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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.



Although the threat of rain is in the forecast, it’s been sunny and warm all day so far and we spent time in the backyard watching the wildlife taking advantage of the weather. The Bewick’s Wrens are still active in and out of the nest and today I saw them both out of the nest for a brief spell looking for food. If the eggs are hatching then it’s very quiet in the box so I’m not sure if there are any chicks yet or if the adults decided to take a break. One came back with what looked like a larva of some type in its beak and gave it, after much tug-o-war, to its mate in the box.

As I stood taking photos of bees, a Black-capped Chickadee took a bath just on the other side of the Twinberry from me and I listened to it splashing around before flying up to the apple tree next door to get its feathers in order.

I’ve spent a lot of time today watching all the activity on and around the blooming Pacific Ninebark. The plant is attracting all manner of buzzing insects from tiny bees to honey bees and mason bees along with beetles and flies. I’ve seen several types of beetles including Blood-red Lady Beetles on the plant. The blooming flowers are certainly the biggest draw in our yard right now.

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Kelly Brenner

Kelly Brenner

Kelly Brenner is a naturalist, writer and artist based in Seattle. She is the author of THE NATURALIST AT HOME: Projects for Discovering the Hidden World Around Us and NATURE OBSCURA: A City’s Hidden Natural World from Mountaineers Books, a finalist for the Washington State Book Awards and Pacific Northwest Book Awards. She writes articles about natural history and has bylines in Crosscut, Popular Science, National Wildlife Magazine and others. On the side she writes fiction.

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