The Daily Bucket is a regular feature of the Backyard Science group. It's the place to note any observations you have made of the natural world around you. New birds passing through? No-see-ums making your daily walks difficult? Frog music? You can report anything of interest going on in your natural neighborhood. All we ask is that let us know where you are located, as close as is comfortable for you.
Seattle. April 27, 2014.
Some find delight in travel and change, always seeking out the new. I am a creature of habit, walking the same paths every day. Perhaps this is the lazy way, but every day is different. Every day is new, yet over the years patterns have begun to emerge. Those are new, too, yet different in their newness.
Just over a year ago I wrote an introduction to the view from a stump that sits just off of a footpath at the northern end of the Forest peninsula. I continue to find the stump a convenient tripod, and have rested my camera there for a bit every month since then, witnessing the changes in the landscape.
January.
January 24, 2014.
Except for the camera settings, the view is not much is different from last year. The Sword Ferns (Polystichum munitum) are green on the forest floor, the trees are heavy with Licorice Fern (Polypodium glycyrrhiza) and moss, and the first Osoberry (Oemleria cerasiformis) leaves are breaking out.
January 10, 2013.
February.
The Forest seems to rest in late winter.
February 22, 2014.
Looking back a year, the view is similar, though note that the the 2013 image was taken about two weeks earlier than this year's.
February 5, 2013.
March.
There was just a bit more green in mid March, with the Osoberrries taking advantage of the light coming through the still open canopy to be the first to fully leaf out. These are apparent to the left and to the right of the obvious Big-leaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum) trunk laden with Licorice Fern.
March 19, 2014.
I missed mid March in 2013 - next year...
April.
April busts out green every year, no holding back. This year the Enchanter's Nightshade (Circaea lutetiana) and Dewberry (Rubus ursinus) have both pushed up through the previous year's fallen and rotting Big-leaf Maple leaves, bringing green to the forest floor. The Wood Ferns (Dryopteris sp.) growing on the stump have unfurled enough now to occlude the view to the lower right. In the mid-canopy, Osoberry has fully leafed out and has begun to drop its blossoms, and Western Hazlenut (Corylus cornuta) and Red-elderberry (Sambucus racemosa) are developing their own leaves. And above everything, the Big-leaf Maples have thrown out their flowers, filling the interstices of the high canopy with an impossibly bright chartreuse haze.
April 23, 2014.
The view was similar in 2013, but note that last year at this time the Licorice Fern on the the maple trunk had already begun to fade and drop. They are a winter fern, and go dormant when the light deepens and the temperature begins to rise. It might also be that the Wood Fern growing from the stump had lengthened its fronds a bit earlier last year, though the camera angle could make that appear so.
April 27, 2013.
I don't have enough information yet to speak of the details of Licorice Fern and Wood Fern development, or how this year and last year might or might not show a new pattern. For the rest, I've walked these paths long enough that I know I can look forward to the first Osoberry blossoms every year in the grimmest part of January winter, and that April busts out green.
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Your turn, and as always, everyone is welcome to add their sightings to the Bucket.
I'll be in and out all day. We're supposed to see bright sunshine and temperatures in the 70's tomorrow here in the PNW. The garden always needs work.
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"Green Diary Rescue" is posted every Wednesday (yaay!) and Saturday at 1:00 pm Pacific Time on the Daily Kos front page. Green Diary Rescue has been good to Backyard Science, so take a minute to recommend, comment, and then link to your other off-Kos groups.
