The Daily Bucket is a place where we can post and exchange our observations about the natural happenings in our neighborhoods. Birds, bugs, blossoms and more - each notation is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the natural patterns that are unwinding around us.
Seattle. January 11, 2013.
Cold here again, 24 on the back deck this AM and icy roads on the way to work. I took the long way more than once, knowing of the springs that seep out and freeze on steep curved hills along my route.
Two Bald Eagles were in their usual morning perch in the cottonwoods where the lakeshore road rises up into the neighborhoods. One or both of them are there most mornings now, perched above a place on the eastern edge of this city where the bus drivers stop for a break, as if they, too, have a morning schedule that brings them to this place at this time every morning to hunt or just watch as the human commuters go about their business.
I watched the first pair of resident Seattle Bald Eagles build their nest some 30 years ago on the Forest peninsula. Another pair set up housekeeping on the peninsula a decade later. When I first saw these two I wondered if they might from the Forest, but this place is about five miles from there and eagles generally defend a territory only a mile or so around their nest site. These two have only been a part of my morning commute for the last year or so. It's more likely they are new pair, with a new territory and perhaps a new nest nearby.
Tonight it is cold again. Already there is ice in the odd containers that catch rainwater on the back deck. The forest Eagles were active today, singing their love songs as I walked below them. I wish them well as the ice draws down, and also hope that the new pair of Eagles five miles to the north sleeps well tonight and finds good hunting in the morning. Perhaps the driver of the bus that stops under their perch will catch sight of them.
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Your turn. What's been going on in your natural neighborhood the past couple of days? Everyone is welcome to add their observations to the Bucket.
I'll be in and out all day.