COMMON WINTER FLOCKS

     Several kinds of adaptable and common birds are obvious wintering in southeastern Pennsylvania's farmland and suburban areas.  These interesting bird species are readily noticed in those human-made habitats because they move about in flocks in search of food.  And these birds provide beauty, intrigue and inspiration, which helps make life more enjoyable to those people who appreciate them.

     Flocks of majestic Canada geese, elegant tundra swans and handsome mallard ducks rest on lakes and the slow currents of creeks, and feed on the green shoots of rye in fields and kernels of corn on harvested corn fields.  At sunset, those kinds of waterfowl take flight, group after group, from their watery roosts, to fly out to feed in fields under the cover of darkness.  Their flocks in swift flight are strikingly, beautifully silhouetted black against a red sunset.  The geese honk loudly, the swans whoop pleasantly, and one can hear the rapid beating of the ducks' wings.  Soon, all these species circle into the wind and parachute down to the feeding fields, group after group, as if on an aerial highway.

     Gatherings of mourning doves, rock pigeons and horned larks walk over harvested corn fields to eat bits of corn, and weed and grass seeds.  The doves and larks are mostly brown, which blends them into bare soil and corn stubble, until they take flight.  The handsome pigeons stand out more in those fields.  

     Doves retire for winter nights in sheltering coniferous trees in nearby farmyards and suburbs.  They enter the evergreens on whistling wings.  Pigeons rest overnight in barns and under bridges.  But larks spend winter nights nestled against wind-blocking clods of soil, furrows in soil, or among snow drifts. 

     Both originally from Europe, gangs of house sparrows and starlings also feed on bits of corn, and weed and grass seeds in fields.  And these species hunker down in coniferous trees and crevices in buildings for the night.

     Wintering flocks of graceful ring-billed gulls and boisterous American crows feed on edibles in parking lots and landfills, helping make those human-made habitats come to life.  Crows also consume corn kernels in harvested fields, dotting those fields black.

     By mid-afternoon, long streams of ring-bills flow swiftly over this area to certain large impoundments and the Susquehanna River where they will spend winter nights on water, ice or mud flats.  It's exciting to see big numbers of them swirl down into the wind and land, several at a time, on those lakes and the river.  

     Meantime, long rivers of American crows pour across the sky from a few directions to converge, in recent years, at Park City shopping mall in Lancaster County.  Noisy, black clouds of crows perch, take flight, and perch again, time after time, until darkness overtakes them.  

     Several each of turkey vultures and black vultures soar effortlessly, and majestically, on high as they look for dead animals to ingest.  Turkey vultures locate food by their keen sense of smell, while black vultures do so by sight, and following their cousins down to a dead critter.  Both vulture species settle together each winter night in tall trees in sheltering wooded valleys that block the wind.  

     Groups of attractive American robins, eastern bluebirds, cedar waxwings and other kinds of birds eat several kinds of berries from trees, shrubs and vines in hedgerows, woodland edges and suburban areas.  The birds digest the pulp of each berry, but pass its seed, thus spreading the various plant species around the countryside.  

     Robins spend winter nights in wind-blocking coniferous trees in older suburbs, while bluebirds retire to tree cavities and bird boxes for winter nights.  Often a few bluebirds pack into one hollow to share body heat.   

     All these lovely, interesting birds make winter more bearable, even enjoyable.  When out in winter, look for some of these common, obvious birds getting their food, or going to roost for a winter's night.