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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October 2019
Olympic peninsula, Washington state
Driftwood washes up on shorelines all along the West Coast, including my local beaches of the Salish Sea, but the BIG driftwood can only be carried and tossed far up onto the beaches of the open ocean. That’s where the big waves of huge storms have the necessary energy. I rarely see that in action, those monster storms only occurring on a few days in winter, but I can see the results.
In the giant driftwood resting quietly high up on the ocean beaches of the Olympic peninsula, we can only imagine what it took to get them there.
Imagine:
I’m particularly fond of rootwads, a part of trees one never sees until they are out of the ground. Some are from gigantic trees like the one above. Others are younger, with small root branches. Beautiful shapes and patterns.
Critters make use of driftwood for temporary shelter, perches up high, and for foraging foodstuff that has washed up and caught there. Here’s a Townsend chipmunk who was busily checking out driftwood at one beach.
Most driftwood comes from the interior forests of the peninsula, washing down to the ocean in the powerful rivers carrying runoff from the prodigious annual rainfall here (about ten feet, virtually all in the winter months). Occasionally beachside trees are undercut by surf and fall over, like this one below. This tree was still standing a year ago. The bark and small branches would tell any beachwalker that even if they hadn’t been here before. Winter surf will erode all that away.
Perhaps my favorite hunk of driftwood of all is the Big Log right out front of the cabin where we stay. It is magnificently gigantic. It’s also fascinating to see how it and the beach have changed, sometimes slightly, sometimes markedly, from year to year. I’ve been taking pictures intermittently, and can show you some of the changes.
Mostly it’s the beach sediment that varies. This year about 4 or 5 feet of sand had washed away revealing the root branches on the bottom of the rootwad. There was a smaller driftlog wedged in the space behind the rootwad but after looking at it from all directions it appeared it just got stuck there and isn’t actually holding the Big Log up.
Here’s a view this year. A comparison photo from one year ago is below it, when my grandchildren visited this beach. Notice where they are climbing. The hole in the center of the rootwad is almost at beach level whereas this year it was several feet up.
Past years show how the beach sediment has built up and washed away. The ebb and flow of sand.
Every year when I come back for our visit to this beach I look first thing to see whether the BIG LOG is still there. Very happy to find it withstood the tempests another year.
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Clear, cold and windy today in the PNW islands of the Salish Sea. Temps in low 40s.
What’s up in nature in your area today?
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