natureswondersbyclyde

     There is a fresh-water oasis flowing into a bay in the long, lean, bayside marsh at Bayview and Twenty-fourth Streets on Long Beach Island, New Jersey.  Take New Jersey Route 72 east on a bridge over that bay to Surf City on that barrier island with sandy beaches on its Atlantic Ocean side.        Several kinds of wintering water birds come to that oasis to drink fresh water flowing from a brook into the saltwater bay between that developed barrier island and the Jersey mainland.  And I have been watching those birds daily from mid-December to mid-February through a live camera and our home computer screen.        The fresh-water brook flows through a long, lean marsh of clump grass, tall grass, high, plumed phragmites and narrow, shallow channels on Long Beach Island.  When the tide goes out, a mud flat is exposed where the brook dumps silt in the bay at its shoreline, building it up.  Water birds drink from the fresh-water mostly when the tide is out because the fresh water spre

      One afternoon in mid-February of 2023, I drove about 20 miles round trip on errands in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and along the way I saw several signs of early spring.  I took a route that would take me by a few places where I had seen signs of early spring over the last several years, which is like an annual tradition.  And, happily, I saw several signs of spring that afternoon.      By the middle of February, the length of daylight each succeeding day has increased noticeably.  And this winter, to date, has been unusually mild here.  Therefore, wild plants and animals responded to those favorable conditions a couple of weeks earlier than usual, much to my delight.      While driving along country roads, I noticed several pairs of mourning doves perched, here and there, on roadside wires near coniferous trees.  They probably intend to raise young in those conifers quite soon.  On that day, too, I heard a few male doves cooing in our neighborhood before I left on my errands

     During warm afternoons in mid-February, I am thrilled to hear the delightful songs of several kinds of small, permanent resident birds in southeastern Pennsylvania's woodland edges and hedgerows with their tangles of vines and shrubbery, and older suburban areas with their planted trees and bushes.  Increasing daylight each succeeding day in January and February stir the hormones of male mourning doves, northern cardinals, northern mockingbirds, song sparrows, house finches, tufted titmice and other species of song birds.  And when the weather in February is spring-like, those male birds begin to break into lovely song to establish nesting territories and attract mates for reproduction, many of them singing on our lawns.  Their beautiful songs are welcome, and proclaim "spring is here"!!!      A cold snap or snowfall temporarily halts that welcome singing.  But the return of warmer weather prompts the birds to resume their wonderful singing, some of them right at hom