The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge. We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns.
We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below.
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June 28, 2019
Salish Sea, PacificNorthwest
Yesterday I got out onto the beach for a slow stroll. Nothing dramatic going on, but if you look around there are always seashore things to see.
Canada goose feathers. A gigantic flock has lived in the field behind the beach for the past year. Its numbers have declined over the past month to families with nonflying babies, mostly hanging out in a pond. The field was mowed and baled in the last couple of days. Not sure where the geese are now.
Deer rib. A month ago the whole carcass was in this spot. Within a few days the eagles, ravens and vultures had reduced it to literal hide and bones. The waves and smaller scavengers did the rest of disarticulation and dispersal
Shipworms (actually a kind of clam) have turned this driftwood log into Swiss cheese, and wave erosion is finishing the breakdown. A couple years ago its crosssection was distinctly round
Shells: Purple varnish clams and a Mossy chiton display the bright colors here. White shells are fragments of Bentnose, Butter, Horse, Cockles, Steamer
Occupied oyster — we moved it from the beach into the water
What’s flowering?
Both of these grow horizontally, rooting in sand.
NYCTAGINACEAE
Abronia latifolia
Yellow Sand Verbena
BRASSICACEAE
Cakile maritima
European Searocket
Peak season for yellow flowers on the beach.
ASTERACEAE
Grindelia integrifolia
Puget Sound Gumweed
with sprawling Sand Verbena beyond.
Searocket’s succulent foliage resembles Burweed’s but the flowers and especially fruits are radically different.
Searocket flowers are purple, burweed’s are green.
Burweed’s fruits are nasty spiky burs that stick onto anything, stabbing your ankles and hands if you try to dislodge them. Right now the fruits are just beginning to develop. From here on out for the rest of the summer I’ll give this common sprawling plant a wide berth, find a spot clear of it to walk down onto the beach.
ASTERACEAE
Ambrosia chamissonis
Silver Burweed
Nature’s artwork, from flotsam of clamshells, crab claw, driftwood, dried eelgrass, even old goose poops with nothing left but fibrous material
This was the first walk on the beach in a week or so — not been able to walk or bicycle down there due to a disabling flare up. I’ve missed the fresh salty air and sand under my feet! Mr O drove me the quarter mile there from our house: the best birthday present I can imagine :)
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Sunny today in the PNW islands with moderate temps in the 60s.
What’s the nature news in your neighborhood?
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