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. Rain, sun, wind...insects, birds, flowers...meteorites, rocks...seasonal changes...all are worthy additions to the bucket. Please let us know what is going on around you in a comment. Include, as close as is comfortable for you, where you are located. Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the patterns that are quietly unwinding around us.
September 2014
Salish Sea, Pacific Northwest
The view of the headland looks much the same as it has for months.
But a closer look shows signs in the plants and animals that summer is winding down and fall has begun, regardless what the calendar says!
Madronas are the flowering broadleaf evergreen trees with rusty red peeling bark (some dead twisty branches persist for decades, weathering smooth and gray). Bunches of Madrona berries are ripening to red, or have already been picked off by foraging birds. Robins, Varied Thrushes and Cedar Waxwings are especially fond of them.
more signs...
(All photos by me. In Lightbox...click to enlarge)
Stonecrop's flower stalks are spent and dry. The short succulent leaves will soon shut down until next spring. Tarweed's even taller stalks are all that's left of that annual, growing embedded this year in the perennial Sedum clump.
Autumn is migration time for many birds. Around here, big flocks of Mew gulls have settled in for the winter, down from Alaska and Canada. Their petite beak and mewing cry are appealingly distinctive.
Small groups of California gulls are passing through on their way to the open ocean from their summer grounds inland. We only see them here in spring and fall.
On the shady north side of the headland the Licorice ferns are a cascade of fresh bright green fronds...their autumn burst of growth. A Snowberry bush nearby on this rock face is dropping leaves, taking on its winter character: white berries decorating bare branches.
Oceanspray's fall color is usually shades of dull yellow, but the bushes here on this vertical rock above the water are turning pink! I never noticed that before.
One of my greatest delights of the winter season is the return of the ducks. Most of ours depart in spring to breed north and inland, leaving the bay quiet and empty. I miss the lively mix of diving ducks, mergansers, grebes and loons. This week marks the beginning of duck season: I saw two Red Breasted Mergansers a few days ago, and yesterday there were these four.
What signs of fall are you seeing in your natural neighborhood? Any unusual observations?
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