The Daily Bucket is a place where we can post and exchange our observations about the natural happenings in our neighborhoods. Birds, bugs, blossoms and more - each notation is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the natural patterns that are unwinding around us.
Seattle. June 12, 2012.
Slow birding here over the last month. The weekly species counts have been what I'd expect in mid-summer, when I'm out too early and it's too hot and the birds are all hunkered down in silence, waiting. Even the insects aren't cooperating, except for the mosquitoes.
The last stop every week is the Marina. It's almost silent when I start out. Just lily pads expanding out over the surface of the shallows and live-aboard rigging clanging in the wind. A guy on a bike huffs by and says hi. I say hi back, then turn away to look at willow blossoms that have turned into fluff. Hooker's Willow, I think, the ones that threw out their soft grey pussies back in February. Scouler's Willow have spikier flowers. They've not yet matured.
A male Red-winged Blackbird yells at me from inside the willow thicket, rises up to the highest branch and flings out his epaulets. Three Barn Swallows chitter overhead. The lily pads expand.
A couple of weeks ago I startled a family of Red-winged Blackbirds just south of here. Mom and four kids. She herded them into the underbrush, stood guard until I continued on my way. There is no sign of the family today, except perhaps for that one male up there on the telephone wire, red and yellow epaulets rampant, screaming.
June 12, 2012. Hooker's Willow seeds are scattering. Scouler's Willow seeds are not quite mature. Red-winged Blackbird kids have fledged and scattered. One male remains.
###
Everyone is welcome to post their observations. What's going on in your neighborhood, wherever that may be? I'll be here in the early afternoon PDT and again after dinner.