BIRDS WINTERING ALONG PASTURE STREAMS

      With a casual glance, short-grass pastures in winter in Lancaster County, as elsewhere, seem barren of bird life, except for an occasional small flock of mallard ducks, here and there, on them.  But with closer looks with binoculars, I can spot one, or a few each of killdeer plovers, Wilson's snipe, song sparrows and water pipits. all of which are camouflaged along certain running brooks of clear, shallow water.  There those birds spend winter days searching for invertebrates in, or along, the edges of those little waterways in meadows, which are human-made habitats.     

     Most short-grass pastures, used for grazing livestock, have little shelter in the form of shrubbery.  But all these birds, except the song sparrows, are adapted to open habitats with minimal cover to avoid cold winds and predators.  And song sparrows are adaptable, making do with whatever shelter is available.  

     All these small, camouflaged birds are invisible along meadow brooks, until they move or fly up and away in alarm.  But by scanning the pasture and its waterway with binoculars, one can find some of these interesting, beautiful birds.

     Killdeer plovers as a species, are attractive, permanent residents on short-grass pastures.  They are brown on top, white below, with two black bars across their chests.  In spring, female killdeer lay four white, dark-speckled eggs on bare soil in meadows or on gravel bars along the streams.  When parent killdeer fear predators like cats, raccoons, hawks and others are too close to their nurseries, or eggs or chicks, they try to entice those predators away from their progeny by feigning a broken wing, flopping about pathetically, which makes the killdeer appear vulnerable to the predators, luring them away.  And when the predators are far from their young, the parent killdeer take wing and fly back to their babies.   

     Soon after hatching, the fluffy, camouflaged chicks, and their parents, roam over the pastures in search of invertebrates to ingest.  A few killdeer winter in those same pastures, but now get their invertebrate food from the edges of the running streams in those meadows.

     Snipe are brown, with lovely, darker markings that make this a handsome bird.  They nest farther north, and winter from southern Pennsylvania south in the United States.  These inland sandpipers patrol the running shallows of meadow streams in winter to look for invertebrates.  They stand in the inch-deep water and rapidly poke their long beaks into the mud under water, like a sewing machine needle, to pull out their food.  And all the while, they bob their bodies up and down, as if doing a dance.  I wondered why they do that, then it hit me one day: that bobbing is a form of camouflage, imitating debris bouncing along in a small waterway's current, confusing predators. 

     Song sparrows patrol the edges and shrubbery along these pasture waterways the year around for invertebrates and seeds.  These little sparrows play the role of shorebirds when living along pasture waterways.  They are pretty birds, being gray-brown, with several dark streaks all over.  I sometimes see them flitting low over the waterways, their tails pumping deeply as they go.  

     Male song sparrows sing lovely songs from the minimal shrubbery in short-grass pastures.  This species raises young in petite grassy-cup cradles in shrubbery and feed invertebrates to their progeny. 

     Water pipits raise young in open habitats farther north, and winter in similar environments.  These birds are sparrow-sized, tan all over, with faint streaks on their chests and two white outer tail feathers.  They feed on tiny invertebrates along the edges of streams in the pastures.  Interestingly, they also bob their bodies as they walk along little waterways, searching for invertebrates.  

     Brooks and streams in short-grass meadows are not as barren as they look in winter.  There are attractive birds getting food from them.  One has only to look closely to spot some of them.