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 2018
Pacific Northwest
Windy day yesterday, leaves and needles blowing off trees. Fall has arrived in the Northwest.
Up in my local town for errands I saw the last of our bright yellow lining the main street. These are non native trees, and there was some controversy about planting them for that reason, but everybody seems to like them now. I sure do, especially during these couple of weeks in their fall color. I forget what kind of tree this is — any of you folks know?
Some of our native trees turn yellow too, if not quite so brightly, like willows and alders. The alders are bare already and the willows haven’t turned yet. But our native bitter cherry trees (Prunus emarginata) are a pretty shade right now.
The bird perched on the cherry branch is a Yellow rumped warbler. Of all our few warbler species they are the last to depart south. They don’t always demonstrate why they have that name, but here’s view that’s unmistakable:
Bonus yellow!
We were returning from an excursion a few days ago, had turned onto the dirt road of my neighborhood and saw a brightly colored bird walking calmly down the road toward us. “What in tunket” sez Mr O. I grab my camera (which I always carry when I’m outside, even in a car) and snap a picture through the windshield because the first rule of birders is Get any picture you can, however crappy, and then afterward you can observe its behavior or take more pictures at relative leisure if the birds stick around.
I leapt out of the car and got one more picture before this truly spectacular bird ambled into the thicket by the road. It wasn’t freaked out, but it obviously didn’t like being near a person or car, which is true for most wildlife. It was acting as a wild ground bird would do.
It acted just like a pheasant, and while we have a few Ringneck Pheasants around (Phasianus colchicus), this fella was obviously not one of those. Ringnecks were brought to the island for hunting a few decades ago and the survivors went feral and have modestly proliferated (much as our Wild Turkeys have). Googling, I discovered this is a Golden Pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus), native to the forests of western China but naturalized widely elsewhere. Not here though, according to eBird, where I reported it. In fact there are no reports of one anywhere in North America! Needless to say my report was flagged as Rare For This Location.
I’d never even heard of this critter much less seen one. Somebody’s recent escapee? He didn’t seem at all agitated about being out on his own. There’s plenty of forage for him, judging from all the turkeys we have around, so starvation is certainly not an issue. He was pecking at the grasses by the road when I saw him, and had no trouble disappearing into the dense thicket. Haven’t seen him since. Pheasants don’t readily fly but they can cover a lot of ground if they want. If there’s a female Golden around maybe we’ll see a new feral population of these beauties like we already have of Wild Turkeys and Ringnecks!
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Sprinkling in the Pacific Northwest and 56° right now. We had a few warm sunny days last week but now it’s back to more typical fall weather.
What’s up in nature in your area today?
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