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. 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.
Please be gentle: This is my first diary on Daily Kos.
Some of you may remember my posting the above photograph in a comment to one of Angmar’s great diaries. At the time, I wondered where the trail led and was unable to identify the track.
Here in the Hudson Valley, like many parts of the country, we have experienced unusual warmth. The last two days were in the high teens (60s in Fahrenheit). As a result, the snow has melted. I did my usual walk around the property this AM, and did not expect to find much of interest.
Last night there was an extreme thunderstorm — in February! — and power was out for awhile. I was really curious about the rate of flow into the pond, so I headed towards the inlet to inspect. Wow, I thought, what is that?
Probably a raccoon, given the shape of the head and the specificity of the tail.
On a more positive and bird-oriented note, I have been working on my ID of the more usual species.
While I was working on my web project, I avoided birdfeeders, other than hummingbirds (no particular reason), because I wanted to identify species in the ecosystem without “chumming.”
Below is a White-breasted Nuthatch and above is a Black-capped Chickadee.
Just as the sun was setting on this interesting day --well, I graded a bunch of lab reports — at 5:45 EST, I saw a pair of Mallard duck land on the pond. They were still there this morning. It should be noted, however, that the normal arrival of migratory waterfowl in my pond is normally almost a month later — the last week of March.
Another thing I have noticed three times in the last week at between 7:15 and 7:45 AM EST is 25-30 turkeys arriving for an early meeting. They fly in, many over the house, arrive on the edge and make their way hastily in the woods to the south.
Lastly, I just found this video after writing the rest of this and then reviewing my trail cam videos. Backyard coyote (video link), 2/6/17, 30 paces from my back door.
Backyard Coyote (video link)
I hope you enjoy this report from the Hudson Valley of New York!