natureswondersbyclyde

     Southeastern Pennsylvania farmland has many cow pastures of short grass, and a few tall trees that shade livestock.  Many of those meadows have a stream running through them, which waters the stock.      Several kinds of birds nest in those meadows, including three kinds of flycatchers, including eastern kingbirds, willow flycatchers and eastern phoebes.  Each of these species of flycatchers, however, has its own niche, which allows the three kinds the opportunity to nest in the same pastures, with little competition for food and space among their relatives.      All species of flycatchers use their beaks to snare flying insects in mid-air, which gives them their common names.  Each individual of all species flutters out, grabs an insect and zips back to its perch to ingest its meal and watch for another victim and another.      Because flying insects are not available in North America in winter, almost all ...

     In spring, migrant American white pelicans, double-crested cormorants, ring-billed gulls and Caspian terns rest together on mud flats in Lake Onalaska, a backwater off the Mississippi River in Wisconsin.  All these handsome birds migrate along rivers because they catch fish, each species in its own way.  And I see these many birds at Onalaska through a live camera and our home computer screen.      White pelicans are large, an appear clumsy on land.  But they are elegant and graceful on water and in flight.  They often fly in long, undulating lines and soar gracefully together on high.  Their flights are expressions of grace and beauty that one has to see to appreciate.      When feeding, a group of white pelicans herds schools of small fish into shallow water where all the pelicans together, as if on cue, dip their large beaks into those shallows to scoop up as many little fish as they can into their pouches....

     I like to experience remnant habitats amid human activities to know what adaptable, wild plants and animals live in them among our activities.  An interesting, remnant habitat I watched from mid-April to mid-May of this year is a long, narrow strip of grassy salt marsh along part of the western shore of fully developed Long Beach Island, a long, thin, New Jersey barrier island, between Barnegat Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.  I was able to see that slender salt marsh via a live camera focused on an osprey nest and our home computer screen.        April and May are months of north-bound migrations for many kinds of bird species, including some of them noticed at the little salt marsh on Long Beach Island.  Some individuals of certain species stayed in that marsh to raise young.  I came to realize that this is a good wildlife habitat, for its size, in the midst of human activities, including homes, businesses and vehicle traffi...

     Every summer I see several northern false map turtles basking in sunlight on logs fallen into Lake Onalaska through a live camera and our computer screen.  Onalaska is a large backwater off the Mississippi River in Wisconsin.        This type of map turtle favors river and lake habitats, where they feed on snails, crayfish, tadpoles, insect larvae, carrion and aquatic vegetation.        Avid baskers, these turtles spend much time each sunny day lying in warming sunlight on shorelines, half-submerged rocks and trees lying in the water.  Basking kills parasites on their bodies, and warms these cold-blooded reptiles enough to enable them to be able to search for food and mates.  Being communal creatures, several of them are on a log or rock at once to soak up warming rays.  But being alert and cautious, they drop into the water whenever danger threatens.        We can admire t...

     Several kinds of adaptable birds raise young on human-made structures in southeastern Pennsylvania, as elsewhere.  Though they all originally nested in other, natural niches, they found structures to be common, handy shelters for their offspring.  Those birds gain additional nesting sites, and an increase in numbers.  And they help make built niches more interesting to us.      Mourning doves, house finches and house sparrows are abundant, seed-eating birds that build nurseries in sheltering places on buildings in suburbs and cities.  Some pairs of doves, for example, rear youngsters in pots of flowering plants hanging under deck and porch roofs.  House finches build grassy cradles on supports under awnings above decks and porches.  And house sparrows build their bulky nests of grass in any available crevices they find on structures.       Pairs of starlings raise youngsters in cracks in buildings, in t...

     Four kinds of flowering plants, including lesser celandines, common dandelions, buttercups and field mustards, carpet many fields, meadows and country roadsides with their yellow-petaled blossoms in southeastern Pennsylvania in spring.  Though adaptable, alien plants from Eurasia, their lovely, decorative and abundant golden blooms, that contrast well with grass and their own green leaves, cheer many people in those human-made habitats during April and May.         Lesser celandines bloom during April in sun-filled, grassy openings in wooded bottomlands thinly-bordering streams in cropland.  Celandines are flat plants with glossy, deep-green leaves and shiny, golden flowers that dominate, and brighten, the floors of riparian woods.  Some patches of celandine blooms are also pocked with the purple blooms of blue violets, creating a lovely contrast of colors, free to see.        Most everyone knows dandel...