natureswondersbyclyde

     In June of 2023, I have been daily watching two osprey nests by live camera and our computer screen.  One osprey cradle of sticks and grass is on a human-made platform in the Blackwater River in Maryland and the other one is on a platform in a salt marsh at the Wetlands Institute along coastal New Jersey.  Three young ospreys are in the Blackwater nursery, while two osprey chicks are in the Jersey cradle.  The father of each brood frequently brings a large fish to his offspring, while the mothers stay on their nurseries to guard the youngsters.        On the afternoon of June 23, just as I brought up the Blackwater nest on our computer, I saw the male land on the nest with a fish, still flapping its tail, in his talons.  I watched as his mate tore pieces off the fish, starting at the head, and fed them to her half-grown charges, and ate some of those chunks herself.  The male, meanwhile, lifted off into the wind and w...

      The fringillidae family of birds includes finches, sparrows, buntings and grosbeaks, all of which have seed-cracking beaks.  Four kinds of adaptable fringillidae, nesting in thickets in southeastern Pennsylvania cropland, have colorful males, including permanent resident northern cardinal grosbeaks and American goldfinches, and summering indigo buntings and blue grosbeaks.  All these striking males are a joy to see singing from roadside wires and the tips of trees and shrubbery in hedgerows between fields in local farmland to proclaim nesting territories and attract mates for reproduction.  The plainly-feathered females of each species build their cradles secluded among the bushes and tangled vines in those thickets.        Most everyone is familiar with the beautifully red male cardinals because they are common and obvious in farmland, and suburban areas, and boldly sing "what, cheer, what cheer ...".  Their camouflaged ...

      When I walk in deciduous, bottomland woods in southeastern Pennsylvania during June, I am pestered by several female deer flies.  At least a few of them always succeed in biting me; and those bites hurt!      Broad-headed, with brightly-colored, large eyes, female deer flies are almost a half inch-long, have clear wings with dark bands and yellow-brown and dark-striped thoraxes and abdomens.        Deer flies live near waterways and standing water in wooded bottomlands.  There on warm, sunny days, male deer flies sip flower nectar and ingest pollen, but females need a meal of blood from large mammals, including white-tailed deer and people, so they have enough protein to lays eggs.         Female deer flies locate their victims by sight, smell, body heat and the presence of carbon dioxide in the air.  When a large mammal is perceived, including me, each female deer fly silently circles h...

     One day in May, while walking through a deciduous woods in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, I found a petite, lichen-covered bird nest flying on  the trail.  Apparently, it was blown out of its tree in the storm the night before.  I picked it up and saw that it was a pretty, little nursery.  I later learned it was built by a pair of blue-gray gnatcatchers, which are tiny birds only four and one half inches long.      Gnatcatchers and ruby-throated hummingbirds have several characteristics in common, though they are not related.  Both kinds of birds are the only ones of their respective families nesting in the eastern United States.  Both species are tiny, the hummers being only three and one half inches in length.  Both migrate to tropical America in late summer to avoid winter weather and find food.  And both feed on tiny insects.          Both construct lovely, compact cups of fine ...

      During the full moon each May, many, many thousands of horseshoe crabs come ashore on sandy beaches in backwaters off the Atlantic Ocean, including Delaware and Chesapeake Bays, to spawn billions of eggs in the sand.  Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of north-bound shorebirds halt their migrations to gorge on that tremendous bounty of horseshoe crab eggs.  And several diamond-backed terrapins come close to those same beaches, perhaps to see what the excitement is about.  One can see the turtles poking their heads out of the brackish water so they can breathe and look around.       Amusingly, several of those terrapins climb on the horseshoe crabs in the shallows.  Being devout sun-bathers, those turtles are there to bask in the sunlight, which kills skin parasites and warms the cold-blooded turtles enough so they can hunt food.        Diamond-backed terrapins are the only North American turtles that li...

     Once a week, almost every week, we drive by a commercial development of roads and several large buildings, all surrounded by regularly mowed, short-grass lawns just outside Lancaster City, Pennsylvania.  And a quarter-acre pond graces the middle of one of the lawns, a good place for adaptable Canada geese to hang out, and they do, throughout the year.  Those majestic, wild geese are enjoyable and inspiring to experience on lawns as they graze on grass, and particularly when boisterously honking in flight over lawns, buildings and fields.        Canada geese are adaptable.  They take advantage of human-made habitats, including built ponds surrounded by lawns, where they ingest aquatic plants and lawn grass, and harvested grain fields, where they ingest grain off the ground.        Many groups of these elegant geese are at home on extensive lawns surrounding a constructed pond or lake in commercial, medic...