The Daily Bucket is a place where we can post and exchange our observations about the natural happenings in our neighborhoods. Birds, bugs, blossoms and more - each notation is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the natural patterns that are unwinding around us.
Seattle. April 27, 2012.
Up at the top of the Forest peninsula is a hidden trail. It parallels the old one lane service road along the east, slipping into a quiet clearing and then rising up the side of the peninsula through Big-leaf Maple and Cottonwood into old conifers - Hemlock, Douglas Fir, Western Red Cedar. Back in 2007 a huge winter windstorm felled a number of these old trees. These lie scriggle-scraggle across the side of the hill, quietly mouldering into the landscape. I visit from time to time to perch on one of these giants and watch.
April 26, 2012. On the hidden trail.
Thursday afternoon started noisily. Human sounds were most apparent as I settled: the first motorboats of the season, racing back and forth up and down the channel; parks department trucks on the perimeter; a seaplane passing overhead, its engine noise fading as it headed north. Then quiet, releasing the other sounds.
Two Pileated Woodpeckers call back and forth from below. I have come to expect their voices here this spring. They may have a nest down the hill in a place where there are no trails.
Unfolding Sword Fern fronds rustle beside me. Towhee is here, his red eye bright against the green as he hops out to look around for a brief moment before jumping down to scratch through the duff. Two bumblebees rise up from his scatterings, one the familiar black and white, the other black and white and russet. It's not one that I've seen in the Forest before and I have not yet been able to find an ID. They go about their separate ways as the wind comes up and I am pelted with a chartreuse snow of falling Big-leaf Maple blossoms and Douglas Fir pollen. A Song Sparrow sings from somewhere at my back, just once. No one answers.
April 26, 2012. Pileated Woodpeckers, a Spotted Towhee and a Song Sparrow are present, as are two species of bumblebee. Big Leaf Maple flowers are beginning to fall. Doug Firs are throwing off pollen. Sword Ferns are developing new fronds.
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What's happening where you are? Everyone is welcome to join in with their reports, just let us know where you're reporting from. I'll be in and out today, then away for the evening.
