natureswondersbyclyde

      When I was a boy living in farmland in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, I was familiar with barn swallows nesting in open-topped, mud-pellet cradles they built themselves on the sides of support beams in a barn.  And when I entered the barn, parent swallows would dive at me and call harshly to drive me away from their eggs or young in those nurseries.           Swallows have always fascinated me.  Their swift, swooping flight is entertaining. I have seen six different kinds in the eastern United States over the years, including barn swallows, cliff swallows, bank swallows, rough-winged swallows, purple martins and tree swallows.  And, having diverged from a common ancestor, all swallows, world-wide, have traits in common with each other, including those species in the eastern United States.  They are all built much alike, with streamlined bodies, long, narrow wings and small beaks, with large gapes for ensnaring flyin...

      The species of two families of North American breeding birds, five kinds of flycatchers, that are nearly identical, and four of spot-breasted thrushes, that look much alike, are examples of species diversion from a common ancestor.  Each species of each family still resembles its close relatives, even after an apparent, long time lapse.  Each kind of bird in both families diverged from its ancestor and adapted to a different habitat to take advantage of new food and shelter sources, different than that of their close relatives.  That diverging from a common ancestor reduces competition for food and cover among those cousins, and creates new species.        Willow, alder, least, Acadian and yellow-bellied flycatchers of the Empidonax genus demonstrate quite well their diversion from a common ancestor.  All five of these species are plain brown for the most part, and have eye rings and wing bars.  They all are plain to...

      Every year, after the spring migration and raising young in summer, by August through September, flocks of several kinds of water-loving, post-breeding birds rest and feed on the mudflats and in shallows of Lake Onalaska, a backwater off the Mississippi River in Wisconsin.  Those flats and shallows often are nearly covered with busy water birds that I am excited to see through a live camera and our computer screen as they go about their business of recovering from rearing offspring, and preparing for winter.      Flocks of stately American white pelicans, double-crested cormorants, ring-billed gulls and caspian terns rest on the flats and catch fish in the shallows, each species in its unique way, which is intriguing to see.  Groups of pelicans work together on the water's surface to herd small fish against a flat where the pelicans all repeatedly dip their large, pouched beaks into the water to scoop up fish.  Individual cormorants div...

      Five kinds of common, flowering plants, including Canada goldenrod, white asters, Jerusalem artichokes, morning glories and smartweeds bloom beautifully along certain rural roadsides in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania farmland during September into October.  And their lovely blossoms are as attractive as any blooms in flower gardens, and free to see.        Perennial, native goldenrods usually are the first to bloom abundantly along many country roads in early September.  Each goldenrod stalk bears a clump of yellow "fingers" pointing in all directions, and each "digit" is covered with tiny, golden florets.  Larger patches and strips of goldenrod are particularly striking and lovely along country roads, and in abandoned fields.       Patches of perennial, native white asters, with white flower petals and yellow flower centers, bloom attractively from mid-September into October, often with goldenrod, along ma...

      Somewhere in the forests of Pennsylvania, a live camera is focused on a secluded and protected timber rattlesnake rookery nestled in a cascade of sun-drenched outcroppings of lichen-covered boulders, fallen logs and carpets of dead, fallen leaves; shelter and sun for snakes in one place.  That live camera is sponsored by "Pennsylvania Rattlecam Livestream".        For a little bit every day since the end of August of this year, through that camera and our home computer screen, I was thrilled to watch, with great interest, up to seven timber rattlesnakes at once sunning themselves in the sunlight on sun-heated boulders.  Those cold-blooded rattlesnakes were all females lying in the heat of the sun to promote their embryos' growth inside themselves.  Rattlesnakes don't lay eggs, but give live birth.                  While pregnant  for a whole summer, female rattlesnakes don...

      The beautiful buckeye butterflies have "eight" eyes, two on top of each of four wings.  All of them are fake, but serve to scare away would-be predators.  Those fraudulent eyes identify buckeyes, and are not all the same size, for added interest in their color patterns.        Six eyes of the eight have purple"pupils", which is how buckeye butterflies got their common name.  Each of those eyes has yellow around it, and a thin, black line around the yellow, for added beauty.  Those intriguing eyes are an accident of genetics that benefitted ancestral buckeyes.  The many succeeding generations of buckeyes carried the genes that cause those eyes on their wings to the present generation, to the benefit of all those generations.      The handsome buckeyes have other attractive markings on top of their wings that aid in camouflaging, and identifying, them.  All four, pretty upper wing surfaces are a ple...