Observation 7

Mixed Zone
5/24/08
1:29-2:13pm
51-48 °F
Weather: wet raining, to downpour
Wind: none to slight breeze from the west.
Soil: wet, muddy

Notes: There are some bird calls but not many. I am walking in a lull in the storm. The holly grape is flowering yellow. Everything grew noticeably and I mean everything. The snails are out again but not so many this time. They probably got drowned out. The grass has grown at least four inches. Arrow leaf balsam root is growing up in the sage brush and it is blooming on the hillside above me. A yellow johnny jump up is blooming and it is 2 inches tall. It has another name but I cannot remember it. A reddish flower is growing that I remember seeing last year. Last year it took me and mom half the summer before we found its name. The bulb like plant is now one foot tall and still shows no sign of blooming. I have decided the grass like plant really is a grass. A little fresh scat is under the tree cover but not much will be moving in this weather. The rain has really started to come down but it is drier under the trees. The unknown white flower has bloomed or started to bloom. Each flower is only a millimeter wide, it has 5 petals, and it has at least 20 flowers per head. An old piece of an egg shell sits at the bottom of the tree I am taking refuge under. The shell may be from this year but it looks older than that. An odd ivy like plant is growing under the trees. Not a single bird calls now and the rain has become a wall of water. On the ground is a little dead bird. It is a female purple finch and there is no blood or other sign of injury. She could have died of cold, starvation, sickness, or any of a number of things. She died recently because I can still mover her a little but not much and since she is at the bottom of a tree she was probably perched when she died. Looking at the feathers she is not a yearling but is older than that. A bird eaten apple is on the trail near the bird. Could that have caused her death? All reasons for its death are in its food chain. Through what is eats or what eats it like hawks. Under the larger trees there is no plant life because the lack of sun and rain kills it all. In the sage brush is a plant that is baffling me. Its leaves look like a daisy but I know they are not and recently I saw a plant that matches this one but I cannot recall its name. The unknown brown-green plant bloomed! I thought it was going to be forever but I finally found one that bloomed. The flower has 6 petals and the petals are green with veins of brown. It is the flower that stumped us from last summer.

Questions: What is the other name for the johnny jump up? What is the name of the green-brown flower?