natureswondersbyclyde

      The past couple of winters I've been watching two deer and wildlife feeders on-line, one in Maine and the other in Iowa.  Both these deer feeding situations are in openings in woods.  And both attract white-tailed deer and other kinds of woodland and thicket wildlife, day and night.  These wonderful wild creatures enhance the lives of the feeder owners, and everyone who watches those critters, live, on their computer screens.  Outdoor lights allow viewing of nocturnal animals at night.      The seven big, oat-filled feeder troughs in Maine daily attract about fifty stately white-tails at once at dusk, though deer can be spotted there anytime of day and night (with spotlights at night).  One can experience the beautiful, graceful deer in all kinds of weather through winter, including during snowfalls.  We see the elegant antlers on the magnificent, bigger bucks.  We see those same bucks after they drop their antlers, mostly in February, and notice the buds of growing, new antl

      Part of each winter for several years, up to 24 black ducks have rested, along with Canada geese, mallard ducks and common merganser ducks, on a slow-moving, half-mile stretch of Mill Creek in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  That part of Mill Creek is flanked on one side by a thin, riparian woods that shades the creek and offers low-hanging limbs that shelter those ducks and geese on the water.  The other side of the creek is bordered by cow pastures where the geese graze on grass.        Black ducks appear black on ice and snow, particularly from a distance.  They are ruggedly handsome ducks that exhibit much stamina.  They are robust, and have layers of dense feathering, as all waterfowl do, that shields them from cold water and air.  And black ducks are particularly wary, quick to fly away at the least hint of potential danger.        Like their close cousins, the mallards, black ducks "tip-up" in shallow water to feed on aquatic vegetation.  But in winter they also

      Early each spring in North America, flocks of ducks, geese, swans, cranes, blackbirds and other kinds of birds migrate north.  But northbound sandhill cranes and snow geese form great, boisterous gatherings of themselves that surpass the dramatic numbers of other kinds of North American birds.  Hordes of long-legged sandhills spend nights in March and into early April on the mud flats and shallows of the Platte River in Audubon's Rowe Sanctuary in southcentral Nebraska.   Masses of snow geese daily come to and leave the 400 acre lake at the Pennsylvania Game Commission's Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in southeastern Pennsylvania from about mid-February to around the middle of March.  And both these tremendous swarms of stately birds create unforgettable and inspiring spectacles that can be enjoyed, close-up, in person, or on computer screens via live cameras on those locations.  Sandhill cranes and snow geese have characteristics in common.        At a distance in

      Bald eagles, great horned owls and red-tailed hawks are big feathered predators that begin nesting by January, into early February in the Middle Atlantic States.  They start their breeding cycle that early so their youngsters are on their own in June when the prey species of each kind of raptor is most abundant and vulnerable, which gives those inexperienced, unskilled immature young a good start to their independence.  Even so, some young raptors starve to death before they develop adequate hunting skills.        Each mated pair of eagles, horned owls and red-tails forms a tight bond to raise their progeny together, which is necessary in late winter and early spring to keep their offspring safe from other creatures, and warm in open, stick cradles in tall tree tops and exposed, human-made structures that some of these adaptable raptors use as nurseries.               To protect eggs and small young, each female of all these species constantly broods them, while her mate hunts fo

      Nocturnal mammals are not easy to see roaming at night.  But I've seen many over the years, including cottontail rabbits, opossums, striped skunks and little brown bats on our suburban lawn, and white-tailed deer, red foxes, raccoons, mink and other species along roadsides and in farmland fields.       But a newer way of seeing night-roaming mammals is on-line, via live cameras at feeders in Maine, North Carolina, South Carolina, Iowa and Pennsylvania, and our home computer screen.  And because computers look back in time, I also observe the activities of nocturnal mammals at my convenience during daylight hours.      Sometimes, the first thing one sees of mammals at night, in real life and on computer screens, is eyeshine.  Lights on vehicles and spotlights shine on those animals, and the eyes of the creatures reflect that light, which make them visible, alerting us of a mammal being in the dark.  Deer eyeshine is pale-green, for example, and that of cottontails is light-ora