3:30-4:30 PM
Some showers. About 55 degrees Fahrenheit.
On Thursday I looked out of the window and it looked like it was going to rain, but it hadn't started yet, so I decided I would get out to Yesler Swamp before the rain came. Somewhere in between looking out the window and walking out the door, the rain had begun. It wasn't too bad though, so I continued on and ended up having a great time. I took a shortcut through Union Bay Natural Area that I discovered from class earlier that day and I noticed some signs about animals that make their home in this area. One of the animals listed was coyote, which got me excited with hope that I would come across one. As goofy as that sounds, it made walking through the swamp a lot more fun, because with the rain I felt as if I was alone in the swamp with big wild coyotes! Not surprisingly, I did not see any coyotes, but I did feel as though I was taking in more and more of my surroundings by being alert for coyotes. One major thing I noticed was that the tall Cottonwood trees made a loud creaking noise whenever the wind came up. At first I thought it was some kind of bird I had never heard before, but after a minute or two I realized it was just the trees. Speaking of the cottonwood trees, in the swamp many of them are very tall and don't branch out until they are very high so initially identifying was a little difficult since all I had was bark and a distant view of the leafs. Being a wetlands and based on their size, I think it's safe to assume they are cottonwoods.
Another thing I saw was a dead rodent! It didn't really look eaten, but definitely killed because of the way the neck/head of it looked like. It was close to the trail through the swamp though, so my guess is that a bird killed it and people walking through the swamp may have accidentally scared the bird off it's prey. That's my guess because I was in Union Bay Natural Area last quarter on a mini-field trip and we accidentally scared a hawk off of a duck it had killed. We haven't talked too much about animals yet, but I tried identifying this rodent and my best guess is a deer mouse, but this seems like it may be too big for that, so I'm not too confident.
Deer mouse perhaps? I wonder what killed it.
I also saw some cool looking lichen. I know absolutely nothing about lichen except that you can find it on trees, but this seemed like a pretty good example of whatever kind of lichen this is because it was so big! Based on about 5-10 minutes of reading about lichen in my guidebook, my best guess would be that it's some kind of Reindeer lichen, but I may have to change this along with the deer mouse.
Look at that big hunk of lichen! There are also some small yellowish growths off the branch.
Lastly, something new and interesting I saw was a bright red mushroom. Possibly a Fly Amanita? I didn't use my field guide when I was looking at it and now I'm realizing that a picture of the stem and underside of the mushroom would help identify it. Hopefully I remember where it is next week!
Fly Amatia maybe? It really stands out relative to it's size because it's so bright red.
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