natureswondersbyclyde

     Peregrine falcons are a stately kind of raptor that traditionally has nested in crevices high in rocky cliffs, particularly near rivers, throughout much of the world.  Unfortunately, their numbers in the United States had been depleted in the mid-twentieth century due to the use of DDT pesticides, shooting and egg collecting.  However, in recent decades, they have made a strong comeback in the United States, to the point that they seem relatively common these days.  DDT use is a thing of the past, peregrines are protected by laws and, most importantly, they have adapted to raising young on the ledges of tall buildings and under large bridges over rivers, places that must remind them of shelves on cliffs.  All those human-made nesting spots are in and near cities.        Furthermore, peregrines have also adapted to rearing offspring in nest boxes erected on cliffs, usually near rivers.  Their adjusting to hatching youn...

     In winter, the adaptable and widespread red junipers and broom grass are decorative along expressways and some abandoned fields and meadows in southeastern Pennsylvania, and other places in the eastern United States.  These two kinds of abundant, successional plants are the most distinctive and attractive species in those human-made habitats, helping to beautify them.      Red junipers have green needles the year around, which are outstanding among the grays, browns and yellows of deciduous shrubbery, weeds and grasses they stand among.  Junipers' needles are small, densely-packed, fragrant and sharp-pointed, which offer cover to small birds, including nesting field sparrows, song sparrows and American goldfinches and wintering, seed-eating dark-eyed juncos, white-crowned sparrows and tree sparrows.          Many people call these junipers "red cedars," but these conifers are in the juniper genus.  However, ...

     During December 18 and 19, 2024, while doing errands close to home in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, I happened to see four kinds of common, adaptable birds, an American kestrel, a pair of eastern bluebirds, and a small flock each of American robins and dark-eyed juncos, feeding on what they could in winter.  These species are just a few of the many kinds of wild fowl annually wintering and feeding in my home area.       The kestrel was perched on a roadside wire with a mouse in its talons.  It flew up as my vehicle went by, circled behind me and immediately landed again on the same wire to finish its mouse meal.  That pretty, little falcon probably caught the corn and seed fed rodent along a vegetated roadside, between the blacktop, country road I was driving on and a harvested corn field in farmland.       A quarter mile down that same country road, I saw a lovely pair of eastern bluebirds perched on a wire....

     I have noticed through the years that no sunsets in southeastern Pennsylvania are as striking as those in winter.  They are brilliant red or orange because the air is crisp and dry.  Dark cumulus clouds, with red and orange edges, add to the wild beauty of winter sunsets.        The pyramid shapes of coniferous trees and the trunks and bare limbs of deciduous trees are beautifully silhouetted black, like works of art, in front of those inspiring winter sunsets.  Part of that artistic beauty is that each tree, among innumerable trees, has its own shape.  The leafless boughs of deciduous trees show how they grow toward the sunlight so green chlorophyll in the leaves can combine carbon dioxide from the air and hydrogen from water to make sugar, the trees' food for growth.          Stars, and a couple of sun-reflecting planets and the earth's moon glow attractively through bare deciduous trees as ...

     Many people don't realize that a stable population of about 5,000 stately eastern golden eagles nest in the remote, vast forests of eastern Canada.  Most folks don't know that most of those regal eagles migrate south along the southwest running Appalachian mountains during October and November.  And that most of those magnificent raptors winter in the forested mountain regions of Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the Great Smokey Mountains.        During their migrations south for the winter, most eastern golden eagles soar majestically along the Appalachians on west and northwest winds because those winds are pushed up the northwest-facing slopes of the mountains and over them by strong wind from behind, pushing the eagles up as well.  Gravity wants to pull the eagles down while wind pushes them up, the result being, with wing and tail adjustments, the eagles push ahead, mile after mile, for hours, with scarcely a wing...

     American dippers are unique birds in North America because they are a one-of-a-kind, truly aquatic songbird that dives under water to get invertebrate food from the rocky bottoms of fast-flowing, mountain streams of good water.  These hardy, dark-brown, six-inch birds found an unoccupied niche and adapted to it the year around to get invertebrate food, with little competition for it.  Their feathers are more oily than those on other kinds of birds, to keep the cold water away from the dippers' skins.          These permanent resident dippers dive upstream under water and walk into the fast currents on the bottoms of stone-bottomed, running streams, where they vigorously flip stones over to seize invertebrates, including mayfly larvae and stone fly larvae, small crayfish and other little critters  that were hiding under them to avoid predators and the rushing water.  Dippers also catch and ingest tadpoles and small fis...

     During winter, many bald eagles in North America gather where food is abundantly available, including along rivers that remain ice-free and farmland where dead livestock is dumped into fields.  Those eagles congregate from early November to early February, mostly along flowing rivers that don't freeze as quickly as lakes.  That is the time when still waters are usually frozen shut, wall to wall.  The wonderfully large concentrations of bald eagles create inspiring, dramatic spectacles that are exciting to see along running rivers in winter.      Many bald eagles winter below hydroelectric dams on rivers, such as Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River in Maryland.  Water falls through turbines, spinning them to generate electricity, and surges out and up below the dam, keeping the water ice-free all winter.  Therefore, fish below the dams, and those fish that went through the turbines, are vulnerable to attack from bald eagles, ...