The Daily Bucket – near and far at the beach

May 31, 2024

Salish Sea, Northwest Pacific

Waaay, in a local bay – about half a mile away – I saw some ducks a few days ago. Most ducks in the PNW are winter migrants and have now gone north or inland to breed, so I was happy to have a sighting, no matter the distance. I stopped to see who these people were and sat on a beach log to stabilize my camera (which doubles as binoculars). Here is my best view of this distant sighting.

I'm thinking of scoters, probably surf scoters, and many had smaller bills than those of the young. Non-breeders. A few stay around in summer. Even from a distance like this, it was really nice to see ducks in the summer. Other bucketeers' thoughts on ID?

I include a short video for behavior cues.

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As I sat on the beach, I noticed a lot of pollinator activity in the Searocket around me. It was a sunny day but not hot (50s). There were bees like the one in the title image but mainly bumblebees. The bees spent more time on each flower than the bumblebees, so it was difficult to get photos of them. A video shows their behavior (sorry for the noise of the small planes: a lot more traffic, with cars, boats, cyclists, now we are coming to summer).

Sea rocket (Cakile maritima) is a common beach plant around here. It literally grows in sand, is salt tolerant and has succulent leaves. It is not native but not invasive. The bees love it.

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Unlike this dry and calm day, today the weather is wet and windy. No way I'm sitting on a beach log, ducks or no. Yesterday and last night it rained heavily. Today is drier, but another round of precipitation is forecast before things dry out and hopefully warm up a little later in the week. This time is what we in the PNW call Juneuary. Beans, cucumbers, squash, and tomatoes won't really work for a while.

Cool, temperatures in the 50s, showers, windy in the PNW islands.

WHAT IS NATURE IN YOUR REGION TODAY?