King Conservation District Native Bareroot Plant Sale

Western Hazelnut catkins next to Little Swamp Creek

This unusually dry winter has meant that instead of sitting in front of the computer blogging about Little Swamp Creek I've been happily spending that time outside getting rid of blackberry bushes that have been burying some of the plants in the restoration project our neighbor's yard.  More about that project another day.

If you are interested in purchasing native plants for a very good price, you have until February 9th to pre-order plants from the King Conservation District Native Bareroot Plant Sale.  You can purchase everything from Western Red Cedars to coastal strawberries.  You can't purchase just one plant, you have to purchase the bareroot plants or plugs in bundles of 10, and you have to be able to pick up your order at their location in Renton on March 1st.    I am excited to add some native ground covers like the coastal strawberries and low Oregon grape to the edges of the replanted native areas along Little Swamp Creek in our yard.  And in the project behind our fence we will replace shore pines that were smothered by blackberry canes and cedars that were eaten by deer.

I'm hoping that I am successfully embedding below a .pdf file with all of the sale information and the list of available plants presented in a very helpful chart.  If you click on the arrow at the top left corner of the image it will get rid of the small preview views on the left side.

Hello Spring 2013

Indian Plum (Oemleria cerasiformis)

Has it really been almost a year since posting on here?  Time to get back in the groove.  Suddenly watching the flora and fauna come alive around here has inspired me to get my blogging act together.



Just as a brief reminder - I started this blog in April of 2009 when Adopt A Stream lead a project to restore a native growth buffer along the banks of Little Swamp Creek where it travels through our yard.  Students from the Leaf School at Edmonds Community College helped plant and mulch the buffer here in two phases and helped install large woody debris in a couple places along the stream bank.  This work took place between April 2009 and April 2010. Adopt A Stream and The Leaf School also completed an additional restoration project in our neighbor's yard where the stream continues behind our property.  The plants in our yard are doing fabulously, with only a few becoming victims to varying degrees of deer and beaver.



Back to what is happening now.  Indian plum is one of the first native plants that we see blooming along Little Swamp Creek, but it's not the only native plant currently blooming here.  Skunk Cabbage is also popping up like mad.  I hadn't smelled it yet, but I sure saw a lot of blossoms in the wetland behind our fence.

Skunk Cabbage (Lysichiton americanus)

Little Swamp Creek in Swamp Creek Wetland #3

Another view of Little Swamp Creek in Wetland #3

A few spots of bright pink Salmonberry blossoms suddenly appeared along the stream,

which prompted me to share the signs of spring showing up in the native plantings along our little stretch of Little Swamp Creek.

Wild rose (maybe Nootka but not sure)

Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis)

Twinberry (Lonicera involucrata)

This chokeberry is one of the first plants that we planted next to the stream. That was back in 2000.  It is now sporting a beautiful collection of lichens. 

This little nettle start and mushroom were part of the plant community on and around a huge, old tree stump that was left behind after this area was logged years and years ago.  There are several old stumps like this in the woods around us.

Red-flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum)

I didn't realize how readily the Red-flowering Currants will multiply by establishing a new plant with root growth off of a branch that remains in contact with the ground.  Here's an example in our yard -

I took a picture of this willow next to the stream on one day, and the next day it was chopped down by a beaver.  More on the beaver issue in a future blog post...

Little Swamp Creek in April

Salmonberry blossom

Give us some warm, sunny, spring days, and suddenly everything along the stream comes alive!  And I breathe a sigh of relief each spring when I see life returning IN Little Swamp Creek itself, too.  

 Here are a couple of little 1.5-2"-long fish that were hanging out at different spots in the stream - 

I've seem some larger fish (maybe 4" long) zipping by, but they are too quick for me to identify.


We are starting to see the trails of caddisfly larvae along the bottom of the stream.  Here's a caddisfly larva conveniently perched for a photo (though it's hard to get a clear photo through rippling water...) -

I recently recalled that 10 years ago we used to see small groups of river eels hanging out in dips in the stream bed, but we haven't seen any recently.  Ha!  On the day I was taking update photos I happened to spot two eels swimming upstream.  Unfortunately all of my photos of those quick critters ended up being blurry, but you get the idea -

And suddenly our native plants are leafing out like crazy --

Red Currant

Nootka Rose

Twinberry

Indian Plum seedling  (love it when good seedlings show up instead of just weeds)

Red Osier Dogwood

Big Leaf Maple

  

All of the plants haven't leafed out yet, but already you can see what a thick, shady riparian zone we now have along the stream where there used to be some trees and mostly lawn.  This side is going into the fourth year since planting in spring of 2009 -

This shot is looking south into the yard.  This area was planted a year later than the other side, so it's beginning its third year.  I'll post another shot after the plants have all of their foliage -

I've been noticing heron in the planted area behind the fence -

I'll post photos of how the plants are doing in that area soon. 

A variety of trash shows up in the stream, the best being parts of old glass bottles.  While I was taking pictures of the caddisfly larva I looked over to see the sun shining on this chunk of green glass in the stream. Nice to see beauty in litter.

Foam keeps collecting on the upstream side of this large woody debris installed in the stream bank.   I've read that one cause of foam can be faulty septic systems upstream.  Or soap.  Since the presence of the foam is pretty constant, I'm thinking it's septic.  Yuck.

And this photo....

....is a teaser for a post to come.

Looking For Spring

Indian Plum

Indian Plum is the first deciduous shrub to show signs of life in our yard after winter, and here is one that is getting close to blooming already.  This is one of the things that I anxiously look for in February as a sign that spring WILL be coming.  

Heron rookery at the Kenmore Park and Ride, 2/17/2012

The heron return to the rookery in Kenmore every year around the first week of February.  The rookery was definitely FULL Friday morning.  In the near future I'll post more pictures from my trip there.

Red-tailed hawk returns to nest in Kenmore's Wetland #3

A red-tailed hawk returns to the same nest in the cottonwood tree behind our fence every February.  There it was peaking out of the nest Friday afternoon.

So I have now seen all of the early signs of spring that I watch for along Little Swamp Creek.  Here are some other things we've seen along the stream in the last month or so -

Varied Thrush

Varied Thrush pair in a locust tree

Varied Thrushes were here in January but I haven't heard them lately.

Chickadees, of course

Flocks of (maybe?) Pine Siskins passed through and seemed to be pecking at alder cones

Towhee giving me the stink-eye because the bird feeder was empty

Stellar's Jay also pointing out that empty feeder

Flicker

Flicker looking guilty after hammering on our stove pipe

Bees were going crazy on a hellebore one unseasonably warm afternoon

Some of my first photos of the year of the red-tailed hawk in the tree across the field from us -

I could tell that the hawk had returned because of the fussing of crows.  Speaking of crows, I have noticed that the huge flocks of crows that would stop for a while in our neighborhood as they pass through at dusk all winter long are no longer showing up.  That also seems to happen every February.

I haven't seen the Kenmore deer herd for quite some time.

Streamside Planting Update

Here is a loooong overdue update of how the planting in the stream buffer behind our fence is doing.  Our friends at Adopt-A-Stream gave us some biodegradable surveying tape to mark the plants so they show up a little better in photos.  I marked everything I could find that is still alive, so here you go ---

Before - 11/2010

11/2011, a year after planting

These next three shots are basically a panorama, starting with looking south across the large area next to the stream and ending up looking west toward the stream, which you can't see, but it is on the other side of the group of trees in the middle of the third shot -

Here is a view of this same area but looking northeast, right after planting last year -

...and here it is now - 

The reed canary grass is obviously still here, and the plan for our neighbor to mow between the beds to keep it down didn't pan out, mostly because it is so sloppy wet in this area.  Eric went back there with a string trimmer periodically, and I pulled grass runners out of the beds this fall.

Here are shots of various planting beds.  Unfortunately the live stakes are loosing their leaves due to fall and a bunch of the willow leaves have been nibbled by deer, so it will be hard for you to tell how well they are doing.  Keep in mind that everything marked with orange tape is living - 

Here's an example of what these beds started out looking like a year ago -

Here are some of the live stakes that were poked in along the stream bank.  And a peak-a-boo shot of the stream -

This is looking toward the southern boundary of the planted area.  There are a lot of surviving live stakes here -

 Here is the view standing uphill and looking west.  I'm concerned about the blackberry vines from the neighboring property overwhelming this area -

Same area right after planting

Poor little Douglas Fir being surrounded by blackberries

These next three shots are of the part of the project that is the furthest away from the stream - 

Right after planting

The blackberries are definitely returning to this area, too, which is the only bummer I see back there behind the fence.  I know from the way the new plants have grown along the stream in our yard that this project is going to look incredible in another year or two.

And speaking of which, I have a bunch of pictures to share of how amazing the stream-side restoration in our yard looks now.  I will share those in a separate post.  Soon!