall. At the bottom of the rock wall the American Robin spotted clumps of debris near the road ledge. It began to peck at the leaves for a couple of minutes. It would pick up the leaf, I’m assuming it was in search of food. Each leaf would be tossed to the side. It saw me I was about ten feet away and it didn't seem phased by me. It decided to take off over a cleared area and into the area full of tall trees it flew a straight pattern. It perched up into the tree at about twenty feet maybe it wasn’t the highest up in the canopy but it was up further than when I first observed the bird. It was perched up on the branch and was looking around at the other small birds that were flying by. Its call was a high pitch. The pitch would sort of go up and down.
(Image above of spatial scale of chosen spot 50 sq. Meters broad scale)
(Image above is the spatial scale of the chosen area 1sq. Meter closescale)
(Image above of American Robin perched on road)
(Image above of sketch of American Robin, observed bird pecking at leaves)
(Image above of sketch of Song Sparrow perched on a Reed Canary grass consuming wheat germ)
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