natureswondersbyclyde

     This April, I saw a chipping sparrow in a planted row of arborvitae trees in a neighbor's yard in New Holland, Pennsylvania.  Probably that chipper, and its mate, will nest in one of those evergreen trees, as I have seen chippies regularly do in the past.        Other kinds of small birds, including house finches, American goldfinches, northern cardinals, mourning doves, northern mockingbirds, American robins and small groups of purple grackles also raise young in sheltering arborvitae because of the conifers' dense layering of small, flat needles that protect those birds from weather and predators, including sharp-shinned hawks, crows and house cats.        All those attractive, interesting bird species build open cradles of twigs and dried grass and place those nurseries on forks of limbs.  And those birds add more life to suburban lawns during spring and summer.       Arborvitae, or no...

     Periwinkle vines, grape hyacinths and lilies-of-the-valley are adaptable, cultivated flowering plants in the United States that have much in common.  They are all planted perennials that have lovely flowers in April and spread readily from where they were planted, as if they are wild flowers.         All these plants have beautiful, interesting blossoms, which is why they are abundantly planted on lawns and in flower gardens.        Periwinkles, or Myrtles, for example, are a native, sprawling ground cover that helps halt soil erosion and provides shelter for small wildlife, including a large variety of invertebrates.        This ground-hugging vine produces several purple blooms, each one with five petals.  The bases of those petals together form a star shape in the middle of the flower they create.  Each intriguing blossom resembles a one-inch pinwheel that almost seems to spi...

     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...

     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.  ...

      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.   ...

     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...