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.
Fair warning, there are NO pictures of wildlife in this Bucket!
That said, I did discover some cool wildlife living and working - invisibly - in the lowlands of western Washington on a recent visit. Invisible at least to a human visitor tromping noisily through the wetland woods for a few minutes.
Or closeted inside a house during the night hours...I did hear a band of coyotes yipping down in the bottomland one night. That was worth being awake at 3 am (I don't sleep very well away from home). I've heard - and seen - coyotes in this forested creek bottom before. I grew up there, and return for visits. Half a century ago this part of Snohomish county was rural woods and farms; today the area has become a bedroom community for nearby cities. But because an ancient creek still wanders along this bottomland, its wetland corridor is an undeveloped refuge for wildlife.
Even with rubber boots I can only get so far into the wetland at this time of year, but I like to see what's happening where I can. I listen. The insects and frogs are silent but birds call - a Towhee, a Raven, a Golden Crowned sparrow. A squirrel chatters in a tree, invisible even though I look for movement in that direction.
The deciduous trees are bare now, making it a bit easier to see into the wetland. This alder has sapsucker tattoos of long standing, horizontal rows of holes drilled for sap and insects that are drawn to sap. I've never seen the bird but I know it is the Red-Breasted Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber), the only sapsucker in this area. Range maps are your friend in identification!
(All photos by me. In Lightbox...click to enlarge)
More signs of invisible animals who live in these woods beneath the orange scat....
I nearly step in a pile of fresh doodoo. My first thought is dog, but it has inclusions dog shit does not, and looking at it a bit closer I note it doesn't stink, even a foot or so away. Can't be dog. Coyote? but too big.
Reported this to the folks who live here and they said Bear scat! Black Bears are seen now and then in the neighborhood roaming from woods to woods, crossing fields and roads as they do. I was shown a photo of a bear ambling down a nearby driveway. I know the driveway, and can tell the bear is big. Black bears are fairly common in Washington, and while they live in the woods (and yes shit there) they only become troublesome when they get into unsecured food near houses. Bears are omnivores. In nature, they eat mostly plant material. Looking at photos of bear scat I discover its appearance varies radically depending on the food eaten. This one looks like apples or some other fruit.
There is an abandoned orchard near the scat although I saw no fruit there on this late November day. One poor cherry tree was savaged though, with sapsucker holes and possibly bear claw rips in the bark. Both old.
Other creatures make use of trees in these woods. Beavers live here. Lots of chewed and fallen willows and cottonwoods. They had been working on the cottonwood below for some time when I took this photo a few years ago. The half facing us has split away vertically and fallen into the pond beyond. A month later the rest of the tree had fallen. Today the stump is a mossy hillock.
Beavers have constructed dams at various places along the creek. I can find them by the sound of rushing falling water even when obscured by bushes. Ponds back up behind the dams, spreading widely, sometimes into people's yards. It's an ongoing issue for some homeowners but for wildlife it's a great advantage. For one thing, it keeps people out!
I have never seen a beaver here. They work invisibly, mostly at night I understand. More about beavers at this Dept. of Fish & Wildlife page.
I have seen Douglas squirrels who live in these woods, mostly high in the conifers (Tamiasciurus douglasii). There might be other species too (Washington squirrels.). Occasionally I'll see a pile of Douglas fir cone scales, as on this footbridge, where a squirrel has extracted seeds.
To actually see these animals I would have to spend a lot more time in these woods, especially in the crepuscular hours. It's possible. In the meantime there are the signs they leave behind.
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What signs are you seeing in your natural neighborhood of your wild neighbors? News of nature or the season to report?
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