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A LOVELY SPRING BOTTOMLAND

     A successional, wooded bottomland in the forested Welsh Mountains near New Holland, Pennsylvania is a lovely place to visit in mid-April because of flowers and leaves developing on trees, shrubbery and smaller plants in the moist soil of those woods.        Several kinds of deciduous trees and other, smaller kinds of plants obviously adapted well to damp soil and shade.  Dominant trees in those low woods are black gums, red maples, shagbark hickory, black walnut, pin oaks, white oaks and tulip trees.  Spicebushes are common in the shrub layer.  On the dead-leaf covered forest floor, skunk cabbage leaves carpet lower spots on the woodland floor with their tall, broad, lush leaves in the middle of April.  Leaves of May apple plants grow in colonies here and there, and looking like the umbrellas of elves gathering in the woods.  Little groups of fiddle heads on cinnamon ferns grow and unfurl near the skunk cabbage and Ma...
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SEA WOLVES

     The dog family is a successful one, with many adaptable species in several habitats all over the world, except Antarctica.  Species in that widespread family include gray wolves, jackals, dingoes, Arctic foxes, the many breeds of domestic dogs, and sea wolves.      Sea wolves are a race of gray wolves, but are a bit smaller and browner than their ancestors.  Sea wolves have lived for thousands of years on islands and shorelines along the Pacific Ocean where it washes ashore on the coasts of Canada and Alaska.  About ninety percent of sea wolf food is from the Pacific, including sea otters, seals, salmon, clams, fish eggs and washed up, dead whales, squid and other ocean critters.  When the tide goes out, they check beaches for stranded sea creatures.  They even wade and swim in surf in a search for food.  Today, members of the dog family fill niches from the Pacific Ocean shores to the beagle sleeping on your couch.  ...
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ELM AND MAPLE SEED BEAUTIES

      Native to northeastern North America, the interesting and attractive winged seeds of American elm trees and red maple trees have beauties, and characteristics in common.  Both kinds of seeds develop from fertilized flowers that bloom early in April.  By mid-May, both have thin, papery "wings" that allow them to float and spin in the wind to the ground, often in sunny places, far from their parent trees, where their seedlings can get a good start in life.  American elm trees and red maple trees are adapted to moist soil in bottomlands, but have also been commonly planted on lawns for their shapes and shade.  And it's on lawns that the beauties of their winged seeds, called samaras" are most appreciated.      American elm seeds are numerous on large trees.  Each seed is small and flat.  And each one is beige, slightly oblong and has a narrow wing completely around the slight bulge of its embryo in its center.   ...
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LOCAL SALAMANDER LIFE CYCLES

     Salamanders are slim, moist-skinned amphibians that shelter in water, or under rocks, fallen logs or leaf litter on woodland floors, depending on each species' life cycle.  Their clammy skins soak up water, and salamanders must stay moist, or they will die.  As adults, they all consume small invertebrates.  And each kind of salamander is attractive in its own, camouflaged way, though few people see them because they hide out so well.        Four common species of salamanders living in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, represent four interesting life cycles of these amphibians.  Like all species of life, these kinds of salamanders, each finding a niche of its own, reduces competition for resources with other kinds of life, especially with close relatives.         Red-spotted newts are a kind of salamander that live as adults in ponds, and court and lay eggs on plants in those ponds.  The larvae h...
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ENJOYABLE APRIL EVENINGS

      Warm, sunny April evenings are enjoyable in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  Increased sunlight each succeeding day and warm, gentle breezes, filled with the scents of flowers and mowed grass, and the sweet songs of birds, help make those evenings wonderful to experience in one's own lawn or at a park in Lancaster County.  And, for me, it is thrilling to be by a local, wooded bottomland and listen to the soul-lifting sounds of spring, as the sun sets and the beautiful evenings slowly give way to darkness.      In April, the lovely blossoms of dandelion, blue violets and other prostrate, lawn plants bloom beautifully on lawns and fields, and along country roadsides, enhancing those human-made habitats.   Many evenings we see wood chucks and cottontail rabbits enthusiastically nibbling leaves and flowers of those adaptable plants.      Meanwhile, male mourning doves, American robins, northern cardinals, house finches a...
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GREAT CRANE GATHERINGS

      Generally, from late February to early April, up to a few hundred thousand sandhill cranes gather on the mud flats and shallows of the Platte River in Audubon's Rowe Sanctuary in southcentral Nebraska.  I see them, often upclose, through a live camera on the sanctuary, which operates 24/7, and our home computer screen .           Through the live camera at night, I see those four-foot cranes by the thousands standing together on the flats and in the shallows, huddled together and sleeping.  Most of them have their beak and head tucked under a wing, but some are awake with heads up when I can see outdoor lights reflecting from their open eyes.  And I can hear the short, gutterel trills of some of the awake cranes.      At first light, the cranes become restless, and vocal.  Now I can see that many ribbon-like flats and shallows are wall to wall sandhills, all standing and ready for the day.  Before...
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SPRING FLOWERS ON LAWNS

      From mid-February to the middle of May in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, many short-grass lawns have beautiful bouquets of flowers on common feral, or wild, plants, which make those lawns more interesting.  Most of these plants are from Eurasia, but a few species are native to North America.  All of them are adapted to short-grass lawns with their regular mowing, and ample sunlight.  And some kinds of these plants feed various species of adaptable wildlife.            Some of these plants, like Veronicas and yellow wood sorrel, are so tight to the soil that mower blades miss cutting them.  Some plants, like dandelions , grow rapidly between weekly mowings.  And other kinds of wild, lawn plants grow, flower and go to seed before mowing time.  These are all ways of living, seeding and spreading on regularly mowed lawns.      Snowdrops with white, bell-shaped flowers, winter aconites that ...
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