natureswondersbyclyde

      Fog blowing off the southern Atlantic Ocean is the most predictable, reliable source of daily fresh water in the Namib Desert along the west coast of southwestern Africa, if you can harvest that fog.        Certain kinds of darkling beetles in the Namib harvest water from fog, which allows them to survive in one of the driest environments on Earth.  Each morning, those beetles clamber up the sand dunes to their crests and stand still in "head-stand" positions on them, a behavior called "fog-basking".  The wind-driven fog rolls over the beetles, some of it getting trapped as droplets on the tips of bumps on the beetles' wing covers.  The droplets dribble down to a waxy surface between the bumps on the wing covers, making them soaking wet, and slide down the beetle's head-down posture to its mouth so each beetle can drink that life-giving, fresh water.  Though the head-stands, and bumps and wax on the wing covers are small ...

      Several trough feeders, daily loaded with oats, acorns and apples, provide food for over 60 white-tailed deer, a couple dozen wild turkeys and about a score of mourning doves every day in the mixed deciduous/coniferous woods outside Brownsville in central Maine.  All these critters, plus sprinklings of blue jays and starlings, a pair of hairy woodpeckers, and a few each of gray squirrels and red squirrels are seen close-up by live cameras and computer screens, including mine.        Feeding wildlife is not natural, but the creatures still live outdoors and are free to follow their own instincts.  They are still part of the ecosystem around them, and entertaining as they gather food and socialize with other members of each creature's kind.  And they are enjoyed by many people who see them on-line, and are inspired by them.      It's exciting, and inspiring to see groups of deer, turkeys and doves coming to the fe...

      With a casual glance, short-grass pastures in winter in Lancaster County, as elsewhere, seem barren of bird life, except for an occasional small flock of mallard ducks, here and there, on them.  But with closer looks with binoculars, I can spot one, or a few each of killdeer plovers, Wilson's snipe, song sparrows and water pipits. all of which are camouflaged along certain running brooks of clear, shallow water.  There those birds spend winter days searching for invertebrates in, or along, the edges of those little waterways in meadows, which are human-made habitats.           Most short-grass pastures, used for grazing livestock, have little shelter in the form of shrubbery.  But all these birds, except the song sparrows, are adapted to open habitats with minimal cover to avoid cold winds and predators.  And song sparrows are adaptable, making do with whatever shelter is available.        Al...

      In winter, Barnegat Bay, a saltwater channel between New Jersey mainland and one of its barrier islands along the Atlantic Ocean shoreline, a little cove off Chesapeake Bay by Kent Island, Maryland, Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge off The Chesapeake in Maryland and Middle Creek's 400-acre lake in southeastern Pennsylvania are large, natural habitats that harbor inspiring masses of handsome, wintering swans, geese and ducks.        In winter, years ago, I visited those beautiful wildlife places in person, but now I see impressive hordes of tundra swans, Canada geese, Atlantic brant geese, snow geese, pintail ducks, shoveler ducks and American wigeon ducks through a live camera at each location and our home computer screen.  Either way, I now know, is as good as the other, each in its own way.  Readers, too, can visit in person or bring those places up on computer screens.        Great flocks of those kin...

      Mourning doves, house sparrows, house finches, Carolina wrens, northern cardinals and blue jays are my favorite feathered suburbanite neighbors in our typically suburban New Holland, Pennsylvania neighborhood of trees, shrubbery and grass.  These birds are permanent residents here, and nest here; they are enjoyable neighbors to have.  I've seen the young of  these species on our lawn.  All these common bird species are attractive, and have interesting songs.  These species come to feeders through each year.        Brown and dark-spotted mourning doves nest in our neighborhood from early March to early September, attempting to rear a clutch of two young per month.  But wind and predators eliminate some of the chicks before they are able to fledge their coniferous tree bough nurseries.  All summer, pairs of doves coo gently to each other, all day and every day, and raise two staggered broods of young at once,...

      Most folks in the eastern United States are familiar with the handsome American robins and eastern bluebirds, and some parts of their life histories.  Those species of birds are in the thrush family, and have counterpart thrush relatives, namely varied thrushes and mountain bluebirds that do the same jobs as American robins and eastern bluebirds, but in the higher altitudes of western North America.       Though related, and nesting in the upper altitudes of western North America, the attractive varied thrushes and mountain bluebirds don't compete with each other for food and nesting sites.  The former species raises young in open, mud and grass cradles on tree limbs in the dense, dark understories of moist, mixed coniferous/deciduous forests, while the bluebirds rear offspring in abandoned tree cavities and erected bird houses in mountain meadows.  Their American robin and eastern bluebird counterparts nest the same ways, except r...