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.
Yesterday, Sunday, July 11, we ran up to Lake Chabot on the border between San Leandro and Oakland, CA to verify that there were no active Great Blue Heron Nests and that all the young had indeed fledged. Yep, it was all true.
On the way we noticed virtual walls of blooming monkey flowers, a degree and extent of bloom that neither I nor my companions had never noticed before. Presumably this is due to the overly long rainy season and the overly heavy rains therein followed by a sudden intense burst of heat.
While admiring these guys, we also noticed wild native Morning Glories, popping up all over almost as if they were on some sort of non-orthogonal grid. Every one to three feet or so, in any direction from a morning glory there was another one, at least in the open areas.
This reminded me that in the prior week, when I had no internet access, the Native Wild Irises were abloom everywhere one wandered up in the more northerly coastal CA area just north of Fort Bragg, CA. These are the Douglas Iris, or Iris douglasiana.
OK, so I've got to run some errands, and will but this on auto-publish, but I will be back and will be inside tending this off and on all day, so let's hear from you. What is nature up to in your neck of the woods, and where is that?