Shaded ant hill found off the trail next to a bog. I'm not entirely sure what type of ants these are but there are certainly a lot of them.
I observed this caterpillar on the hand rail of the bridge that goes across Deception Pass. It was only a couple inches long, very hairy with the main body being black and the fuzzy clumps that come off of it start in a yellow area and extent out being an orange color.
Hypochaeris Radicata found by the street side on 11th Ave NE on my walk home after a day of class. Initially I immediately assumed that this was dandelion, but after some helpful comments and further inspection, I decided it was Hypochaeris, or commonly known as false dandelion or catsear. Some features that helped me decide that this was false dandelion has the fuzzy base leafs, and also the "non-waxy" stem.
For more on Pack Forest and context of walk, see daily account for 3/31. Many of these little sprouts lined the water-bogged mining road, but without flowers they were difficult to concretely identify. I was tipped off by the fuzzy stems, but didn't detect any unpleasant odor upon smelling the leaves. Herb Robert is also known as stinky Bob, for it's unappetizing smell, but these leaves smelled more like parsley! The stalks were about 5 inches tall, growing most thickly in the very wettest areas.
This old logging road in the valley was destroyed for hiking and straw was brought in to reduce erosion but it brought it lots of weeds too. I wish they would turn these old roads into trails instead of digging them up and making them difficult to hike.
It looks like it could produce berries.
After identifying these thick low growing leaves in Packwood and elsewhere, it was great to finally see one in bloom! There were a few tight patches of fringe cups with these tall flower stalks bordering the road down to the river. The stalks and leaves were very very fuzzy, perhaps to protect the plant from being eaten? Flowers are light pink cups- finally the name makes sense.