Good day one and all. After a fairly brutal day yesterday, this morning finds me staring out at the strait between St George Island and the Florida panhandle. I'll be here for the rest of this week while a french drain is installed in our backyard (the AC had to be disconnected). But today's bucket isn't going to discuss blue crabs, pelicans, or ospreys. Instead, after the blurb below, it will whisk you to the far side of the continent and thousands of feet up to Hurricane Ridge.
The Daily Bucket is a regular feature of the Backyard Science group. It is a place to note any observations you have made of the world around you. Rain, sun, wind...insects, birds, flowers...meteorites, rocks...seasonal changes...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.
As I'm sure many of you are all too aware as I talked about it incessantly, I went on vacation in Washington and British Columbia in late June and early July. I asked long-time bucketeers and Washington residents OceanDiver, Milly Watt, and bwren for advice on places to go. One recommendation was to visit the Hurricane Ridge area of Olympic National Park, immediately to the south of the city of Port Angeles.
Milly has published at least two and maybe more diaries about the wildflowers in this area(most recent one here). It is alpine habitat, fairly high in the Olympic Mountains and the floral display can be spectacular. However this diary is not about flowers but rather mammals (will do a flower diary later). Our hike on hurricane ridge was very eventful in terms of both mammal sightings and mammal behavior. This diary documents the most hilarious of our mammal encounters.
But first. The hike was on July 1 - Canada Day. Although we weren't in Canada we could see it from the trail. Port Angeles is in the foreground and Victoria may be faintly visible across the water.
And I will include a flower shot. I haven't attempted any IDs yet and this lily didn't seem to appear in Milly's diary. It is growing out of a patch of lupine (not flowering).
And on to the main attraction. On the walk we saw 3 snowshoe hares. Like the other mammals on the trail they were habituated to humans and showed little fear. This one was on a slope above us.
It ate some dirt.
Then it had a dust bath.
Having a dust bath on a steep slope results in rolling down the hill landing literally at our feet.
Unperturbed the hare eats more dirt and then continues, nonchalantly on its way. The eating dirt is a way of getting necessary minerals in their diet and not illness.
Our good friend who accompanied us on the hike said she attempted a video but was laughing too hard.
That's the (two week old) news from me. Please let us know what's going on where you are.
"Spotlight on Green News & Views" is posted every Saturday at 1:00 pm Pacific Time and Wednesday at 3:30 on the Daily Kos front page. It's a great way to catch up on diaries you might have missed. Be sure to recommend and comment in the diary.