The Daily Bucket is a regular feature of the Backyard Science group. It is a place to note of any observations you have made of the world around you. Insects, weather, meteorites, climate, birds and/or flowers. All are worthy additions to the bucket. 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 that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the patterns that are quietly unwinding around us.
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Castro Valley, CA, July 29,2013
Continued below the orange robin's nest
For a few days now there has been a ton of Nuthatch noise in our yard. For us, that means Red Breasted Nuthatches. I was thinking that maybe there was a migratory element to the local prsence, even though we have some all year, when my wife came in from the front yard and said
"We've got a tree full of baby Nuthatches"
So, there you have it, within the last few days a batch of Nuthatches has fledged in our yard. Cornell says that they only have one brood per year, so this is not a second clutch. It seems late in the year, but I have no prior records specifying a fledging date here, so I don't really know.
Cornell also says that the Incubation Period is 12–13 days and the Nestling Period is 18–21 days. That means 30 to 34 days from breeding to fledging, so this pair must've fledged in late June, which also seems late to me, but at least I'll now have a record for next year.
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"Green Diary Rescue" is Back!
After a hiatus of over 1 1/2 years, Meteor Blades has revived his excellent series. As MB explained, this weekly diary is a "round-up with excerpts and links... of the hard work so many Kossacks put into bringing matters of environmental concern to the community... I'll be starting out with some commentary of my own on an issue related to the environment, a word I take in its broadest meaning."
"Green Diary Rescue" will be posted every Saturday at 1:00 pm Pacific Time on the Daily Kos front page. Be sure to recommend and comment in the diary.
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So what are you observing in your neck of the woods?