Blog From The Bog

Wonderful Woodpeckers

Today was a beautiful day!  The sky was blue and the sun was shining when I left the house.  For the first time in a long while, I could actually wander around without gloves.  The temperature went all the way up to 50 degs F.  The sky clouded over by late afternoon and it's supposed to rain for most of the week, so a lot of people took advantage of this wonderful day to visit the park.  I met at least thirty or forty people on the boardwalk and the parking lot was full.

 

The Indian plum is putting out new growth.

 

This beautiful insect was crawling around on the railing of the boardwalk.

 

And a whole pile of blue jay feathers were scattered among the leaves.

It was while I was photographing the blue jay feathers that I heard the rat-a-tat-tat of a woodpecker in a nearby tree.

 

I looked up and saw not one, but two, northern flickers working adjacent trees.  I think these are one of the most beautiful birds ever created.  Look at that coloring!  Wow!

While I was admiring the flickers, I heard more tapping to my right.

 

When I looked in that direction, I saw not one, but two, red-breasted sapsuckers working opposite sides of the same tree.  Oh, my gosh!  Wow, again!

I continued down the boardwalk to Brooklake and saw a male and female mallard working the aquatic vegetation to the right of the lake.

 

On the way back, I stopped to watch the water striders playing under the bridge and heard yet more tapping in the trees.

 

Not far from the Brooklake bridge, I found not one, but two, pileated woodpeckers working nearby trees.  Oh, my goodness!  Woodpeckers are everywhere and they're all paired up!

 

 

 

When I got to the deep sinks, I found my very first amphibian eggs for the season.

 

 

And look who was watching me photograph the eggs!  Look at how the spots on her legs shine!  They look like gold gilt!

 

 

When I got back to Marlake, I discovered a pair of American wigeons.

 

A pair of hooded mergansers.

 

A pair of ring-necked ducks.

 

And a pair of red-winged blackbirds!

All of the birds are paired up just in time for valentine's day.

 

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY FROM THE WEST HYLEBOS WETLAND!

Teri Lenfest

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY FROM THE WEST HYLEBOS WETLAND!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

October 2010

The boardwalk was absolutely beautiful on the 5th of October, 2010.  The sky was blue with hardly a cloud to be seen, the sun was shining, and the air had that crisp, autumn, snap to it.  Some areas of the boardwalk were speckled with a light scattering of fallen leaves.

 

While other areas were thick with leaves.  Look at how the filtered light made these leaves glow.  They almost looked as if they were lit from within and able to radiate a soft, golden, warmth.

 

 

There was even a leaf on the floor of the sanican that reflected the sun as if it were filled with golden fairy lights.

 

 

Most of the Himalayan blackberries are done for the year, but there are still a few areas scattered around with blackberries in various stages of ripening.  There are berries from green to fully ripened, and every stage in between, all crammed together on the same vine.  This phenomenon makes for a delightful array of color!

 

 

Chestnuts are scattered all over the ground in the orchard.  New animal burrows are also popping up along both sides of the blue gravel trail in the orchard.  The wetland is overflowing with fungi of every size, shape, and color right now.

 

 

I discovered this interesting phenomenon on the forest floor.  In a way, it looks like a spider web with water droplets trapped in it.  In another way, it looks like frost with little balls of ice trapped in it.  It's almost entirely composed of water droplets.  When I touched it, it simply dissolved.  It was almost like popping a balloon.  The second my fingertip made contact with it - POOF! - it was gone, completely and totally gone, leaving no evidence behind of it's existence.

 

 

This male mallard had all of Marlake entirely to himself.  The lonely bachelor spent a good deal of his time tail-up, searching for yummy things to eat beneath the water.  Although he had no company on Marlake, there were six pairs of mallards swimming about in Brooklake.  The mallard flotel stump was once again above water, but no one was taking advantage of it.  Instead, all twelve mallards seemed intent on following one another around the lake in one long mallard parade.  All they were missing was a marching band.

A steller's blue jay followed me all around the park.  He started croaking his alarm call as soon as I stepped on the boardwalk and, from that point on, followed me everywhere I went in the park.  Whenever I paused for a minute or two, he proceeded to sound the alarm.  He must be the local police jay on patrol duty.  Come on, do I look guilty to you?  Don't answer that question, I might have to hurt you!  At least a half a dozen robins were busy looking for worms in the meadow.  A brown creeper was traveling around, and around, and around a tree, moving higher and higher up the trunk, searching for nice juicy bugs to eat.

 

This red-breasted sapsucker was busily drilling holes in the trunk of a tree near the deep sinks.  He, too, was looking for something good to eat.  Look at all of those holes!  You'd think he'd get a headache from drilling all of those holes, but woodpeckers and sapsuckers have reinforced skulls that are specially adapted for this kind of work.

The black-capped chickadees were having a grand time teasing me.  They'd land on a limb right in front of my nose and buzz at me.  Before I could focus on them, off they'd flit to another limb.  Here, there, everywhere....but never for more than a spit second in any one place.

It was beautiful day for walking in the wetland.  Everything seemed to be out and about, taking advantage of the sunshine.  Frogs seemed to be singing everywhere I went, but I couldn't spot any of them.  I spent a long time looking for one of them, who sounded for all the world as if he was within a foot of where I was standing, but I couldn't find him.

 

 

 

 

Spiders are busy all over the park.  There is an enormous variety of them living here.  Look at this beautiful spider.  She has such long legs compared to her body size.  Look at how hairy her legs are!  She seems very delicate and feminine to me.

 

 

 

 

Is this spider walking on air?  No!  It's web just didn't show up in the photo.

 

 

 

 

Kamikaze spider!  I'm a gonna jump on you!

 

 

 

 

Spider?  What spider?  There's no spider here!  I am a pine cone!

 

 

 

Gee, Mom!  Look at what long legs I have!

 

 

These two dragonflies are busy mating on a nice warm rock.

As I was happily walking around the park today, enjoying the sunshine and brisk weather, I made two exciting finds:

 

 

 

 

Caterpillar One....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and Caterpillar Two.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What fun!  Moths and butterflies begin life as eggs.  The eggs soon grow into caterpillars, or larvae.  Caterpillars eat and eat and eat enormous amounts of food during this stage, storing up enough energy to allow them to metamorphose into moths or butterflies.  When their energy levels are high enough to make metamorphosis possible, they attach themselves to a branch or twig and transform themselves into a chrysalis, or pupa.  Inside of the chrysalis, everything that used to be a caterpillar is busy changing itself into a moth or butterfly.  I'd love to be able to look inside of the chrysalis and watch this transformation happen.  Wouldn't you?

 

When the transformation is complete, the moth or butterfly emerges from the chrysalis and spreads it's wings to dry.  Then it flies away in search of a mate and the two of them begin the process all over again.  You can watch most of this process happen by building a butterfly house.  You'll need some kind of container.  A cardboard cake box with a see-through lid that opens at the top is perfect.  Put a little piece of paper towel in the bottom of the box to capture any mess.  You'll need to find some twigs or branches, that are small enough to fit into the box, so the caterpillar will have something to crawl on and attach itself to.  You'll also need to put some leaves inside so the the caterpillar has something to eat.  A tiny bit of sponge, dampened with a little water, will provide enough moisture to keep the caterpillar alive.  When the sponge dries out, dampen it a little.  It doesn't need to be soaking wet, just damp.  There's plenty of air inside of the box for a little caterpillar, so you don't have to poke holes in the lid, especially since you'll probably be opening the lid every day to check on the dampness of the sponge and the level of food.  Keep the container away from your pets, especially cats.  When they see how much attention you pay to this box, they're going to become interested in it as well.  Then watch!  When your moth or butterfly emerges from it's chrysalis and is ready to fly, take it outside and set it free.  My children and I learned how to do this at the Pacific Science Center and successfully raised moths this way for many years.

I took a walk through the wetland on October 11th, 2010, and it seemed to me that the number of fungi in the wetland had doubled in a single week.  They're all so beautiful!  Fungi are everywhere, in every direction, growing upon every thing, and every one of them is different and amazing.  This is the perfect time of the year to stroll around the boardwalk looking for them.  I hadn't seen or heard the red-winged blackbirds for awhile, but today they were back in the reeds at the far side of Marlake, singing their hearts out.  It was delightful to hear their song again.  It makes me so happy to hear them sing!  Even though there was just a lonely mallard swimming around Marlake on the 5th, today the lake was bursting with mallards.  Most of them were males, but I did spot one female.  A gadwall was hanging out at Brooklake.  Sparrows were hopping all through the grass in the orchard, looking for a meal.  One of them popped up on a post and happily serenaded me while I looked for bunnies.  A pileated woodpecker gave me a real run for my money.  I spotted him way up in the very top of a tall tree, pecking away in a vee that was formed by the trunk.  The sun was behind him, so the woodpecker was in shadow.  This is not a good thing for a photographer.  When you try to photograph an object against the sun, you end up with a black silhouette without any detail.  I tried to work my way around the tree without leaving the boardwalk; but, no matter how hard I tried - branches, twigs, and leaves obscured my view.  I didn't want to leave the boardwalk and bushwhack as trail.  After all, we request visitors to stay on the boardwalk, so I think I should set a good example for them to follow by staying on the boardwalk myself.  While I was standing there, mulling the problem over, a Douglas squirrel spotted me standing there and sounded the alarm.  The startled woodpecker immediately flew off, leaving me with nothing but a slightly blurry shot of the back of his bright red head.  I found evidence of still another hawk attack in the meadow.  The grass was littered with a pile of small gray feathers.  My poor little song birds are really under stress.  Frogs were singing all over the park.  These are the tiny Pacific chorus frogs that hopped out of Marlake not long ago.  They're tiny little frogs with a great big voice!  Hearing their song surround me as I walked  down the boardwalk made my heart sing in return.  I love my native frogs!  I found a little pillbug on the railing of the boardwalk who seemed completely lost.  First it would go one direction, then it would turn around and go in the other direction, then about-face yet again, wandering back in it's original direction.  If I touched him with my finger, he immediately curled up into a tiny ball and sat very still.  When he thought I was gone, he unfurled himself and began wandering back and forth in circles again.  Poor little thing!  I wonder how he got there?  Better yet, I wonder where he was trying to go?

Usually I find bunnies in the meadow, in the grass around the old cabins, or along the blue gravel trail in between the two.  Today, I found a little bunny right in the middle of the wetland.  When he heard me coming, he froze, thinking that I wouldn't spot him if he didn't move.  His tactic didn't work very well, as I was able to see him easily among the twigs, leaves, and moss.  It's a good thing I wasn't a predator!

Cardinal meadowhawk dragonflies posed for my camera at both lakes.  These dragonflies certainly seem to love attention.  They're the runway models of the dragonfly world -  flit, flit, pose....flit, flit, pose...smile for the camera....turn....and, flit, flit, pose.

The autumn leaves are so pretty right now!

 

 

 

 

Some are red.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some are yellow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some are green, some are brown, and some are combinations of all of those colors.  Mother Nature's fireworks

We've had several days of rain, so all of the leaves are covered with droplets of rain water, sparkling in the sun like diamonds.

Fifteen October, 2010, was just too beautiful to stay at home, so I decided to take a nice long walk in the wetland.  The bog was very quiet for the most part.  I ran into two gentlemen walking their dog on the boardwalk and reminded them that dogs aren't allowed in the park.  The park is posted "NO DOGS ALLOWED!", but people ignore the signs all of the time.  They don't realize the danger they're subjecting their beloved pets to when they do this.  Coyotes will, and have, killed dogs!  I have witnessed this with my own eyes.  People wrongly think that they'll be able to hold onto and control their pets, but they are mistaken.  If your dog gets excited and takes off after a coyote, the coyote will kill it, and then the coyote will eat it.  Fido is nothing but filet mignon to a coyote.  The signs are posted in the park for a reason.  Please obey them!

 

 

This was a perfect day for a nice autumn walk in the wetland.  The sky was blue, the rain was over for the day, and the air was very crisp.  I could feel the approach of winter in the air.  Brooklake is beautiful right now.  They've skimmed the scum off of the surface of the lake and trimmed back the growth in front of the viewing platform.  Now we can see the lake in all of it's glory!  I actually saw a fish jump out of the lake today, but it was way over on the other side of the lake, so I couldn't make out what kind of fish it was.  I noticed rings forming on the surface of the water several times, as if something was coming up from beneath, gently kissing the surface, and sinking back down.  A gadwall was busy feeding on the side obscured by the tree.  I waited quite a while, but it never swam far enough away from the tree for me to get a photograph of it.  After two years, the Magic Mushroom is beginning to get a little patina on it.  The more things that grow on the mushroom, the less it will look like a refuge from Disneyland.  I'm looking forward to the day when it's covered with moss, lichen, and fungi.  Rain has made the trail around Marlake slippery as snot.  It was almost impossible to keep my footing back there.

Slugs were all over the place today.  I found a beautiful banana slug crossing the forest floor, all dressed up in ecru and black.  One was sitting atop a moss covered stump.  Two baby slugs were chowing down on some very tiny mushrooms.  That area was a veritable slug nursery!

Moss have sucked up all of the water they can hold and are all plumped out and looking pretty.  Some hangs off of tree branches in long, feathery, strands.  This moss almost looks like a curtain.  I bet the fairies pull it back at night and perform little fairy ballets.  Perhaps the elves gather there to listen to the frog orchestra play.

I didn't see any dragonflies at Brooklake today, but there are still a fair number of them flitting around Marlake.  They're not in the huge numbers they were in earlier in the year, but there are still quite a few of them busy mating around the lake.  They seem to be particularly attracted to wood and rocks.  At one time, I saw three pairs of cardinal meadowhawks mating on one small rock at the same time.

Now that the leaves are falling off of the trees, it's much easier to spot bird nests.  There are so many different kinds of nests in the park, all beautiful, and all engineering marvels.

When I got to the Brooklake viewing platform, I spotted a belted kingfisher sitting on the left side of the railing.  I couldn't see him until I stepped onto the platform, at which time he also spotted me.  He immediately flew across the lake, landing on a branch on the far side and waiting impatiently for me to depart.  Kingfishers are a good sign that the salmon have arrived.  Maybe the fish I saw jumping out of the lake was a salmon!  Adele Freeland and I had visited the fish ladder a couple of days ago and hadn't seen any salmon spawning around Brooklake.  We had seen what could have been salmon coming up the creek near the 4th Street bridge in Fife, so it's possible that they've made it all of the way up to the park, but not very likely.  It usually takes them more than a couple of days to make the trip.

The usual steller's blue jay spotted me when I entered the park today and followed me around, scolding me unmercifully, for most of the day.  A brown creeper was working it's way up a tree on the short side of the boardwalk loop.  The red-breasted sapsucker was still busy working on the same tree I'd spotted him in before.  He seems to be working on three trees that grow in a clump near the deep sinks, drilling a few holes in one tree, then moving to the next, and back again.  Busy, busy, busy!

 

 

An entire flock of cedar waxwings were eating the hawthorn berries in the meadow and along the blue gravel trail between the cabins and the meadow.  The hawthorn trees were full of waxwings!  They're so beautiful!

October 17th, 2010, was an incredibly beautiful day - very cold, but bright and sunny.  With nasty weather looming right around the corner, a person would be nuts to let a beautiful day like this get away.  I stuffed my lunch in my backpack and headed for the wetland.  At that time, I hadn't decided whether I was going to eat lunch at Marlake or Brooklake, but I was certainly going to get lunch around one lake or another.

There were probably about a hundred people in West Hylebos Park with the same idea.  In all of the years that I've been working in the wetland, I've never seen so many people enjoying the boardwalk at the same time (with the exception of those times when one school or another decides to bring the kids to the wetland on a field trip).  I knew I wasn't going to run into any wildlife in the park today.  Not with that many people in the park!

The Brooklake Community Center is located on the opposite side of Brooklake from where the viewing platform is located.  They must have been holding a community picnic on that side of the lake.  A lot of noise was coming from over there.  I could hear people singing and playing games.  Someone was even singing the national anthem!  Perhaps a football game was involved in some way.  I would never know, as I was a lake away from the activity.  Even though it was noisy, I settled down on one of the benches, determined to enjoy my own picnic by the lake.  One male and three female mallards were hanging out at Brooklake.  That handsome fellow had quite a harem following him around.  What a guy!

I spotted something very unusual at Brooklake today.  Someone has climbed the railing of the viewing platform and crawled all of the way out to the end of that tree that juts into the lake.  Whoever they were left a beautiful bouquet of flowers nestled between the branches, and carved "R.I.P. PAUL" in the bark.  A single pink dahlia floated in the water directly beneath the tree.  I'm not sure whether it fell out of the bouquet or someone tossed it there.

I spotted a bunny and a junco hanging out in the meadow not a foot from one another.  I was a little surprised by the fact that they didn't seem to mind one-another's company, as they both took off the minute they spotted me.

When I first arrived at the park, I headed off down the blue gravel trail in between the old cabins and the meadow.  As I approached a bend in the trail, a family of four approached me from the rear, making quite a bit of noise in the process.  Suddenly, a coyote flew across the trail in front of me and vanished into the brush on the other side.  That coyote vanished as if he were made of smoke.  Poof!  Gone!

Remember the hawthorn trees that were full of cedar waxwings?  The very same trees are full of robins today.  There must have been twenty robins eating hawthorn berries in one tree alone.

I'd been keeping my eye on a particular fungus for several weeks.  It kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger, until it had grown to an astonishing size.  I was wondering how big it was actually going to get!  Not much bigger, that's for sure.  When I checked it today, a big slug was sitting on top of it, hungrily munching away.  He'd already chewed big chunks of the fungus out, leaving a plethora of craters in his wake.  I wondered how long it would take him to eat the entire fungus, or if he'd even attempt such a feat.  Even though the park was bursting at the seams with visitors, slugs were out and about, just about everywhere a slug could be.  They don't seem to mind the hustle and bustle of people at all.  Perhaps they should, as I noticed that several of them had been stepped on and squashed on the trail.

I haven't seen any squirrels, frogs, or snakes in a while.  I can hear the frogs singing, but I can't find them.  They're hiding very well!  I wonder if it's gotten too cold for the snakes.  They're cold blooded and need to warm up in the sun in order to get active.  The daytime high today was only 51 degs F.  Everyone is breaking out their jackets, hats, and gloves.  Even though the sun is shining, the air isn't warming up any.  I suspect the snakes have gone dormant for the year.  I hope they survive the winter.  I love to see them around!

I checked our sign-in sheet, at the registration kiosk, on my way out of the park, and it appeared to be a bust.  Although there must have been a hundred people playing in the park today, only seven of them had bothered to sign the sheet and one of the seven was me.  You know what they say about the best laid plans......  I guess the city is going to have to come up with another way to track the number of visitors to the park.  This one isn't working!

I started finding baby slugs and baby land snails on the 23rd of October.  They're so tiny that you could probably fit eight or ten of them on the head of a dime.  Even though they're tiny, they're voracious eaters.  I found another slug and two baby snails consuming a dead slug farther down the trail.  Much of the wildlife in the park has snuggled into places warm and dry, but the slugs are all out and about having a grand time in the rain.

I spotted a great blue heron at Marlake today.  He was moving very, very, slowly, one tiny inch at a time, trying to sneak up on something to eat.  Maybe he'll eat some of our bullfrogs.  He's welcome to as many of those big bruisers as he can catch.

The muskrats are chewing up the reeds on the far side of Marlake now.  Most of the reeds on the water side have had their tops chewed off.  I hope the tops grow back in the spring.

October 25th, 2010, was one of those crazy, mixed-up, days, where, if you wait five minutes, the weather will change.  It rained, it hailed, followed by a sun-break, then more rain, then sun again, and at times there was even rain and sun at the same time. 

 

 

Dana Buck had sent me an email in the morning telling me that the coyotes were romping around in her backyard and that I needed to get over there right away.  That wasn't going to happen.  I don't own a car.  That means that I have to get my stuff ready, walk to the bus stop, wait for the bus, ride the bus down to 1st Avenue, then get off of the bus and walk from there to the park.  If I move as soon as I get the message, it's still going to take me at least an hour to get there.  When someone spots something and tells me that I need to get over there right away, what they really mean is that I should be standing right there that very minute.  Whatever is happening when you send the notice is not going to be happening when I arrive.  Never-the-less, being the determined person that I am, I laced up my tennie-runners and headed for the bus stop.  I've been trying to photograph the coyotes for eight years and have never succeeded in getting a photo.  October 25th, 2010 would not prove to be an exception.  Fortunately, Rebecca Gorodyskyi was lucky enough to get this photograph of one of the coyote pups and has graciously allowed me to use it in the blog.  Dana Buck said that the coyotes were so cute playing in the backyard.  In her email, she said they were snapping at the bugs, jumping for the frogs, and trying to catch the quick mallards.  Then she said they'd sit on their haunches patiently waiting for something else to chase.  I wonder where the adults were while the pups were hard at play?  Rustling up dinner, I suppose.

Brooklake was so full of water that I couldn't even find the stumps, much less photograph anything sitting on them.  Despite the abundance of fresh water in the lake, I could only spot one lonely duck swimming around on the far side.  The beautiful bouquet of flowers that was stuck in the crook of the fallen tree was still there, but had been blown upside-down and was almost completely hidden from view.  All of the dragonflies were gone.  I didn't see a single one.

Marlake was absolutely gorgeous, but I didn't see a single duck or bird anywhere around the lake.

A branch had fallen over the boardwalk on the long side of the loop in-between the Sitka Spruce and the Brooklake spur.  Fortunately, it didn't appear to have caused any damage to the boardwalk.  It would have to be removed though, as it completely blocked access to that part of the park.  There was a lot of debris blown down on the boardwalk.  I found branches, twigs, cones, leaves, and all manner of debris scattered all over the walkway.  I thought it was a good idea to keep my eyes open for widow-makers, as all that is loose may not have come down yet.  They don't call those things widow-makers for nothing!

Berries, of all different kinds,  are ripening throughout the park now.  They're scattered among the greenery like rubies or ghost-berries, depending upon the species.  Some are bright red, some are orange, some are white, some are solid colors, and some are speckled.  They lend color and beauty to the wetland at this time of the year.  

The bark on some of the trees has turned lime green.  It's so bright that it's almost a day-glo green.  These splashes of bright lime are wrapped with leis of moss and fungi of various colors and textures, turning the trees into artistic masterpieces.  Some of the limbs are draped with curtains of moss that remind me of the deep South: beautiful Southern mansions, belles in ball gowns, spooky haunted swamps...maybe even vampires!  Hmmmm....it is almost Halloween.

 

 

Look at the color of these leaves!  Tell me Mother Nature isn't an artist.  These are magnificent!

Every time it stopped raining, the bunnies came out.  When the rain started again, the bunnies disappeared.  I saw a total of four bunnies today.  In a way that surprised me, as the entire pack of coyotes were frolicking in the immediate vicinity.  Either the bunnies had decided that the coyotes had given up and left the area for the time being or they just didn't care.

On October 28th, 2010, West Hylebos Creek was full of water, moving very quickly downstream.  

 

 

I took this picture at the very top of the fish-ladder.  Just moments after I snapped this photo, I was startled by a big commotion coming from this very spot as a huge coho salmon was swept backwards over the waterfall and into the upper pool of the fish ladder.  It milled around in the upper pool for a few minutes, trying to get it's bearings, then managed to get itself swept over the another waterfall and back into the next pool down.  Poor salmon worked so hard to get to the top of the fish ladder and now didn't have enough energy left to stay there.  I hope it found a nice quiet place to rest up a little before it attempted to reach Brooklake again.

 In between the upper pool of the fish ladder and the third pool down, Adele Freeland and I found a gnawed-off tree growing along the edge of Brooklake.  It looked very much like the work of a beaver.  There's a tree-fall across West Hylebos Creek just south of the fish ladder that has been accumulating debris for years.  Every year, we look at this pile of debris and worry about whether the salmon will be able to make it through.  This would be an excellent place for a beaver to build a dam, as half his work is already done for him.  We'll have to keep an eye on the situation and see what happens.

We decided to check the area of the creek that runs behind the blueberry farm to see if any fish were there, but that area has gotten so overgrown now that we couldn't find a way to the creek.  This was quite a surprise to us.  We could could remember how hard we worked as volunteers to clear this area of invasive Himalayan blackberries and how difficult it was to haul the poles and rocks to the edge of the creek to build the ELWDs.  When we replanted this area with native vegetation, it still looked so bare.  It's astonishing how quickly the area has filled in and how thick the vegetation has grown.  The only access to the edge of the creek that we could find was a narrow, well-used, trail that led to a monitoring station that sits in the creek.  The muck was so deep in that area that we really had to struggle to suck our boots out of it.  Extrication created a huge sucking sound.  We didn't observe any salmon back there, but we did take a few minutes to soak in the autumn glory of the blueberry plants.  They were awesome!  The gray day intensified the color so much that the bushes almost looked like they were on fire.  Beautiful!

The 29th of October, 2010, was one of those days that was so beautiful that I wanted to hold onto it forever and never let it go.  A little yellow bi-plane flew low over the park today, doing barrel rolls over the meadow.  The sky was a nice deep blue with little puffs of fluffy white clouds scattered about.  A sky like that is some of the best medicine in the world.

 

 

If you're feeling blue, a trip to the meadow on a day like this is just the thing to fix you up.  Ahhhhhhh!  Some of the creatures who had previously tucked themselves away somewhere relatively warm and cozy when the temperature plummeted were out and about today, soaking up the sunshine and spring-like temperature.  I actually found a snake hiding in the grass today and I hadn't seen a snake for weeks.  Snakes are cold-blooded.  They go dormant when the temperature drops too low.  Dormant snakes very much resemble dead snakes.  Sometimes, people buy snakes at pet stores and don't keep them warm enough.  When the snakes go dormant, these people think they're dead and toss them out.  Poor little snakes go to sleep in a nice safe aquarium and wake up who knows where.  I know, I know, I know....they're cold and stiff and you can pick them up and tie them in knots, and they look for all the world as if they're dead.  Believe me, they're not.  They're just sleeping through the winter.

Wasps seem to be very attracted to yellow.  I wore my yellow rain slicker to the park today, just to be on the safe side.  After all, I can't just jump in a car and drive home if the weather turns sour.  Once I'm out of the house, I'm out for hours.  Anyway, I spotted a beautiful wasp crawling around on the lichen of a tree.  While I was trying to photograph it, it spotted my yellow rain slicker and took a great deal of interest in it, crawling all over me from one end to the other.  Within just a few minutes, at least six more wasps joined the slicker inspection team.  It's pretty hard to photograph wasps when they're crawling all over your slicker and you happen to be wearing the slicker at the time.  I wonder what they were looking for?

Dragonflies had returned to both lakes.  At one time I'd photographed a large spider busily creating a beautiful web among the branches of a tree.  Today, there was no spider and there was no web, just a big, beautiful dragonfly sitting where the web used to be.  Yummy, yummy, yummy in my tummy, tummy, tummy!

 

 

 

 

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eyeballs poking up through the forest floor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Teeth jutting out of a log.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Satan's fingers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Greasy, grimy, gopher guts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deviled brains.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Witch's butter.

 

 

 

 

 

BWAAAA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!

Teri Lenfest

 

 

September 2010

I didn't make my first trip to the park in September until the 9th, as I was out of town.  Things got a little rocky on my home-bound plane as it made it's descent through the thunderclouds.  I probably wasn't home for an hour before it started to rain.  The West Hylebos Wetland was starving for rain, so the sound of raindrops hitting my bedroom window was a very welcome sound.  

The sky looked overcast and very threatening when I left for the park, but I was feeling severely wetland-deprived, so decided to risk getting wet anyway.  We hadn't gotten much rain between the time I got home and the time I went to the park, but it was enough to add weight to already heat-stressed limbs.  I was walking down the boardwalk when a widow-maker fell out of a tree and slammed into the ground not two feet from where I was standing.  That took a year off of my life, I guarantee you.  I nearly had a heart attack!

The plums on the west side of Marlake are ripe now.  These trees are really loaded, so feel free to help yourself.  Be warned that none of these fruit trees has received any attention since the Marckx family turned the property over to the State for a park, so any and all of the fruit is likely to contain worms and/or other insects.  This is sincerely organic farming.  All of the fruit contains free protein.

 

Rabbits are mammals.  They have soft fur, long ears, and huge hind legs.  Their huge hind legs allow them to jump or hop, which is their usual mode of locomotion.  Rabbits eat plants, which are full of cellulose and hard to digest.  Instead of having a third stomach, like a cow, and regurgitating food that's already been eaten in order to chew it a little more (which is referred to as "chewing their cud"), rabbits excrete partially digested droppings, then immediately eat these droppings so that they can digest them again.  Yep, rabbits eat their own poop!  Disgusting to us, but it works well for rabbits.  Rabbits actually have five digits on their front limbs, just like humans, but only four on their hind limbs.  Their eyesight is very good and their hearing is, too.  If you've spent any time at all in the park, you know that the first thing rabbits do when they see you coming is freeze.  Maybe, if they hold real still, they'll blend in with their habitat and you won't see them.  Many creatures have trouble seeing still objects, but can focus in immediately on movement.  So, freezing can be a good survival strategy.  This strategy usually works quite well in rabbit/human encounters, as humans are usually moving quickly and not paying attention, so they tend to miss a lot of things.  If freezing doesn't work, rabbits will make a made dash for their burrows.  I've found rabbit scat and coyote scat not more than a foot apart, especially in the meadow.  Rabbits are natural coyote food.  Rabbits have lots and lots of babies.  Nature has designed them that way, so that enough survive the predators to guarantee the species' survival.  Rabbit breeding season lasts for nine full months of each year.  A single rabbit can have anywhere from four to twelve babies in each litter.  Even though the babies are born naked, blind, and helpless, their eyes open in less than two weeks and they're able to eat on their own within the same length of time.  In almost no time at all, rabbits go from being naked, blind, and helpless, to being fully mature and able to reproduce four to twelve babies of their own.  The result can be a veritable rabbit explosion!  Coyotes, owls, snakes, and other predators help keep the rabbit population in check.  The rabbits who live in the wetland are wild rabbits.  The bunnies you buy in the pet store are not.  Wild rabbits know how to protect themselves from predators.  Pet bunnies who are set free in the wetland usually die within 24 hours.....tops!  The park looks like a nice place to set your pets free, but it's not.  The wetland is a great place to get your rabbit fix, though, when you're in serious need of watching something warm and fuzzy.  Rabbits are busiest at dawn and dusk.  Bring a picnic lunch along with your camera.  Enjoy the rabbits, but don't try to pick them up.  Rabbits have big, strong, teeth and they will bite!  Just settle down at a picnic table and watch the fun.  They are a hoot and will provide you with hours of entertainment!

I ran into a couple of families racing down the boardwalk, squealing their hearts out in excitement.  This appeared to be a game of hide-n-seek, wetland style.  It sounded like they were having a lot of fun.  I just caught up with them as one of the children discovered the exit sign on the loop trail.  "I found it!  I found it, Mom!", he cried in excitement, "This is the way out!".  Indeed, it was.  The children were in the park learning about trees.  Trees weren't the only thing they found in the wetland today.  They also found a snake at Marlake, a bright green tree frog at the south end of the orchard, a beautiful black-spotted banana slug on the blue gravel trail, and a multitude of brown garden slugs throughout the park.  They were moving so fast, though, that they missed a little bunny that bolted into the brush and hid when he heard them coming, two frogs and a land snail on the south-west side of Marlake, and a great blue heron who was hunting in the reeds.  Even though the children never saw the great blue heron, they managed to startle him when they ran by, so he took flight into the nearest trees, where he waited until he thought the coast was clear, then resumed fishing for dinner.  He had barely started fishing when another visitor zoomed by, causing the poor hungry heron to once again take refuge in the trees.  The second visitor didn't see the heron either.  Finally, the heron decided that he'd have better luck trying to catch a fish in some other lake and took flight to the north.  I hope he was able to return to the lake after we left and found something really tasty for dinner.

On September 15th, 2010, I noticed that beautiful fungi were popping up all over the park.

 

These looked like caramel and nougat.

 

While these looked like they'd been dipped in sugar.  Some looked like brown naugahyde.  I think you have to be of a certain age in order to even know what naugahyde is.  It was a faux leather fabric that was used to cover furniture many decades ago.  Some fungi look like slabs of green malachite, while others look like they were dipped in chocolate.  I even found some that looked like vanilla wafers scattered beneath a log

This lichen looks as if somebody splashed the tree with orange paint.

The temperature only got up to 64 degs F today.  It was overcast in the morning and very humid.  The sun peeked through the clouds for a brief period around noon, then the clouds returned and it began to rain about 2 p.m.  I arrived at the park about 12:30 p.m. and the parking lot was full of cars, but they vanished quickly when the rain began.

 

I found evidence of a hawk attack today.  Blood and feathers were smeared all over the railing on the boardwalk.  Some hawks de-feather their prey before consuming it, so I suspect that's what happened here.  This was probably a sharp-shinned or Cooper's hawk.  I've seen both in the park.  Not far from the first hawk attack, I found evidence of a second hawk attack.  This hawk is hitting our bird population pretty hard.

The beautiful pink hardhack blossoms are beginning to look as if they're carved out of carnelian.

 

At Marlake, the cattails are standing tall like proud soldiers.  The water in Marlake is so low now that I really do believe that a person could walk all of the way across the north end of the lake without getting their feet wet.

 

Marlake, September 2010

Since it was raining while I was at the park, I hadn't expected to see much wildlife, so I almost stepped on a poor little snake.  He must have been very hungry, indeed, to be out trying to sun himself in the rain.  I also found a funny little daddy-longlegs sitting in the middle of a leaf, with his plump brown body, racing stripes, and long, skinny, black legs.  Douglas squirrels were still running around in the rain trying to fatten themselves up for winter.  They looked totally soaked!  Frogs were singing loudly all over the park.  I found some of the baby frogs as far away as the Brooklake bridge.  Remember how small they were when they first hopped out of Marlake.  Now, imagine being that small and hopping all the way from Marlake to Brooklake.  That would be like one of us running from Seattle to Portland.  Wow! Pretty impressive feat, huh?   I counted at least six pairs of ducks at Brooklake.  I also found a couple of banana slugs making whoopie on the trunk of a tree.  A little farther on, I found another banana slug who was busy crawling up into a hole in the tree bark so that he could take a little snooze.

On September 24th, 2010, Adele Freeland and I made a trip down to the lower Fife marsh.  This is near where the salmon enter Hylebos Creek during spawning season and one of the sites where Adele and I count salmon coming up the creek.  I don't know how many of you are aware of this, but fully grown salmon actually travel all of the way up Hylebos Creek from Commencement Bay, in Fife, to Brooklake, in Federal Way, and the Milton Nature Preserve, in Milton.  When you take a good look at the upper reaches of Hylebos Creek and consider the size of a full grown salmon, this is a pretty incredible.

 

This map clearly shows where Hylebos Creek empties into Commencement Bay.  It then wanders through Fife, weaving back and forth under Highway 99, then splitting into east and west branches in the general vicinity of Milton.  The west branch continues in this fashion all the way up to Brooklake, continuing from there underground to it's source, which is located in the vicinity of The Commons mall.

Sometime around September of every year, mature salmon congregate in Commencement Bay and mill around there, waiting for the autumn rains to fill the creek with water.  When the time is right, salmon fight their way upstream - over, under, around, and through every obstacle in their path, until they reach the foot of the fish-ladder adjacent to Brooklake.  The fish ladder begins just west of the blueberry farm and continues to the muskrat pool.  This is where the salmon do their ruby dance - digging redds in the gravel, laying and fertilizing eggs, and fighting their way up and into the lake to die, after having successfully created the next generation of salmon.

Since it was such a beautiful day, Adele and I decided to make a trip down to the 4th Street bridge, in Fife, to look for salmon.  We didn't see any fish on that trip, but we knew they were there.  We've been doing this for so long that we can almost smell a salmon when it's in the creek.

 

This is the 4th Street bridge, where Adele and I counted salmon for ten years.  I usually stood on the bridge, looking over the railing, while Adele stationed herself at the far end, and slightly beneath the bridge.  After a heavy rain, the water here was usually too murky to see into, but we could see the salmon jumping out of the water.  When the water was clearer, we could actually watch the salmon passing over the gravel beneath the bridge.

 

This is what Hylebos Creek looks like from the top of the bridge, heading west towards Commencement Bay.

 

This is the view from the top of the bridge, looking east towards Hwy 99.  There are five beaver dams in the lower Fife marsh just east of the furthest point you can see in this photograph.  When we first discovered the dams, we worried about whether the salmon would be able to surmount these obstacles, but we didn't have to worry, the salmon found a way.  Because this is where the salmon begin their annual journey up the creek, it's not unusual to see river otters, great blue herons, and belted kingfishers here in September.  We didn't see any of those on the 21st of September, 2010, but we did see other things.

Snowberry bushes throughout the wetland are full of beautiful white berries.  These berries are considered to be poisonous.  DO NOT EAT THEM!

 

Black hawthorn berries, on the other hand, are eatable, but not very palatable.  Some aboriginal tribes used the bark for medicinal purposes, made a great number of things out of the wood, and used the thorns as needles or fishhooks, but the berries were generally left for the animals.

 

The 29th of September was another one of those days when I couldn't resist photographing the beautiful fungi in the park.  I hadn't been able to visit the wetland in a week and the day was perfect for taking a walk in the woods.  It was one of those rare picture perfect fall days.

These look like something that came from another planet.  Alien fungi from the planet Ork.  I'm sure Mork would approve.

 

These look like a stack of umbrellas.  Maybe it's an umbrella store where tiny elves shop for their umbrellas on cool rainy days.

 

These look like tiny pink feet.

And, these look like polished pebbles.

 

Leaves are beginning to change color and fall off of the trees.

 

Not long ago, the vegetation in front of the viewing platform at Brooklake had grown so tall that I could barely see the lake.  In order to have the slightest chance of spotting something on the lake, I had to climb up on the park benches along the far side of the platform, then blindly walk back and forth across the tops of these benches, while trying to spot something moving on the lake through the lens of my camera.  This was a very tricky maneuver that could have ended in a nasty fall.  When I got to the platform at Brooklake today, I discovered that Scott Buck had trimmed back all of the vegetation in front of the platform so that the lake was clearly visible again.  Thank you, Scott!  The algae that has been blooming across the surface of Brooklake all summer has died back a little.  The water level has risen so high now that the stump the ducks were using as a flotel is now below the surface of the water.  I could clearly hear the sound of water loudly rushing down the chute at the south end of the lake.  It sounds like there's a waterfall over there!  The water under the Brooklake bridge is very high and running fast.

 

The licorice ferns are still beautiful, but many of the other ferns are turning brown and dying back for the winter.  The fireweed is all dried up and finished for the year.  The blue gravel trail is covered with fallen leaves.  Fallen leaves are scattered atop the boardwalk.  Dripping sap is frozen in time, decorating the tree bark like precious forest jewels.  The false lily-of-the-valley has transformed itself into golden hearts, scattered across the forest floor as if fairies tossed them there.  Leaves are red, yellow, multi-colored, and brown.  The air is crisp and has that sharpness and clarity to it that can only occur at this time of the year.  Now that most of the Himalayan blackberry leaves have turned limp and brown, I've spotted bunnies standing on their hind legs and stretching way up high in order to nibble on the vines themselves.  That special autumn light has a way of transforming drab gray rabbits into an almost golden-honey color.  Lovely!  

There's so much coyote scat in the park that you practically have to wear barn shoes in order to walk the trails. Right now, they're like a great big furry pack of poop machines.   I spotted banana slugs hungrily munching down on fresh coyote scat.  Slugs are the sanitation engineers of the wetland.  They aren't at all picky about what they eat, and that includes one another.  The coyotes have created a challenge even the hungriest of slugs can't cope with. I found one slug chowing down on another slug at the same time as a fly was trying to lay her eggs inside of the same slug, providing a ready food supply for her babies when they hatch.  One has to wonder about this mother fly.  Hint:  The slug is being eaten by another slug.  Ergo, your babies are likely to be eaten by the live slug long before they can hatch and eat the dead slug.  Location, location, location!

 

Today, I found a moth chrysalis clinging to a branch beneath a green leaf, on a bush filled with similar green leaves.  He looks very much like a dried-up dead leaf himself, wouldn't you say?  Of course, he might have done better if he had chosen to cling to a branch full of dry dead leaves instead of bush full of bright green leaves.

 

 

 

Both lakes are still loaded with dragonflies, although their numbers are dwindling.  Dragonflies are also cannibals.  Here's a picture of one dragonfly busily eating another dragonfly.

 

Frogs are loudly singing all over the park.

 

And the slugs are sporting gorgeous coral colored skirts and striking blue antennae!  They're dressed in their finest.  The fairies must be holding a ball tonight!

Teri Lenfest

 

Bountiful Birds

I made a trip to the wetland on the 7th of Feb, 2011, but am just getting around to blogging my visit today.  Better late than never, right?  When I got up in the morning, I looked out the window and saw clear blue skies and sunshine and wasn't about to spend a nice sunny day stuck indoors, so I threw on my coat and headed to the park.  Oh, boy! Looks were deceiving!  It was cold outside.  Within an hour, my fingers and toes were frozen and hurt so bad.  But, I was at the park and, since I don't own a car, had to accept the fact that my fingers and toes weren't going to get warmer any time soon.  Unfortunately, my fingers were so stiff that I could barely operate the camera.  I ended up missing a lot of shots because my fingers were so stiff and numb that I couldn't feel the shutter button.

As I headed down the boardwalk, I noticed this funny little brown creeper.  He never seemed to stop moving, as he busily searched the bark for lunch.  He ran up the stump and down the stump, one minute on the front, the next on the back, and then perched on the very top.

 

Between the fact that I couldn't feel the shutter button on the camera and the brown creeper wouldn't settle down anywhere, I took shot after shot and missed the creeper in almost all of them.  But, to my utter delight, I managed to capture a few little birds that I hadn't even seen when I snapped the shots.  As I sorted through the photos that I'd uploaded to my computer, I got to this one, took a quick glance at it, couldn't see the brown creeper anywhere, and almost deleted the photo, before I noticed the cute little golden-crowned kinglet that was almost dead center in the photograph.  This beautiful little kinglet wasn't the only stealth bird I captured that day.

 

I looked at this photo and said, Nope!, I don't see any creeper, but there is some kind of big blobby thing right in the middle of the photograph.  What in the heck is that.  I stared at it and stared at it and couldn't figure it out.  I flipped the photo 90 degrees and still couldn't figure it out.

 

Then, I flipped the photo 180 degrees and saw the cute little face of this Hutton's vireo staring back at me.  How did he get in the picture?  I didn't even see him on the tree!  These birds are not much bigger than hummingbirds and they move really fast, hardly ever sitting still.  The tree on the opposite side of the boardwalk from the brown creeper was absolutely popping with these little birds.  There was a whole flock of them in that single tree.  Well, with the exception of this little guy who was hanging out with the creeper.

 

As I continued down the short side of the boardwalk, I noticed a multitude of worms that were suspended in the air, dangling from silken strands.  There were so many of them that I really had to pay attention or I'd get slapped in the face by one of them.  I actually snagged this worm on my glasses and, when I lowered him to the boardwalk, was astonished by his amazing coloration.  That's one pretty worm!  He has enough turquoise on him to almost qualify as jewelry.

 

Then I spotted this robin.  She's huge!  If she gets any bigger, she won't be able to get off the ground.

 

I suspect the red-winged blackbirds are going to get a little tubby as well.  Dana's put bird feeders up in her backyard and the blackbirds are loving them!  I see she's put up a hummingbird feeder as well.  Maybe we'll get some hummers in the park this year.  I'd love to see that!

Teri Lenfest

August 2010

On August 1st, 2010, I was walking down the blue gravel trail from the sign-in kiosk towards the cabins when I met a gentleman heading in the opposite direction on s Segway!  I don't know how many of you know what a Segway is, and I have no photograph to show you, so I'll do my best to describe it.  A Segway has two wheels that are just far enough apart to allow a person to stand between them on a tiny platform that also supports a small motor.  A T-bar is installed on the front of the platform, giving the rider something to hold onto for balance.  A Segway is like a motorized wheelchair that you stand up on, rather than sitting down in.  You steer it by leaning slightly in the direction you wish to travel.

The last time I visited the wetland, I passed a woman who was traveling down the boardwalk in a motorized wheelchair.  That was the first time that I'd seen a motorized wheelchair on the boardwalk, so I was a little surprised to meet her there.  I thought the blue gravel between the parking lot and the boardwalk would have made travel by wheelchair difficult, but she said she had no problem with it at all.

When I met the man on the Segway, though, that really blew my mind.  He seemed able to buzz along over the gravel with no problem what-so-ever.  Thinking that the gravel might present stability issues, I asked him if he'd ever fallen off of that thing.  He said that he'd fallen many times in the beginning, but soon got the hang of it and hadn't fallen in a very long time.  He told me that he was 73 years young and had been riding a Segway for the last four years.  He wanted me to tell everyone I know who is wheelchair-bound, but are able to stand upright without assistance, that a Segway is the way to go.  As far as he's concerned, it's the perfect form of transportation.  He will never go back to a wheelchair again.

So, there you have it!  A great number of people have asked me about whether wheelchairs and baby strollers can negotiate the park.  The answer is a resounding yes!  People I've talked to, who were pushing unmotorized wheelchairs or baby carriages, have said that the uphill portion from the cabins to the sign-in kiosk is more difficult to negotiate, but not impossible.  This is excellent news!

 

The third of August looked like it was going to be a beautiful day, so I decided to check out the wetland and see what was new.  The water level in Marlake was very low.  While I was standing on the grass, thinking about how far out the edge of the lake had gotten, I could hear a bullfrog loudly bellowing to my right.  They produce a very loud, deep bass, drone that sounds almost like a foghorn.  Dana Buck saw me standing there and came over to chat with me.  She said she wanted to mow her lawn, which abuts Marlake, but couldn't because the grass was full of baby frogs.  The Pacific tree frog tadpoles had transformed themselves into tiny frogs and hopped out of the lake and into the grass enmasse.  They were everywhere!  The grass was literally popping with them!  Dana caught a few of them and held them in her hand so that you could see how small they are.  You wouldn't want to accidentally step on these cute little things!  No two look alike.  There's an enormous amount of variety in their color and markings:  some bright green, some various shades of brown, some plain, some speckled, and some striped.

Red-legged frogs were hanging out in the tree-well near the bench, on the short side of the boardwalk, near the Brooklake bridge, and near the bridge not far from the Sitka spruce.

Dana Buck said that she saw three adult river otters and one otter pup playing in Marlake a couple of days ago.  She said that she sat on the park bench where the birds like to perch and watched the otters cavorting in the lake.  What fun!  It was exciting to learn that the otters have a pup this year.  That's wonderful news!

The great blue heron was sitting on the stump in Brooklake.  That's a very popular stump.  I wonder if the birds have some kind of reservation system in effect to determine who gets to sit on the stump when.  It's almost always occupied.  Sometimes with two or three ducks simultaneously.  If this picture looks peculiar, it's because I didn't take it at Brooklake.  It's one that I took down at Dumas Bay.  I decided to use it today because it shows so much detail.  These are beautiful birds!

 

 

Both lakes are full of dragonflies of every size, color, and design.  Even though it seems like the air is thick with dragonflies, once they've sprouted their wings,  the life of an individual dragonfly is very short.  Wings are solely for mating.  They sprout wings, find a mate, lay their eggs beneath the water, then die, leaving the next generation of dragonflies to fend for themselves.  That is, if they avoid being eaten by other dragonflies.  Yes, dragonflies are cannibals! 

The 5th of August, 2010, was a very hot day.  I made one complete circuit of the boardwalk, including the spurs to Brooklake and the orchard, and didn't see anything at all - not a snake, bunny, frog, or bird.  You can almost always hear red-winged blackbirds singing their beautiful song at Marlake, but not today.  I didn't hear a single peep or trill out of them.  I really missed them.  Their song is my very favorite.

 

Red-huckleberries are ripe!  Here's a picture I took of four huckleberries about five seconds before I popped them into my mouth.  Oh, my, were they ever good!  Yum!

Yesterday was the great blue heron's turn to sit on the stump in Brooklake.  Today, it was the mallard's turn.  I'm convinced that they've worked out a time-sharing system.

On my second circuit of the boardwalk, I found a little red-legged frog sitting by the tree-well in it's usual spot.  I'm almost certain he's the same frog I've been seeing in that spot for the past several weeks.  He spends so much time sitting in this spot, and he stays so still, that you'd think his little toes were glued to the tree debris, but I know for a fact that they're not.

 

I spent a lot of time today watching the water-strider rowing team stroking down the creek.  They're so much fun to watch.  Their tiny feet make dimples in the water which allow them to ride across the top of the water with great speed.

Just as I was getting ready to leave the park for the day, I spotted four bunnies nibbling in the grass between the sign-in kiosk and the old cabins.  It's not rare to run across coyotes in the same place.  They know where the bunnies are hiding!  I almost hated to leave the park today.  It was the perfect day to bring along a picnic basket, settle down in the meadow, and catch a few rays.  Our local weather-forecaster is predicting rain for the next few days.

On August 7th, 2010, I spent quite a bit of time paging through my reference books in an attempt to identify one of the little creatures I'd found.  I never did figure out what it was.  The trouble with reference books is that they're generally limited to a single photograph of each species, taken during a single moment of their lives.  Mother Nature doesn't paint all of her creations with the same brush though, nor do their coloration or markings remain the same throughout their entire lives.  Odds are pretty good that what you see is going to differ slightly, or even significantly, from what the nature photographer in the reference book recorded.

 

 

The baby frogs around Marlake are a good example of this.  Most of the babies have hopped up on the leaves of the bushes nearest the lake now.  You can stand in one spot and easily see twenty baby frogs in the bushes right in front of you and every one of them is different.

 

 

It rained today for the very first time in quite a while.  It's been dry for so long that the edge of Marlake has receded at least six or seven feet from where it should be.  The same thing has happened at the Muskrat pool.  Most of the tree-wells have dried up.  Those that remain are only half of their former size.  We needed this rain badly, so it was refreshing to see it finally make an appearance.

I was all alone in the wetland and it was very quiet, so I took a minute to just stand and listen to the rain coming down.  Suddenly, this little Douglas squirrel came barreling down down the center of the boardwalk with a tiny fir cone in it's mouth.  It didn't seem to see me standing there, although I was in plain sight, right in front of him.  He got right up on me before he saw me, then, Whoops!, quickly did a U-turn and ran back in the other direction, never dropping the fir cone in his mouth.  That's reminds me of an incident that happened when I was a child.  My grandmother was walking home from the grocery store with a big bag of groceries in each arm.  Suddenly, she lost her balance and started to lean forward, feet moving faster, in an attempt to regain her footing.  Well, we all know where that leads.  She leaned over further and further, feet moving faster and faster, and finally went down on her knees, skidding across the sidewalk before coming to a stop.  She tore her hosiery to ribbons and took the skin off of both knees, but never dropped a bag, or even so much as tipped anything out of a bag.  Motto:  No matter what happens, don't let go of the groceries!  The Douglas squirrels have been loudly scolding everyone who comes down the boardwalk for the last week.  Douglas fir cones are falling out of the trees right now and are scattered all over the boardwalk.  These cones have to keep the squirrels alive through the winter, so they're intent on collecting them and tucking them away in their storage lockers.  The presence of people walking up and down the boardwalk is interfering with their cone collection process.  So, when you're walking down the boardwalk and you hear their sharp, bird-like, scolding - that's what they're so upset about.

When I arrived at Brooklake, I discovered that the stump had been transformed into a mallard flotel.  Just float right over and rest a spell.  We'll leave the light on for you!

On the way back, I ran into Mr. Garter-Snake.  He may look angry, but he's probably not.  Snakes don't have eyelids like we do, so they can't close their eyes the way we can.  That, combined with the ridge above their eyes, gives them that angry look.  I startled this snake, so he's tasting the air with his tongue to see what I am.  After I took this photograph, he quickly slithered into the brush and disappeared.

August 10th, 2010, was not supposed to be one of the best days of the week.  The night before, the weather-forecaster had predicted light showers with temperatures only hitting the high 60's or low 70's.  A great many people decided to risk the possibility of showers and head for the wetland anyway.  We Pacific Northwesters are like that.  If we let a little rain stop us, we'd never get out of the house.  At any rate, we were right and the weather-forecasters were wrong.  It turned out to be a beautiful day!

Marlake is shrinking away from lack of rain!  This is a man-made lake that depends upon rain to keep it filled.  We haven't had much in the way of rain for several weeks.  The lake is so low now that it will take a significant amount of rainfall to bring it back up to it's normal level.

I saw five bunnies today, some in the orchard, some in the meadow, and some along the blue gravel trail.  Before the meadow was transformed from a parking lot into a picnic area, we used to see bunnies crossing the blue gravel trail between the sign-in kiosk and the spur to the orchard so often that Adele and I named that area of the trail "Rabbit Run".  Now that the rabbits have a nice meadow to nibble in, I don't see them on that part of the trail very often.

I must have seen fifty frogs around Marlake today.  Every leaf of every bush seems to contain a frog.  Not all of the frogs have made it to the relative safety of the bushes yet.  There are plenty of them still making their way through the grass.  You really have to pay attention to where you place your feet in order to avoid stepping on them.  They're so well camouflaged that you can hardly see them!

I also found three different snakes today:  one in the grass, one crossing the gravel, and one atop an old stump in the wetland.  You don't see snakes moving around in the park every day.  That's because they eat their food whole and like to conserve their energy while they're digesting their meal.  Depending on the size of the meal they caught, it can take anywhere from several days up to a week for their meal to be completely digested.  During that time, snakes like to take a little snooze, just like people do after a big Thanksgiving dinner.  When digestion is complete and the snakes are hungry again, you'll find them basking in a nice sunny spot somewhere, trying to warm up so they can zip off and catch another meal.

I saw a brand new baby mallard at Marlake today.  This mother is a little behind schedule, but she finally found a mate.  That's excellent!  I love to watch the babies swimming around in the lakes.  They're so much fun!

On August 12th, 2010, I found spider webs all over the park.  The spiders have been very hard at work.  You could find a spider web of one kind or another just about anyplace you looked.  Some of them were very thick, indicating that prey was being trapped without breaking the fine strands of silk that were woven by the predator.  In some of of the webs, little silken bundles of prey are visible, where the arachnid-in-charge has wrapped their next meal up to save until later.  Sort of like a spider version of a Happy Meal!  Other webs are very fine and, in many cases, have been rebuilt a great many times.  I watched a spider replace a destroyed web in just a few hours.  What an amazing feat on engineering, not to mention a beautiful piece of art!

Although their are a great many Pacific tree frogs hanging out at Marlake right now, I hadn't seen a red-legged frog in the usual spots for a while, so I was thrilled to see a little frog clinging to the moss on a tree, near a tree-well, on the short side of the trail.  I had joked about that other little frog having his feet glued to the ground and then he disappeared for an entire week.  I looked for him every time I visited the park and was very sad not to find him.  I didn't see this frog on my first circuit of the park this morning, so was so excited when I spotted him the second time around.  All of my friends know that I love the frogs almost as much as I love my children.  Not quite, and certainly not in the same way, but these tiny little amphibians have captured my heart and stolen it away.  They make me smile and tickle my soul; so, when they're gone, I have this big hole in my heart where the frogs belong.  That's why they call me The Crazy Frog Lady!

The invasive bullfrogs are hanging out under the bushes on the south end of Marlake, as far away from people as they can get.  They still erupt in frequent bouts of loud, deep, foghorn-sounding, warning cries, they're just more difficult to see or photograph.  If you're wondering what on earth is making all of that racket in the vicinity of the lake, these big, bad, fellows are the culprits.  I hope the baby frogs manage to elude these bruisers.

On August 13th, 2010, I discovered this Eastern gray  squirrel munching on his treasure as if it were corn on the cob.  Even though we think squirrels are cute and rats are not, squirrels are actually medium-sized rodents.  They have needle-sharp incisors which continue growing throughout their entire lives; so, like rabbits, must continually gnaw on things in order to wear their incisors down.  If you have squirrels living around your house, and you live in this area, they are probably Eastern gray squirrels.  There is also a Western gray squirrel, which is gray all over, but most of the squirrels in this area are of the Eastern variety, which have a little brown fur mixed in with the gray.  If you have Eastern gray squirrels living in your neighborhood, you know that they're great opportunists.  They're expert dumster-divers and trashcan-raiders, willing to eat nearly anything they can dig out of a plastic bag.

The squirrels who live in the wetland are an entirely different kind of squirrel.  Our wetland squirrels are Douglas squirrels.  They're smaller than their Eastern cousins and have this beautiful pinkish belly.  Douglas squirrels subsist primarily on Douglas fir cones.  Both kinds of squirrels live in trees and have large, sturdy, hind legs that allow them to jump from limb to limb.  Their small, delicate, forearms have hands that are equipped with tiny thumbs, allowing them to grasp things.  Their hind feet have five toes, just like we do, but theirs are equipped with sturdy claws that allow them climb both up and down trees.  Eastern gray squirrels have learned to subsist on our garbage, but squirrels are usually herbivorous, meaning that they eat seeds, nuts, and conifer cones.  When seeds, nuts, and cones aren't available, squirrels may resort to eating insects, small birds, and even young snakes.

I didn't get to the park until three o'clock in the afternoon on August 16th, 2010.  It was very hot.  Especially in places like the Great Pacific Northwest, people need to head outside on sunny days to bask in the infrequent sunshine.  Wild animals, on the other hand, are much smarter than we are in some ways.  During the hottest part of the day, wild animals like to find someplace in the shade where they can lie down and stay as cool as possible.

Apples are dropping off of the trees near the sign-in kiosk and in the orchard now, so please keep your eyes open or you may get conked in the head by nature's bounty.  This particular area of the park is also starting to smell a lot like apple cider as the fallen apples begin to rot in the heat.  Some of these apples look as if they've been partially eaten.  Bunnies are hanging around in the same area with innocent looks on their faces.  Who, me?

The grass in the meadow is popping with grasshoppers now!  Did you know that in some countries they eat grasshoppers?  They really do!  Roasted grasshoppers are considered to be a delicacy in some places.  I would eat them!  Would you?

Thistle fluff is blowing in the air, landing here, there, and everywhere.  The bees are trying to make honey while the sun shines.  There's hardly a direction I can point the camera in that I don't end up with a bee in the picture.  Bees are extremely important to our existence on this planet.  By moving from flower to flower, collecting nectar to turn into honey, they also pick up pollen on their bodies, carrying it from flower to flower as well.  Without bees to cross-pollinate our crops, we wouldn't have anything to eat.  Seeing lots and lots of active bees is a very good thing.  Besides, they're fun to watch!

Marlake was absolutely beautiful today!  Considerably smaller than it should be, but beautiful none the less.  Our local weather-forecasters are predicting rain near the end of the week.  Hopefully, it'll be a good hard one, because the wetland is in serious need of a good drenching.  If you're a sun-worshiper, this would have been a good day to visit the wetland.  By Friday, it was supposed to drop back down to the 60's.

There are still a few baby frogs left around Marlake, but most of them have hopped off into the woods now.  One day they were in the bushes around the lake, then, in the same way that they hopped out of the lake, they hopped enmasse from the lake to the woods.  Now the wetland is filled with the happy sound of singing frogs!

I saw one of the barred owls again today.  He was very far away, with a lot of obstacles between his perch and my camera lens.  Wild animals rarely cooperate with wildlife photographers.  I've been known to lie down on my belly, aim through tiny holes in chain-linked fences, stand way up high on the very tips of my toes, and pretty much act like a complete and total lunatic in order to get a shot. Sometimes, I beg the wildlife to stay where it's at, glued to it's branch, or sitting on it's leaf, while I vault over the railing of the bridge, slog through the muck,cut down half a dozen trees that are in my way, and get a clear, close, unobstructed view of them through my camera lens.  And sometimes, after having done a good deal of that, they fly away before you're able to get them into focus.   It's very difficult to see a barred owl in the wild, even though they're huge birds.  Their camouflage allows them to blend in perfectly with their habitat.  They can be up in a tree, watching your every move, and you'll never know they're there.  Owls are also designed to have absolutely silent flight.  Their wings don't make a single sound as they travel through the sky.  Instead of seeing the owl itself, you may just see the shadow of the owl passing overhead as he comes between you and the sun. 

As I was standing there watching the owl, a family passed me by and continued on it's way.  The next time I ran into them, they told me that they'd seen a weasel.  I've seen weasels in the wetland, but never been able to photograph them.  They're very fast and disappear into the wetland like smoke when they hear you coming.  If you're lucky, you might hear them as they scurry away and catch sight of a tail or back, and then they're gone.  When you take into consideration the fact that the West Hylebos Wetland is 120 acres, sandwiched in between a Metro Park-N-Ride lot, a major intersection, and an apartment complex, with road construction all around, and airplanes flying low overhead, it's amazing how much wildlife you can find here!

I didn't know quite what to expect on August 22d, 2010.  The weather report said rain, the sky was full of just about every different kind of cloud you could think of, small patches of blue peeked out here and there, and the temperature was 61 degs F when I left the house.  I decided to dress for cool, rainy, weather, but it never did rain.  Is anyone surprised?  The best way to stave off a rain storm is to leave the house dressed for the weather!  Although the temperature only got as high as 68 degs F today, it ended up feeling much warmer than that to me, especially when the sun broke out.  I wasn't the only one who looked out their window this morning and thought, .......ahhhhh, I don't know......maybe, and decided to risk a trip to the wetland.  The park was bursting at the seams with families picnicking in the meadow, pushing baby strollers, walking around the boardwalk with children balanced on their shoulders, and couples walking hand in hand.

Lately, I've noticed that both wasps and bees seem to be attracted to any objects made of wood, especially hand-railings.  They are so intent upon their work that it's nearly impossible to distract them from it.  They land on a railing, spread their wings, and seem to dance around in a little circle, sometimes stopping to preen their legs, like a bird would it's feathers.  Adele thinks maybe they're collecting salt or minerals from the wood.  I wonder if they're eating the wood and transforming it into nesting material.  After all, paper wasps build their nests out of something similar to paper, and paper is made from wood.  Regardless of their intent, it's fascinating to watch them do their little dance.

Things in the park are beginning to wind down for the season.  There's always a big push of growth in the spring, which turns into almost total chaos near mid-summer, then suddenly begins to slow way down as autumn approaches.  Where the park used to be full of birdsong, the predominant sounds now come from the airplanes flying overhead and the bullfrogs bellowing in Marlake.  The big, beautiful, soft, pink tufts of hardhack are beginning to slowly fade away.  Their vibrant pink is now all dull and washed out.  The beautiful green ferns that excited us so much when they burst forth from the ground in spring, are now turning brown and beginning to die back.  Mother Nature is beginning to shut the park down for it's long winter rest.  Don't worry, though.  Mother Nature has a way of turning down the lights with a bang.  Soon, all of the trees will be ablaze with color!

Even though things were starting to slow down in the park, there was still plenty of life to be found.  The song sparrows were still singing, and playing hide-n-seek with me.  Slugs are still out and about all over the park, in all of their various hues.  Even though it was very chilly today and the difference between the high and low for the day would not be more than ten degrees, one little snake could hardly wait for the sun to pop through the clouds, before crawling a zig-zag route to his favorite sunning spot (the board that dips into Marlake near the dock).  Food isn't as easy to catch now that the baby frogs have hopped off into the woods.  This little snake must have been very hungry.  Something as small as this little snake not only has to worry about finding food, but also about accidentally becoming food for something bigger.

I started finding big clumps of apple-filled scat all over the park this week.  Scat is another word for animal feces.  This scat would cause a big stir over the course of the next month, as various people attempted to identify it's source.  Piles of scat were being dropped in the orchard, on the far side of Marlake, in the meadow, everywhere along the blue gravel trail, and right in the middle of the boardwalk, here, there, and everywhere, throughout the park.  Adele Freeland did some research on the internet and initially identified it as skunk or raccoon scat.  We know that raccoons live in the park, so that was a possibility.  Scott Buck identified it as bear scat.  He's been a hunter for many years and is very familiar with bear scat.  My brother-in-law; who, as a marine biologist, spent many salmon seasons standing along one river or another, counting spawning salmon - also identified it as bear scat.  One person from Washington State Fish and Wildlife, who is a bear expert, identified it as bear scat.  Another person from Washington State Fish and Wildlife, who is a coyote expert, identified it as coyote scat.  I would spend a considerable amount of time over the course of the next month or so, measuring and photographing scat, and forwarding the information to Fish and Wildlife.  There were two distinctly different kinds of scat being dropped around the park, all in areas with heavy human traffic.  The scat appeared to contain chunks of apples, nut, and slugs.  Coyotes are known to eat all of these things, but so are bears.  Bears also eat wasps, bees, dragonflies, salal berries, and blackberries - all of which are in abundance in the park right now.  Some of the animals leaving this scat have become very bold.  People have passed an area and seen nothing there, and passed the same area five or ten minutes later and found fresh piles of scat.  Scott Buck is one of the park caretakers.  He says he's a hunter and has hunted his entire life.  He told me that he's been telling the powers that be that we have a bear in the park for the last three weeks and no one will take him seriously.  If we have a black bear consuming salal berries on the same boardwalk where mothers are pushing baby strollers, it's only a matter of time before the two meet.  Such a meeting could end in tragedy.  I will post bear warning signs in the park with instructions on what to do if you run into a bear.  Better safe than sorry!  

Apples aren't the only thing falling off the trees right now.  Nuts are also falling off of the trees.  While I was busy measuring and photographing scat, more than one nut fell out of a tree and whacked me over the head.  Ouch!

On August 24th, 2010, I spotted this beautiful belted kingfisher while I was walking around Marlake searching for fresh scat.  Kingfishers usually start showing up about now.  They've arriving in advance of salmon spawning season.  Of course, it's been really dry around here lately, so there's not enough water in West Hylebos Creek for the salmon to get up, but the kingfishers know that the salmon are all congregated in Commencement Bay right now, just waiting for enough rain to fill the creek so they can swim up it.  Scott Buck said he saw three otters frolicking in Brooklake recently.  River otters also arrive in salmon spawning season.  Geese have started honk, honk, honking their way over my house this week, heading south for winter.  I live directly beneath the goose flyway; so, every spring it's honk, honk, honk going north and every fall it's honk, honk, honk headed south.  I love to watch their great vees cross above me and hear the sound of their honks overhead.

I'm been trying to get a picture of this crazy prehistoric dragonfly for weeks.  Hah!  Finally caught him!  This thing is huge, far bigger than any of the other dragonflies that are hanging out around the lakes.  He's also curious!  He has a habit of flying right up in my face, hovering between my eyes, as if he's trying to figure out what I am. You can almost imagine him thinking,  Oooooh, what are you?  Are you good to eat?  Are you a mate?  What are you?  It's impossible to take a photograph of anything hovering between your eyes, that's for sure.  Look at his wings.  They're moving so fast that you can hardly see them!  In a way, he reminds me of these fish I've snorkeled with in Hawaii that I call "swimming luggage".  This dragonfly truly looks as if he could have flown in the time of dinosaurs.

This little frog is facing off with a fly.  The frog is nose to wing with the fly, which is a very precarious position for a little fly to find himself in.  I didn't know who to root for....the frog? ....or the fly?  I couldn't decide which team I was on, so I vacated the area before this situation resolved itself.

On August 26th, 2010, I found footprints in the tree well where I usually find the most frogs.  Something very clearly took a step off of the boardwalk, then took two additional steps towards the tiny bit of water that's left in the tree well.  It's a long step from the boardwalk to the ground near the treewell, so the print nearest the boardwalk is very deep.

One day, Adele Freeland and I found these fresh prints on the boardwalk.

Yes, we also have raccoons living in the wetland!

Teri Lenfest

July 2010

On July 2, 2010, tiny apples were beginning to form on the trees near the sign-in kiosk.  In a couple of months they'd be falling on visitors heads.

 The false-lily-of-the-valley plants have replaced their tall white flowery masts with gorgeous golden and red berries.

The water parsley is exploding with huge puffs of white blooms.  The water lilies have turned Marlake into a virtual Chinese garden.  Nootka roses are blooming all over the park, creating a heavenly aroma.  You absolutely must take the time to smell these roses.  Even though it's just the beginning of July, vine maple leaves are turning bright orange all over the park.

Today was a day full of chilly drizzle, but a little bit of rain did nothing to deter people from visiting the wetland.  I ran into quite a few visitors making their way around the boardwalk.

Sparrows were singing their hearts out all over the park.  They look like they're wearing fine brown jackets with buff speckled shirts underneath.

I ran into a robin who must have had a nest near by.  She'd strut around on the boardwalk in front of me, doing her best to attract my attention.  When she had it, she'd lead me down the boardwalk a little way, then quickly dash into the bushes if I got too close, only to pop back out again at what she felt was a comfortable distance away, and immediately begin doing whatever she could to attract my attention again.  After she led me a considerable distance down the boardwalk, she popped up into a nearby tree, sat there for a few seconds, then quickly flew away.  What a good mother!

See the pretty blue and white flashes on this mother mallard's wings?  Before I had my cataracts removed, I couldn't see that blue flash at all.  The first time that I visited the park after my surgery, I spied one of these beautiful ducks and demanded to know what kind of duck that was with the beautiful blue stripes on it's wings.  Adele Freeland looked at me like I'd lost my mind.  "It's a mallard!", she said, as if she couldn't believe I'd ask such a question.  "Wow!", said I, "I never saw that stripe before."  That stripe was such a revelation to me.  I knew I couldn't see very well, but I hadn't realized just exactly how blind I'd become until then.

The baby juncos have doubled their size in a single week.  When they first hatched they looked like naked little pink things who couldn't figure out which way was up.  Two of them were belly up in the nest at the time.  Now, they've gotten themselves all sorted out and appear to be doing just fine.

I arrived at the park today immediately after a big rain storm.  I made a complete circuit of the boardwalk trail without seeing any wildlife what-so-ever.  Not a slug, not a snail, not a snake, not a frog....nothing!  Then I spotted a fly perched on a leaf.  I thought I was going to end up with a pretty pathetic blog if the only thing I could find to photograph was a fly.

 

Then I looked at what magnificent eyes it has.  "What big eyes you have!", said the blogger to the fly.  Have you ever wondered what you look like through the eyes of a fly?

Suddenly, I started seeing slugs and snails everywhere!  I must have seen twenty land snails in between the sign-in kiosk and the boardwalk.  Snail and slug migration season is at full tilt right now.  Even if you pick them up and put them safely back in the foliage, they'll immediately turn themselves around and head back to the gravel path again.  They're determined to reach the other side, even though many of them get crushed by unwary feet in the process.  On my return trip, I found four crushed land snails scattered along the path.  That was so sad!

A little further down the blue gravel trail I ran into a slug who was busy consuming a dead vole.  When I researched slugs earlier in the year, I'd discovered that they ate leaves and mushrooms and all manner of things, but nowhere was there any mention of the fact that slugs eat dead mammals.  Yet, here was a slug who seemed very intent on doing just that!

On July 6th, 2010, I was intent on finding a blue dragonfly to photograph.  I had a red one, a white one, and a windowpane one, but I wanted a blue one to complete my collection.  Dragonflies flitted all over the place by the dozens, teasing me unmercifully.  They move so fast that I can't photograph them unless they actually settle down someplace and remain still for a second.  Time after time I tried to photograph the dragonflies, ending up with nothing but blurs.

 

I found a beautiful cardinal meadowhawk.

Then I managed to photograph two who were in the process of mating.

This is a male vivid dancer.  His eyes are the same vibrant blue color as his body.  Only the males are this amazing blue.  The females vary in color and can range from a very dull blue to a brownish hue.

What's a frog to do when children come racing pell-mell down the boardwalk?  I happened to be watching three little frogs when exactly that happened.  One little frog chose to stay right where he was.  Maybe he thought that if he stayed very still, the children would run right by him and never see him.  That's exactly what they did, despite the fact that I was standing there with my camera in my hand, intently staring at something near the tree well.  The kids never broke their stride, charging full-steam down the boardwalk and around the bend, never seeing a thing.  One little frog chose to jump up on the tree.  I was amazed at how far this little frog could jump.  He went from ground level to my eye level in two quick leaps and he's only about the size of my thumb.  That's like a six-year old human jumping from ground level to the roof of his house in a single leap!  It's a bird!  It's a plane!  It's Super Frog!  The third little frog took a flying leap in the opposite direction, first disappearing into the water, then poking his head up along the very edge to take a quick look around.  When frogs jump into the water, they usually find something to hide under and stay there for a while.  This little guy was curious though.  He didn't know I could see him hidden along the edge among the twigs and leaves, but I could.....just barely.

Thistles are starting to bloom.  They're pretty, but they're also prickly.  Some of them are growing right next to the trail.  Between the thistles and the stinging nettles, long pants are a must.

The cherries in the orchard are just beginning to ripen.  They're not nearly ripe enough for humans to eat yet, but the birds think they're perfect just the way they are.  I watched bird after bird fly off with a nice red cherry in it's beak.  Thimbleberries are also getting ripe.  Their berries turn the most remarkable red color.    They're beautiful!

Cooley's hedge nettles are blooming.  Cooley's hedge nettles are a non-stinging variety of nettle.

Birds were everywhere in the park today:  high, low, flitting from branch to branch, hopping in the grass, singing in the reeds, popping in and out of the bushes and shrubs, just about anywhere and everywhere a bird could be.  I saw black-capped chickadees, as well as chestnut-backed chickadees.  There were so many chickadees in one tree that watching them was like watching popcorn pop.  And, noise?  I must say that a tree full of chickadees is one very noisy tree, indeed! There was a full-fledged chickadee party going on in that tree!   I watched a northern flicker sitting on a branch.   Suddenly, the flicker was gone and a spotted towhee was sitting in it's place.  Song sparrows were everywhere, as well as yellow warblers.

On July 7th, 2010, I discovered a multitude of frogs over by the old Brooklake bridge.  I usually visit the park three or four times a week, but this was the first time that I'd seen frogs in that location.  I always look for them, because it seems like such a good spot for frogs, but this was the first time I'd actually seen them there.  And, to my delight, there was not one frog, but several, within feet of one another.  I was practically dancing on air!  I stared at the frogs for a few minutes in disbelief, then raced to the other side of the bridge to see if anything was there.  Sure enough, another little frog was hiding in the water on the other side of the bridge.  By this time, I was so excited that I could hardly see straight.

Just about then, a group of five or six Japanese visitors headed across the bridge.  I stopped them and asked them if they'd seen any frogs?  Only one of them seemed to speak English and she didn't seem to be real sure about what I was asking, so I cranked up my camera and showed her a picture that I'd just taken of one of the frogs.  "No", said she.  They hadn't seen anything like that.  So, I took the entire group over to where I'd spotted the frogs and pointed them out.  I've been all over the world and can honestly say that I've never seen people anywhere who can get as excited as the Japanese.  Much hand-waving and excited Japanese ensued as everyone shared the excitement of discovery.  The tour group then proceeded on their way to Brooklake, talking up a storm, while I headed in the opposite direction.  I was standing at the tree well on the short side of the boardwalk, trying to photograph another little frog, when the group of Japanese visitors caught up with me again.  "Frog!", I said, pointing at this little frog sitting by the tree well.  Pandemonium broke loose once more as the Japanese group tried to find the little frog that I was pointing at.  Then, upon sighting it, the group broke out in exuberant episodes of hand-waving and Japanese.  "You have a good eye!", said the one lady who spoke English, "A very good eye!"

I was so excited to find these frogs, but I was even more excited to share the frogs with our Japanese visitors, who seemed completely surprised by the appearance of frogs.  We, in Federal Way, have the advantage of being able to see these wonderful native frogs every day.  To us, they have become commonplace.  To others, discovery of a red-legged frog can be an amazing thing!  The West Hylebos Wetland is a gem that needs to be protected and cared for today, and every day, so that others can experience the joy of discovery that is our personal treasure.

 

I remember calling my July 7th blog, "Insects, Snakes, and Arachnids", then going back and reading that and thinking, "Oh, my!"  The title seemed appropriate though.  It was just one of those days.  This crazy insect was running all over one of the signs at the sign-in kiosk.  At first, I thought it was a wasp.  Then, I thought it was a spider.  Then, I had to admit that I didn't have any idea what it was.  All I know is that it was crawling all over this sign while I was trying to sign-in and that it attracted my attention.  It appears to have eight legs, which I believe would make it a spider, but it certainly doesn't look like a conventional spider.  This spider looks like it's all dressed up to go out on the town.  Spider webs are all of the park right now.  When they sun hits them, they look like silver threads.  It's as if someone has run all over the wetland weaving silver thread from here to there.  The webs in the park come in many varieties.  Some of them are woven around and around like silken fishing nets.  Others are finely woven like gossamer cloth.  Some are so densely woven that they look similar to cotton balls. These webs are traps, snares, death itself - and yet they are incredibly beautiful.   The eight-legged creators of this marvelous splendor are just as varied as the webs they create.

Snakes are very active at this time of the year and can be found almost anywhere:  on logs, under bushes, on the plank jutting into Marlake, in the trees, and crawling through the grass.  Some of them as just babies and are barely the width of four strands of spaghetti, so it's important that you watch where you're stepping so that you don't accidentally step on one, especially in the grass.

The salal berries are just starting to ripen.  I love these berries and will go head-to-head with a bear over the right to eat them.  I can hardly wait!

The baby mallards are about half the size of their mother now and no longer look like babies at all.  I've heard that bullfrogs will eat baby ducks, but from the time these babies were able to swim, they've nonchalantly swum into, and through, bullfrog territory and the bullfrogs have jumped for their lives, hiding beneath the water until the all is clear.  At Marlake: mallard ducklings, bullfrogs, dragonflies, garter snakes, and baby bunnies have seemed to have formed a truce.  They appear to be living together without any fear of one another.  That's very interesting, as many of these things are known to eat one another.

On July 9th, 2010, temperatures hovered close to 90 degrees F.  On days like this, you aren't likely to see much wildlife in the wetland.  The wildlife suffers as much from the heat as we do; so, for the most part, are tucked away in the coolest spots they can find and trying not to use much energy.  Most of the wildlife won't get real active until 7 or 8 p.m.  Even the frogs, who usually sit beside the water, or hang out in the trees, are desperate for relief from the heat.  Most of them have moved to the coolest, wettest, muddiest spots they can find.  They're really difficult to see when they're hiding in the muck because they're just about the same color as the mud.  Sometimes, I can't see them at all.  Then the sun makes that golden cheek-slash they sport shine as if it's been polished and, suddenly, you see a frog where you saw nothing at all just a moment ago.

The western dock is getting pretty tall now.  This is a fairly common plant in this area and can be found anywhere from beaches to meadows to wetlands.  The field around the cabins is full of bladder campion.  This plant is not a native, but has really taken hold and can be found just about anywhere.  The yellow loosestrife is absolutely gorgeous right now.  It's cousin, purple loosestrife, has become a terrible problem in our wetlands, taking over large swaths of territory and killing all of the native plants in the area.  Yellow loosestrife is used in many gardens as an ornamental plant and quickly-spreading ground cover.  The yellow loosestrife is growing along the road near a residence and may have been planted by the homeowners, so we'll leave it alone, but keep a close eye on it.

This is European bittersweet, a member of the nightshade family.  As it's name implies, it is not a native, but an invader from Eurasia.  The leaves and fruit of this plant are poisonous, so please leave it alone.  Some people are tempted to pick it because it has such beautiful flowers.  Others, especially children, are tempted to pick and eat the berries, mistaking them for some of the edible berries in the wetland.  European bittersweet has been spotted throughout the wetland, especially around the picnic areas, so please be aware of it's toxicity.

White-crowned sparrows are hanging out around the meadow and orchard.  I think they're teasing me.  They'll sit there and sing and sing at me, while I struggle to get my camera ready.  Then, just as I get them in focus, they fly off and land somewhere else, where they immediately start singing at me again.  It's like a little sparrow game they play.

 

The bunnies in the wetland have been multiplying like crazy this year.  Baby bunnies are everywhere!  That means the coyotes are also in the park actively hunting the bunnies.  It's not unusual to hear them yipping and yapping, or to see one poke it's head up through the bushes and stare you down.  Rebecca Gorodyskyi photographed this young coyote over by Marlake.

On July 13th, 2010, I found herb Robert growing in the wetland.  This beautiful little pink blossom is another weed introduced from Eurasia that has taken over our fields and wetlands.  I also spotted a striking plant called rosy twistedstalk that grows beautiful, bright red, berries.  It loves to grow in places like the wetland where the ground is nice and damp.  These berries are gorgeous, but they are not edible.  They are considered poisonous - so look, but please don't touch.  Himalayan blackberries are busily transforming themselves from white blossoms into berries.  The berries are green right now, but it won't be long before you'll be able to munch your way from the parking lot to the meadow.  The false-lily-of-the-valley leaves are beginning to turn brown and die.  Soon, they will vanish for the year, only to pop back up next spring, to completely carpet the forest floor once more.

This is the photo that you need to copy and post on your refrigerator so that you can look at it next winter.  In January, this entire area was bare, and by the time next January rolls around it will be bare again.  But, look at it now!  When you're walking the boardwalk this winter and feeling a little blue about how empty everything looks, go home and look at his picture and remember how lush the wetland was in July.  Right now the wetland is a sea of green!

The park was pretty spooky when I started down the trail this morning.  I didn't see a single sign of life, nor hear a single sound, other than the periodic sound of airplanes flying overhead.  At this time of the year the park is usually filled with bird song.  It's like an enormous avian orchestra playing, "Ode to the wetland".  The absolute silence I encountered this morning was downright eerie.  For the past several days the sky has been blue and cloudless with temperatures ranging in the high 70's - low 80's.  The sky was overcast this morning, rain was threatening, and the temperature had plummeted back down to the mid-60's.  Perhaps the sudden drop in temperature encouraged the wildlife to take cover for a while.

I saw the usual mallard standing on a stump in Brooklake.  As far as I can tell, this mallard has been standing on this stump in the middle of Brooklake for the last five days.  Every time I visit the wetland, there she stands, on her stump, sometimes sleeping, sometimes preening her feathers, but steadfastly adhering to her personal stump.

 Brooklake is almost entirely covered by a thick, unsavory, green scum at this time of the year.  In a couple of months all of this scum will die off and disappear, but when it's in it's active stage, it covers nearly every inch of the lake.  I find this interesting, as there's a constant flow of water into and out of Brooklake, so the water doesn't remain still or become stagnant, yet it becomes completely covered in scum every summer.  Marlake, on the other hand, is a man-made lake.  It has an aerator in the middle of the lake, but the aerator has been broken for years.  Marlake is fed by rainfall, so tends to shrink considerably during prolonged dry spells.  And yet, so far, Marlake has shown no evidence of scum.

Later in the afternoon, the sun popped out and things started to warm up a bit.  In no time at all, the birds were back and singing their hearts out.  Snakes were crawling out of their hiding spots and looking for nice warm places to sun themselves.  Snakes are cold-blooded, so their body temperature is just about the same as the surrounding air temperature.  They're very sluggish when they're cold.  In order to be effective hunters, they need to bask in the sun to raise their body temperature.  Once warmed up, they can move like greased lightening!

On July 20th, 2010, I did a blast from the past.  When I checked the same period of time six years ago, the difference was striking.

Here's a quote from a blog I wrote in July of 2004:  "The water level is extremely low throughout the park.  Many areas that used to be below water are now high and dry.  It feels really strange to realize that you can now walk on what used to be lake bottom!"  I took this picture of a frog sitting on the bottom of Marlake in July of 2004.  A week after this photo was taken, the place where this little frog is sitting had dried out even more, sprouting deep cracks like a huge, earthen, jigsaw puzzle.

Remember the female mallard I wrote about earlier?  Today she was in the water enjoying a wonderful, loud, splashing bath.  And, she was surrounded by three new baby ducklings!  Cedar waxwings were flitting back and forth over Brooklake snatching insects from mid-air and a gorgeous Western tanager landed on a limb directly in front of me.  The coloration of it's yellow body, black wings, and bright red head was so breathtaking that I didn't even think about my camera until the tanager flew away.  *sigh*  Another missed opportunity!  Unlike the uncooperative tanager, a white-tailed dragonfly settled down right in front of me and patiently waited for me to get a shot.  What a handsome creature he was!

Whereas, the mallards at Marlake were all tuckered out by the heat and were having a little siesta in the grass, the garter snakes were all warmed up and zipping around like crazy.  The chickadees were behaving like children.  They actually followed me around the park going through all kinds of antics in an attempt to attract my attention.  Look at me!  Look at me!  I can stand on one foot and whistle at the same time!  Look at me!  Look at me!  I can peddle my bike down the hill with no hands!  I'm here!  I'm there!  I'm everywhere!  Look at me!  The song sparrows seem so well-behaved by comparison.  They seem to enjoy playing hide-n-seek, popping out to sing, then quickly popping back into the denser growth when you get too close.

I didn't see any frogs today, nor any bunnies.  It was a beautiful day to picnic in the park, even though the bunnies weren't around!

The Pacific trailing blackberries are just beginning to ripen.  These berries aren't as large or prolific as the Himalayan blackberries, but they are native and the Himalayans are invasive.  The salal berries are just starting to ripen.  In 2004, when the weather was so dry, the salal berries were actually drying on the bushes, so weren't eatable at all.  I'm keeping a close eye on these.  There are two kinds of thistles blooming in the park right now.  There's a huge clump of small lavender thistles growing along the blue gravel trail in between the cabins and the sign-in kiosk.  Their blooms are very small and the plants seem to prefer growing in groups.  Then there are huge, vibrant, blooms that prefer to stand alone.  They're like the queens of thistles.  They're the kind of thistles that makes a Scottish heart sing.

 

On July 25th, 2010, I noticed the Marlake was beginning to shrink.  We hadn't had any rain in a while and it was starting to show.  The lake hadn't shrunk as much as in 2004, but I could still walk out about three feet onto what should be lake bottom.  It's damp, muddy, and slick as snot, but you can walk on it.  If you're careful, go very slowly, and are super quiet, you might be able to sneak out close enough to the edge to see the tadpoles.  There are a lot of things living around Marlake that like to eat tadpoles,so the tadpoles are very alert and can move very fast.  The water is teeming with tadpoles and dragonflies are zooming every which way through the air, but the ducks don't seem to mind.  They were splashing water all over the place and chasing each other around the lake.  Sometimes there was so much splashing going on that you couldn't even see the ducks for all the water in the air.  Boy, they looked like they were having fun!

Today was the robin's day to sit on the bench at Marlake.  This bench seems to be the most popular resting place around the lake.  At one time or another, just about every living thing around the lake seems to end up on this bench.  I wonder how they decide whose turn it is?  Today was Mr Robin's turn.  He perched on the back of the bench with a worm in his mouth, looking all proper and dignified in his red shirt and gray morning jacket.

Jeff Renner, one of our local weather-forecasters, described today's weather as being right in the "sweet spot".  It's only supposed to last a few days, so there were a lot of people out and about in the park trying to take advantage of it.

I met three of the cutest kids coming down the trail.  Their family was lost and needed to know how to get out of the park.  I asked the boys if being lost in the wetland was scary.  Immediately, their father asked, "What time is it?", and all three boys pumped their arms up and down in the air and yelled, "It's adventure time!"  Now, these folks know how to have fun!  That's the spirit!

 

I found ripe salal berries today.  Here's a picture of the first ripe salal berries of the season taken five seconds before I popped them into my mouth.  Yum!  Oh, boy!  Oh, boy!  Oh, boy!  You have to be fast to beat me to these berries!

 

I saw a great blue heron at Brooklake today.  This was the first great blue heron I've seen at the lake this season.  Herons love to eat frogs and other things that live in the lake, so it's not unusual to see them hunting there.

On July 29th, 2010, we were trapped beneath a marine layer for most of the day, so the temperature remained about 59 degs F until around 2 p.m., when the fog burned off.  Once the marine layer burned off and the sun started to shine, things began to warm up quickly, so I immediately headed for Marlake, hoping to find some snakes out sun-bathing.  I looked in all of the usual snakey places and didn't spot a single one.

 

 

Just as I started to leave, I noticed a wake traveling just in front of the cattails on the other side of Marlake.  The wake was being created by one of the elusive muskrats that have taken up residence there.  I only had time for a single quick shot before he disappeared among the reeds. I walked around to the other side of the lake to see if I could spot the muskrat again, but he didn't make an encore appearance.  The water was so shallow over there that I could actually walk out among the reeds into areas that are usually submerged.  That felt very strange, I can tell you!  The cattails sure are pretty at this time of the year.  Their heads are nice and full and have not yet turned to fluff.

I found a tiny little mouse over near the area we call Jurassic Park.  He was hardly bigger than the cigarette butt he was sitting beside.  He had huge, round, ears.  The better to hear you with, my dear!  I also found a Douglas squirrel sitting way up in a tree, munching away on a fir cone as if it were corn on the cob.

On July 31st, 2010, I spotted a green heron marching up and down the dock at Marlake.  Green herons are only about half the size of great blue herons and are beautifully camouflaged.  Their mottled greens and browns blend in so well with the reeds that they can be actively hunting along the edge of the lake and you're probably not going to see them.  I got lucky today because this green heron was up on the dock.  He wanted to find a place up there to take a little nap, but finally gave up because there were too many people around for him to feel comfortable.

Some of the ferns are beginning to turn yellow now.  Some ferns stay green all year around.  Others die back in the fall and return in the spring.  False-lily-of-the-valley leaves are also turning brown and starting to die back and dead leaves are beginning to litter the boardwalk.

Summer is just about over!

Signs of Spring, Feb 2011

Adele Freeland and I made a trip to the park today to see what was popping up and found signs of spring everywhere we looked.

The meadow was full of dark-eyed juncos....

and blue jays.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite the fact that my fingers and toes were frozen stiff, this funny little spotted towhee thought the weather was just perfect for taking a bath in a convenient mud puddle.  Brrrrrrh!

 

A Douglas squirrel was munching away in the pussywillows...

which are at their peak right now.

The Indian plums are putting out new leaves.

I even found a salmonberry bud just beginning to unfurl it's blossom.

Fresh new skunk cabbage leaves are popping up through the soil.

Red-winged blackbirds are singing at Marlake.

And the slugs are in love.

Teri Lenfest

June 2010

By the first of June, 2010, we'd had quite a bit of rain.  

Abundant rain used to make some trips along the old boardwalk quite an adventure.  This is a photo that Adele Freeland took of me standing in the middle of the old boardwalk after a rainy period.  I'm ankle deep in water and I'm standing on top of the boardwalk!

The new boardwalk is constructed in such a way that the water can flow under it, rather than over it, but there are still parts of the boardwalk that can be very slippery when wet and there are areas off of the boardwalk, such as the trail that runs behind Marlake, that get downright mucky.  On the first of June, I ran into a family who had ventured off of the gray gravel trail near the end of the orchard, and gone slipping and sliding in the mud.  The youngest took quite a tumble in the mud and was liberally painted with the mucky stuff.  Although there is a trail running around the far side of Marlake, it is not paved or covered with gravel and the mud there can get very deep.  I met a young man one day who'd just had his shoe sucked right off of his foot as he'd tried to extricate himself from the mire.  I wouldn't let the mud deter me, but it might be a good idea to bring along a towel, change of clothes, or handiwipes, so that you can clean up a little if needed.

Dana Buck took advantage of the break between storms to mow the meadow, which can be quite a challenge with all of the bunnies hopping around.  Baby bunnies are everywhere.  They're so small that you can cup them in your hand or tuck them inside of a tea cup.  Their ears are very tiny in relation to their bodies.  The coyotes have been very active in the area, so the babies were staying close to their burrows.  I saw a huge mama bunny though who did not seem to be the least bit concerned.  She wasn't bothered by me, the lawn mower, or anything else.  Maybe she thought we couldn't see her because she was holding so still, but I assure you that was not the case.  She was huge!

Caterpillars were out and about today.  They seemed to be attracted to the wooden railing on the boardwalk for some reason.  I spotted frogs in a multitude of places: the little bridge where the kids free their salmon fry, near the Sitka spruce, where the creek runs under the Brooklake bridge, and in the big tree well near the bench on the short side of the trail.  They're so small, sit so still, and are so well camouflaged that you can walk right by them without ever seeing them.  The creek is full of water striders, stroke-stroke-stroking across the surface of the water.  Both garden slugs and banana slugs were out everywhere.  I watched a little spider trying to build a web in the wind.  The poor little guy was having one heck of a time.  The wind blew him to and fro, spun him around in circles, and made the web shiver like it was in the middle of an earthquake, but the little spider hung on for dear life, regrouped in between gusts, and tried again and again and again.  I hope it finally succeeded.  It was working so hard!

By one o'clock in the afternoon, the birds and ducks were in very difference frames of mind.  Some of the birds were sitting in the trees singing their little hearts out, while others hopped around in the grass looking for nice juicy bugs to eat.  The ducks, on the other hand, were all sacked out, with their noses tucked neatly beneath their wings, deep in dreamland.  I watched one mother mallard gather her ducklings in a shoreline huddle for a little snooze.  As the train of ducklings approached the edge of the lake, at least a half a dozen anxious bullfrogs launched themselves into Marlake as if shot from cannons.

Cottonwood fluff is beginning to litter the boardwalk.  The salmon berries have really taken off and are now reaching across the boardwalk as if trying to shake hands with one another.  They're due for a little trimming I'd say.  In the old days, Adele Freeland and I used to try to keep the old boardwalk trimmed so that the eye stabbers and ankle grabbers were gone, and there was adequate room for people to maneuver down the boardwalk, but the boardwalk still had that wild and wooly look.  These days they just run a weed whacker down the boardwalk when the plants get out of hand.  That does the job, but isn't as ascetically pleasing.  Still, without a willing crew of volunteers available to hand-trim the boardwalk, there really is no option other than to let the noisy, smelly, fossil-fuel-gobbling, string-cutter do the job.

On June 2, 2010, I visited Marlake to look for eagles.  Bald eagles have been nesting at Marlake for about six years now and this is usually a good time to spot them.  If there are eagles in the park, they might have young in the nest.  It would be very exciting to watch the parents snatch a fish from the lake, but this was not going to be my lucky day.  When you visit the wetland, spend a little time looking up, as well as down.  You never know!

June 5, 2010, was a warm, sunny day, that was sandwiched between one long period of rain and another.  A lot of people took advantage of this lull between storms to visit the park.  Before noon, there were loads of children literally running up and down the boardwalk, making as much noise as they possibly could, and moving just as fast as their little legs could carry them.  I guarantee you they saw no wildlife today, as anything able to move would have headed for the hills with all of that activity.  The kids looked like they were having a great time though!

 

I stopped one family and pointed out some frogs to them.  They were very excited to discover that there was not one frog, but five, in the little tree well they'd been passing.  A beautiful pair of wood ducks was visiting Brooklake and a red-breasted sapsucker was actively working on a tree near the deep sinks.  I ran into a couple who had just spotted a brown, furry creature at Brooklake, but it had moved so quickly that they weren't able to identify it.  We have weasels, muskrats, beavers, and river otters living in the park, so it could have been any one of those.  They were very lucky.  Most visitors never see our elusive mammals at all.

The spider webs are getting very thick throughout the park.  Today the sun was hitting them at just the right angle, making them glow like strands of silver.  Dana Buck found a family of spiders that she hustled into a jar.  They looked like black widows to me.  Some things living in the park are poisonous.  

Snakes are not among them though.  So far, all of the snakes we've found in the wetland have been garter snakes.  They'll give you a nasty bite if cornered, but they're not poisonous.

Babies are all over the park at this time of the year.  I was oohing and aahing over the baby bunnies when I all but stepped on a tiny baby squirrel.  He was asleep when I found him, but woke up and looked around as I was trying to photograph him.  He had such tiny ears and a little bitty tail, but huge eyes.  He was so cute!  The newest mallard ducklings are getting really big.  They're still mostly poofy balls of yellow fluff, but it won't be long before they start sprouting adult feathers.  Mother mallard doesn't exhibit any fear of humans at all.  She appears to be quite comfortable about bringing her babies up on the grass for a little nap.

Predators take many shapes in the wetland.  Some are large, some are small, but they all hunt.  The nature of the wetland is that larger things eat smaller things.  Anyone who has been in the wetland lately has heard the coyotes.  They've been spotted in the blueberry farm, the orchard, the area just shy of where the dirt trail becomes the boardwalk, around Marlake, and everywhere else in the park.

 

I keep telling the powers that be that we have bullfrogs in the park, but I haven't been able to prove it until today.  Today, I finally managed to photograph one of the invaders.  They usually hear me coming, despite the fact that I practice great stealth.  Just before I get into camera range, I can hear them taking off and splashing into the lake.  At best, I'm able to catch a glimpse of their big green legs as they dive into the water to avoid detection.  Once they're in the water, they're impossible to spot.  Look at how this frog's ear ring glows in the sunlight.  See how golden his eyes are?  These big boys are huge and will eat anything they can shove into their mouths, and I mean anything.

Both lakes are full of dragonflies right now.  It looks like it's going to be a banner year for them.  They're everywhere!  These beautiful little things are voracious hunters.  They're gorgeous though, there's no doubt about that.

June 13, 2010, was a perfect day for birding in the wetland.  Birds were everywhere, singing their hearts out.  As soon as I started down the trail, I ran into a small group of visitors who were on their way out of the park.  They said they'd just seen two owls flying around on the short side of the boardwalk trail.  It's not unusual to find owl pellets along the boardwalk, but it's very rare to actually make an owl sighting.  I took my time, making a complete loop of the wetland, head up, scanning the trees, checking every visible branch and limb, looking for large birds flying, or sitting, or doing about anything a bird can do.  I saw black-capped chickadees and dark-eyed juncos, but no owl.

Suddenly, there they were.  I spotted them just as the mother owl presented the baby with a live mouse to eat.  He quickly dispatched the mouse, then sat there on his branch, calling to his mother, as she flew off in search of more sustenance for her young one.  It didn't take long before a small crowd had gathered beneath the tree the baby was sitting in and his mother decided to encouragement him to move to a new location, rather than stay in the tree where all of the people were gawking at him.  She called and called to him.  He returned her calls, but seemed puzzled about what she expected him to do, so spent several minutes hopping from one small branch to another, all around the tree, before proceeding to slowly move from tree to tree in the direction of his mother.  It was so exciting to watch the two barred owls interact with one another.

New plants are blooming or berrying this week.  The old dried brown heads of the hardhack have transformed themselves into lovely tufts of soft lavender blooms.  Bees are actively buzzing around the blossoms in search of hardhack nectar to carry back to the hive.  The Nootka roses are starting to bloom.  Some coastal tribes used to line their cooking baskets with these rose petals to lend a delicate floral flavor to their food.  I ran into one woman who was very excited about the fact that we had these rare heritage roses growing in the park.  Large areas of creeping buttercup are popping up all over the park.  Berries are beginning to form on the red-osier dogwoods.  This is an important food for deer, moose, and elk.  If you enjoy flowers, this is the perfect time to visit the wetland, as it's filled to the brim with blossoms of pink, white, lavender, yellow, and blue.

I didn't see any frogs where I usually see them today.  Instead, frogs popped up in places where I've never seen them before.  Frogs usually have a very small territory, generally hanging around the little root pool where they were born.  Lately, the frogs seem to be on the move.  Very interesting!  Snakes were out basking in the sun.  I ran into a funny little Douglas squirrel that couldn't make up it's mind what to do.  One of those great big human trespassers was standing right smack-dab in the middle of the trail as if she had every right to be there.  What to do, what to do, what to do?  Being a really brave little squirrel, he slowly walked as close to me as he felt comfortable doing, then jumped up on the side of a tree, sidled around the bark until he got just past me, then hopped back down onto the boardwalk and scampered away.

This little land snail was right in the middle of the grey gravel trail.  He was going as fast as he could, which looks like no motion at all to us, but is beating feet to a snail - just hoping against hope that he would reach the other side without being stepped on.  This is land snail migration season.  Only a land snail can tell you why they have to cross the gravel, but, believe me, they do.  Slugs also migrate from one side of the gravel trail to the other at this time of year.  It seems to defy all reason, as a multitude of snails and slugs end their lives in this process.  Unwary people charge down the blue gravel trail, crushing snails in their wake without even seeing them.  As the slugs cross the trail, chunks of blue gravel adhere to the slug slime on their foot.  The farther they go, the more gravel they pick up.  Before they can reach the other side of the trail, many slugs become encased in gravel and just curl up in little balls and die.  At this time of the year, the land snails and slugs seem determined to set out on this suicide mission.  Please, please, please be very careful when you walk through this area.  Try to avoid crushing them if you can.

On June 18, 2010, I stopped to read some of the visitor comments at the sign-in kiosk.  Someone commented, "Love the boardwalk trail, but I'm very disappointed that you covered the deep sinks so they can't even be viewed.  Isn't there some way to cut a view hole and top it with plexi-glass?"  We didn't cover the deep sinks.  Mother Nature did.  During a storm, a big tree fell on top of the deep sinks, then split in two.  Those of us who work in the park have a very strong desire to preserve it as a wild place.  Everything in the park is in the process of changing, in it's own way, on it's own terms.  The deep sinks used to be twenty feet deep.  Over the years, they've gradually filled in, growing more and more shallow.  Last year, in a great display of power, Mother Nature dropped a tree right on top of this ever decreasing pool.  Since then, copious amounts of new spring vegetation has effectively covered what little water is left.  To top it all off, bullfrogs have been spotted here.  I haven't seen a red-legged frog in this location since the middle of May and I could have almost guaranteed you a sighting before then.

When I started working in the wetland, almost nine years ago, I felt pretty much the way this visitor felt when she made her note on the sign-in sheet.  I was busy trying to count the salmon coming up West Hylebos Creek to spawn when I noticed that the Great Blue Herons were busy eating the salmon eggs that these beautiful fish had given their lives to produce.  I remember calling Chris Carrel, then Executive Director of the Friends of the Hylebos, with panic in my voice.  "Chris!  Chris!", said I.  "What do I do when the endangered birds are eating the endangered fish?"  His answer was simply to observe and record.  Chris' response sums up our feelings about the wetland precisely.  The wetland is a living, breathing, ever-changing wild place.  We're fortunate to have a place like this in Federal Way where people can stroll down the boardwalk and observe these changes.  Unless something happens that directly impacts the boardwalk, we don't do anything about it.  We're content to watch Mother Nature at work.

On June 22, 2010, I didn't get to the park until late afternoon.  That's not the best time to visit the park if you want to see wildlife.  The best time is early in the morning or at dusk.  Most animals take a little siesta in the middle of the afternoon.  Still, one goes when one finds the time, so off I went.

A beautiful red-breasted sapsucker was busy working at this tree.  The mallard ducklings at Marlake are now half the size of their mother and no longer look like yellow puffballs.  They seemed to have become very accustomed to people, so I think someone is feeding them.  Dana Buck and Seth Bynum have both told me that they've seen a river otter swimming around in Marlake.  He wasn't there when I visited, but I did find a big hole that was dug in the bank of the lake and suspect an otter or muskrat may be responsible for that.  It's interesting to note that the bunnies, bullfrogs, ducklings, river otters, red-winged blackbirds, and Dana's dog all seem to get along with one another.  Bunnies are hopping around all over the place, ducklings are waddling all over the lawn, the dog is running from one end of the yard to the other, making sure everyone knows who's boss, and the bullfrogs are squeaking and leaping out of the way.  It's pretty exciting over on the Marlake side of the park, but extremely muddy.  Garter snakes are hanging out along the edges of the lake, especially in sunny spots.

The Himalayan blackberry blooms are starting to open up.  Soon we'll have blackberries ripening down the west side of the trail between the parking lot and the meadow.  Beautiful ferns are growing all over the wetland.  Salmonberries are ripe and juicy.  Someone with very good balance and very nice printing wrote, "HENRY DAVID THOREAU", on the back of one of the directional signs.  I saw the barred owls again today.  The baby owl is about half the size of it's mother now.  I wanted to get a photo of the two of them together, but the mother spotted me, aborted her landing, and landed way up in the top branches of another tree that was farther away, then called for her baby to join her there.

These tiny baby juncos just hatched.  They're not much bigger than the tip of your finger.  Although there were three of them in the nest, at the time I photographed them only one of them had figured out which way was up.  Guess who's going to get fed?  Spotted towhees are all over the orchard area now.  They're so pretty with their black heads, white breasts, orange sides, and dapper white-spotted black wings.  Robins are everywhere.  In some places robins are a sign of spring, but they live all year around in the West Hylebos Wetland.

The bunnies are still producing new babies.  There are so many bunnies in the orchard and meadow areas that it's hard to walk around without stepping on them.  The coyotes are very active in the same area, but don't seem to be very effective at keeping the bunny population down.

Now that the Himalayan blackberries are blooming, bees are in abundance.  Big fat bumblebees not only collect nectar from the blossoms, but pick up pollen on their bodies and carry it from blossom to blossom, cross-pollinating the plants.  You can't have fruit without bees!  I also found a beautiful black and yellow millipede today.  What a handsome creature!

On June 24th, 2010, I spotted a bright yellow Wilson's warbler singing in a tree.  If you've never seen one before, you might mistake it for a canary because of it's bright color.  Warbler's are very small and blend in with the leaves so well that they're nearly impossible to find in the trees even though they're brightly colored.  You can hear their song all over the park at this time of the year, even if you can't spot them with your eyes.

I found three red-legged frogs in their usual tree well.  One them all but sitting atop someone's discarded cigarette butt.  Please take your butts home with you.  They're not healthy for our wildlife!

The Nootka roses have started to look more like insect hotels.  Bees and wasps are working both the insides and outsides of the blooms.  Some blooms have a many as four or five insects working on them at the same time.  Talk about popular!  Bees are also busy collecting nectar from the hardhack blossoms.  White and purple foxgloves are in bloom.  These are not native plants.  They actually came to this country from Europe and are extremely poisonous.  Drugs, such as Digitalis, are made from the foxglove plant, but you must never, ever, ingest it except in pharmaceutical form under a doctor's prescription.  This plant can stop your heart in an instant!  Fireweed is also blooming right now.  Northwestern Coastal people used fireweed for all kinds of things, including:  cord, twine, fishnets, stuffing, and even mixed it with fur and hair to make thread for weaving cloth.  Bees, on the other hand, turn fireweed nectar into some of the best honey on earth.  Yum!

Fungi are popping up all over the park.  They seem to be everywhere!  It's been a very cool, wet spring and summer in the Great Pacific Northwest, with below average temperatures and above average rainfall.  Those are perfect conditions for fungi, so this could be a banner year for them.  Today, I found shiny amber clusters, bright green shelves that reminded me of malachite. waxy white angel wings, thick shelves of multi-hued browns and whites.  Some fungi are sparkling with dew like diamonds, some poke up out of the ground like little fairy stools, some sport little pointed hats, while others look like delicately-ribbed parasols.  Some are good to eat.  Some are deadly poisonous.  If you don't know the difference - look, but don't touch.

On June 27th, 2010, I found a wasp and a slug that were exhibiting behavior that I don't understand.  The wasp appeared to be stinging the slug, but from all appearances, the slug didn't seem to mind it.  I found that very interesting.  I also found pretty red ladybugs covered in little black spots.  Ladybugs love aphids and other tiny insects that nibble away at our plants.  Dragonflies were everywhere as well.  They're so funny, because they're so curious.  They'll fly right up to your face and then hover there, looking you over, as if trying to determine what you are.  At other times, they'll exhibit this behavior repeatedly, just like a dog who wants you to chase him.  Could the dragonflies want to play?  Exactly how would one play with a dragonfly?  I also spotted an entire parade of northwest thatching ants with their enormous heads and bright red abdomens.

On my walk through the park today, I found both a dead vole and a dead squirrel.  I wondered what had killed them and why they hadn't been eaten?  I also found broken land snail shells with no snail inside.  If I find a smashed shell with a snail inside, I know a careless person has stepped on it, but when the shells are broken open and the snails are missing, I wonder what predator ate them.

The baby juncos have gotten much bigger, but I wonder how long they're going to last.  A cat knocked their nest out of it's bush today.  Dana found it and replaced it in the bush, enclosing it with a piece a metal fencing, but now that the cat knows where the nest is, I don't have much hope for it.  While I was checking the babies out, their mother sat on a post nearby and watched every move I made.  What a good mother!

The weather person said that the clouds would be replaced by blue skies today, but it didn't happen.  It remained overcast all day long.  It's time to spritz on a little insect repellent before visiting the wetland, as the mosquitoes have begun to bite.  Sap was dripping down some of the bark like amber glass.  Look out, Chihuly, you've got competition from Mother Nature!

The huckleberries are just starting to ripen,  Red-osier dogwoods are covered in clumps of bright red berries now.  The waterlilies on Marlake are blooming.  And, get this, the vine maple leaves are beginning to turn red.

I found pointed white fungi today that looked like ghost crabs, and shiny brown fungi that looked like naugahyde.  Some bark is liberally speckled with fungi that reminds me of freckles.

Half the year is gone now.  Summer lies ahead!

Teri Lenfest