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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.


After the stormy skies yesterday we ended up with quite a warm and sunny afternoon. The crocus flowers which were just starting to pop up out of the ground burst fully open, deep purple scattered across the front yard. In the backyard the Bewick’s Wren sat at the tops of trees and shrubs singing all afternoon.

Today however, it was raining when I woke up and it continues raining still this afternoon. While making tea in the kitchen this morning, I noticed a dark spot on a window ledge outside. It was a Chestnut-backed Chickadee fluffed up and looking none-t0-healthy. Its feathers were so puffed up it was hard to tell which type of chickadee it was at first. It tucked its head in under the feathers and appeared to be trying to sleep, although in a quite exposed location. As I tried to get a better look at it I scared it away and it flew off.

Thinking of the wren yesterday and the desperate looking chickadee today it made me think just how much the weather impacts the wildlife day-t0-day this time of the year.

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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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