The Daily Bucket is a place to catch your casual observations of the natural world and turn them into a valuable resource. Whether it's the first flowers of spring or that odd bug in your basement, don't be afraid to toss your thoughts into the bucket. Check here for a more complete description.
After another week of barnstorming the Midwest (well, barnstorming in the sense of driving hither and yon in a Prius) I'm at my own home again.
I don't have a lot of observations from the road except boy has it been rainy. It seems like today was the first day of the trip that I wasn't craving a path through a deluge, and every stream or river I passed showed it. Near my own house the Meramec River is out of its banks and up to the goal-tops on a nearby soccer field. The Mississippi is over flood stage and overflowing into a creek that feeds directly into the river, turning the stream into more of a lake. It's not quite the Great Inland Sea stage that we hit in the two big floods of the 90s, but it's a whole lot of water.
While on the road, I snagged some toys specifically for future Backyard Science diaries. One of these is a trail camera or trap camera, the kind you see on all your finer ghost / bigfoot / swamp monster hunting shows. The particular model I snagged is a Moultrie Gamespy 5 MP, not because it had the best ratings, but because it was cheap and happened to be in the little hunting & fishing supply store where I was shopping when the idea popped into my head. I now have this guy wrapped around a slender Black Walnut tree about 20' from the creek behind my house. I may move it soon, as the place it's pointing at is a massive pile of deadfall. Two 200+ year oaks took a tumble over the winter and started a game of tree-dominoes. That makes for both an ugly background and one that could be confusing when trying to pick out a critter against all the brown and grey jutting bits of wood. But I'll leave it in place for a day or two to see if it at least seems to be working.
The other toy I picked up was actually bought at a toy store (in the educational toys section, I'll have you know). It's a little handheld "digital microscope" capable of a supposed 100x magnification and outputting images over USB. Between the two, I hope to have some images to show you beyond my weekly update on the trees outside the kitchen window.
So, what kind of toys do you use in exploring the natural world? And what have you seen around your place lately?
Today's observations come from these locations
Share your own observations in comments, and I'll add a marker to the map. Please give a city and state (as close as you feel comfortable in providing). Green pins for observations mostly about plants, brown for animals, and blue for weather or other inorganic items. The letter at the center of each pin will be the first letter of the user who provides the data.