September 2018
Pacific Northwest
There’s the smell of fall in the air in the Northwest, literally and figuratively. Between the drying up of vegetation from our usual summer drought and the onset of autumn rains (a bit early and sudden this year), I’m smelling a damp herbal earthy aroma. It’s a nice change from the relentless parched prickly sameness of summer. At the same time it means the sun is weakening rapidly, both in daylength and intensity. Fall has begun.
We get our own “fall colors” even if not as explosively vivid as the Northeast and Midwest. On the lane above, while the foliage of alders has dropped, the Oceanspray and wild fruit trees are turning red, orange, and golden. However willows are hanging onto their leaves, and will far into the season.
“Colors” includes the maturation of fruits.
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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Bird populations are making the big autumn shift as summer migrants depart and winter migrants appear. Swallows, waxwings, Rufous hummers, warblers are gone. I haven’t heard the cheerful “Quick! Three beers” call of the Olive-sided flycatcher for weeks. The summer fruit-eating robins have departed south (the last of my raspberries are available to me for a change!) and the winter robins, mostly worm and bug eaters, have yet to arrive. The early outliers of aquatic birds are trickling in. I’ve seen a few Horned grebes, some Hooded mergansers and one Common merganser. A couple of days ago half a dozen hen Northern Shovelers were paddling around a local wetland.
Juvenile birds have embarked on the most perilous time of their life: learning how to make a living independently of parental care. About half of all chicks hatched out each year don’t survive into the following summer.
The most obvious change is the onset of storms off the Pacific as the persistent high pressure mass over the ocean breaks down. We’ve been seeing wind and rain for the past week. Temps are running about ten degrees below normal. Usually we have into October before the fall rains begin.
What’s up in nature in your area today?
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