Islands are so cool!

A raven skull

We had class with Gene this week. We learned about island biogeography, which is fascinating and so relevant in our time, as well as biodiversity. To bring it all home and relate it back to the learning center we headed out to the islands to "discover" which species were out there and "count" them. There was no exact science behind any of it but it was so fun!
Aneka and I made up the "animal sign" team. We found a raven skull (above); a small bird skull and some bones; three geese nests with down, egg shells and goose poop; a full set of wings, which were still connected, that we thought were from a gull and a live alligator lizard!

This nest had the most feathers, although it was the smallest, perhaps 2'x2'.

On the island we also saw these beautiful douglas fir cones. Neither Aneka or I had ever seen fir cones like this. Now we are on the look out for pink cones on campus! We also found the first tway blade, a small orchid, of the season.

The bears are coming out.......

...I saw my first black bear of the season this weekend. Just minutes from my back door. I was with a group of Earth Corp volunteers, a few of whom had never seen a bear in the wild before. It was pretty exciting and now we know that bears around campus are officially out of hibernation!

The difference one week can make

I leave for a week and everything changes! I guess that should be expected in April, but it was still startling to come back and see so much changed. The first thing I noticed as I drove up valley was the absence of snow. The learning center campus is nearly snow free! Small patches remain but piles of snow and patches of ice are now gone. The second thing I noticed was all of the shrubs that are leafing out. The red alder, red huckleberry, beaked hazelnut, and indian plum all have small leaves forcing their way out of too small buds. Soon, leaves and flowers will adorn all of the shrubs and trees on campus.

I also noticed the birds. I am not a birder, that is where I should begin. I know there are species I missed, or heard and could not identify, but I did see a northern flicker, a ruby crowned kinglet and I was told a loon was heard on the lake. Varied thrush, robins, and dark eyed juncos' have been around for awhile now; however seeing them in the trees and shrubs is still exciting after a long winter.

Lastly, on the Buster Brown road, I found young palmate coltsfoot pushing its way into the world. This was possibly the most exciting find of the day. It was as if this signified a shift. Suddenly new growth, coming from the once frozen ground, is pushing its way into the world.