The Backyard Science group regularly publishes The Daily Bucket, which features observations of the world around us. Insects, weather, meteorites, climate, birds, flowers and anything natural or unusual are worthy additions to the Bucket and its comments. Please let us know what is going on around you in a comment. Include, as close as is comfortable for you, where you are located. Each note is a record we can refer to as we try to understand the patterns that are unwinding around us.
The East wind peaked at 35 miles per hour yesterday near Pear Pond in my backyard, according to the National Weather Service It felt stronger. Standing in my formerly manicured backyard, watching the merry wind working, I recognized how the wind affects a broad range of natural events, over and beyond just tipping over my potted plants.
Continue below the pile of redwood needles for some reflections.
The powerful wind stripped hundreds of pounds of needles from the Sequoia Redwood just east of my property line. Some of my garden and yard and the street are 2-4 inches deep in redwood needles for some 60 feet downwind. In other words, the wind has created a micro-environment of acidic nutrient-rich mulch, utilizing the Redwood needles, smothering the subsoils.
While some plants will thrive, others will fail under that dense needle drop. The soil conditions changed rapidly, in just one day.
The wind coated my Pear Pond with needles, likely turning it more acidic. I'll pick up some ph testing papers later and see.
This time of year, aphids always infest the weaker water lilies. I'd wondered how the aphids reach plants that are surrounded by water. 
Yesterday I realized, hey, wind.
More powerful winds will transport bugs and seeds for miles, and large storms could wing small flora and fauna for days. I had not thought of wind as a evolutionary device to move all things that fly and crawl, welcome and unwelcome, native and invasive, to the corners of the earth. Yet there it is, every day, one method of biological dispersal.
Meanwhile, I've finally raised sunflowers.
Also, a too-friendly squirrel is apparently a mom. Hmm. I don't think this is Doug, the Douglas squirrels run a little smaller. I'm checking the mug shots. 
The East wind peaked at 35 miles per hour yesterday near Pear Pond in my backyard, according to the National Weather Service It felt stronger.
"Spotlight on Green News & Views" will be posted every Saturday at 1pm and Wednesday at 3:30 pm Pacific Time on the Daily Kos front page. Be sure to recommend and comment in the diary.
Now It's Your Turn What's interesting to you? Please post your own observations and your general location in the comments.
Thank you for reading. I'll work this morning so I'll respond to comments before lunchtime, PDT.
