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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July 23, 2019
Pacific Northwest
The maritime PNW is a prime berry growing region, both commercially and in nature. I grow blueberries and raspberries (and a few strawberries) for us to eat. Strolling around my neighborhood I see many other berries are ripening too.
Birds and chippies gobble up these berries as quick as they ripen. They visit my raspberry bed for the same reason. I see a lot of rasps that look like this:
I used to net my rasps against the birds but it became impossible to keep the netting taut enough to avoid bird entanglement, which is a dealbreaker for me. The bed is L shaped for one thing and for another, there isn’t a good way to secure netting along the bottom. So I gave up, and we share the rasps. Fortunately they are abundant and will continue ripening all the way to the start of the fall rains in October, at which time they’ll get moldy.
My blueberries are netted. They are simpler to secure, for one thing, and I’d really like to get some berries this year for pancakes and scones. Blueberries come all at once and then are done.
I don’t feel too sympathetic for this baby towhee perched there wishing she could get in. There’s plenty of rasps nearby, as the robins know well.
You can see the mix of berries and flowers and flower buds in the rasp bed. It’s not just the birds that benefit from this bed, but bees too.
Yesterday evening there were scads of yellow bumblebees buzzing in the flowers. I looked them up: Yellow-fronted bumblebees (Bombus flavifrons). bugguide.net/…. Lots of them in the PacificNorthwest, and the West in general.
The queen emerges from her hibernation at the end of March and often builds a nest in a disused mouse nest. The first workers appear about a month later. The nest declines at the end of August, and all the inhabitants die, except for the new queens, which hibernate in the earth.
There are 46 species of bumblebees in North America, with 23 species of them in Washington state. I see several others around besides these Yellow-fronteds, lots of other flowers out there right now both in the garden and thickets in the neighborhood. But here are some views of these busy guys from yesterday.
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Mostly sunny this morning in the PNW islands. Daytime temps in upper 60s, nighttime into the 50s. Light breeze after an unusually strong westerly wind last night, reminded me of winter.
What’s the nature news in your neighborhood?
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