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The Daily Bucket - rough seas and ducks [1]

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Date: 2023-02-07  

Buffies in the Salish Sea

Typical winter storm track

February 2023

Salish Sea, Pacific Northwest

We get big storms in winter, with the strongest wind from the southeast here in the center of the Salish Sea as westerly storm tracks circle around the Olympic mountains. The gales kick up big wind chop on the ocean surface.

Winter ducks don’t seem to mind.

It’s hard to show rough seas in still photos so I’m including some videos too.

Red breasted mergansers

Harlequin duck has caught a crab

Video of ducks in wind chop, first mergansers then harlequins:

.

It can get very rough. Check out these Buffies in a 40 knot storm a few days ago, first at a distance (on this side of the rock) then up close:

.

A half a mile of land separates two bays near my home. While the SE gale is blasting the bay in the video above, the bay on the other side of a neck of land is in the protected lee of this wind.

The water is flatter there but this kind of wind is strong enough to blow clear across that half mile into the bay. But instead of wind chop, the gusts create catspaws on the surface. The following video was the very same day, a few minutes later:

.

Note that the Buffies in both bays can handle any windy conditions. However they will generally seek out calmer conditions at such times. In the windward video they are bobbing around in the lee of the rock. In the more protected bay they were heading into the corner where the headland provides a bit more shelter.

Ducks know what to do.

So do seals. And all the rest of resident and winter critters in the Salish Sea.

Harbor seal in waves

Winter will be shifting into spring in the next month and these storms will lessen. In some ways the wildlife will benefit, like the better visibility and ease of grooming etc. But storms stir up nutrients and prey, a plus.

💧

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. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE PURPOSE AND HISTORY OF THE DAILY BUCKET FEATURE, CHECK OUT THIS DIARY: DAILY BUCKET PHENOLOGY: 11 YEARS OF RECORDING EARTH'S VITAL SIGNS IN OUR NEIGHBORHOODS

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/7/2151520/-The-Daily-Bucket-rough-seas-and-ducks

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