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.
July 5, 2015
Salish Sea, Pacific Northwest
Reports last week of fire on Goose Island drew us out onto the water to see for ourselves what is going on there. Goose Island is a major bird nesting site in the San Juan Islands, owned by the Nature Conservancy. On June 26 careless law-breaking yahoos playing with homemade fireworks accidentally (?) set Goose Island on fire. Hundreds of gulls and cormorants caring for eggs and newborn chicks were displaced by the flames and smoke, and by volunteer firefighting efforts over the next few days. The local fire department sprayed seawater to stop the spread of fire through tinder-dry grass, but gave up when it became evident the fire was feeding on deep accumulations of guano. The Nature Conservancy has decided to let it burn itself out.
Smoke is everywhere in the Pacific Northwest right now. Here's what we're seeing and smelling in the Salish Sea, with some regional perspective.
(All photos by me. In Lightbox...click to enlarge)
Goose Island is a grassy rock that starts to dry out every year in July when our usual summer drought begins. It has been so hot and dry in the NW this year the soil and vegetation resemble their typical September state, just before the winter rains begin. We have another 3 months at least before we can expect any substantial precipitation. Goose Island smolders:
I was heartened at least to see many cormorants still on nests; they prefer the cliffsides. The gulls are variously nesting in unburned areas or wandering around. I did see quite a few newborn chicks (floofy gray/speckled) with parents. Hopefully the parents can shepherd them to safer spots.
In this view across the top of the island, the sky looks eerily Martian, a sickly brown-ochre haze.
To the south we can see the haze extends into the Strait, beyond Cattle Point Lighthouse. The reflections on the waves are orange, and the white of the lighthouse and sailboat stand out against the sky. I took these photos at 3 in the afternoon, but it looks as dark as if it was sunset, still 6 hours away.
This thick layer of smoke is not from the Goose Island fire. Northerly winds have blown smoke from wildfires in Canada into the region. At last report 184 wildfires are burning in British Columbia (see Agathena's first-hand report from BC). This satellite photo from July 5 shows the mass of smoke from fires on Vancouver Island and the lower BC mainland.
Wildfire is also
burning on the Olympic peninsula in Washington state. Sparked by lightning in May, what would ordinarily have been extinguished in the spongey wet forest floor continued to smolder. Far up the Queets river valley in Olympic National Park ancient trees are burning and falling every day.
Temperate rainforests throughout the west are burning.
Meteorologists and climate scientists are not attributing this year's extreme temperatures, drought and low humidity directly to climate change. But extreme events like this and last winter's lack of snow are predicted by climate change models. We can be certain weather like this will become more common, the "new normal" within our lifetime if we don't implement substantial policy changes soon. Seeing and smelling smoke in every direction as we are right now is a grim sign of things to come.
The atmosphere is eerie and unnatural. Guano on the rocks glows between the leaden sky and the orange-flecked sea.
Wildlife carries on as it can. I have to wonder how animals are affected by this darkness and smoke. An eagle descends on a flock of gulls feeding on a baitball of fish. Who benefits in these conditions?
Later that afternoon I took a bike ride down to the bay. A bloody sun was beginning to drop into the haze. Usually the gulls begin their wheeling and diving at sunset, feeding on fish at the surface. Today they started two hours early.
Update, July 7: Today the wind has shifted and we've had a southwesterly breeze. It's helped dissipate some of the smoke, but a thick haze persists. Tonight the red sun set a little closer to the horizon.
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All nature observations welcome in the comments.
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