At this time of the year, one can hardly turn around without bumping into another "Best of 2013" list. So, in that spirit, here's my list of the most exciting discoveries and observations of nature that I was fortunate to experience this year. I'm looking forward to hearing about your highlights of the year too.
The Daily Bucket is a regular feature of the Backyard Science group. It is a place to note any observations you have made of the world around you. Snails, fish, insects, weather, meteorites, climate, birds and/or flowers. All are worthy additions to the bucket. Please let us know what is going on around you in a comment. Please remember to include, as close as is comfortable for you, where you are located. I know that many of the regular readers now know where each other live, but not everyone does and it is important information.
10) Chum salmon creek (October)
While on a geocaching trip to several state parks at the southern end of Hood Canal, we came across this stream in Belfair state park with Chum salmon returning to spawn. This isn't a great photo because it was almost dusk and my photography skills were not up to the challenge. However, we stood and watched, until the park closed, the behavior of the Chum salmon thrashing upstream through the shallows, with their backs above the surface of the water, and then resting in deeper pools for the next stretch. A nice memory even without a decent photo.
Chum salmon fighting their way upstream in shallow creek
9) Solving the mystery of the fringed mushroom (November)
I found this mushroom while roaming my fall woods. This mystery mushroom became a highlight for me because my son got very engaged in the effort to ID it which was fun and I love its name.
Questionable stropharia (Stropharia ambigua)
8) Gnome plant (June)
I found a nice cluster of tiny Gnome plants in Fort Townsend state park. This is a rare mycotrophic ("fungus feeding") plant which means that these plants obtain their nutrients by tapping into an intermediary mycorrhizal fungus attached to the roots of a host green plant. Gnome plants have waxy pink flowers and a fleshy berry as a fruit.
Gnome plant (Hemitomes congestum)
7) Harlequin duck (March)
I got my first sighting of a Harlequin duck from our beach. What a dramatic yardbird! You have to love its name Histrionicus histrionicus.
Harlequin duck (Histrionicus histrionicus)
6) Camas in Victoria BC (May)
As a resident of the Pacific Northwest, I certainly know about the historic significance of the Common camas (Camassia quamash) as a food source for the native tribes. Camas meadows were maintained by controlled burning. The bulbs were harvested after flowering. The plants were mentioned in the June 12, 1806 entry in Meriwether Lewis's journal. Yet, I'd never seen a blooming camas until our summer visit to the native plant garden outside the Royal BC Museum in Victoria. I was more excited about seeing this important native plant than all the fabulous flowers of Butchart Gardens.
Common Camas (Camassia quamash)
5) Rough-skinned newt (March)
This year, we discovered there is a dangerous critter lurking in our neck of the woods, a poisonous newt.
Rough-skinned newt (Taricha granulosa)
This Rough-skinned newt was crossing a popular horseriding/biking/dogwalking trail nearby. We learned that it contains tetrodotoxin - the same poison as the Blue-ringed octopus of Australia and the Pufferfish. One rough-skinned newt divided up and eaten can kill 17 people. It is important to wash hands if you touch one so you don't get the toxin into your mouth by accident and to keep inquisitive dogs away. Their range extends south to Santa Cruz, California and north to Alaska, primarily west of the Cascade mountains.
4) Horned lark (August)
Every summer, we go on an annual Hurricane Ridge wildflower walk in the Olympic National Park. July had been exceptionally dry and it seemed like very late summer. The flowers in the meadows were Harebells, Pearly everlasting, Yarrow, Western bistort, Fireweed, and Indian paintbrush. The wildflowers are always beautiful, but the highlight of this trip was my first confirmed sighting of a Horned lark. There were quite a few in the meadows near the top of the Hurricane Hill trail (around 5700 ft elevation).
Horned lark (Eremophila alpestris)
3) Sandhill cranes in Yellowstone (July)
In July, we went to Yellowstone and I identified another life bird, Sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis). Even though the Old Faithful area was my backyard for the 3 summers that I worked in the park during my college years, I don't recall ever seeing Sandhill cranes. And even though there are reports on eBird of cranes seen around here on the Olympic Peninsula, it wasn't until this summer's trip to Yellowstone that I'd seen them. Those of you who see them regularly still convey excitement when you write buckets about them, so you can imagine my excitement as a first timer.
Sandhill cranes in Yellowstone
2) Beachhopper (July)
In July, I had the pleasure of going on a beachwalk with bwren on North Beach, near Fort Worden State Park in my home town of Port Townsend, WA. There were many birds, but the highlight of the hike was this amazing creature in the sand. It is a beachhopper.
Megalorchestia Californiana
Bwren was able to pick it up and it stayed on her hand long enough for us to get a really good look. It was big (>2 cm) and had this distinctive pink color at the base of the long antennae. (This isn't my own photo since my camera went into a temporary failure mode.)
These amphipod crustaceans are sometimes called "sand fleas" but, of course, they aren't real fleas. They are scavengers of decaying seaweed and they live in burrows in the sand above the high tide line. They usually emerge after dark, so finding one during the day was unusual.
1) Snowy Owls (January)
Last winter, there was an irruption of Snowy owls (Bubo scandiacus) that brought them into western Washington. There had even been a couple of sightings in my town in December 2012. Seeing a Snowy became a quest. In January, we made a trip to a birding hotspot north of Seattle where eBird had been reporting regular sightings. We were successful in finding, not one, but 5 individuals. This, of course, was a life bird.
More photos can be found in
Snowy adventures.
I was delighted to learn in a recent Daily Bucket that their banding code is SNOW! I am thankful for all I learn here. It seems like this year other areas of the country will be having their own Snowy adventures, but, so far, not again here.
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Your turn! Think back over the year and tell us about your most exciting moments observing nature around you. Or just tell us what is going on "in the moment" in your backyard today.
I didn't even attempt to do a "Best Buckets of 2013" because there is just no way I can select only a few of the amazing things that I've learned from everyone else's buckets and bucket comments this year. Many of you have truly wonderful highlights from this year and I'm eager to be reminded of them.
I'll be responding to your comments as soon as morning properly arrives on the west coast.
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