natureswondersbyclyde

      Several kinds of unusual and attractive insects in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania are of special interest to me.  They have intriguing features and/or life histories.      Furry, rounded, half-inch bee flies are active in April when they visit flowers, such as spring beauties, bloodroots, trout lilies and others, on local, woodland floors, to sip nectar from those blossoms.  They have a protruding mouth that siphons up the nectar.  Some bee flies perch on woodland, soil trails where they fly up when people approach.       Spittle bugs are the nymphs of froghoppers that suck sap from grass and other green plants in meadows and on lawns.  Each spittle bug produces a froth around its body to keep it moist, and hidden, while sucking sap.  The nymphs can be spotted by looking for "spit" on the grass, which is their spittle.        Adult eyed click beetles and the caterpillars of spicebus...

      Great horned owls and barred owls, together, can be called "hoot owls" because of their loud hooting that thrill some people, including me, and frighten others.  Both these owl species live in woods across much of North America.  And we can identify each kind, even at night, by listening to the rhythm of their boisterous hooting.      Great horned owls' most frequent calling is a deep " hoo-hoo-hoo, hooooo-hooooo " while that of barred owls seems to say "who cooks for you-who cooks for you-alllll".  Both species have other, less frequently heard, vocalizations as well.  Some of those calls can make a person's hair "stand on end".      Though different species, these handsome owls have characteristics in common.  Both are about two feet long and have camouflaged feathering to avoid the harassments of crows and other birds when trying to rest in trees during the day.  Both kinds of owls mostly hunt prey at ni...

      Bittersweet nightshade jungles have many beauties, and shelter several kinds of wildlife through summer.  This common vine spreads rapidly across the ground and climbs trees, shrubbery and other objects, particularly near streams where the soil is constantly moist.  It can tolerate partial shade.        This kind of nightshade is originally from Eurasia, but is now naturalized in much of the United States.  It is a perennial plant, spreading every spring from its root system in the sheltering ground.  All parts of these interesting plants are poisonous to people and livestock, though nightshade is related to tomatoes, peppers and egg plants.      Nightshade vines sprout early in May, and have several beautiful flowers by early June. Each attractive blossom has five reflexed, deep-purple petals and yellow stamens that come together to a point, making a striking combination of purple and yellow colors. ...

      One mid-June afternoon, while doing errands in New Holland, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, I noticed a family group of eight American crows flying about from buildings to a row of staghorn sumac trees, and back again, as if playing a game.  Watching them, I thought about the four species of crows I have seen in Lancaster County over the years.        Various species of the crow family are adaptable and adjusted well to the human-made fields, suburbs and shopping areas we created.  These related birds are intelligent, black all over and utter similar calls, sometimes making them tough to identify.      The southern population of American crows nests across much of the United States.  In spring and summer, I see several pairs of them in farmland and suburbs foraging for food and raising young in tall trees in both built habitats.  Later, I see some of the family groups foraging for food together in the field...

      Four kinds of small birds, including Louisiana waterthrushes, rough-winged swallows, Acadian flycatchers and eastern phoebes, have characteristics in common because of the nesting habitat they share along streams in eastern North America woodlands.  That habitat molded them to be as they are.      These small birds are brownish or grayish, which camouflages them along streambanks in shaded woods.  Two kinds utter loud songs to be heard above the musically-tumbling stream.  They all consume the abundant invertebrates that live along clear, flowing waterways, and feed those critters to their young birds in their nests.  But they catch those critters in different ways, which reduces competition for food among  them, and helps make them be distinct species.       Waterthrushes seek invertebrates under stones along stream shallows and their gravelly edges.  They even flip some stones over to look for invert...

      Sour cherry, black mulberry and shad bush trees bear fruit in June in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, as elsewhere in the eastern United States.  One afternoon early in this present June, I drove around a corner in New Holland in Lancaster County and noticed two sour cherry trees loaded with lively, beautiful American robins ingesting the red fruits of those trees.  And there were seven or eight other, handsome  robins on the ground that were also consuming fallen cherries.  What a lovely picture those robins made.        Sour cherry, black mulberry and shad bush all have pretty blossoms in April, which are pollinated by honey bees and a variety of other kinds of early insects.  The trees' fruits grow in May and ripen early in June, to the delight of black bears, white-tailed deer, rodents, raccoons, American robins, starlings and other species of berry-eating birds, box turtles and several other types of creatures. ...