natureswondersbyclyde

     Cooper's hawks and free-roaming house cats are major predators in our suburban New Holland, Pennsylvania neighborhood.  I've seen both species on the prowl several times each from our house and lawn.  They are interesting parts of nature, experienced first-hand and close from the comforts of home.      Forest-evolved Cooper's hawks hunt prey in older suburbs because of the many maturing trees in those human-made habitats that are appealing to gray squirrels, cottontail rabbits mourning doves and other kinds of wildlife.  House cats are there because they are allowed to roam free outdoors where their hunting instincts and skills become active.           The handsome Coop's mostly prey on birds, including starlings, doves and other kinds.  This type of diurnal raptor is  swift and powerful in flight.  During an ambush of birds, Coop's can outfly and out-maneuver some of their potential victims.  The hawks even chase birds into dense shrubbery to try to snare them

      On a sunny afternoon in mid-November of 2021, I saw a loose flock of about 36 handsome killdeer plovers in a low, soggy, short-grass pasture with a shallow brook flowing through it.  And a little later, I saw eight attractive northern horned larks in another, higher, drier meadow nearby.  Both species of native, wintering birds were searching for invertebrates in those human-made, short grass habitats in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.       I didn't see either groups of birds with my eyes alone when driving by the meadows because their camouflage is so good.  But knowing that both kinds of these birds were in those pastures before, I stopped to see if any were currently there with my 16 power pair of binoculars.  Obviously, they were.       While watching each type of birds a few minutes each, I again appreciated the beauty of each species, though both kinds are brown on top, making them invisible in short vegetation or bare ground, until those birds move across the ground o

      Every March, years ago, when I cleaned out a few bluebird nesting boxes along hedgerows and woodland edges, I braced myself to be startled.  I reached into each box to pull out grass from last year's nests, and often, when I did, a deer mouse, or two, or three jumped out right toward me.  I knew they were fearful and only wanted to escape, but they always, always, made me jump back.  The mice were in those bird houses to escape predators, and the cold winds of winter.      Adult deer mice are clean, cute, little creatures with brown fur on top, like a deer, and white below, with white feet and large, bulging black eyes that are so lovely and appealing.  Young deer mice are gray above and white underneath.  Young or older, they all are an adorable part of nature throughout much of North America.  And deer mice are closely related and very similar to the equally lovely white-footed mice.  They have the same habits and habitats as each other.      Deer mice live in most every ha

      One late afternoon in winter, when I was about ten years old, I walked through a patch of weeds standing tall in our family garden in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  Suddenly, a little flock of small, gray birds flew up at once and dashed away from those weeds where they had been eating seeds.  Each lovely, little bird flashed a white V in its tail as those birds quickly flew away from me.  At the time, I didn't know what kind of birds they were, but later learned they were dark-eyed juncos.        During succeeding winters, I saw juncos in weedy fields near stands of young, planted evergreen trees, into which they retreated when frightened by a hungry hawk, or my presence.  Interestingly, those jaunty juncos always flashed white V's as they flitted away into the conifers to hide.  And those V's disappeared when the birds landed in the dark recesses of needled boughs, which, I suspect, confuses would-be predators who lost track of their prey.  Juncos also spend winte