January 15 - Hawks Prairie Settling Ponds

This afternoon, I drove out to the Hawks Prairie Settling Ponds.

Mount Rainier with its head in the clouds

At this 40 acre site, operated by the LOTT (Lacey-Olympia-Tumwater-Thurston County) Clean Water Alliance on Hogum Bay Road in Lacey, Class A Reclaimed Water circulates through a series of five constructed wetland ponds.

Gadwalls and a Ring-necked Duck

Water from the ponds then flows to rectangular groundwater recharge basins.  From there, the water infiltrates through the soils to replenish groundwater.  The site is open to the public and features walking trails, viewing benches, wildlife, native plantings, and kiosks with information about reclaimed water.

The north side of the site used to be an open field, with grasses and some Scotch Broom, and bordered by second-growth Douglas fir woods.  Then, a year ago, there began construction and development of the properties to the north of the LOTT facility.

Construction in January 2018

Now, the north ponds butt up against a road and stark walls of warehouses.

January 2019

The many acres of industrial buildings will likely provide an increased tax base for the City of Lacey, but is part of the on-going loss of open space and wildlife habitat in south Puget Sound.

These forty acres at the settling ponds are a bit louder now with the current construction, and increased semi-trailer traffic, but still provide an oasis for wildlife and the public.  Because the water comes into the facility with quite a bit of nutrient load, there is good growth of aquatic plants.  This time of year, the American Wigeon and Gadwalls feed extensively on the duckweed growing at the ponds’ surfaces.

It's called "Duckweed" for a reason . . . .

The LOTT folks have planted the site with “native plants”.  The original prairie soils at the site may not be the most appropriate for Sitka Spruce, which tend to thrive along the alluvial and wetland soils of riparian sites.

Sitka Spruce needles and cones

Growing on less than optimal sites result in the trees becoming stressed during the dry season and such.  And, the stressed trees are consequently more susceptible to being impacted by diseases and insects.

These are NOT cones . . .

These “cones” are actually the galls of the Cooley spruce gall adelgid, Adelges cooleyi.  These “woolly aphids” are a small family (Adelgidae) of true bugs (Hemiptera) closely related to the aphids. Overwintering females on spruce lay eggs near developing buds. Nymphs hatch as bud caps split. Nymphs feed at the base of developing buds in spring producing cone-like galls on the tips of blue spruce branches. Galls open in mid-summer. Emerging adelgids either continue to live on spruce or fly to Douglas-fir to lay eggs. On Douglas-fir they may continue to live or produce a generation that flies back to spruce to produce the gall-forming stage. On Douglas-fir, feeding on needles by nymphs produces yellow spots and curled needles but no galls.

The Douglas firs here provide perches for many birds, including Bald Eagles,

Adult Bald Eagle

who would enjoy lunching on waterfowl

Green-winged Teal drake

However, many of the firs around here have either died, or have dead tops, likely a result of the Laminated Root Rot caused by the fungal pathogen Phellinus weirii.  Laminated root rot is one of the most damaging root diseases amongst conifers in northwestern America.

Stress kills . . .

The conifers are not the only trees here impacted by bugs and disease.  The Pacific madrona is native along the coast from British Columbia to California.

Young madrona - the Canadians call them "Arbutus"

Many of the madronas here have a leaf blight, consisting of brown, desiccated leaves occurring mainly in the lower canopy.

Madrona Foliar Blight - the ugly brown spots

This foliar blight has been observed on Pacific Madrona throughout its range and generally occurs during periods of wet spring weather.  In May 2009 and 2011 severe outbreaks occurred in western Washington and Oregon.  A fungus was isolated from blighted foliage, leaf spots on emerging foliage, lesions on green shoots, and from the petiole and leaf blade of dead, attached leaves.  The fungus was identical to the type isolate of Phacidiopycnis washingtonensis, which has been reported to cause rots of stored apple and persimmon fruit and cankers and twig dieback of apple and crabapple trees, but had not been reported on other plant species.

Leaf miners write in their own language

The ‘ghost scrawl’ on some of these leaves is caused by the Serpentine madrona miner (Marmara arbutiella), which is a tiny species of moth.  Larvae of this leaf- and twig-mining moth blaze sinuous, serpentine mines across the surface of leaves. Although damage might be unsightly on individual leaves, they do not usually affect the long-term health of the tree. This moth affects madrona throughout its range.

But, all was not disease and infestation, and I enjoyed seeing the usual birds, including this Song Sparrow

Song Sparrow on Common Cattail head

and a flock of Bushtits

Female Bushtits have yellow eyes,

and the males have dark eyes

Hawks Prairie SP eBird Checklist is Here