natureswondersbyclyde

     There is a fresh-water oasis flowing into a bay in the long, lean, bayside marsh at Bayview and Twenty-fourth Streets on Long Beach Island, New Jersey.  Take New Jersey Route 72 east on a bridge over that bay to Surf City on that barrier island with sandy beaches on its Atlantic Ocean side.        Several kinds of wintering water birds come to that oasis to drink fresh water flowing from a brook into the saltwater bay between that developed barrier island and the Jersey mainland.  And I have been watching those birds daily from mid-December to mid-February through a live camera and our home computer screen.        The fresh-water brook flows through a long, lean marsh of clump grass, tall grass, high, plumed phragmites and narrow, shallow channels on Long Beach Island.  When the tide goes out, a mud flat is exposed where the brook dumps silt in the bay at its shoreline, building it up.  Water birds...

      One afternoon in mid-February of 2023, I drove about 20 miles round trip on errands in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and along the way I saw several signs of early spring.  I took a route that would take me by a few places where I had seen signs of early spring over the last several years, which is like an annual tradition.  And, happily, I saw several signs of spring that afternoon.      By the middle of February, the length of daylight each succeeding day has increased noticeably.  And this winter, to date, has been unusually mild here.  Therefore, wild plants and animals responded to those favorable conditions a couple of weeks earlier than usual, much to my delight.      While driving along country roads, I noticed several pairs of mourning doves perched, here and there, on roadside wires near coniferous trees.  They probably intend to raise young in those conifers quite soon.  On that day, too, I hea...

     During warm afternoons in mid-February, I am thrilled to hear the delightful songs of several kinds of small, permanent resident birds in southeastern Pennsylvania's woodland edges and hedgerows with their tangles of vines and shrubbery, and older suburban areas with their planted trees and bushes.  Increasing daylight each succeeding day in January and February stir the hormones of male mourning doves, northern cardinals, northern mockingbirds, song sparrows, house finches, tufted titmice and other species of song birds.  And when the weather in February is spring-like, those male birds begin to break into lovely song to establish nesting territories and attract mates for reproduction, many of them singing on our lawns.  Their beautiful songs are welcome, and proclaim "spring is here"!!!      A cold snap or snowfall temporarily halts that welcome singing.  But the return of warmer weather prompts the birds to resume their wonderful...

      I enjoy seeing little groups of handsome white-throated sparrows and white-crowned sparrows in my neighborhood in New Holland, Pennsylvania every winter.  They hide out in lawn or field shrubbery and feed on weed and grass seeds on the ground.  And they come to bird feeders to feed on seeds and grain.  They are lovely additions to any neighborhood in winter, the only time most of us will ever see them.      Adult white-throats and adult white-crowns look much alike, with small differences.  Both these related species are seven inches long, brown and dark-streaked on top, which camouflages them among thickets of weeds, grasses and shrubbery, and pale-gray below.  Both species have black and white-striped crowns, but those stripes are more distinct on the white-crowned sparrows.  White-throats have a patch of yellow feathers before each eye, and white throat patches, which distinguishes them.      Immature bi...

      Climber's Run Nature Center, owned by the Lancaster County Conservancy in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is nestled in a mix of habitats, including the stream, Climber's Run, and second-growth, deciduous woods and overgrown fields and meadows, all bordering that clear-running stream.  That variety of habitats, surrounded by cropland, creates several niches that wildlife use the year around.        The Conservancy has a cluster of bird feeders erected along that stream in bottomland woods during the winter of 2022-23.  The attractive and interesting birds coming to those feeders can be enjoyed, day and night, either in person, or on computer screens because of a live camera focused on the feeders.      Currently there is, almost always during the day, much bird activity at those feeders.  All the pretty birds coming to those feeders are adaptable, common, alert and quick, making much entertainment.   ...

      I visited the Upper Chesapeake Bay at the Community Park of Northeast, Maryland one afternoon about the middle of March a few years ago, as I had several times in different seasons before that day.  This time, I went there to spot migrating water birds of various kinds.        Because of their high numbers, gulls and ducks were the dominant birds on the ice, and strips of open water among the slabs of ice because of the warming weather in March.  Most of the handsome ring-billed, herring and great black-backed gulls stood picturesquely on slabs of ice.        The attractive, adult ring-billed and herring gulls are mostly gray on top, white below, and look much alike, except the herrings are larger and have a red mark on their beaks, whereas each ring-bill has a black "ring" around its bill.  Largest of these gulls, the stately, mature black-backs have black backs and upper wings and are white below, ma...

      One late afternoon in the middle of December, 2022, I was sitting in a car in the parking lot of a shopping mall waiting for friends.  Suddenly, I saw a little whirlwind of birds flitting and scrambling low to the blacktop, right beside the car I was in.  They were house sparrows, looking for edible tidbits from careless shoppers among parked cars.  When something edible was found, several of those little brown birds would flutter to that food and compete vigorously with each other for it.      Although American crows, ring-billed gulls, rock pigeons and starlings can also be spotted looking for food on parking lots at times, that afternoon I saw only house sparrows.  But they put on a show.      We have a suburban lawn full of house sparrows the year around; which is fine with me.  Some people don't like these weaver finches from Eurasia that were introduced to the United States over a hundred years ago.  ...