The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge.
We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns.
We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below.
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November 2018
Salish Sea, Pacific Northwest
The light is different at this time of year, low in the sky, tipping across the edges of ripples or accenting reflections. A lone seal and several Mew gulls created some pretty patterns on the bay one day.
They were all hunting fish.
The seal circled around under the surface herding fish together and then swam up to snatch them. The Mews landed soon after to catch any slow ones, at the same time fighting over the patch of water.
Surfacing in a more relaxed way, the seal didn’t communicate available food, but the gulls stay nearby just in case things get more interesting.
Seal had come up twice and dived again. Mews landed a little late, or the seal didn’t manage to stir up fish this time.
The gulls and reflections have a wonderful symmetry.
I used to think gulls were harassing seals when they dived at them as the seals surfaced. That doesn’t look like what’s going on. For one thing the seals are indifferent to the gulls. For another, seals eat their fish underwater so there’s no way a gull could steal it. Rather, the gull is watching for the fish being driven toward the surface by the seal. Fish are caught not between a rock and a hard place, but between an aquatic predator and the sea’s surface, which is a wall to them. I frequently see seals drive fish toward shore, trapping them between the shoaling bottom and the sea surface, although they do this mostly as dusk descends. Must be something about diurnal fish behavior that can be exploited by predators.
An unwary gull gets goosed by the seal from below. Evidently the seal is as aware of them as the gulls are of the seal. The water’s surface is realm they share.
Sun’s out today in the Pacific Northwest. Chilly but no wind. Frost on the ground again, yesterday 11/18 was the first frost of the season.
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What’s up in nature in your area today?
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