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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September 5, 2019
Pacific Northwest
Granted I’m not out there all the time but it’s seemed to me that my big birdbath has been running out of water faster than birds drinking would account for. What might be going on there out of my view? I figured it was time to set up the trailcam, which I did a week and a half ago. I thought I’d be solving the mystery but in fact it revealed a bigger one.
Here’s what the trailcam captured since we set it up, with images pared down to skip empty and repetitive frames. The birdbath is located in a part of the back yard surrounded by apple and pear trees, with a herb bed on the left. Our entire yard is tightly fenced against deer, nothing bigger than a chipmunk can get through.
The trailcam has data about time and temperature along the bottom of each image capture. The year is wrong — oopsie — otherwise accurate. My notes about what’s shown introduce each photo.
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European Collared Dove on the birdbath rim. These birds showed up most days, drinking and bathing. They’re pretty big and splash about:
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Smaller birds drink there too, finches and such:
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First nighttime photos with more than waving leaves. Raccoons pulling pears from low branch of tree behind birdbath:
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Rat or mouse scampering alongside herb raised bed:
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What the heck?!?
That’s a dog! We don’t have a dog, and no one was visiting. No way a dog could have gotten through the fence. Something very weird here:
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Another raccoon visit, over by the tree:
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Spotted Towhee. Saw these several times, drinking and bathing:
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This is our geriatric cat, The Beast, getting a drink of water:
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Raccoons again, this time caught climbing around in the pear tree and jumping down:
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On another night, raccoon getting drink of water:
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The Beast, drink of water:
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Last night —
Ok now this is beyond weird. The dog is back, and apparently chasing somebody. The Beast sleeps inside at night. Raccoons?
Later that night (early morning), raccoons are back:
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And today, a Robin on the birdbath, and then jumping in:
...a bird having a bath in the birdbath. How bout that!
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So here’s the deal. Last night (we go out at about 10:30pm) we heard a tremendous hullabaloo as we were sitting in the hot tub, which is about 30 feet away from the birdbath toward the left as the trailcam is oriented. A whole lot of foliage rustling at the fruit trees, and then a stampede of running and crashing through the brush behind the tub. No voices though. Shortly after that, lighter brush rattling going back toward the trees. That’s when I decided to pull the trailcam sd card today.
The mystery now isn’t how the water in the birdbath is getting used up, as we’ve seen in these pictures. It’s where the dog is coming from — and why. Mr O walked along the fence today and didn’t see any breaks. There’s no sign of dogshit in the yard. And why would a dog come into the yard — not for water, and there’s nothing foodlike here. Nearest neighbors with a dog are quite a ways off, and I don’t recognize this one. Maybe the “dog” is a shapeshifter?? Thoughts?
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What’s the nature news in your neighborhood?
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