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.
September 2015
Salish Sea, PNW
That's what I saw on a rainy day recently. Black Oystercatchers flew in and took over the rocks where other birds were resting quietly.
These are the rocks before it started raining, to give you a sense of the place. I took this pic on my way out to to see the seals and gulls at the far end of the bluff:
After it started raining unexpectedly, I headed back along the bluff since my sweatshirt wasn't going to keep me warm long. When I passed those rocks, I saw four female Harlequin ducks snoozing there. They'd been fishing earlier. Then a flock of oystercatchers swept in, screeching as they do on the wing, landing on a seaweedy section by the kelp bed.
Pictures are in Lightbox...click on the photos to see the birds! On gray rocks under a drizzly sky surrounded by dark water...look for the bright orange beaks.
It was high tide so there wasn't much exposed feeding zone but the oystercatchers briskly set to work, spreading out, poking their long sturdy beaks into cracks where limpets and snails hid. I parked myself behind a tree in some slight shelter to watch these busy efficient shorebirds.
If you look closely you'll note two of them have blackish beaks. These are juveniles, hatched out this summer. This is a good time to learn the tricks of survival, in a flock with older ones.
The ducks stood up as the oystercatchers approached their resting spot, and then jumped into the water. Harlequin ducks are small, like most diving ducks, and no bigger than these large shorebirds.
Female Harlequins lack the flamboyant coloring of the males, true of most ducks. These swam through the shallows in the rain looking underwater for likely mollusk or crab prey. Most Harlequins go inland for the summer breeding season. A few stay behind but they are appearing in greater numbers now, in small groups like this.
Meanwhile the Oystercatchers hopped and climbed across the rocks, turning up more limpets than I would have expected with such a high tide.
Several Heermann's gulls were standing quietly on a high rock gazing out to sea. They have orange beaks too. The oystercatchers marched right up to them.
As you can see, the gull is bigger than the shorebird, but it evidently decided it wasn't worth hanging around to get run over.
My sweatshirt was wet through by now and the camera was wetter than is probably good for it, even taking it out for just a minute to snaps photos and hide again under my shirt. Like the ducks and gulls I took off too. The oystercatchers ruled the rocks on this rainy day.
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All nature observations from your part of the world welcome in the comments.
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