Sun 4/8 Mill Creek Nature Preserve

Today I went out with my family and walked around the nature preserve near their house. The trail winds through dense forest and over the creek near the fish ladders. I believe this forest would considered old growth, as it contained big, small, young, old, downed, and dead trees. It also exhibited a wide array of taxa and was high in species richness and diversity. There was a variety of moss and lichens that covered most surfaces, and there were also various fungi and mushrooms growing on nursing logs and other interesting features. There were dry, steep hills and murky wetlands surrounding the trail. It was a surprisingly warm day, at some points almost 70 degrees F. However, during our afternoon walk (around 4 pm) it had cooled to the low-mid 60s. Skies were blue with scattered clouds.

Mill Creek Nature Preserve:

entrance to the trail from Holly Park on Mill Creek Blvd.

the sky

the creek

the creek

moss-covered tree

tree stump

2 Homo sapiens in a tree

We observed the following species:
Western skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanus)
Himalayan blackberry (Rubus armeniacus)
Genus Xanthoria
European holly (Ilex aquifolium)
Dull Oregon grape (Mahonia nervosa)
Red-flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum)
Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis)

We also observed a few other species that I did not recognize. One of the strangest things I saw was a large, light yellow gelatinous blob. I have no idea what this could be, but it looked like it was occurring naturally.
I also observed several tiny mushrooms. I'm not sure how to identify these either.
There were also some interesting and colorful shelf fungi growing on a downed tree growing beside the creek.

Publicado el 01 de mayo de 2012 por kates17