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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November 2020
Salish Sea, Pacific Northwest
Winter is often windy here, which kicks up waves on the more typically calm waters of this inland sea. Around this small island, winds will create different conditions at every shoreline since each has a distinctive combination of features: direction faced, fetch, slope steepness, headlands nearby, kelp beds, and so on. During some very windy storms this month we visited several nearby beaches. It was cool to see the effects of a blow at each.
I’m including some videos, since wind is sometimes hard to see in photographs.
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November 13
West wind at a west-facing steep shoreline with a long fetch:
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West wind on a west-facing, no-bank beach with a shorter fetch:
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November 17
South wind on a north-facing, no-bank beach. This beach is very sheltered from most winds, even those extreme westerly gales. That’s why we keep our boat tied up at the dock here. North winds can sometimes be bumpy but there’s a big hill across the bay that blocks the worst of those. The one direction that knocks the boats around is a south wind since it’s a long fetch across the water with no land blocking it before the wind blasts into the bay. We went down to check on the boat since this was the first strong southerly wind since we moved it there.
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November 27
Southeast wind on a southeast-facing steep bluff, moderately long fetch:
Yesterday I didn’t expect to see any water birds at this bay since there’s no shelter here — they tend to shelter in the lee of headlands out of the wind. But there were oystercatchers, some gulls and half a dozen buffies. Several hen buffies foraged in the chop near shore, snapping up something from the surface, probably arthropods stirred up by the waves, much like the gulls were on that other beach.
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Mostly sunny with a light breeze today in the PNW islands. Temps in low 40s. Full moon tonight.
What’s up in nature in your area today?
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