natureswondersbyclyde

      During the summer of 2020, I watched the breeding birds in two remnant woodlands in farmland near my home in New Holland, Pennsylvania.  One woodlot is on a bottomland with a stream flowing through it, and the other one, about a mile away, is on slightly higher ground.  The second woodlot has a small, recreational park in it.        Both woods are about four acres in size and have tall trees, and thickets of shrubs and vines along their borders with fields and meadows.  And both woodlots are along blacktop, country roads, which offer easy access to both patches of woods in cropland.      Several kinds of common, attractive woodland and thicket birds, including Carolina chickadees, tufted titmice, white-breasted nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers, blue jays, northern cardinals, song sparrows, gray catbirds and Baltimore orioles,  are adaptable enough to nest in both these remnant woodland...

      During summer and autumn, several kinds of attractive birds perch on country, roadside wires in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania croplands.  Those birds use the wires to sing to proclaim nesting territories, and rest, digest and preen their feathers between feeding forays in nearby fields.  People walking or riding along rural roads see many of those birds and know what species of them live and nest in nearby farmland.  Those roadside birds help make agricultural areas more enjoyable for people who look for nature among croplands.      Related to each other, mourning doves and rock pigeons consume seeds and grain in fields, but frequently perch on roadside wires to rest, in pairs or as flocks.  The doves are brown, but most of the pigeons are gray, though there are white and white and gray pigeons in pigeon gatherings because of some domestic birds joining wild groups.  The brown and gray coloring blend these birds into their ba...

     Visibly active during summer months, white-tailed and twelve-spotted skimmers are common, related species of dragonflies living in southeastern Pennsylvania, and much of the United States.  These kinds of dragonflies have characteristics in common, which demonstrates their shared ancestry.  And they are my favorite dragonflies.   They are large enough to be easily seen in rapid flight, have attractive color patterns and are excitedly fast when sweeping low over cattail-bordered ponds, grass-lined, slow-moving creeks and bordering farmland after flying insects, including lots of mosquitoes, which they catch and eat.  And, interestingly, they hover like helicopters.  Dragonflies are thrilling, entertaining and inspiring to watch, without fear of being stung or bitten by them.  Their beauties and dashing flamboyance help make summer waters come to life.      Both these kinds of skimmers are two inches long and have three...

      Dandelions and white clovers have much in common.  Both these adaptable, tough plant species are perennials originally from Eurasia, though today they are also abundant on many short-grass lawns in the eastern United States, adding much beauty to those human-made habitats.  Many lawns are golden with the abundance of dandelion flowers in April and white with white clover blossoms from mid-May into September, bringing much beauty and inspiration to many people.          Both types of plants have flower heads, each one with many tiny florets.  Both species provide food for certain kinds of wildlife on those lawns, which have limited food and cover for wildlife.  And both kinds of plants have adapted to regular lawn mowing, which gives them more land to thrive on, and allows them more sunlight, without the shading of tall grass and other plants.        Dandelion plants, by good fortune, adapted ...

      Some early evenings in August, I sit on our deck in New Holland, Pennsylvania and watch several each of barn swallows and chimney swifts sweeping swiftly across the sky in on-going, hot pursuit of flying insects to eat.  Those entertaining birds start me thinking about the creatures in southeastern Pennsylvania that regularly chase flying insects.  Those summering critters in this area are four kinds of swallows, including barn swallows, tree swallows, purple martins and rough-winged swallows, chimney swifts, a few common kinds of dragonflies and a few species of bats.  These airborne kinds of local wildlife are inspiring to watch careening across the sky, and among their fellows in mid-air, without collision, over cities, suburbs, fields and impoundments after their prey.  Swifts and all the swallow species have broad mouths to snare their victims.  And the attractive swallows line up on roadside wires to rest, digest and preen their feathe...

      Though cultivated for crops that are harvested to the ground, much of southeastern Pennsylvania's farmland is still green and lovely in summer.  And, although cropland appears barren of wildlife, it is not.  Even grain fields that are harvested to the ground have a surprising variety of adaptable wildlife dining among the golden stubble and rows of recently sprouted hay, corn or soybean plants planted soon after the harvest of grain and straw.        Just like geese, crows and other kinds of birds that visit harvested corn fields in winter to eat corn kernels on the ground, a variety of birds enter harvested grain fields in summer to consume grain.  The more commonly seen birds on those golden banquet tables of stubble then are rock pigeons, mourning doves, house sparrows, American robins, purple grackles, starlings, killdeer plovers and horned larks.  These adaptable birds add their kinds of beauty and interest to harves...

     I think of laughing gulls and brown pelicans as beautiful and inspiring icons of the Atlantic seacoast of the United States in summer.  The gulls summer from southern New England south and west to Mexico, while the pelicans summer from New Jersey to Mexico.  Both these wonderful species of birds are common, and commonly seen, summering along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts.  I've been happy to see them in person along the coasts, and I'm just as glad to experience them on our home computer screen via live cameras on barrier islands and backwater salt marshes between those islands and the mainland.      Laughing gulls and brown pelicans are attractive, adaptable and graceful in flight along the seacoast.  Both species rest obviously in the open on docks, pilings, piers, roof tops, jetties, beaches and backwater channels, where they are easily seen by everyone.  In summer, adult laughing gulls are light-gray on top, white below and ...