natureswondersbyclyde

     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...

      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...

      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...

      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 ...

     Through a live camera and our home computer screen, on February1, 2026, this Pennsylvanian was happy to see large flocks of cackling geese, with sprinklings of Canada geese, snow geese, white-fronted geese and mallard ducks on the mostly frozen Platte River in Audubon's Rowe Sanctuary in southcentral Nebraska.  Those waterfowl species carpeted the flats and shallows of the broad, shallow Platte, wall to wall, to rest, preen and socialize between feeding times in nearby harvested cornfields.  But they will move on to their nesting territories as soon as spring catches up to them.  Meanwhile, those great gatherings of handsome waterfowl were inspiring to see and hear on the computer screen at home.  Few cackling geese are seen here in the eastern United States.          On February 2, I was thrilled to see excellent, close-up views of the elegant geese and ducks on our computer screen.  Masses of stately cackling g...

      Five kinds of birch tree species in northeastern North America include black, yellow, gray, paper and river birches.  The beautiful bark of these birches is most noticeable and enjoyable in winter when the trees are devoid of foliage.        Being related, these birches have several traits in common, other than attractive bark.  They are all trees on the small side.  Male and female flowers are on each tree in all these species, and open in spring.  Male blooms, (catkins) dangle two to three inches from twigs and sway gracefully in the wind that also disperses their pollen to female blossoms.  Female flowers are upright and one inch tall.  And each female bloom, when pollinated, produces a stack of tiny, two-winged seeds that blow away on the wind.        Each type of birch tree has its own niche, which spreads the species, and almost eliminates competition for space in the sun.  Bl...