Blog From The Bog

The Critters Are Waking Up!

The day before yesterday was a very nice day, making fighting the urge to go to the park very difficult.  Still, I had many things that needed to be done, so I could only go to the park on one day, and the weather-people were promising that yesterday would be a much better day to pursue that endeavor.  I woke up yesterday morning anticipating blue sky and a high of 59 degrees F.  Whoohoo, it was going to be beautiful!  I looked out of my bedroom window to see gray, overcast sky, and a temperature of barely 41degrees F.  Noooooooo!  Where was my blue sky?  Where was my warmth?  Mother Nature wasn't playing fair!  Feeling defeated, I had breakfast, then settled down on the sofa to do a little sewing.  It made no sense to make another trip to the park under those weather conditions.  The likelihood of anything being there that hadn't been there two days ago was slim to nothing.  Still, I kept an eagle eye on the outdoor thermometer and must have jumped up and looked out the window a dozen times.  I was chomping at the bit.  Finally, I told myself that if the thermometer managed to crawl it's way up to 50 degrees F, I would put my sewing away and head for the park.  By 12:30 p.m., the temperature was still struggling, and failing, to reach a measly 47 degrees.  By 1:30 p.m., it had made it all of the way up to 49.  Not the 50 I was waiting for, but definitely an upward tic.  I couldn't stand the suspense a moment longer.  I grabbed my pack and was off to the park.

When I arrived at Marlake, most of the long, gooey, strings of eggs that I'd found on top of the log boom were still there.  There only seemed to be half as many present as there had been before, but I was glad to see any at all, considering their exposed location.  I'd talked to a friend on March 22nd who told me that he'd found identical strings of eggs plastered on the side of his automobile.  He didn't know what they were either, but we were both convinced that they had to be some kind of salamander.  I guess we'll never know for sure though.  I spent two and a half hours roaming around the park and, when I checked the log boom again, just before I went home, the eggs were gone.  Every last one of them had been eaten by something.  The top of the log was all but licked clean.  Yum for the consumer, but sad for the rest of us.  I sure did want to see what hatched out of those eggs!  Two different kinds of eggs were deposited on, or beside, the log boom this year and both sets of eggs vanished before their time.  It seems to me that egg survival depends upon avoiding the log bom at all cost.  There are much better places to lay eggs, with far superior success rates. 

A light breeze was blowing water diamonds across the surface of Marlake.  This is one of my favorite things.  I love to watch the sun and breeze dance across the surface of the water, causing the surface to erupt in a million sparkling lights!  I didn't see the geese today, nor the hooded mergansers.  A lone American wigeon was swimming around in Marlake, while a pair of mallards were napping on the the grass at the edge of the lake.  As I approached, the male mallard raised his head, looked at me, thought - Oh, it's you - then tucked his head back under his wing and returned to slumberland.  A pair of red-winged blackbirds were serenading one another in the reeds on the other side of the lake.

 

 

A muskrat was also eating lunch among the reeds on the other side of the lake.  Tucked away among the reeds as he was, I doubt that most people would have noticed him.  I spend enough time in the park that I'm very familiar with what should, or should not, be there, so notice when something looks the least bit peculiar.  From my side of the lake, I just noticed a small dark spot in the reeds that shouldn't have been there, so zoomed in on it with my camera and found the elusive little rodent.  He didn't hang around for long.  I got two quick shots of him and then he swam away.  I seem to be one of his few admirers.  I managed to get a pretty good shot of him a couple of years ago, of which I was very proud, so I printed it out and tried to give it to my friends as gifts.  Ewwwwww, a rodent!, was the general response.  Why would I want to hang a picture of a rat on my wall?  I hate those things!  Despite the fact that I let them know that it was a muskrat, not a rat, and that I thought it was just as cute as it could be...I couldn't even give those photos away.  Poor little guy!  I love the fact that he lives in our park!

I stumbled upon the first land snail shell of the season.  Unfortunately, this shell was empty.  It was sitting on the edge of the trail in between the main trail and the orchard.  Looks like some hungry critter made dinner of the poor little snail before I discovered his empty shell.  Animals are waking up from their long winter snooze and they're waking up hungry.  In the wetland, life is a matter of eat or be eaten.

 

 

 

 

 

The center of the area between the sign-in kiosk and the orchard is pretty much a shallow little pond.  It's well hidden ...  off the trail, surrounded by shrubs, trees, and brambles.  You might not be able to see it, but you sure can hear it at this time of the year.  I couldn't believe how loud those little frogs were ribbeting.  You'd think they had microphones and amps in there!  The noise was pretty amazing!  I bent down to pick up a stick to clean something off of my shoe and disturbed this little tree frog that was hidden in the brush beneath my stick.  I probably wouldn't have seen him if he'd frozen, but he chose to hop to a safer spot and his movement caught my eye.

 

I found this little ensatina salmander on the other side of the trail.  There's a branch over there that I've dubbed "The Wanderer" because it keeps moving around, all over that area.  I never see any people over there, but I do find evidence that they've left behind, such as beer bottles, soda cans, cigarette butts, and candy wrappers.  I'm sure they're responsible for moving this branch here, there, and everywhere.  It's just the right size to sit on.  Anyway, I noticed that the branch had been moved again and, when I went over to check it out, I found this cute little pink salamander sitting beside the branch.  I quickly moved some light branches and twigs over top of it so that it didn't dry out in the sun.

 

 

I also saw my first slug of the season clinging to one of the branches I picked up to cover the salamander.  He doesn't look like he's all that happy about being exposed to the light and moved to a new location, but I'm sure he did fine as soon as I flipped his branch back over, returning him to his damp, dark hideaway.

 

 

 

 

 

Everything in the park is covered with a film of pollen right now, including this park bench near the head of the boardwalk.  There's so much pollen on the right side of this bench that it almost looks like someone started to paint the bench yellow and then stopped.  If you have allergies, you might try taking a shower and washing your hair as soon as you get home.  That way you'll get rid of any pollen that's clinging to your hair and skin.

 

 

 

 

New false-lily-of-the-valley plants are starting to poke up through the forest floor.  Soon, they'll cover every single square inch of the park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right now, the tightly-coiled leaves of the new false-lily-of-the-valley plants that are poking up through the moss on fallen logs make the logs look as if they're sprouting sharp green bristles.  They look like they're sporting some kind of new fantastical punk hairdo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

New bleeding heart leaves are also poking up through the forest floor.  I wasn't sure that we'd get much bleeding heart this year because the area in which they're most prolific was pretty torn up by last year's winter storms and is still covered fairly deeply in storm debris.  Never-the-less, where there's a will - there's a way.  These hardy little survivors are making a come-back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I checked on the progress of the old northwestern salamander eggs.  Two days ago, the largest glob was well submerged in the water, but today it's risen and is just breaking the surface of the water.  I couldn't find the smaller glob, but suspect that it's still submerged, so very difficult to see.

 

 

 

 

To my delight, I found a whole new glob of northwestern salamander eggs not far from the old glob.  This glob was not there two days ago.  It's gorgeous!  Look at the difference between the oldest glob and the brand new glob.  I'm so excited about these eggs!

 

 

 

 

 

While I was busy looking for snakes, I could hear little Jonathan Gorodyskyi chirping like a bird, albeit much louder than most birds.  The Gorodyskyi family were all outside doing yard work in the sunshine, while Jon sat in his stroller supervising.  He's as handsome as his sister is beautiful!

 I published a photo of Ava Rose Buck in my last blog and now a photo of Jon in this blog.  Look at how big our park babies are growing!  Aren't they adorable!

I told Becca Gorodyskyi that I was looking for snakes, but hadn't spotted any yet this season.

 

 

Then, I skirted the pile of debris near the dock and discovered this little beauty curled up in the dead leaves next to the trail.

 By the time I circled back to the meadow, there were brush rabbits everywhere.  I spotted at least five of them in between the meadow and the old cabins.

Along with the rabbits, I spotted dark-eyed juncos, spotted towhees, American robins, white-crowned sparrows, and song sparrows, pecking through the meadow grass, looking for bugs.

Two pairs of mallards, a bufflehead, and a ring-necked duck were having lunch at Brooklake.

 

I checked my outdoor thermometer when I got home and discovered that the temperature had climbed all of the way up to 52 degrees F.  Not the 59 degrees we were promised, but I'll take it.

 

Teri I. Lenfest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Is It With This Weather?

I haven't posted a blog since March 9th.  Why?  Because my camera is not water-resistant and our weather has not been cooperating.  Take last Sunday, for instance.  During the two and a half hours that I sat in Tully's in Tacoma, participating in one of our infrequent steampunk crafternoons, we had sunshine, rain. hail, sleet, sunshine, more rain, etc., etc., etc.  At one time, more than one of us pointed out the fact that the sun was shining on one side of the building, while it was raining cats and dogs on the other.  For months and months and months, our weather has consistently been about ten degrees below normal.  Right now, most of the rest of the country is experiencing temperatures in the 70's and 80's (deg F.), while we're still firmly stuck in the 40's, with (yep, you guessed it) a chance of snow expected tomorrow.  It's spring already!  Spring!  *sigh*  You'd think that weather like this would have to confuse the plants and animals, yet everything seems to be moving right along, with only minor delays here and there.

This morning, I looked out the window and saw a little tease of blue sky.  After much too much time away from the park, I donned my raincoat and rainpants, grabbed a large plastic bag for the camera, and decided to risk it.

When I arrived at the bus stop, I looked up and saw a bald eagle in the sky.  I decided to accept this as a good omen, despite the fact that the bald eagle was flying away from the bus stop (and the park) as fast as it's wings and the wind would allow.  I refused to let the fact that the eagle was headed away from the park deter me.  No matter what, I was going to the park.  Especially since the weatherpeople were predicting snow for tomorrow.  Spring!  It's spring!  Enough with the snow!  Arrrrrrgh!

 

 

 

 

Dana Buck had sent me an email letting me know that a huge group of Americorps folks had shown up on Friday, March 16th.  They cleaned the boardwalk, pruned and cleaned the orchard, and removed the fallen trees that were blocking the trail behind Marlake.  Yay, the trail is negotiable again!  Thank you, Americorps!  That's good news!  Of course, you have to take the term negotiable with a grain of salt.  Remember, this trail is nothing more than a big mucky, muddy, mire at the best of times.

 

 

Dana says that she and Scott have seen coyotes running around back there several times in the last week.   I could hear them yipping back there, but I couldn't catch sight of them no matter how hard I tried.  Even if you can't see the animals that visit Marlake, you can find evidence of their visits by the footprints they leave behind in the mud.  It's extremely difficult to photograph footprints in the mud....they're gray on gray, after all.  In this photograph, you can clearly see three long, skinny, toes ending in sharp claws.  Could this be a raccoon track?

 

 

Did you notice that the Denny cabin now has shingles?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The restorers have also painted the front door red.  When I was growing up in the Episcopal church, I was taught that a red door signified that the church had been paid for.  I don't know whether this red door has the same significance or if someone just painted the door red because they like the color red.  Maybe the original door was red.  I have no idea, but I'd love to learn more about it.  How about you?  I understand that the Historical Society of Federal Way plans to install a wooden floor next and paint the outside of the cabin.  I wonder what color they'll select for the exterior?  To me, the original logs appear to have been painted red.  What do you think?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dana has seen red-winged blackbirds, northern shovelers, buffleheads, Canada geese, mallards, and northern flickers at Marlake lately.  The red-winged blackbirds that are there now are very shy.  By late summer, they won't care whether we're around or not.  That's when it's easiest to photograph them.  I saw two red-winged blackbirds, but they weren't what knocked my socks off.

 

 

 

 

 

Look at the number of Canada geese that are hanging out at Marlake now.  Holy cow!  Did the original pair send out invitations, or what?  Yes, one must be alert so as not to step in goose poop.  I promise you, the edges of the lake are liberally coated with goose droppings.  Still, they are gorgeous, are they not?  They just take my breath away.

 

 

 

 

 

And, California quail!  I've been working in the park for twelve years now and have never seen a California quail there until today.  When these two scurried across the path in front of me, I nearly fainted.  They're the last thing I expected to see in West Hylebos Park, yet there they were!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember the lonely female bufflehead that was hanging out with the plastic decoys?  There are now three lonely female buffleheads hanging out together, without a male in sight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are now two female hooded-mergansers vying for the attention of one male.  The male and one of the females seem to be hanging out as a pair, while a single female swims alone.  The lonely ring-necked duck still hasn't found a mate, but is hanging out at Brooklake with a pair of mallards.  It must feel severely outnumbered at Marlake now.  I'm sure I would.

 

 

 

 

 

A song sparrow was hanging around the edge of Marlake.  It didn't look like she was hunting for bugs, although that appears to be what she has in her mouth.  Instead, she might be collecting nesting materials.  I saw a lot of song sparrows, dark-eyed juncos, black-capped chickadees, ruby-crowned kinglets, American robins, and jays hanging out in the park.  All but the kinglets hang out in the park all year around.  Dana says she's seen a lot of rabbits lately, but I only saw one today.  She said she saw a weasel trying to drag off a dead baby rabbit last week.  The baby rabbit was almost too big for the weasel to handle, but it accepted the challenge.  You know what they say.....never give up!  Especially if you're hungry.

 

 Something has left eggs on top of the log-boom at Marlake.  These eggs were deposited on top of a log, not in the water.  I have checked them against my amphibian book and not been able to match the eggs to a specific frog or salamander.  It'll be interesting to see what becomes of these eggs, don't you think?

 

 

 

 

 

Speaking of eggs; Jamie, Gunnar, and Ivy Giron were busy looking for eggs and/or frogs in the tree-well near the owl tree.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were plenty of eggs in that particular tree-well.  If you look closely at these, you'll see that they're either two clusters of eggs laid at different times, so at different stages of development, or eggs from two different species laid one atop the other.  The top eggs look distinctly different from the bottom eggs.

 

 

 

 

 

My amphibian egg references tell me that, when eggs are nearly fully-developed, the egg-mass gets foamy and sinks towards the bottom of the water.  These are the northwestern salmander eggs that I published earlier.  You can clearly see that they're no longer above the water, but have sunk nearly halfway to the bottom. I wanted to show them to a group of visitors, but it took me too long to relocate them.  I thought they were gone entirely, but I finally found them deeper in the water.  They're very difficult to see now.  If you hadn't seen them before, you'd never know they were there.   They should hatch soon.   Won't that be fun to see?  Most, but not all, of the eggs in Marlake are in the same state.  Even though you know where they were, you can't find most of them.    Your chances of seeing a tadpole are very slim.  They're very shy and bolt into hiding at the slightest sound.  You may be able to see them when they get larger, if the light is right, and you're really lucky.

The indian plum is now cascading into chandeliers of delicate white blossom.  More and more gorgeous magenta salmonberry blossoms are opening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alder trees are dripping in lovely pink blossoms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Skunkcabbage is absolutely everywhere now.  I can't smell it, but you probably can.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What's really interesting is the fact that skunkcabbage seems to pop up out of the ground replete with it's own horde of noxious insects.  Almost every skunkcabbage bloom you see is crawling with it's own cast of creepy-crawlers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our very favorite stinging nettle is popping up through the ground and growing at astronomical rates.  It won't be long before it's taller than most of us and leaving stinging welts on those not wise enough to wear long sleeves in the wetland, no matter how hot it gets.  Forewarned is forearmed!

 

 

 

 

 

I almost forgot to mention the insects.  If you examine the surface of either lake closely, you'll see a plethora of busy insects skating across the surface.  Some of them have long oars that they use to propel themselves backwards across the water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

While others skate across the surface of the water as if on ice-skates.  They're very tiny, and very fast, but great fun to watch.  How many can you find?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, last but not least, I'm going to leave you with little Ava Rose Buck.  She's eight months old now and is just one great big ray of sunshine, always smiling and, now, showing off her brand new baby-teeth.  By summer, she's going to be all over that meadow!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Teri I. Lenfest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is that stuff in the water?

I took a walk through the park today with City of Federal Way NPDES Coordinator and Water Quality Specialist Hollie Shilley.  My primary concern was identifying what it was that I was looking at in Marlake.  Namely....

 

 

 

this......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hollie referred me to an article published by the Department of Environmental Protection for the State of Maine and the University of Maine called "A Field Guide to Aquatic Phenomena" or "What's that floating on the water surface?"  That article prompted me to do more research on the internet.  Most of what I found was way over my head.  Then I found a wonderful article written by Linda Grashoff, who obtained her information from talks she had with Dr. Eleanora Robbins (biogeologist) and Dr. David Benzing (biologist).

It appears that what we have growing in Marlake is a really fascinating bacterium called lepthothrix discophora.  Which is a real fancy way of saying iron breathing, manganese producing bacteria.  Iron and manganese are essential nutrient metals without which life would not be able to live on this planet.  These bacterium existed long before man, or even dinosaurs.  They're old.  I mean, really old.  Old as in primordial-soup old.

Lepthothrix discophora live all over the world.  Wherever you find slow moving or still water, warm air and water, and water that contains little dissolved oxygen, all you have to do is add a lack of recent raiinfall to the mix and you're liable to find lepthothrix discophora.  It's not harmful to humans and not likely to cause a problem unless it runs rampant and, unless you're looking at a wastewater treatment facility or a run-amok coal mine, it's not likely to run rampant.

Lepthothrix discophora creates it's own iridescent film that can look just like an oil slick.  That's actually what I feared we might have had in Marlake.  So, how do you tell the difference?  It's easy!  Hollie says that all you have to do is poke a stick in it.  If the film flows right back together again, you're looking at oil.  If it breaks apart, you're looking at lepthothrix.  I immediately poked my pointing stick into the nearest iridescent film and discovered that I was looking at a really cool bacterium.  It creates this iridescent effect through a process called thin film interference.  You know that white light actually contains every color in the world.  Each color has a different wavelength.  What happens is that the light reflects off of the top and bottom of the film at the same time, which causes the wavelengths to hit your eye at slightly different times.  This interference, or disruption, enhances some wavelengths and retards others, creating all of the beautiful blues, greens, pinks, and yellows you see in the film.  Pretty cool, huh?  When the film gets old, it dries out and starts to pucker, causing even more inteference.  Rising oxygen bubbles can actually burst holes in the film.  If the film were oil, these holes would immediately fill in again, but the holes popped in the bacterial film will remain.  This iridescent film may be found floating on top of a thick, pudding-like, orange-colored slime.  That's another bacterium called lepthothrix ochracea.  I've seen that in the water.  Have you?

So, is this stuff important?  You bet your sweet bippy it is!  Life on this planet couldn't survive without it.  Lepthothrix discophora releases iron and manganese into the water, plants absorb it, animals eat the plants, eventually animals die, bacteria and fungi eat the animals, this releases the iron and manganese back into the water, and the whole kit-n-kaboodle starts all over again.  It's another example of the great circle of life.  Remember what I've said in other blogs - everything in the wetland eats everything else in the wetland.  The components that make any given thing just keep going around and around and around.  As far as lepthothrix goes, some people have expressed the opinion that, if we do actually find life on some distant planet, it may very well be something like this curious bacterium that lives in our very own Marlake.  Now, that's worth a trip to the park to see!

 

 Teri I. Lenfest

Wildlife Walk

L - R:  Margery Godfrey (Friends of the Hylebos), Dylan Mendenhall (EarthCorps), Lina Rose (Earthcorps), and Hollie Shilley (City of Federal Way Public Works Department) went on a wildlife walk in the park today.  They got a first hand look at the variety of amphibian eggs that are in the park right now, while they scoped out good spots to release salmon fry later in the year.

 It sure was a beautiful day to take a walk!  It was only 51 degrees F., but it felt much warmer than that.  There was plenty of filtered sunshine available to help lift our spirits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lina was lucky enough to spot the very first red-legged frog of the season.  It was a tiny little thing that was sitting at the Deep Sinks.  Yay!  I've been eagerly awaiting their return!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For those of you who are interested, this is the list of volunteer events that EarthCorps has scheduled in the Federal Way area this Spring and Summer.  It's hard work, but we have a lot of fun doing it.  These events are excellent volunteer activities for scouts and church groups to take part in.  Pack a lunch and bring it with you so that you can have a picnic after you've finished working.  I'm looking forward to meeting you and working side-by-side with you helping to restore wildlife habitat.

 

 

 

Teri I. Lenfest

Amphibian Eggs in Marlake

What a strange day!  When I woke up this morning it was 36 degrees F. outside with a light dusting of snow on the ground.  By 11:30 a.m., the temperature had gone up to 41 degrees and I could see sunshine breaking through the cloud cover, so I decided that things looked like they were getting better.  I decided to take a chance and make a trip to the park.

 

 

 

 

 

When I looked west from the bus stop I saw this.  To me, it looked like a white fluffy puppy dog with long floppy gray ears blowing in the wind.  That didn't look too bad at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I looked east I saw dark, cloudy, overcast sky that looked rather threatening.  Darn, as luck would have it, I was heading east.  And, so it goes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Someone had scratched this sentiment into the paint on the bus shelter.  I love the rain, too, but sometimes you just have to have a few minutes of blue sky and sunshine in order to stay healthy. I am so ready to take my medicine!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pigeons are still hanging out in the park.  You can usually find them sitting on top of that tall green tower just west of the park entrance.  They moved into the park last year.  I don't know why they decided to leave the city and move all of the way down here, but here they are, and it looks like they plan to stay.  As tempting as the urge to feed them is, we're trying to discourage it.  If people feed them, they'll stay, and they don't belong here.  We'd like it very much if they'd move along, perhaps to Tacoma.

 

 

 

I ran into two groups of people in the park today, one group on the long side of the loop trail and the other on the short.  I ran into both groups just as they'd walked past spots that I knew contained amphibian eggs without ever seeing them.  I stopped both groups and asked them if they'd seen the eggs.  When they replied that they had not, I took them back and showed them what they'd missed.  They were delighted and so was I.  Doing that really makes my socks go up and down.  I know that once I've shown them what they missed, they're going to walk a lot slower and look a lot closer after that.  They said that they were looking for life in the park and yet had walked right past life without having seen it.  Most people are looking for frogs and not finding them.  I'm not finding them either.  It's still too cold for them to sit around exposed to the air.  There's actually a frog in this photo.  He's somewhere right in the very center.  You can't see him, but you can hear him.  He's croaking his little heart out, but has enough sense to stay buried under all of that brush where he can keep warm...er, warmer.

By the time I got to Marlake the sky looked like this.  Blue sky and sunshine made it easy to pick out all of the different kinds of amphibian eggs that are incubating in Marlake right now.

 

The temperature got all of the way up to a whopping 42!

 

 

 

 

 

These are down at the south end of the lake.  This is where I found all of the tiny red-legged frogs last year.  I didn't find very many of these egg-masses down there, but the ones I found were directly in front of the wooden bench.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember that I told you last time that red-legged frogs, pacific tree frogs, striped chorus frogs, and bullfrogs all lay eggs in Marlake?  Each kind of frog lays a different arrangement of eggs.  You can see two different kinds in this photo.  The eggs at the top are laid in large sheets at the very surface of the water.  The tops of some of the eggs may even break the surface of the water.  Just below the center of the photo is another kind of egg.  These eggs are laid in a cluster, instead of a sheet, and are much deeper in the water.  When I look at them, they remind me of a brain.  Then, of course, I think of Voltaire's song "Brains", which causes me to burst into a resounding chorus of "BRAINS, BRAINS, I won't lie, I'll eat their brains 'til they're zombified.  Sure they might think it's deranged, but they won't give it a thought after I've eaten their brain.  BRAINS, BRAINS, it's okay.  It's not a matter if it isn't gray.  And, if at first they think it's strange, they won't think twice if they don't have a brain!"  Meatloaf would be so proud!

 

Then there are these little beauties.  You can clearly see that they're different from any of the other three kinds of eggs.  These were shining like they had little light bulbs tucked inside! These are clusters, not mats, but they're very loosely formed, unlike the brains.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a close up of one of the eggs in the floating mats.  You can clearly see the little tadpole inside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the contaminated egg-mass that I photographed the last time that I was in the park.  You can clearly see how round and formed the eggs were a couple of days ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was the same mass of eggs today.  Even though you can clearly see the little tadpoles inside, the eggs have pretty much disintegrated.  Instead of well-formed eggs, albeit colorful iridescent eggs, the mass appears to be almost soupy in appearance.  The little tadpoles inside are only about the size of this "i" without the dot on top.

 

 

 

 

 

Back on the boardwalk, a spotted towhee was sitting on the railing and making quite a racket.  I don't know if you've ever heard a towhee before.  They have the strangest song.  It doesn't sound anything like what you'd expect to come out of a beautiful bird like this.  Once you've heard it and figured out what it is, you'll never mistake it for anything else.  It's almost a scraping screech.

 

 

 

 

 

The red alder is in bloom.  A lot of people are allergic to alder pollen, so be warned....it's doing it's thing.  it's awfully pretty though, even if the pollen does make you sneeze.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at how beautiful this robin is!  I say.... all dressed up like a proper English gentleman, 'wot?

Most of the mallards and other ducks have moved down to Brooklake now.  The fish were literally jumping out of Brooklake today.  Fish were jumping everywhere!  There's only one pair of mallards and a pair of Canada geese left on Marlake.  I wonder where the heron are?  I haven't seen a heron in a very long time.

 

 

 

 

Teri I. Lenfest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disturbing Discovery

Today was supposed to be a lone sunny day sandwiched in between periods of rain.  We were promised warmth, blue sky, and sunshine.  The temperature did manage to climb up to 53 degrees F., but Federal Way remained socked under a marine layer all day, so never saw the sun, or the sky for that matter.  You can't have everything, I guess.  I'll settle for warmer temperatures even if I can't see the sky.  I am ready for Spring!

 

 

 

 

After this winter's destructive ice storm, I noticed an iridescent sheen forming on Marlake, especially near the log boom on the north end of the lake and bench on the south end of the lake.  I was worried that the sheen could be fuel or oil washed into the lake during the storm and it's aftermath.  Amphibian egg season was fast approaching and I was concerned about what this would do to the eggs and the frogs who swam into the lake to lay them.  I reported my concerns to the City of Federal Way Parks Department.  On February 8th, they replied to my email, advising me that they'd passed my concerns over to the Water Quality Coordinator for the City.  They did not give me the contact information for this person, but did say that this person had checked out the lakes on a previous occasion when I'd reported something growing on the surface of the lakes and had determined that what I was looking at was a natural, harmless growth.  I told them that I'll like to know what the coordinator had found in the lakes so that I could look it up and learn more about it.  They didn't reply to my email request and the coordinator never sent any kind of a reply to me.  Several weeks later, I sent them another email asking them if they could tell me what the coordinator had found in the lake, but never received a reply from them.

The iridescent sheen I'd seen forming on the surface of Marlake gradually dissipated and, for the most part, became nearly invisible to the naked eye.  What I found at Marlake today, though, has me very concerned.  The lake is filled with large floating masses of amphibian eggs, as it usually is at this time of the year.  In the area of the egg-masses, I found a dead bullfrog floating close to the edge of the lake.  I don't know what killed this frog, but can tell you that a bullfrog is many times larger than any of our native frogs.  If there's something in the lake powerful enough to kill a bullfrog, what is it going to do to all of the smaller frogs and their eggs?

 

 

Then I found this egg-mass.  It's located in the area of the log boom at the north end of Marlake, in between the edge of the lake and the butt of one of the logs.  The eggs have clearly been impacted by the iridescent material in the lake.  The surface of the eggs is liberally coated with it.  This makes me want to cry.  Only time will tell how this substance effects the delicate life growing within these tiny orbs.  Marlake is where red-legged frogs, pacific tree frogs, and bullfrogs lay their eggs.  It's the primary nursery for the park's amphibians.

 

 

 

 

On a cheerier note, here's a picture of some of the eggs I found in the tree-well near the owl bench.  There must be a hundred eggs in that tiny tree-well!  Fortunately, the iridescent material is confined to the lake and has not gotten into the tree-wells.

 

 

 

 

 

 

While I was standing there looking for amphibian eggs in the tree-well, I noticed quite a bit of movement deep within the water.  It was being made by these tiny blue creatures.  This is the very best photograph I could get of them.  I have no idea what they are.  They're about the size of tadpoles, maybe smaller, but they aren't shaped like tadpoles at all and certainly don't behave like tadpoles.  I don't have a clue.  Anybody out there have any ideas?  If so, please drop me a comment!

 

 

 

 

These eggs are beneath the bridge where all of the pacific water-parsley grows.  They aren't in the main portion of the creek, because the current there is too strong, but in a tree-well just to the side of the creek.  They're readily visible from the bridge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a matter of fact, there are two globs of them. Compare these eggs to the ones in the tree-well near the owl bench.  Can you see how different they are?  The ones near the owl bench look like individual eggs laid in a cluster around a stem.  You can clearly see each individual egg.  The eggs on the left have been encased in an outer packaging, forming all of the individual eggs into a single unit.  The eggs are still laid around a stem, but you can no longer make out the individual eggs.

 

 

The trees were full of singing birds, such as this dark-eyed junco.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The trees and bushes on both sides of the gray gravel path from the old cabins to the meadow were popping with tiny greenish-yellow ruby-crowned kinglets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although most of the salmonberry bushes are still in the process of producing leaves, I did find a half a dozen blossoms that were either open or in the process of opening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pacific trailing-blackberry leaves and false lily-of-the-valley berries create beautiful still lifes among the dead leaves on the wetland floor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was firmly glued to the top of a handrailing on the bridge over the creek where all of the pacific water-parsley grows.  This master is implying that he, or she, has the ability to teach, yet look at how this master has chosen to manifest his, or her, ability - by defacing park property and turning beauty into ugliness.  I don't think that anyone who behaves like this is ready to be a master yet, do you?  Seems to me they have a lot left to learn before they can declare themselves master of anything.  Pay attention - Grasshopper!

 

 

While I walked the boardwalk today, I also picked up trash.  This is what I found on my short walk:  a bottle, a can, an empty baby food jar, a sippy cup, a peanut, a pencil, a cigarette butt, and a variety of kleenex, napkins, and candy wrappers.  Those were only the things that I could reach and remove.  Some cans and bottles had been lobbed far into the wetland, in places where it would be very hazardous to try to remove them.

 

 

 

 

 

You would almost think that we didn't have any of these in the park.  If you pack it in - please pack it out, or deposit it in one of the containers provided for that purpose.  Everyone who uses the park will thank you for it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Teri I. Lenfest