In 2016 I’m doing a 365 Nature project. Each day of the year I will post something here about nature. It may be any format, a photo, video, audio, sketch or entry from my nature journal. It could be a written piece. Each day I will connect to nature in some way and share it here by the end of that day. You can keep up-to-date by subscribing to the RSS feed or be notified by email. See all the 365 Nature posts.
Once a month I volunteer at the park near our house to do restoration work. Today we focused on an area near the beach which has a big morning glory problem. If I had to sit and pull up thistle and morning glory, I’m glad it was near the beach because our local Osprey was fishing in the water near where I was working. Our first indication of the bird’s presence was when it starting calling. After looking around I spotted it up in an evergreen tree overlooking the water, the perfect perch for watching for fish. A short time later I heard a squawk from a Great Blue Heron and looked up to see the Osprey chasing it away from the little bay. As I continued to pull weeds out I heard a big splash behind me and when I turned and looked, the Osprey was just lifting up out of the water less than 30′ from the shore. It’s talons were empty.
While pulling up the plants and digging around, I unearthed a lot of insects. Many moths fluttered up from the depths of the leaves and a great many Blood-red Lady Beetles were sitting on stems and leaves. The orange and black beetles I saw at Magnuson Park on Day 188 were also all over the meadow area, many of them mating.
The final bonus of the day were the dramatic dark blue, black and gray clouds that slowly cruised over the lake creating a fairy tale atmosphere.
