BIRDS IN MID-STREAM BRUSHPILES

     One mid-April afternoon this year, I drove by a Lancaster County, Pennsylvania stream, flanked on both sides by black walnut and ash-leafed maple trees of varying sizes.  A large maple fell into that waterway and blocked limbs floating downstream, creating a mid-stream brush-pile.

     I stopped to check that heap of branches for birds that could be sheltering in it.  Sure enough, I noticed a pair of song sparrows in that stack of stuck boughs and twigs.  They were hopping about in search of invertebrates among the fallen branches.  They were a bit hard to see, even with binoculars, because those gray-brown and black-streaked birds are so well camouflaged among thickets.  

     Song sparrows are permanent residents wherever they live.  And many pairs live along streams and brooks that run through sheltering thickets of trees, bushes and vines.  The pair I saw in the brush-pile might even raise young in its protection, and gather invertebrates along the waterway to feed their babies.

     I also briefly saw a lovely Carolina wren lurking in that brush-pile in quest of invertebrates.  This permanent resident species has warm-brown feathering that blends its members into the brushy habitats many of them share with song sparrows and other species of small birds.  Carolina wrens often nest in odd places, and this species, too, could very well hatch offspring in the depths of a mid-stream brush-pile.

     During the hour I watched that mid-stream heap of limbs, I saw a swamp sparrow and a palm warbler skulking about for invertebrates to eat.  These birds were migrants that stopped off to regain fat and strength for the next lap of their journeys to their nesting habitats in swamps and marshes.  Both those small, pretty birds were also tough to see because of their blending in.  But the handsome warbler sported a yellow belly and a chestnut cap.           

     As I watched those lovely, lively, little birds, I thought about other kinds of small birds that benefit from such brush-piles.  

     Winter wrens, here from nesting farther north, skulk for still-active invertebrates among brush piles and tree roots along streams in woods through winter.  These tiny, dark-brown birds resemble mice with feathers slipping among the fallen tree boughs.

     In summer, smoky-gray eastern phoebes, which are a kind of flycatcher, perch on top of brush heaps and watch for insects to fly by.  When flying insects are close enough, phoebes flutter out to snare the bugs in their beaks in mid-air, then fly back to their perches to ingest their victims.  Eastern phoebes hatch youngsters on rock ledges, under overhanging boulders near streams in woods.

     Louisiana waterthrushes, which are a kind of North American warbler, rear young in streambank pockets in woodlands.  This species dips and bobs along stream edges to find invertebrates. and includes mid-stream heaps of  branches in their quest for food.  Their streamside dancing mimics small debris bouncing in the current, which, I think, is a form of camouflage.

     Beaver dams and lodges harbor the same species of birds looking for food.  Those beaver constructions shelter the birds while they search for invertebrates.

     It seems that every niche on Earth is occupied by at least one kind of animal.  And mid-stream piles of limbs and twigs are no exception.  

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