Celebrate Spring Forest Hike at South Whidbey State Park

By Madrone Ruggiero

Two participants joined trip leader Madrone Ruggiero on a cloudy and damp walk through South Whidbey State Park on March 19. The whistle of a Varied Thrush heard from the parking lot started us off on a trend of heard, but not seen birds. After examining a couple common late winter moths including Cerastis enigmatica, whose larvae eat salmonberry bushes that are just beginning to break bud, we set off through the campground. Our first sighting of spring in the campground was a Bigleaf Maple tree with swollen flower buds just beginning to open, which got the group started on the topic of edible plants. While examining some possible Turkey Tail mushrooms near the old information booth, we heard a small winter mixed flock and paused hoping it would come to us. The flock mostly stayed in the mid-canopy and we only caught glimpses of Golden-crowned Kinglets flitting through the tree branches gleaning bugs.  Farther along in the campground we watched a Fox Sparrow foraging in the moss and debris on the edge of the road. 

Just before crossing the road we stopped to admire the large moss covered Bigleaf Maple along the side of the trail and spotted our first gastropod of the walk, a non-native Leopard Slug. Heading up Fern Gully trail, Pacific Wrens both scolded us for walking past through their Western Sword Fern-filled home and then sang to welcome spring. As is often the case on cloudy damp days, they chose only to let us hear them and stayed hidden among the sword ferns. As we got to the edge of the forested wetland we found our first native Pacific Banana Slug along the edge of the trail. With the recent rain the forested wetland was verdant with many species of plants beginning to leaf out. On the edge of the big opening of blow downs we spotted first two and then three Red-breasted Sapsuckers noisily chattering while alternately foraging and hopping around the tree trunk. We were buzzed by a large queen Bombus sp. that was quickly flying around as it visited the blooming Salmonberry. A bit farther up the trail we heard a Northern Flicker calling. The wetland amongst the big Spruce trees was dotted with Skunk Cabbage in peak bloom and with the balmy temperature could be smelled from the trail! As we hiked the trail we looked at and learned about the mosses and plants that surrounded the trail. Our fieldtrip leader learned that Twinflower is fragrant! Fresh rectangular shaped feeding galleries of Pileated Woodpeckers adorned some of the snags along the trail and a Hutton’s Vireo was heard singing its single note song from up in the forest canopy. 

The path back down the hill along the Ridge and Wilbert trails led us through patches of old growth Douglas Fir trees with huge platform limbs interspersed with openings containing young Grand Fir trees beginning to get their fresh set of needles. We didn’t manage to find a mature Grant Fir to answer our question of where the seed for the saplings came from, but while we were looking, we heard another mixed flock tease us with their high-pitched calls from the forest canopy as we looked up into raindrops. Heard calling was the tin horn of a Red-breasted Nuthatch among the calls of the kinglets, Chestnut-backed Chickadees and ever elusive Brown Creeper. At the end of our walk a Song Sparrow sang from the base of a Salmonberry bush.