Blog From The Bog

Earth Day at Dash Point State Park, Final Part

Teri Lenfest took these photos during the Earth Day event at Dash Point State Park on April 24, 2010.  Please feel free to copy them if you wish. 

I want to thank the rangers at Dash Point State Park for allowing such a big group to take over a section of their park for the day.  I want to thank The Friends of The Hylebos, especially Lili and Hillary, and Bernedine Lund for organizing this great event.  I want to thank Earth Corps for coming out to help lead groups of volunteers. And, most of all, I want to thank all of the volunteers who looked out the window this morning, saw the rain, and decided to come to the park and help pull ivy anyway.  You are amazing! 

Earth Day at Dash Point State Park, Part Three

All of these photos were taken by Teri Lenfest during the Earth Day event at Dash Point State Park on April 24, 2010.  Please feel free to copy them if you wish.  As you can see people were working very hard in attempt to clear as much invasive English ivy from the area as possible.

Earth Day at Dash Point State Park, Part Two

These pictures were taken during the Earth Day event at Dash Point State Park on April 24, 2010.  About 60 people registered to participate, but we weren't sure how many would show up.  We woke up to a chilly, rainy morning, but by the time people started showing up at the park, the rain stopped, and didn't start again until everyone packed up to go home.  Good fortune smiled on us today!  All photos were taken by Teri Lenfest.  Please feel free to copy them if you wish.

Earth Day at Dash Point State Park, Part One

I can't decide which of this pictures to eliminate, so I'm going to post them all in four different blogs.  These are pictures taken during the Earth Day event at Dash Point State Park on April 24, 2010.  All photos were taken by Teri Lenfest.  Please free to copy them if you wish.

Land Snails

If you keep your eyes open while you're walking through the wetland you might be lucky enough to spot a land snail.  I've spotted them along the path between the main trail and the orchard, on the ground near the deep sinks, on trees , crawling along the boardwalk, and many other places.  I spotted four of them just yesterday!

    


This little snail was found laying on the boardwalk, all curled up tightly within it's shell.

Land snails are gastropods.  The word gastropod means "stomach foot".  Instead of having legs and feet like we have, land snails have no legs at all, just a single, mucous covered, foot attached to it's abdomen.  Can you imagine having a foot attached to your belly and crawling around the world on a carpet of slime? 

Sometimes you can find land snails crawling up the bark of trees, like this one.  Another place to find them is hidden within cracks in the tree bark or beneath pieces of bark that have been peeled up. 

Land snails require moisture to survive, but if no moisture is available at the time, they can crawl up inside of their shells, seal the door, slow all of their body processes down, and wait for the rain to return.  This is called estivation.  When bears do this in the winter, it's in response to the cold, and is called hibernation.  Unlike hibernation, estivation is in response to dryness.

Land snails usually have a single shell which is coiled, like in the picture above.  Essentially, land snails are slugs with a shell.  Snails literally carry their houses on their backs.  They have two large antennae on the top of their heads which act like eyes.  They aren't like our eyes, but they can detect light and shadow and movement.  They have two small antennae at the bottom of their heads which they use to feel and smell, and taste.  So, the two bottom antennae act like our fingers, noses, and tongues.

Instead of having teeth like ours, land snails have something called a radula.  A radula is similar to the blade on a band-saw - a ribbon, or band, covered with thousands of really tiny, incredibly sharp, teeth.  Snails are continually wearing their teeth down and replacing them, similar to a shark.  They grow new teeth in the back and the teeth slowly, but surely, move along this ribbon, or band, until they reach the front.  Land slugs eat mushrooms, fruit, dead leaves, all kinds of plant material, and even worms.

Remember the movie "The Never-ending Story"?  In the world of Fantasia, a tiny messenger called Teeny Weeny rode a racing snail.  Teeny Weeny's racing snail looked just like the snail I photographed at the deep sinks.  Snails may not move very fast, but people do race them.  Snail racing is believed to have begun in a small town in England called Snailwell.  The Guinness Gastropod Championship was held in London in 1999 and is touted as being the first official snail racing competition. Snail races are now held all over the United Kingdom and United States.

The next time you visit the wetland, see how many land snails you can find.  Look, but don't touch.  We love our snails and want to keep them in the wetland for a very long time.

Teri Lenfest

Western Thatching Ants

It's Spring, the weather is getting warmer, and the Western Thatching Ants are on the move.  Western Thatching Ants build huge mounds on the forest floor out of whatever's available in the area:  leaves, twigs, pine needles, fir needles, little sticks, etc.  Have you ever seen one of these mounds?  They're enormous and swarming with thousands of ants.  The entire mound is alive with movement.

Western Thatching Ants are fierce warriors; ready, willing, and able to do battle with anything that threatens their mound or food source.  Here they're making short shrift of a potential threat. 

Here they are carrying off an unlucky fly.  These ants have huge heads and mandibles and can bite really hard.  They usually top their bite off with a nice spray of formic acid, which burns like crazy.  Remember stinging nettles?  Formic acid is believed to be one of the things that cause stinging nettles to burn so bad.  You do not want to mess with these ants, because they'll mess right back at you.

Western Thatching Ants are pretty spiffy looking with their big red heads and black bodies.  They spend all day long marching back and forth between their source of honeydew and their mound, usually making a long trek in the morning and another in the afternoon.  It's fun to watch these ants marching back and forth on their well-established trails. They're also little insect farmers.  They actually herd aphids together onto aphid ranches, like little ant cowboys, where they tend and protect them.  Aphids are an excellent source of nice, sweet, honeydew nectar.

Ants can carry huge loads, many times their own weight and size, and they carry these loads in their mandibles.  It's the equivalent of going grocery shopping and carrying the shopping bag home in your teeth!

The next time you see one of these mounds in the woods, think about what truly amazing creatures these fierce little warriors are.  But, don't get to close or you'll be sorry.  These courageous little insects are not afraid of you!

Teri Lenfest

Red-legged Frogs

This was also a great day to see red-legged frogs.  I saw five different red-legged frogs today in four different locations in the bog.

This beautiful specimen was found in the Deep Sinks.  Red-legged frogs love the Deep Sinks, even after the big tree fell on top of their little pool, dividing it neatly down the middle.  You have to be still and look very carefully because they're really hard to see.  Nature has blessed them with perfect camouflage. Look at how long their toes are!  Can you see the round disc just behind the frog's eye?  That's his ear!

People often ask me if red-legged frogs actually have red legs.  As you can see in this photo, their entire legs aren't red, but they do have red on their legs.  Frogs have large, strong hind legs, but very delicate, short front legs.  Their strong hind legs make them excellent jumpers.

This absolute beauty was found resting on a small plank just after the bridge where the kids release their salmon fry each year.  Isn't he gorgeous!

This little guy was found near a small pool of water that formed around the root of a tree.

And these three beauties were found near the large pool of water around the tree roots where I've taken a lot of my amphibian egg photos.

In order to see frogs, you have to walk slowly and softly and be quiet.  They spook easily and will dive under water and hide if they hear you coming or if you move suddenly.  Lots of things that live in the bog eat frogs, so frogs have developed highly-tuned reflexes.  The frog who can disappear the fastest is the frog who will live to see another day.  How many frogs can you find in the park?

Teri Lenfest

Snakes!

Snakes were everywhere today!  I found three different snakes (small, medium, and large) in three different locations in the bog.  People often ask me if we have any poisonous snakes in the bog.  The answer is:  not that we know of.  That doesn't mean that one couldn't wander in there or that some thoughtless pet owner couldn't tire of one and set it free in the bog, but as far as we know, the only snakes we've seen in the bog have been Northwestern Garter Snakes.  They're not poisonous, but they will bite.

This big beauty was found sunning himself by the side of the boardwalk in between the Troll Hole and the Sitka Spruce.  A large family of kids was coming down the trail when I spotted the snake and I took them over and showed them where it was.  One of the boys said that he used to own a snake, but doesn't anymore.  This snake tolerated our jabbering and pointing for quite a while and then he let us know that he was tired of us and asked us to politely leave.

This medium-sized snake was sunning himself on a plank near the dock at Marlake.  Right now this is a good place for snakes to hang out because of all of the frogs and soon-to-be frogs in and around Marlake.  Snakes eat slugs, earthworms, toads, salamanders and other small creatures that hang out around the water.  Since snakes are cold-blooded, they're very sluggish when the weather is cool, so like to rest in the sun to warm up.  Once a snake is warm, though, it can move very quickly.

And this little fellow was sunning himself in the middle of the blue gravel trail near the sign-in kiosk.  Now, if you ask me, that's a plumb silly place to sun yourself.  With all the people in the park today, this little guy was lucky he didn't get stepped on.

Snakes are active during the day; so, if you want to see snakes in the park, visit the park after it starts to warm up a little and look for nice sunny places where snakes can warm themselves up.  Good luck and happy hunting!

Teri Lenfest 

Pierce College Visits The Bog

Students studying Biology 213 at Pierce College in Puyallup, WA visited the West Hylebos Wetland today to see what they could find.  They were treated to a beautiful day in the bog, with warm weather, frogs and snakes everywhere, and birds singing their hearts out.

This beautiful song sparrow sang for us near the head of the trail.

This female red-winged blackbird posed for us at Marlake.

The rabbits were out in force.  Rabbits were hopping all around the gravel trail, in the meadow, as well as in the orchard.  Once, I nearly tripped over one.  I was too busy looking up when I should have been looking down.

If you look in the upper right-hand corner of this photo you'll see a large black and white object.  That's a huge bee!  The picture is blurry because the bee was zipping around all over the place.

Biology 213 shouldn't have any trouble finding things in the bog today because they're popping out all over the place.

Teri Lenfest

Volunteering in the Wetland

When I was leading a group through the wetland on Thursday, one member of the group asked me what this structure was.

It's simply a pipe shed.

The pipe shed is located in an area where volunteers have done a great deal of restoration.  The West Hylebos Wetland depends upon volunteers to help clear invasive plants from the park and then to come back and help plant native plants in the cleared area. 

For a long time, our primary concern was clearing Himalayan blackberry from the park.  Himalayan blackberry is a Class C invasive.  It tends to take over, like ivy.  Where the Himalayan blackberry grows, nothing else can grow.  Volunteers help chop the Himalayan blackberry plants down to their roots, then we cover the area with black garden cloth and let it bake in the sun for two growing seasons.  After that, the cloth is removed, the roots are removed, and the area is back-planted with native plants, such as:  Pacific trailing blackberry, salmonberry, thimbleberry, cloudberry, ferns, pines, firs, and willows.

Photo by Sheila Jackson.

This is a picture of me planting willows at the West Milton Nature Preserve.

 

Photo by Sheila Jackson.

This is a picture of my son and I after planting native vegetation in the Blueberry Farm portion of West Hylebos Park.  Restoration can be dirty, muddy, work.  We work rain or shine, so dress for the weather.

 

Photo by Adele Freeland.

Volunteers are also needed to count salmon returning up West Hylebos Creek to spawn each year.  The spawning period runs from September through December and requires a commitment of about a half an hour at whatever site you choose to monitor, twice a week.  Another way you can help is to put your animal, plant, moss, lichen, fungus, or bird knowledge to work leading groups of visitors on nature walks through the wetland, sharing your knowledge with them. 

Photo by Bernedine Lund

We're currently looking for volunteers to help clear invasive English ivy from Dash Point State Park, Dumas Bay, and Poverty Bay on Earth Day, which is Saturday, April 24th.  Volunteers will be clearing ivy from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. at all three sites.  If you'd like to come help, contact [email protected] to register for the event.  Or, contact me at [email protected].

Photo by Bernedine Lund.

Ivy roots can be as big around as my head.  This root took Bernedine and I four days to cut loose from the tree it was killing.

There are many, many ways to volunteer.  You can volunteer as many hours as you wish, doing any number of things.  It's a great way to meet people, get some exercise, enjoy a little fresh air, and contribute to your community. 

Teri Lenfest