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.
November 1 & 2, 2015
Pacific Northest
Just back from a quick trip down to the mainland visiting family. We took back roads almost the whole way; we find them more interesting and restful than the freeway. It takes a little longer but not by much and we see more of what's going on in nature.
Mr O was driving. I took some incidental pictures through the window as we traveled through the countryside (in motion, hence a certain amount of blurriness and reflection).
It was pouring rain on the way down. However I could make out a flock of Snow Geese newly arrived for the winter on the Skagit River flats. These few hundred are the vanguard; in the next weeks many thousands more will settle in to glean in the fields.
Snow Geese in the rain, Fir Island:
We crossed over the freeway and met up with the old north/south road Highway 9 which took us all the way down to south Snohomish county, our destination.
(All photos by me. In Lightbox...click to enlarge for better resolution)
Most of the way is rural, until you get into bedroom communities outside the cities of Everett and Seattle. Route 9 through Skagit county winds up and over a ridge. Deciduous leaves change color here in the NW too...you can see the last of golden Big-leaf maple and Willow foliage interspersed in dark green conifers.
Curvy woodsy road in the rain:
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By the middle of the next day it was "partly sunny" (not sure how that's different from "partly cloudy") as we returned north. Route 9 is straight most of the way through Snohomish county and aside from a few lights in the populated area south, it's 50 mph along a quiet 2-lane road for an hour.
Towering cloud between trees:
Old railroad bridge paralleling the road over the Stillaguamish River, muddy and high after recent rains:
Back in Skagit county, over the ridge, mossy leafless Big-leaf maples and still-red Vine maples underneath:
Colorful hillside above a wetland corridor as we head west toward the Skagit flats:
Easy to see where the blueberry fields are on the Flats: bright red at this time of year. It was clouding up again and near sunset:
On the ferry, our "road" home to the island. Sun setting now before 5 pm:
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All nature observations welcome in the comments. What are you seeing in your natural neighborhood on this autumn day?
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