natureswondersbyclyde

      From the middle of October to mid-November, 2025, as I have in previous years, I watched hordes of wintering waterfowl on the shallow channels and extensive, tall-vegetated marshes of the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge in Central California through the refuge's live camera and our computer screen.  I saw large flocks of white-fronted geese and snow geese, and swarms of ducks, including big flocks of northern pintails, large numbers of northern shovelers and green-winged teal, lesser numbers of American wigeons and gadwalls, and a sprinkling of cinnamon teal and mallards.  All those goose and duck species tip-up, with tails pointing skyward, in the shallows to reach their necks and beaks down to pull up and ingest aquatic vegetation off the bottoms of the channels and marshes.   They also feed on the seeds of those same emergent plants in the shallows.         Most every dawn, the refuge is filled with large flocks of geese an...

      Semi-palmated sandpipers are sparrow-sized shorebirds that have camouflaging brown and dark-mottled feathering on top, and black legs and beaks.  They nest on the Arctic tundra, by the Arctic Ocean, in Canada and Alaska, but winter along the seacoast beaches and mud flats of South America.        Each May, semi-palms migrate north, and south each August and September, both times through much of the inland United States, and along its Atlantic Ocean shorelines.  And semi-palms, along with other kinds of shorebirds, have at least two major feeding places along the Atlantic coast in northeast North America, one going north and the other going south.      In May, horseshoe crabs spawn on sandy beaches of estuaries and other back waters of North America, off the North Atlantic Ocean.  Many thousands of horseshoe crabs, for example, spawn on the sandy beaches of Delaware Bay in May.  Each female, attended by a ma...

     Lancaster County, Pennsylvania harbors eastern moles in the shallows of soil in woods and some lawns, and star-nosed moles in the constantly moist ground of floodplains near impoundments and streams in woods.  A few times over several years, I have seen star-nosed moles quietly push out of damp soil near water, only to quickly retreat underground again.  But I saw them well enough to identify them as star-noses.  Although the related eastern moles and star-nosed moles mostly consume invertebrates, they don't compete much for space or food because of their diverging into different niches.         All the characteristics of star-nosed moles enable them to find the land and aquatic invertebrates, small fish and amphibians they prey on in their shallow, underground tunnels, and the bottoms of waterways and impoundments near their burrows.  These moles have strong, sharp front claws for digging tunnels in moist soil to encounte...

      Late in October and into November every year in the older suburban areas of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a mix of brightly-colored, deciduous leaves and the green needles of coniferous trees make beautiful, inspiring scenes.  When driving around the county on errands, I like to see the endless, overwhelming parade of red and yellow, deciduous foliage among the green conifers, all of which make a lovely blending of colors.  And as the dead colored leaves break away from their twig moorings and float to the ground like a veil falling away, the magnificent shapes of green conifers become ever more evident.       Fallen leaves carpet the ground with striking colors; and shelter a variety of small plants and animals through the coming winter.  That foliage also decays into the soil, enriching it; and creating food for fungi.  Kids like to shuffle through crisp, dry leaves and jump into piles of them.      Red mapl...

     Lancaster County, Pennsylvania has a lot of cropland.  The major crops here are hay, corn, soybeans and rye, all of which provide food and cover for several species of adaptable wildlife.  Those crops are a wedding between people and wildlife, particularly for white-tailed deer that graze in all of them.      Originally from Europe, red clover or alfalfa, or both species in the same fields, compose local hay fields.  Several kinds of wildlife ingest parts of hay plants before that vegetation is cut and baled for livestock food in winter.  Wood chucks, cottontail rabbits and deer nibble the foliage and flowers of the lush hay plants.  A variety of bees, butterflies and other kinds of interesting insects sip sugary nectar from the lovely flowers, pollinating those blooms in the process, and making hay fields alive with many buzzing, or fluttering, insects.  Yellow clearwing butterfly caterpillars ingest the leaves of clover ...

      Marine iguanas are unique, three-foot-long lizards endemic to the Galapagos Islands.  They have a few characteristics that make them interesting.  They are the only lizards on Earth to ingest algae from rocks on the bottom of shallow Pacific Ocean waters, just off the lava-strewn edges of the Galapagos.  They can stay underwater for up to 30 minutes, while grazing on algae, as sheep do in meadows.  Since they take in much salt water while ingesting algae in the ocean, they have special salt-expelling glands near their nostrils that "sneeze" out excess salt.  And they can slow their heart rates to avoid detection by nearby, predatory sharks.  Many aspects of nature are beyond belief.      Marine iguanas are cold-blooded, as all reptiles are.  And they are as dark as the lava rocks they congregate on to rest and soak up warming sunlight between feeding forays in the ocean.  Their coloration camouflages them agains...