natureswondersbyclyde

      On July 1, this past, I was waiting in my pick-up truck on a blacktop parking lot in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania for my wife.  While there, I noticed a northern mockingbird on the peak of the roof on a nearby, two-story building, surrounded by the parking lot and little islands of planted grass, shrubbery and trees.  Suddenly, the mockingbird took flight and attacked a crow that was flying by.  The crow landed on the same building's roof, and the mocker, and its mate, continued to viciously dive-bomb it repeatedly until the crow finally flew away.      The mockers probably were protecting their young in a twig and grass nursery somewhere in a row of planted bushes at the base of the building.  Crows do consume eggs and young from the cradles of small birds, when they can find those foods and if they are not chased away by the parent birds.        After that exciting encounter between a crow and a pair of...

      Barnegat Bay is a 42-mile-long, salty backwater off the Atlantic Ocean between the New Jersey mainland and Long Beach Island, a barrier island of sand and housing.  From mid-May to the end of June, 2025, I had been watching a thin, remnant salt marsh on the island along the eastern shore of the bay, and wildlife in that marsh, through a live camera mounted high on an osprey nest and our computer screen.  And, although there is lots of human activities in the marsh and on the barrier island that disrupts wildlife, that little marsh shows the value of every little natural habitat to a variety of wildlife, no matter how small or where the habitat is.        Early in April of this year, a pair of ospreys settled on the stick cradle on a built and erected nesting platform some twenty feet high on a pole.  The female laid three eggs in that nursery and the pair took turns brooding those eggs.  But during stormy weather, the mal...

      There are bluebirds, such as eastern bluebirds, and there are blue birds, including eastern bluebirds, indigo buntings and blue grosbeaks.  These species of beautiful, small birds raise young across much of the eastern United States.      Males of each of these lovely species are mostly blue, their breeding plumages, and most appealing feature.  Their mates and young, however, have earthy feathering, which camouflages them.      Males of each kind sing pretty songs to establish territory, discourage rival males and attract mates for rearing offspring.  Their delightful songs also indicate the presence of each species to us.        Male eastern bluebirds have the most beautiful blue feathering on their upperparts that I have ever seen.  I remember seeing a pair of them in flight in our garden when I was about eight years old and thinking how bright and noticeable the male's blue feathering was...

      During June of 2025, I noticed that white clover and yellow wood sorrel plants were abundant and obvious on many short-grass lawns in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  Those flowering plants grow close to the ground, which means many of their lovely flowers are not cut off by regular lawn mowing.  Together, the attractive blossoms of these adaptable plants of human-made, short-grass habitats add beauty and interest to mowed lawns in summer.       White clover and yellow wood sorrel have different strategies to cope with lawn mowing.  Clover plants grow new flowers after each cutting, which replace the ones sliced off.  This plant, therefore, provides new blooms, and fresh nectar to worker honey bees and bumble bees all summer.        Yellow wood sorrels' pretty blooms are so low to the ground, they don't get mowed off.  In fact, grass removal allows more sunlight to reach the leaves of clovers and ...

      Ovenbirds, wood thrushes and brown thrashers nest in woods and thickets in Pennsylvania, and throughout much of the eastern United States.  And while nesting there, these species of unrelated song birds feed mostly on invertebrates they catch on forest floors.        Interestingly, these three kinds of birds that share woodland nesting habitats have brown feathering on top, but white underparts, streaked with black spots.  Those plumage color patterns on both genders of each species camouflages them on woodland floors of dead-leaf carpets as they feed.         Each of these woodland species has its own niche, which allows each one to raise young in much the same environments as the others, with minimal competition for food.  Ovenbirds, which are a kind of warbler, generally nest in drier, maturing oak woods.  They place their unique, dead-leaf nursery on the dead-leaf-covered ground.  Each pa...

      Laughing gulls' black heads and incessant, laughing cries are abundant summer icons along Atlantic Ocean shorelines.  And, happily, those in-your-face gulls are everywhere along the Atlantic Coast- in salt marshes where they nest, on salt backwaters and channels off the ocean, sandy beaches, mud flats and boardwalks, and in towns on barrier islands along the ocean's shores.  But they seldom venture inland.  And they drift south in fall.        Thousands upon thousands of striking, loudly-calling laughing gulls arrive at their protective, tall-grass salt marshes, sprawled between barrier islands and the mainland along the Atlantic Coast by mid-April, and form breeding colonies of hundreds of pairs in each colony.  Amorous gulls pair off and court loudly with seemingly unending, laughing cries.  Each pair then makes a grassy nursery on slightly higher ground under tall grasses, where each female lays three olive or buf...