The Daily Bucket is a place to note what you are seeing around you: animals, weather, meteorites, climate, soil, plants, waters. Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the phenological patterns that are quietly unwinding around us. To have the Daily Bucket in your Activity Stream, visit Backyard Science’s profile page and click on Follow.
Checked out the little pond at the golf course yesterday to see what the tadpole/chorus frog situation was — and found that the pond is nearly dry. It’s actually a retention pond built to collect runoff from our little airstrip, next to the golf course. In spring and summer it’s brimming with tadpoles, water bugs, damselflies, ducks and all sorts of other critters who are attracted to standing water during our seasonal time of drought.
The pond is as dry as I’ve ever seen it, and a lot of cattails have moved in. There’s still a few inches of water in the thick cattail section, and the green surrounding the pond indicates the ground down there isn’t totally dry. The pond never gets full, and alder saplings are moving downslope.
Everybody is waiting for the fall rains. We’ve been getting some sprinkles lately but those don’t really signify. The wildlife and flora are waiting patiently for October, the start of winter rains.
Partly sunny and dry in the Pacific Northwest today. I’ll be in and out today but as always….
Time for you to share what you’re seeing in your natural neighborhood . . .
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