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 1, 2019
Salish Sea, PacificNorthwest
I’m still slow on my feet and not covering much ground but it’s nice to get out to the beach even so — thankfully this particular beach is right next to the road and there’s a handy place to pull over and park the car.
This was on a sunny day, so everything was brighter, including the water. I like the glints in the wave swash above. Goose feather swishing back and forth.
It’s summer though so not much wave action, especially in this bay, which is among the most protected in the islands. Almost as quiet as a lakeshore, but the unmarked sand tells us this is a tidal shore. At first I assumed the tide was newly ebbing, all that nice clean-washed sand, since in summer there’s a lot of tromping around on the beach by tourists and absentee landowners who come up to the island occasionally in nice weather. But after looking at the tide table I see this is an incoming tide, still an hour to high slack. I’m amazed that nobody’s left any tracks right here but a mink who’s scampered down the beach. Since daybreak! Well, high summer season doesn’t really begin in earnest until the 4th of July, after which it’ll be wall to wall people until after Labor Day. A quiet afternoon on the beach like this will be precious then.
Most of my critter observations were indirect, like the mink tracks. Shells washed up tell us who lives under the sand or in bay under the water. This is a particularly shelly beach: its quiet waters, sandy substrate and eelgrass bed offshore makes the bay very shellfish-friendly.
Some directly visible critters were around this day too.
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Cloudy this morning in the PNW islands after a cool showery day yesterday. We didn’t get a lot of rainfall but enough to soften the ground and make watering unnecessary for a little while (may help prevent wildfires from illegal fireworks, grrrr). Such wet days are precious in summer here. Forecast says sunshine and dry weather will return for the next week at least. Cool temps in the 50s right now.
What’s the nature news in your neighborhood?
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