Robs Field notes

November 17 McCormick and Tolt McDonald Parks, Duvall and Carnation, King Co, WA

The day was surprisingly mostly clear, the sun regularly broke free from the clouds and it only rained a tiny bit. I took groups of students to the long narrow pond along the Snoqualmie trail at McCormick park. There were about 35 ducks in all, mostly mallards, but a handful of American Wigeon and Gadwalls to spice things up.  A Kingfisher few by several times, no doubt disturbed by our group.  We also got some nice looks at a Pied-billed grebe, a drab small brown water bird who has this magical ability to simply disappear under the water leaving hardly a ripple behind.  In the outlet stream of the pond, under the bridge, there were at least 2 coho salmon nosing their way up to the edge of the beaver dam.  Seems an unlikely place to find suitable spawning habitat.  At Tolt McDonald park the sun came out as we were walking the upper forest loop, lighting up the moss on a large cedar tree like some kind of  Christmas ornament. The river is high from the recent rains and brown with chunks of logs and debris floating quickly past. The suspension bridge is always a fun way to cross the river, and offers a good view of the fast moving water.  After lunch a Red-tail hawk soars at tree top level over the meadow eliciting a response from a lone crow who complains loudly about the intrusion.  We collected a Scaphinotus beetle along the upper forest trail, large with a wine colored abdomen.  This beetle has long legs and can cover a lot of ground in a day.  It is a slug and snail predator and its tiny head and prothorax is designed to burrow into snail shells.  We cross back over the dangling bridge and walk out towards where the Tolt river enters the Snoqualmie.  They are reengineering this after the record floods of Jan 09 and have removed the road and old dike.  Eventually the river will split and flow into several smaller channels.  As we approach the first large man made channel there was a great blue heron, standing stately at the edge.

October 20  Paradise Valley Conservation Area, Paradise Valley Road, Snohomish County, WA

Mostly open skies, some sun some clouds. Warm. We hunt mushrooms today for a survey of the fungus of the park. My group goes North into the woods across the road. Its not great mushroom habitat along the trail, some pockets of conifers but we do find more than 40 kinds of mushrooms in a couple of hours. Black capped chickadees, song sparrows and a lone winter wren are the birds today.  The maples are mostly in full color, but a few still show 1/3 or so green.  The group collects a total of 76 unique fungus although counting and comparing in the lab was difficult.  Made a species list of those I could positively identify.

October 13  Wellington, Iron Goat Trail, Mt. Baker Snoqualmie  Nat. Forest,  Snohomish County, WA

Cold today, overcast as we arrive. There are Clintonia with berries in the woods here. Also found a flowering Spirea douglassi. Weird place for this wetland plant.  The snow shed here, a huge concrete structure, is always impressive. Reminds me of the Lord of the Rings somehow.  Found some mullein in flower also, plus yarrow. It seems really late in the year to find these in flower, although there were only a few with flowers.  The vine maples are gloriously red.  It begins snowing as we get about a mile down the trail.  Not a single bird here today.

October 6  Osprey Park  Sultan  Snohomish County, WA

Mostly clear, sunny and warm.  Wandered with a group drawing and describing plants. As we walked back to the rest of the class the smell of dead fish became really strong.  Found a huge Amanita muscaria. Also found a perfect Boletes edulis which I took home for dinner.  The river bar is full of dead salmon, there are hundreds of them, some of them just oozy piles of fly maggots, others in pretty good shape.  Many of the fish have their eyes poked out. I wonder who does that? Crows?  There are visible redds right from shore and still hundreds and hundreds of fish in the river.  A TV crew and reporter from the Everett Herald stopped by and talked with some of the students and me. The maples are starting to turn, many are about half yellow.  Birds today included winter wren, stellars jay, crow, robin, flicker and spotted towhee.  Interesting animal trail in the brush, I wonder if that made by an otter?  Found a dead salmon 60 feet from the river in the woods. Who brought it here?  The ground is all scuffed up by the partially eaten dead fish.