natureswondersbyclyde

     While sitting on our back deck to enjoy the lovely scenery and weather during the afternoon of July 21, 2023, I noticed a tiny, red speck in our tall Norway spruce tree on our suburban lawn in southeastern Pennsylvania.  Peering at that red spot with 16 power binoculars, I saw it was a beautiful male house finch feeding three fledgling house finches; his offspring.  Those gray and dark-streaked young birds fluttered their wings vigorously while being fed invertebrates and seeds.  And the wild charm of those birds was decidedly enhanced by the deep-green of the needled spruce boughs.        Those four house finches were a lovely, exciting sight to me.  I know that species of small birds raises young in our neighborhood every summer, including a pair of house finches that hatch offspring on a support under an awning over our deck.  But never before had I watched a father house finch feed his young outside their twig and...

     Frogs, toads and salamanders are invertebrate-eating amphibians.  And smooth-skinned frogs and salamanders must keep their thin skins moist to survive.  But toads' bumpy skins retain water, allowing them to be more independent of water, except to spawn.       Several kinds of salamanders live in southeastern Pennsylvania, each in its own habitat and lifestyle.  And three species of them demonstrate those lifestyles.      Spotted salamanders start life with gills and swimming tails in woodland pools and puddles.  They feed on algae and rotting vegetation and develop lungs within a few months.  Then they emerge from the water and spend the rest of their lives under moist carpets of fallen leaves in woods, where they consume invertebrates.  These beautiful, black and yellow-spotted salamanders only return to water, as adults early in spring to spawn, creating exciting little groups of themselves in pools a...

     During the 1950's to the1970's, bald eagle, osprey and peregrine falcon populations were in a slump because of the use of DDT, plus shooting, poisoning and habitat loss, all inflicted by people.  But from protection by law, not using DDT, hacking out young birds, and the birds' adapting to human activities, even benefitting from them, including nesting platforms in appropriate habitats, these river raptor species all made glorious comebacks.  Today they are again common in North America.      During the spring and summer of 2023, I had been watching, by live camera and our home computer screen, a bald eagle stick nursery in a large tree along a creek in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania farmland, an osprey platform in the Blackwater River of Maryland's Eastern Shore and a peregrine nest box on a cliff in Minnesota that overlooks the Mississippi River.  Through those cameras, I got thrilling, close-up views of the young birds being fed by th...

     Five kinds of seed-eating birds, including permanent resident northern cardinals, song sparrows,  American goldfinches and house finches, and summering chipping sparrows, annually raise young in human-made, suburban lawns in southeastern Pennsylvania, adding more beauty and wildness to those lawns.  All these species of small birds are adaptable, common, and have attractive feathering.  And the resident birds dine at bird feeders in winter and spend winter nights huddled in sheltering bushes and young spruce and arborvitae trees that block cold winds.       Well-known by many people, northern cardinals are the most obvious of these related species.  Males are red and often loudly chant "what cheer, what cheer, what cheer" from tree tops as early as early February in this area, to proclaim nesting territory and attract a mate for rearing offspring.        Female cardinals are buffy-brown all over, except...