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“While you are standing here, look and listen for birds. You might hear a black-capped chickadee calling “Chic a dee dee dee.” These small, black-capped birds pick insects out of the trees. Song sparrows are also common. They are gray and brown and eat seeds, berries and insects. There are many variations of their song.

A northern flicker is a woodpecker that feeds on the ground. They eat ants, worms and sometimes berries. Flickers nest in tree cavities. American kestrels, red-tailed hawks and Cooper’s hawks can be seen perched in trees or circling their prey. Barn owls and great horned owls come out at night. They all eat small mammals. Listen for the kestrel’s “Klee, klee, klee” or the great horned owl’s deep night hooting.”

From Oak Island Nature Trail Guide: George Middle School and ODFW

” In this area there are many types of mammals. The mounds of dirt that you see are made from the huge front claws of the Townsend’s mole. As the moles make underground tunnels, they push the dirt to the surface. Moles eat worms and insects and store this food in their tunnels.

Look at the tall grass behind you. If you are quiet enough you might see black-tailed deer, which feed on the grass and small plants. When the deer lay down to sleep it flattens the grass.

Brush rabbits and raccoons live on Oak Island, too. Bats are night animals, coming out right before dark to feed on insects. From this point you might see river otters because they like areas around water.”

From Oak Island Nature Trail Guide: George Middle School and ODFW

“Sauvie Island has a long history of flooding. The island is surrounded by the Columbia River and the Multnomah Channel. In 1844, the floodwaters reached as high as 33 feet, putting all but the highest points of land under water.

About 60 years ago, levees were built to protect the island from the Columbia River’s flooding. The areas outside the levees flood annually. You are looking at Sturgeon Lake. Sturgeon used to live in this water before the island was diked in the 1940s. After that, the lake began to fill in with mud, making it difficult for sturgeon to survive. Today, the mud is up to five feet deep and the sturgeon are no longer here.

In the winter, the floodwater often comes up as far as this post. In the flood of 1996, the water was 20 feet above the bottom of this post!”

From Oak Island Nature Trail Guide: George Middle School and ODFW

“You are facing Sturgeon Lake. In the fall and spring, you can see flocks of Canada geese and sandhill cranes. They return from their northern nesting grounds in Alaska in early September. The cranes feed on waste grain from the recently harvested fields nearby and then fly to Sturgeon Lake each night to roost. As many as 3,500 sandhill cranes stop on Sauvie Island each fall and thousands of geese. You might also see large flocks of northern pintails and American widgeons on the lake in the fall, as well as tundra swans. When Lewis and Clark traveled through this area, they wrote that the noise from these numerous birds was “horid” and kept them awake all night. Throughout the year, great blue herons can be seen fishing on Sturgeon Lake. ”

From Oak Island Nature Trail Guide: George Middle School and ODFW

” The little round speckled balls that you see on the ground and on the oak leaves are called “oak galls.” Inside of the oak galls are insects called gall wasps. In the spring before the oak leaves are fully grown, a wasp will lay an egg on a leaf. The egg causes a chemical reaction that makes the tree grow a case around it. This case protects the egg and larvae from being eaten by birds. Then the larvae eat out the inside of the gall as they grow. If the oak galls have tiny holes in them, that means the wasps inside have already emerged.

Oak galls can sometimes grow to be the size of a ping pong ball but their average size is three to four centimeters in diameter. ”

From Oak Island Nature Trail Guide: George Middle School and ODFW

You are looking at Oregon white oak trees, Quercus garryana. These trees may live to be 200 to 500 years old if they get enough sunlight. Native Americans Tribal people from this area historically burned the area around oak trees to make it easier to hunt, but this also helped the oak grove by clearing out other trees and providing more sunlight. Look down and see if you can find acorns. Acorns are the seeds of oak trees and are eaten by squirrels, mice and black-tailed deer. Tribal people still grind acorns into meal as their ancestors have done for thousands of years.

Source:

1. Shawash Kakwe Presentation by David Harrelson, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Rhond
2. From Oak Island Nature Trail Guide: George Middle School and ODFW

Two hundred years ago, Native Americans walked on this very spot.  Each year, just before winter, tribes from the Columbia and Willamette rivers gathered on Oak Island for a trading fair which included dancing and festivities.  Lewis and Clark reported that when they passed Sauvie Island on November 5, 1805, all the natives that they saw had flattened heads, a custom among Chinookan speaking people of wealth and means.

Native Americans used deer parts to make weapons, tools, food and clothing.  They used tall grasses to make baskets for carrying trade goods.  Rose hips, the red berries that grow on wild roses, were a source of Vitamin C. The Himalayan Blackberries, an invasive species, were not brought here until the mid- 1800’s by the Hudson Bay Company.

At the time of the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1805, about 2,000 Native Americans lived on Sauvie Island.  By the 1850’s most had died from disease.  Treaties were signed in the 1850’s including the Willamette Valley Treaty of 1855. The remaining Chinookan speaking people from this area of the river confederated with other peoples and were removed to the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation, about 50 miles southwest at the base of the Coast Range.

Sources:

1.  Shawash Kakwe Presentation by David Harrelson, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Rhond
2. Oak Island Nature Trail Guide: George Middle School and ODFW

Problem:

Shoes that collect water from the morning dew because the water on the ground that you step on gets wasted.

Biomimicry Idea:

There is a spider web substance  on the bottom of the shoe that collects the water in the spare space in the shoe. When the water is collected  the water gets sterilized for drinking water. And in the back of the shoe there is a hose in the back  that sucks up the water and sterilizes it so you can drink.

How do Spiderwebs Collect water?

Spiders use this substance called spiral silk. it is very sticky and it catches insects, water and sometimes birds.