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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January 2020
Pacific Northwest
We usually get one or two big storm events every winter. Our climate is typically so mild it creates a bit of excitement when we do. Some of us even deliberately go out to see the drama.
This storm started last Friday with a powerful blast of Southeasterly wind and spitting rain which is how storm fronts off the ocean arrive here in the islands. Saturday was fairly calm, and then Sunday the heart of the storm hit. We had strong westerly winds blowing up the Strait. 40mph gusty winds across a long fetch like that piles up big wind waves that break on west-facing shorelines. This beach is usually flat calm, but the bluff is eroding — one day of a storm like this does more erosion than a year of lapping swash. I sheltered from the rain and wind behind a spruce that is nearly undercut, and could feel the pounding of driftlogs and surf through the ground.
Video clip:
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Buffies and gulls were darting around in the logs and debris getting tossed by the surf. They were snapping up some kind of food on the surface, most likely planktonic arthropods of some kind — crustaceans, amphipods etc. Mew gulls do this all the time; it’s far less common to see buffies feeding this way.
Looks pretty calm doesn’t it? Not! This water is rough! The birds were multitasking: maneuvering around the debris as well as other birds to avoid getting bashed, locating and grabbing prey as the hapless tiny shrimp-types got stirred up to the surface.
The storm is a feeding bonanza for the birds.
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Many more Glaucous-winged gulls were up on the bank between the beach and road. Sometimes pecking at the ground, but mostly just facing into the wind, or soaring above. Perhaps waiting for the biggest waves that break onto the road with spray, carrying food particles.
The weather forecast warned of a wind shift later that day. An outflow of arctic air would bring subfreezing air down from the north.
The wind turned at about midnight. By morning the temp had dropped 20°. Perhaps a report of what the cold weather brought in my next bucket.
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What’s up in nature in your area today?
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