Ravenna Park Walking Tour Rough Draft

Birds: If you’re anything like me, bird watching will not be your strong suit. You won’t be able to effectively or efficiently find birds by tasting, smelling or touching. That leaves you with seeing and hearing, and when you’re looking for small birds in a very large area, your sight won’t be all that helpful. Bird watching isn’t actually so much about the watching, but about the listening. While in my sight I found it easiest to just sit, close my eyes, and listen for anything that could hint to a bird nearby. This doesn’t necessarily mean listening for birdcalls. If you decide to just listen for the calls most calls are too difficult to hear over the sound of the city or as I quickly found out, the crows. So while you’re sitting, try to ignore the honking of cars and the “Cawing” of crows and listen for things like movement in the bushes and trees nearby.

Most of the identifications I made were within 5-10 meters away. From my regular spot I was able to hear the brushing of a Song Sparrow in a nearby bush. If you’re having trouble identifying the bird by it’s song, try looking at it’s features. For example, I was able to identify the Bewick’s Wren because of its upright tail feathers. Also pay close attention to the coloring and markings of the bird, I’m fairly new at bird watching so at first I got the Pacific Slope Flycatcher confused with the Wilson’s Warbler because they’re both green. I was soon able to figure out that the Pacific Slope Flycatcher was more of a greenish/grey and the Wilson’s Warbler has a black mark on it’s head.

Invertebrates: Searching and observing for invertebrates requires the patience and dedication of bird watching, but with the added necessity of getting down into the dirt and sometimes getting your feet wet. While looking for invertebrates I was required to really test my patience and willingness to face my fear of bugs. I went crawling through bushes, digging around soil, and picking up rocks in the stream. The strategy I found the most rewarding was picking up rocks in the stream, not because it’s the easiest, because it by far isn’t, but because I find the water invertebrates to be the most interesting.

The invertebrates I had the most fun searching for were surprisingly the stream invertebrates. Stream invertebrates are commonly used to indicate the quality of water. The steam invertebrates can be divided into three different taxa based on the quality of water. You will find taxa one strictly in goo quality water due to the fact that they are not pollution tolerant invertebrates. (Insert quality of water based on speed of stream). Group two taxa is tolerant of polluted waters, but can also live in cleaner areas of the stream. You can find group two taxa in moderately polluted water. Group three taxa is completely tolerate of polluted waters so you will find them in the slower, more polluted parts of the stream.

While searching around the stream, it is important to be very gentle with everything you do so you can disrupt the ecosystem as little as possible. When you pick up a rock make sure to very gently replace it exactly where you found it. After turning over many rocks, I was able to find a Midge Fly Larva and a leech. Both are part of group three taxa and I was in a slower part of the stream, indicating that I was in a more polluted part of the stream.

Plants: Identifying plants was easily my favorite aspect of this course. Not only because I found it to be the easiest, but because it gives you a whole new idea of “being aware of your surroundings.” I highly recommend not only being able to identify the plants around you, but to also be able to state their uses. For example, before the class I would have never known that sword fern helps relieve the pain from stinging nettle. A remedy that certainly came in handy when I found myself surrounded by stinging nettle on my trip to Whidbey Island. You should also be able to tell the history of that plant. For example, the Western Red Cedar was called “The Tree Of Life” because it was used to produce just about everything from canoes to (Insert Usage). Cattails were used to weave baskets and make brushes.

            While identifying trees, you should always look at the leaves or pines. Ponderosa Pines have three needles per bundle while Western White Pines have five per bundle. Another key feature to observe is the leaves of the trees. For example, (Insert tree name) has alternate branching leaves, while (insert tree name) has opposite branching leaves. You can also look at the lobes of the leaves. Big leaf maple typically has (number) of lobes on each leaf. For pine trees, which often look similar to the amateur eye can be differentiated by the way the pines lay on the branches.  

            You can find all of these plants and trees all over Ravenna Park but you can a particularly large patch of Horse Tails at Station 3. (Talk more about Horse Tails).

           

EDIBLE AREAS (choice station): Discuss the berries that were found around the park

Geology/Geomorphology:  While looking for invertebrates in the Ravenna Stream I was able to find an erratic. Discuss history of erratics and seattle glacier.