The Daily Bucket is a place to catch your casual observations of the natural world and turn them into a valuable resource. Whether it's the first flowers of spring or that odd bug in your basement, don't be afraid to toss your thoughts into the bucket. Check here for a more complete description.
Seattle
Got home late Monday to two nature gossip messages on the home phone. One reporting a single barred owl kid in the forest. The other, a couple of days earlier, reporting that another barred owl kid was on the forest floor and trying unsuccessfully to climb back up the nest tree.
I've not been able to find out what happened to this young owl.
This stuff happens. I hate it. I want the new kids to survive, all of them. I hate it when the crows raid the local robins' nests, when the raccoons snag the nestling song sparrows, when the eagles take out every one of the year's great blue heron kids. I hate it when a fledgling bird falls before knowing how to fly.
But it happens every year and it happened every year before I got here and it will happen every year after I'm gone.
Barred Owl Kid, May 23, 2010
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What's happening in your part of the world?