Week 6, May 13

Ravenna Park Observation
Wednesday, May 13
Cloudy 55 degrees

I went to site my this morning to see any changes. After a rainy day yesterday, the sky is still grey today but I felt the fresh breeze in the park, and I can see that Ravenna Park becomes so muddy on the ground. I was surprised everything is growing so fast in two weeks. Many wild flowers are blooming now as well. The most obvious changes are grass and horsetail. I can still remember when I first visited the site all those horsetails are about 5 inches, but now they have grown to 40 inches tall. The false lily of the valley has also grown bigger and taller. The skunk cabbage along the stream has grown crazy since I first spotted it. The yellow flower has gone, only remains the giant green leaves. After a few weeks studying on plants ID, I identified red osier dogwood with dense white flowers at my site within 5 square meters. Opposite, elliptical leaves with subtle curved veins, small white 4- petaled flowers. The picture is shown below:

I compared the photo I took in first week with the one I took today at approximately the same spot. It is amazing to see these changes.

The wild flower I saw was a western buttercup. It has 5 yellow petals, and 3-lobed leaves. 

Unfortunately, I only say two kinds of birds at Ravenna Park, but I definitely heard many birds were singing and chirping on the trees. I think Ravenna Park has relatively taller trees and narrower space than the Union Bay Nature Area, so it was hard to follow and observe birds. I saw two song sparrows and many American crows, which are all common species in the North America. A song sparrow was perched right in front me on a branch. It was singing loudly and soon I heard another song sparrow answered its territory call. The song sparrow perched and sang on the branch for 5 minutes and then flew down to the ground along the streamside. 

4 gesture sketches of song sparrow: