Why Metamorphosis

     We know metamorphosis means changing from one form to another.  We know that most kinds of insects metamorphosis at some point in their life histories.  We know that it is a process that is mysterious and miraculous at once.  How do the insects know what to do?  They don't: They only follow their instincts.  And we know the four stages of complete metamorphosis- eggs, larvae, pupae and adult. 
     The most dramatic, and, probably, best known example of change from one life stage to the next in insects is among the moths and butterflies, particularly the latter grouping.  We know how metamorphosis happens, but we don't know when that phenomena of life began among insects.  And how many people think about what its benefits are, or why it occurs at all?
     As among most species of insects, eggs are the first step of complete metamorphosis.  Among butterflies, the females must lay eggs on certain plants because the caterpillars of each kind of butterfly will eat only one to a few different kinds of plants.  This is unfortunate because if their food plants become extinct, so may the butterfly species dependent on them for food. 
     The caterpillars of each type of butterfly hatch as eating machines, consuming their appointed food almost constantly.  The caterpillars eat and grow rapidly for about two weeks or more, depending on the species, and get bigger and fatter each successive day.
     When each larva can't eat anymore or get any bigger, it stops consuming food altogether and
 forms a protective pupa or cocoon around itself as a shelter where it can change into a butterfly.  The larva becomes dormant, and probably unconscious, as its body cells rearrange themselves to form the butterfly, including with wings.
     When the change of each caterpillar is complete in a few weeks, the butterfly comes out of its stiff pupa.  It perches near its empty chrysalis for a few hours while drying, pumping out and stiffening its wings and otherwise gaining strength for its first flight.
     But what is the advantage of being a winged butterfly?  Each caterpillar eats and grows until full-sized.  It could also become mature as a wingless caterpillar and lay eggs on the plants it just ingested for the next generation of its species.  And, if they did that, there would be no need to waste time and energy in a pupa that is more vulnerable to predation than the caterpillar.  But, perhaps, they ate all the plants of the types they are genetically equipped for.  Now, as winged adults, they must seek proper food plants elsewhere.
     Insects that sip nectar from flowers, as butterflies do, for example, often have to travel over large areas of land to find enough sugary nectar, and dusty pollen, to satisfy their food needs.  And males of each species of butterfly may also have to travel some distance to find a mate to ensure the next generation.  And females of each kind need to travel over acres to find the right plants to lay their eggs on.  Wings are important. 
     Caterpillars, without wings, can't travel like that.  But they can when they become winged adults, the butterflies.  Of course, each larva and its mature form are the same insect, but only the latter form has the ability to fly long distances to find food and mates, thus ensuring the future of its kind.  Caterpillars could never travel far enough, fast enough to save their own species.  So the third stage of complete metamorphosis is important; to provide the quiet, motionless stability needed in little cases of rigid skin (pupae) made by the caterpillars themselves to contain and rearrange body cells to form the mature insect.  And that is why many kinds of insects have that energy-consuming, relatively-risky pupa stage- to mature and grow wings to ensure the next generation of themselves.
     Metamorphosis is miraculous.  When and how it started is a mystery.  But it, and all of nature, is nothing we could create. 

          

Two Species, Same Habitat, Different Times

     While walking along a tumbling stream in woodland one recent winter afternoon, I noticed a slight movement near the water's edge.  Looking at that spot with binoculars, I quickly noticed a winter wren hopping about among a tangle of tree roots in the stream bank.  Winter wrens, like all their feathered clan, are brown and smaller than sparrows, making them camouflaged on woodland floors and along stream banks.  They are impossible to see until they move. 
     While watching the wren briefly, I remembered seeing a pair of Louisiana waterthrushes nesting along that same section of stream this past summer.  Here in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, as elsewhere in eastern North America, winter wrens and Louisiana waterthrushes use the same
 charming, musical streams in woodlands, the wren in winter to forage for invertebrate food kept active by the running water and sheltering tree roots, and the waterthrushes in summer to raise young.  Both kinds of birds use those same beautiful habitats, but not at the same time for the most part.  However, they might overlap each other early in April when the waterthrushes have returned here to nest, but the wrens hadn't left yet to push farther north to breed. 
     Winter wrens and waterthrushes aren't related and don't look alike, but both are insectivorous, finding food under carpets of fallen leaves on forest floors, in brush piles, under fallen logs, in crevices between boulders, among exposed and tangled tree roots in stream banks and along the water's edge.  Males of each species have loud voices so females of their respective kinds can hear them amid the rush of water and find them for mating.
     Winter wrens breed in spruce/fir forests of the northeastern United States and eastern Canada.  And they winter along streams in deciduous woods in much of the Lower 48.  Each wren is a stub-tailed, mouse of a bird that creeps about on leafy, forest floors and stream banks in search of invertebrate food.  Those sheltered places harbor tiny critters the wrens seek, particularly after a snow fall when much invertebrate food is buried under snow.  And the running water on stream edges doesn't freeze, keeping some invertebrates active and available through winter, the reason why winter wrens are in that niche at that time.                
     Louisiana waterthrushes winter in the forests of Central America, but nest in wooded stream valleys in the eastern half of the United States.  They tuck their cradles of dead leaves and grass in niches under tree roots in stream banks in the woods where they are protected from most predators, except mink and black rat snakes. 
     Playing the role of sandpipers where that family of birds would not be, waterthrushes forage mostly for invertebrates in the stony shallows of the streams where they build their nurseries.  As they walk along the water's edges and among the pebbles, waterthrushes bob and dance like debris bouncing along in the flowing water, which is a form of camouflage, confusing would-be predators.
Birds of this species are also difficult to notice until they move, or fly stiff-winged and swiftly across the waterway.
     These species of birds share a similar habitat, but usually not at the same time.  And they are both hard to spot.  Often they are heard before seen.  But they are interesting little creatures when along streams in the woods, making that habitat more interesting.      

Birds on Atlantic Beaches and Jetties in Winter

     Five kinds of birds regularly winter on the beaches and rock jetties of the Atlantic Coast.  And in winter, they all feed on small crustaceans, molluscs, insects, worms and other invertebrates on the sandy beaches and boulders piled at 45 degree angles from the beaches to protect their sand from wave erosion.  But they do so on different parts of those habitats, and by using different, interesting techniques, which reduces competition among them for food.  The five species are sanderlings and dunlin, which are types of sandpipers on the beaches, and purple sandpipers, ruddy turnstones, which are another kind of sandpiper, and harlequin ducks on the jetties.
     Sanderlings are light in color in winter to blend into the background of sand to be nearly invisible, until they move.  Camouflage on creatures protects them from predation.  
     Sanderling flocks run up the beaches ahead of incoming wavelets, but quickly turn around and chase those same little waves when they slide down the beach to the ocean.  Sanderlings pick up and eat tiny invertebrates stranded in the foam on the sand as the water recedes.  And it's entertaining to watch their curious way of feeding.
     Also the color of sand in winter, gatherings of dunlin mostly get their invertebrate food on beaches by probing into the sand with their sturdy beaks.  Dunlin constantly move about, mostly by flying into the wind low to the sand as a group, as they deplete food in the parts of the beaches they visit.
     Purple sandpipers are not purple, but a bit dark like the boulders they live on in winter, which camouflages them.  They really can not be seen until they move.  This kind of sandpiper walks individually or in tiny gatherings over the boulders and consumes invertebrates already on them, and those dumped by waves splashing almost constantly over the rocks.  
      Ruddy turnstones are white and chocolate in color in winter.  Their color patterns break up their shapes, making them difficult to see.  They, too, walk on the boulders, flipping over stones and shells with their strong bills to grab invertebrates that might be hiding under them, something the purple sandpipers don't do to get food. 
     Harlequin ducks repeatedly dive under water near the jetties to get invertebrate food at the bottom of the shallow water, but soon pop up again to get air.  They also must be careful not to be dashed against the rocks by the waves.
     Harlequin drakes are small, beautiful ducks, with gray, chestnut, black and white feathering in striking patterns that also break up their patterns for camouflage.  Their mates, however, are dark brown, with a bit of white patterns that will make them invisible, which is especially beneficial when they are raising young in inland Canada.
     If on a sandy beach or by a rock jetty along the Atlantic Coast in winter, look for these birds in those habitats.  They will make a days on winter beaches more interesting.           

Rodent Teeth

    Rodents include mice, rats, squirrels, chipmunks, beavers, porcupines, and many other species that live worldwide.  Rodents, such as mice, squirrels and beavers, have similarly shaped teeth that reveals their common ancestry and consume hard foods that require sharp front teeth and strong jaws to break down that food. 
     Rodents long ago ate hard foods because that type of food was available to them.  And, over the course of the life histories of these furry mammals, they developed teeth ever better adapted to such food.  Necessity IS the mother of invention.  And form does follow function.  Mice consume seeds, squirrels chew open nut shells to get the meat inside and beavers ingest twigs and bark from the trees they chew down with their large, orange front teeth. 
     But teeth wear down chewing such hard food, eventually becoming useless and allowing their owners to die of starvation or predation after the animals weakened.  Those animals reproduced little, if at all.  But by chance in the distant past, some rodents' teeth became genetically structured to grow throughout the lives of their owners.  That eliminated the problem of teeth wearing down, but if the teeth grew faster than they could be chewed down, the lower teeth could grow into the skull and the upper teeth could grow into the lower jaw, perhaps locking the mouth shut which again would lead to starvation or predation.  So, over many generations of rodents, a balance between the growth of teeth and their being worn down developed, to the benefit of surviving rodents to this day.
     All rodents today have similarly shaped teeth that are successfully balanced between their growth and wearing down from chewing hard food.  That similarity to me indicates that today's rodents are related to each other.  They are the surviving descendants of one species that was a member of a larger family of rodents in the long ago past.  Species of rodents that could not strike a balance between the growth and the wearing of their teeth became extinct, providing open niches for surviving rodents.
     The balance of the growth of rodent teeth and their wearing down is just one of innumerable changes in nature over eons that led to today's successful species.  And some of that current life won't be successful in the future.  Life is forever facing changes, including human-made ones, that eliminate some species, but make room for new, perhaps better adapted ones.  Life is never static.
      

Painted Turtles

     As I write this on the morning of November 26, 2014 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the temperature is in the 40's, rain is falling and 3 to 5 inches of snow are in the forecast for the afternoon.  The weather has the look and feel of winter.  Yet two days ago the weather was partly sunny with temperatures in the 60's, a good day to be outside, which I was.  I saw some birds of various kinds and lovely scenery, but at least 37 eastern painted turtles sunning themselves were the most interesting wildlife I noted that day.
     A couple of weeks before in the Mid-Atlantic States, temperatures dropped unusually low for November and ice formed on impoundments and puddles.  No cold-blooded creatures, including painted turtles, would have been active then.  But many critters are adaptable and respond quickly to changing conditions to their own benefit, as do painted turtles.  And when the weather warmed, there they were sunning themselves, as they do during warmer months each year.  I was startled to see so many of them as I drove from place to place looking for any kind of nature obvious that day.
     Painted turtles are pretty and I enjoy seeing them whenever I can.  Their shells and scaled skin are mostly dark, which camouflages them.  But they also have striking red and yellow stripes on their necks and fore legs.  Yellow dominates their lower shells.  The upper shells of adults are about five inches long, and flat for easier slipping through water.
     Painted turtles are aquatic, commonly living in smaller impoundments and slower creeks.  They may be more common here today than ever in their life history because human-made impoundments seem ready-made for them.  They have adapted well to them.  And painted turtles move overland from pond to pond, as some impoundments become over-populated with them.   
     Painted turtles, like all living beings, are part of several food chains.  Youngsters consume a variety of invertebrates, as well as tadpoles, snails, carrion and other animal material.  Adults are more likely to eat aquatic plants.  And the main predators on younger turtles are snapping turtles, mink and great blue herons.  Skunks and raccoons dig up and eat their eggs. 
     Painted turtles are most handsome when quietly sunning themselves.  Their necks and heads are erect as they look around for possible danger.  And at the least hint of trouble, they flop into the water and swim to the bottom to hide. 
     These turtles breed early in summer.  Males have long toe nails on their front feet to caress females during courtship before mating.  And males have long tails that help in the process of breeding.  Females lay their half dozen or more eggs in soft soil near water.  Toward the end of summer, after a couple of months of incubating in the sun-warmed soil, the inch-long young hatch and enter the nearest body of water where they feed and grow until cold sets in and they are dormant through winter.  During warmer afternoons the next March, all painted turtles are active again and can be spotted.
     Painted turtles, and other kinds of turtles, except snapping turtles, are protected by law.  Capturing them for any reason is prohibited.
     Eastern painted turtles are inoffensive little critters that are lovely to see.  They make ponds and slow waterways more interesting.            

Stately Great Blues

     Great blue herons are large, stately birds, particularly in flight.  In shallow water and on land they are long-legged and have lengthy necks and beaks, making them about four and half feet tall.  In the air they appear really big, and startling, and vaguely resemble flying dinosaurs.  But they are also most majestic in flight, with their wings beating slowly, powerfully, necks drawn back in a tight S and long legs trailing behind for balance and steering.  Occasionally one in flight will utter a loud, hoarse call that might be a little frightening. 
     Although they are called blue, they really are gray, with a black stripe through each side of the face.  And in spring, their breeding plumage has  gray plumes on their backs and throats and black ones extending from the back of the head.    
     This heron species is common through most of North America, including here in the Middle Atlantic States.  And they have close relatives in Eurasia and Africa.  Most northern birds drift south for the winter where the water is still open to catch prey.  But some of them stay north all winter, if they can find open water where they can get food.  Birds do not migrate to escape cold, but to find reliable sources of food for the winter.      
     Great blues are predatory, eating large and small fish, frogs, crayfish, snakes, larger insects, mice and other critters in waterways, impoundments, wetlands, backyard goldfish ponds and meadows.
One day in March a few years ago, a great blue caught and ate all the goldfish in our suburban backyard pond.  We had to put a nylon net over our pond to protect their orange replacements.   
     Great blues hunt day and night, and individually, stalking slowly through shallow water to snare aquatic critters, moving forward carefully, step by step so as not to alarm potential prey into fleeing.  They swallow their victims whole and headfirst, which allows them to go down easier without fish scales getting caught in the birds' throats.  They dunk the mice they catch in water to slick the fur so they can swallow those rodents easier. 
     Between fishing forays, great blues perch on tree limbs near water, in cattail marshes and in harvested corn fields with stubble that must, to the herons, resemble cattails.  When resting in those habitats, they are hunched to resist weather and be less visible.
     Great blues raise young in colonies in stands of tall trees near water, including at least a few in the Mid-Atlantic States.  They begin nesting in March when deciduous trees are still bare, allowing us to see their large, bulky stick cradles.  Parent herons constantly shuttle food to their three or four young in each nursery until June when the offspring fledge their nests.
     Young and older great blues scatter across the countryside and visit any body of water that yields food to them through the rest of the summer and into the fall.  Sometimes they fight over hunting areas by flying aggressively at each other and calling raucously and repeatedly.
     Look for great blue herons in your area anytime of the year.  They are readily noticed many times, stately, and a bit startling, and much an intriguing part of the landscape wherever water exists.       
               

Adaptable Song Sparrows

     Song sparrows are plain, little birds that are big on adapting to a variety of habitats, the reason they are spread abundantly across North America, including in southeastern Pennsylvania.  These native birds inhabit thickets in cities, suburban areas, woodland edges, hedgerows between fields, and overgrown meadows, fields and stream sides.  Sometimes I see one or two song sparrows on a blacktop parking lot near weeds and shrubbery where they chase invertebrates, and seeds blowing in the wind. 
     Song sparrows are brown with black stripes and markings that camouflage them well in all their niches.  Each bird has a large, black spot in the middle of its chest that will identify it as to species.  And they readily come to bird feeders through the year, to the delight of bird watchers. 
     Males of this species are one of the first small, permanent resident birds to sing early in spring, as early as warm afternoons in the middle of February.  They sing lively songs from the tops of trees and shrubbery, lovely ditties that inspire many a human tired of winter and happy to see spring.  Song sparrow music is one of the first sure signs of the coming spring.
     So adaptable are they, song sparrows, as a species, could fill every niche left by extinct sparrows, if that happens.  Though most pairs of song sparrows nest low in protective shrubbery, some pairs hatch young on the ground under tall grass, the way grassland sparrows do.  Song sparrows could fill the niche of grassland sparrows, as well as other bush-nesting kinds. 
     But I think song sparrows are most beautiful and intriguing in shrubbery along inland waterways and impoundments.  And they have a lot of potential in that habitat, too.  This type of sparrow secretly slips along the edge of the water, as would inland kinds of sandpipers, but under sheltering shrubbery, to catch and eat a variety of invertebrates from the surfaces of the mud and water.  The sandpipers feed in open areas of mud flats and shorelines, thus lessoning competition with song sparrows for invertebrate food. 
     Song sparrows even wade in inch-deep water after food.  Longer legs, if the sparrows developed them, would help them catch more invertebrates in deeper water.  And with more minor changes in body structures and behaviors, they may become ever more sandpiper-like to take fuller advantage of that stream bank habitat to get food. 
     But these same individual song sparrows get invertebrates from plants along the shores, and seeds on those plants, and on the soil and mud.  And with one jump or flick of their wings they find shelter in shoreline thickets when danger threatens.  They really are birds of the shorelines of inland streams and impoundments, where protective thickets are present to hide from predators and inclement weather, and to raise young. 
     Unfortunately, song sparrows are sometimes victimized by female brown-headed cowbirds that lay an egg in each of several other birds' nurseries.  If the victims don't recognize the foil, they will raise the cowbird chicks with their own.
     Watch for song sparrows in thickets in suburbs, woodland edges, hedgerows and overgrown fields, pastures and stream sides through the year.  They are lovely, cheery birds that will make many a human heart sing.         

         

Scavenging Eagles

     On the morning of November 20, 2014, I was driving through farmland in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania when I saw what I thought was a hawk perched upright on a bare tree about a quarter of a mile away.  Through binoculars I noted the bird was an immature bald eagle.  And I saw a few other bald eagles near that first one.  I quickly thought of a way I could get closer to those birds for better looks, but still stay in my car so I wouldn't scare the eagles away.
     Arriving at the spot where the eagles were perched in a line of several trees, I saw hundreds of wintering American crows down from their breeding territories in Canadian forests in those same trees, in the air and on the ground, many of them cawing raucously at once.  A few turkey vultures were on the ground and other turkey vultures and a few black vultures were in the air gracefully soaring toward the ones on the ground.  I noticed, too, that several red-tailed hawks were in the same trees the eagles were perching on.  I counted 12 red-tails and 30 bald eagles in those trees.  About half those eagles were immature with brown plumages all over.  But all the eagles were magnificent and exciting to see, especially in Lancaster County cropland.  And all these birds together created an enjoyable show. 
     In the process of watching the hawks and eagles, I noticed that some of both kinds had risen from the ground or landed on it out of sight on the other side of a small rise.  I had the idea that 12 and 30 were conservative numbers. 
     The draw for this post-breeding, wintering gathering of crows, vultures, red-tails and eagles was a nearby poultry farm where thousands of domestic birds are raised for meat.  But some die of disease or trampling and are disposed of in fields.  There they are an abundant food for a variety of birds and scavenging mammals, such as foxes and raccoons.            
     There are bigger concentrations of wintering bald eagles in North America than this one, including several in Alaska, along the Mississippi River and lower Susquehanna River, for example.  But this is the biggest inland gathering of balds I had ever seen or heard about, which is their greatest excitement in this county.
     Bald eagles have increased their numbers greatly through much of North America because of the ban on using DDT in fields, their being protected by law, and their adapting to human-made habitats that are less than ideal.  Scavenging dead farm animals is one of those adaptations the eagles and other kinds of larger birds have advanced for their survival.
     Most people think of bald eagles as birds of large bodies of water where they catch and scavenge fish, ducks and other creatures.  And many of them do.  But many eagles today regularly get food inland, particularly on fields.  Those pioneering eagles, in time, may create a new species, one dependent on inland creatures.
     Nature is always beautiful and interesting, no matter where it is found.  And critters that adapt to human-made habitats and activities are the most intriguing of all.    
    

Nests in Lone Trees in Farmland

     Several kinds of creatures build nests in the scattered deciduous trees in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania cropland, a large, human-made habitat in this area.  Those nurseries are most visible in winter when the trees are devoid of foliage.  But in winter, of course, they are not used, allowing them to be closely examined.  Those cradles range from those of bald-faced hornets, gray squirrels, American goldfinches, eastern kingbirds, northern orioles, American crows to red-tailed hawks and bald eagles.
     Bald-faced hornets are insects related to bees and wasps.  Worker hornets chew dead wood and mix it with their saliva to make paper with which they make six-sided, paper cells and paper coverings to protect those cells and the hornet larvae growing in them. 
     Each spring a fertilized queen bald-faced hornet makes a tiny paper nest on a twig in a tree and lays an egg in each of the few cells she makes.  She nurtures her sterile, female offspring until they are able to gather nectar for themselves, paralyze insects to feed to their younger sisters and add additions to their paper home until it is about the size of a football by the end of summer.
     During the cold of autumn, the workers drop out of their papery homes and die.  Only the queen survives winter by burying deep in the soil, emerging the next spring to start a new colony.
     Gray squirrels create bulky homes of dead leaves in forks of twigs in the trees of hedgerows, if they can't find tree cavities.  Those leafy abodes protect their inhabitants from cold winds and predation from hawks and owls.  Squirrels eat grains, seeds and nuts they find near their homes.  
     American goldfinches and eastern kingbirds build nursery cups among twigs in the lower branches of farmland trees.  Those of the yellowish goldfinches are petite and lined with thistle down which makes them tight and soft.  Nests of the kingbirds are larger and more twiggy.  The goldfinches mostly consume seeds while the kingbirds, which are dark on top and white below, ingest flying insects.  Early in fall, kingbirds migrate south to south America for the winter.
     The striking, orange and dark northern orioles hang bag-like cradles from the outermost twigs low in larger trees, usually over fields, roads and streams.  Their nurseries are tied together and to twigs with sinewy plant fibers.  Orioles eat invertebrates they find in the trees and migrate to Central and South America for the winter.
     Pairs of American crows build large stick nests near the tops of trees in cropland, as in local wood lots and suburbs.  For their size, crows are secretive parents, feeding larger invertebrates and fruits to their young.         
     Several pairs of red-tailed hawks raise young in Lancaster County cropland.  These raptors usurp the cradles of crows during mid-winter before the crows have a chance to reclaim them.  Red-tails quietly and discretely feed their one to three youngsters mice, rats, squirrels, pigeons, mallard ducklings and other kinds of prey abundant in farmland. 
     But, by far, the biggest stick nurseries in cropland trees are those of the few pairs of bald eagles that raise young in that built habitat.  Eagles take over the nests of crows and hawks by December and neither of those species will challenge the big eagles to get their cradles back.  During winter, pairs of eagles add sticks to their nurseries, making them large and bulky, and easily seen from a distance.  The magnificent eagles feed fish, rabbits, muskrats and other creatures, and carrion, to their one to three young in the nest. 
     The nurseries of these various types of creatures that nest in farmland are most visible in winter.  Spotting them adds to the enjoyment of being outdoors anytime of year.
          

Winter Crows

     We have three species of the crow family here in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the occasional raven, nesting fish crows and two different populations of American crows.  Ravens are the largest members, and hawk-like with wedged tails.  Fish crows' cawing is nasal.  And we have scattered pairs of American crows that nest in tall trees in local woodlots, farmland and suburban areas.  But starting by late October each year, we have tens of thousands of American crows down from the forests of Canada, New England and other northern states of eastern North America that will winter locally.  These crows are a little larger than our local breeding crows and they seem to congregate into one big flock overnight. 
     For several years, at least up to the winter of 2015-2015, these crows that nest farther north have settled for each winter night in trees surrounding Park City, a shopping mall outside Lancaster City.
I went to Park City one late afternoon in the middle of November to see if they were still settling for the night there.  They were, by the thousands, as usual!  At sunset, I could see thousands of them already perched in trees around the mall and loose, fast-moving sheets more of them coming into the area from every direction.  These, too, landed on the same trees.  The calling of these large, black birds was incessant as always.  Sometimes, crows in a clump of trees would rise noisily into the air, circle a bit, then settle on the trees again.  Meanwhile, human visitors of the mall, in their cars,
 seemed as numerous as the crows above them.  Finally, when there was only a faint glow of sunset in the western sky, the incoming flow of crows stopped.  they were in for the night, but still noisy, as they probably are every night.
     The parade of cars around the mall, people walking in the parking lots and the numerous outdoor lights didn't bother the crows in the least.  Apparently, they are used to all that disturbance.  And the people didn't seem to notice the crows, maybe because those large, black birds have been there for years and the people are used to them. 
     These crows demonstrate how adaptable and tolerant some species of life can be.  And they may benefit from such human-made conditions because their roosts might be a few degrees warmer because of the buildings, cars and outdoor lights.  And, maybe, no great horned owls would be in such a habitat as Park City to grab crows off their nightly perches each night.  But, on the other hand, horned owls are adaptable, too, and might live among the trees around that shopping mall, too.   
     At dawn each day, these thousands of crows leave their overnight roosts like a dam break and long rivers of them scatter in all directions to fields and suburbs where they feed on corn kernels and invertebrates on fields, acorns on lawns, road kills, edible refuse on parking lots and in dumpsters, and anything else edible, wherever they find it. 
     But by the middle of each winter afternoon, streams of crows become rivers, then great waves as the birds make their way back to Park City for the night.  I remember seeing a river of crows passing over the environmental center in Lancaster County Central Park by mid-afternoon each winter day.  That river of crows, that was forever cawing, would eddy in trees along the Conestoga River in Central Park before going on to Park City. 
     These wintering crows by the hundreds can be seen here and there on corn fields scattered around the county.  Then we can see how big and sleek they are as they walk about picking up grain, seeds and invertebrates.  They are handsome birds, made all the more intriguing by knowing where they had spent the summer raising young. 
     But by early to mid-March, these northern crows leave our area and migrate north to their breeding territories.  I am always sorry to see them go because I enjoy experiencing these tough, adaptable birds while they are here. 
      

Juncos and White-throats

     Dark-eyed juncos and white-throated sparrows have arrived in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania for another winter.  They arrive here about the middle of October and I always celebrate their arrival and enjoy their presence.
     Juncos and white-throats are two adaptable and abundant species of the sparrow tribe of birds that nest farther north, but come here for winter, as throughout much of the eastern United States.  In winter they can be seen most anywhere there are tall weeds and grasses, often together in mixed groups, where they eat the seeds of those plants, or seeds in bird feeders on lawns that have coniferous trees and clumps of bushes they use for shelter.  Both species are attractive and interesting through the winter, but by early May they are on their way north to their nesting territories.
     Juncos and I go way back to my childhood.  I would see them flutter among tall weeds in our garden.  They are gray birds with white under parts and a white tail feather on both sides of their tails that form a V that is visible when flying away from us.  Someone once said juncos, or snowbirds as they are called sometimes, have gray winter skies on top and snow beneath. 
     A little later in my life, I would see juncos in planted patches of young spruce or pine trees, where they vanished into the shadows of needled boughs, amid excited chirping, with their white V's being the last visible part of them.  I could hear them fluttering about among those conifers, and chipping and trilling almost incessantly.  Juncos are always neat to experience, even when not visible.  After a bit, if I was still and quiet, they would exit those evergreens, one after another, to eat seeds in nearby clumps of weeds and grasses.  Little groups of juncos spend winter nights in the sheltering boughs of coniferous trees.      
     White-throats are well-named because they do have white throats, and dark and lighter stripes lengthwise on their crowns.  But the feathering on the rest of their bodies is brown and darker streaked, which camouflages them among dead, dry winter vegetation. 
      White-throats scratch among fallen leaves and grasses under shrubbery and other tall vegetation for seeds, making quite a ruckus as they feed.  All the while they are digging and consuming seeds, they utter musical notes and sweet songs, which give away their presence to us, and predators that keep them forever vigilant, as all wildlife is. 
     White-throat's songs begin with a single, long note, followed by another long whistle on a higher pitch, followed by five short notes on the same pitch as the second long one, resulting in an identifying, heart-warming melody that one doesn't forget.  Their songs are the best part of experiencing these little birds.
     Juncos and white-throats patronize most every feeder, even in some city neighborhoods, erected to feed birds through winter, much to the delight of the people who watch for birds at feeders.  These two species, being ground-feeders, mostly ingest seeds that were thrown from the feeders by other kinds of birds that scratch about on the feeders themselves.            
     Watch for juncos and white-throats this winter and succeeding ones.  They are delightful and entertaining in suburbs, woodland edges, clumps of planted conifers and in the thickets of hedgerows between fields. 

Winter Arrived

      It isn't every year I can definitely see the first day of winter in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  But I did on November 13, 2014. 
     After several sunny, warm days here, that day was cloudy, sullen and damp, with high temperatures in the mid 40's F.  There was little wind.  The landscape and air had the look and feel, respectively, of winter.  I could tell that as of today there was no going back to the warm, invigorating days of autumn.  Winter arrived in Lancaster County! 
     Most deciduous leaves were off their trees and carpeting the ground and the woods were gray with the bark of bare trees and limbs.  Squirrels, eastern chipmunks and blue jays had been storing acorns in October and wood chucks and black bears are fat to sleep through much of winter.  Meanwhile, winter birds have been here for a few weeks, some of which are frequenting bird feeders.  Bird migrations are finished, or in full swing as with most duck species.  White-tailed deer are breeding and very few flowers are blooming anywhere in this area.  Most crops have been harvested, in preparation of the winter months, except some field corn and soybeans.
     Daylight is getting shorter each successive day, indicating the steady march to the winter solstice, which has the shortest amount of light of any day in the year, and to me is the middle of winter.  After that solstice on December 21, the amount of daylight per day increases each successive day.  
     Snow was reported to have fallen in the Great Lakes Area and other parts of the United States a few days prior to this one.  And by mid afternoon on November 13th, gentle showers fell on this county, but turned to light snow late in the afternoon.  I was not surprised to see the snow because all day the weather looked like it could produce a bit of snow.
     The weather reports indicate that cold weather will prevail in Lancaster County for the next several days.  For the most part, there is no going back to warmer days.  Winter is here!  But spring will arrive about the middle of February in this county, when days get noticeably longer, certain birds species migrate and a few kinds of flowers are already in bloom.    

Using Human Influences

     About 4:40 one afternoon in Mid-November I stopped at a two-acre, human-made impoundment in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to see what kind of aquatic life was visible among the couple hundred mallard ducks resting on that pond.  A great blue heron stood tall and stately on a hand rail of a dock as I drove up to the impoundment.  But within seconds, it flew to the water's edge and waded in the shallows to stalk for fish.  I knew there were at least goldfish in the pond because I saw them earlier in the year.  Goldfish are native to Asia, but were introduced to America as ornamental fish.  However, in ponds this size, they certainly would spawn, producing various sized fish that are food for herons and a variety of other fish-eating creatures.       
     Some of the mallards were already paired and engaging in courting and mating activities.  Other mallards were resting on the water.  But at dusk all those ducks will fly up from the water to land in harvested cornfields for much of the evening to eat corn kernels missed by harvesters.
     While watching the mallards and the heron for a few minutes, I was reminded of a one-acre, built pond closer to home that currently has about 180 mallards resting on it everyday.  And there a male belted kingfisher daily hunts small fish from the pond's surface.  The kingfisher either perches on a tree limb or the top of an outdoor light to watch the water for prey.  Or this bird will hover into the wind over the water while watching for small fish.  When he spots a victim, he dives into the water beak-first to snare it in his long, sharp bill.  He then flies to a perch to consume his catch. 
     As I left the two-acre impoundment a few minutes later, I saw two red-tailed hawks flying close together low over a field and land beside each other on a power tower.  At first I thought they were a mated pair because red-tails start their courting in December or early in January.  But then I noticed they were fighting over a dead rock pigeon that one of those raptors held in its talons.  Within a minute, the hawk without the pigeon apparently gave up the scrap and flew off the tower, leaving the lucky one with its catch.
     Rock pigeons are originally from Eurasia, where they nested on rock cliffs.  But some of them were brought to the United States by the first European colonists as domesticated meat and egg birds, and as ornamentals.  Some of them escaped captivity in America and have been populating farmland and cities ever since.    
     Red-tails are native to this continent and mostly prey on rodents.  But in this county's intensely cultivated cropland, few rodents can exist,  So red-tails turn to whatever is common in cropland, including pigeons that are successful and abundant in local farmland because they nest and roost in barns and under bridges (built cliffs) and feed on seeds and grain in harvested fields.  
     People have a large impact on Earth today.  Most every acre of land in Lancaster County, for example, is used to serve humans.  But creatures that can benefit from those same acres have a future.  Being adaptable is a key to their success.  

Crab Apple Beauties

     The many kinds of crab apples are small trees that are native to North America, and commonly planted on lawns for their lovely flowers and variety of beautifully colored fruits, including here in southeastern Pennsylvania.  They have multitudes of pink or white blossoms in April that are visited and pollinated by bees and other kinds of insects.  The fertilized blooms produce tart, berry-like fruits that ripen by autumn and are attractive to see at that time.  Those fruits are brightly-colored, including being reddish, orange or yellow, depending on the variety of tree, and add to the beauties of fall.       
     Every autumn I visit wild crab apple trees along hedgerows, roadsides and streams to see their beautiful fruits, and what kinds of wildlife are eating them.  Crab apple fruits are eaten by a variety of birds, mammals and insects, and box turtles, which are a kind of reptile, through fall.  And the warm-blooded birds and mammals continue consuming them in winter.
     Individual mockingbirds and gray catbirds and flocks of American robins, cedar waxwings and
starlings are some of the bird species that feed on them in autumn.  And all these birds, except the migrant catbirds, ingest them through winter.  Those birds add their beauties to that of the crab apple fruits while in the trees to eat them. 
     The birds digest the pulp of each berry-like fruit, but pass many of the seeds in their droppings as they fly about the countryside.  The seeds are thus spread far and wide, and if not eaten by mice or squirrels, may sprout into new crab apple trees some distance from the parent trees.  In this way, the birds help insure part of their annual food supply into the future.  And, in this way, some cultivated varieties of crab apples planted on lawns escape into the wild.
     A variety of mammals also eat crab apples in the trees or on the ground, depending on the species.  Some of the mammals most likely to eat those fruits are black bears, white-tailed deer, a variety of mice and squirrels, chipmunks, wood chucks, cottontail rabbits, skunks, opossums, raccoons, and red and gray foxes.  Those furry creatures fatten up for winter by eating crab apples. And some of the seeds in the crab apples are also spread by these critters.
     During September and into October or November until cold kills them or sends them to cover, several kinds of insects sip the fermenting juices of damaged and rotting crab apples, as they do on other kinds of fruits.  Yellow jackets, bald-faced hornets, a few kinds of wasps, several types of flies, ants, and certain species of butterflies, including, mourning cloaks, question marks, hackberries and buckeyes, are some of those insect species.  Those insects, and the birds and mammals, help make crab apple trees more interesting in autumn.      
     Box turtles that live where crab apple trees grow feed on many of the fruits that fall to the ground.  Those fruits help fatten the omnivorous turtles before their winter sleep in the forest floor. 
     Look for crab apple trees this fall or winter.  They have beauty in their fruits, and in the interesting critters that feed on them.
          

Green-headed Ducks

     One late afternoon in early November, I stopped at a two-acre, human-made pond to see if there were any duck species besides the couple hundred mallards that rest there through much of each
winter.  The mallards were there, and so were a drake green-winged teal and a young male shoveler duck.  While watching those ducks for a few minutes, it occurred to me that the drakes of all three species have at least some green feathering on their heads.  The heads of male mallards and shovelers are totally green.  And I thought, drakes of several other kinds of ducks that are in Lancaster County at least part of each year also have some green on their heads when they are sporting their breeding plumages during winter and into early spring.  Those other ducks species include wood ducks, American wigeons, common mergansers, American goldeneyes and bufflehead ducks.
     Green-winged teal and American wigeon males each have a green stripe on each side of the head.  Common mergansers' heads are completely green.  Wood duck drakes have green on their crests.  And goldeneyes and buffleheads have green sheens on the dark parts of their heads. 
     The iridescent-green feathering on the heads of these ducks in their breeding plumages is caused by the way light is reflected off the ducks' heads.  The green is a sheen visible to view in certain lighting.  Because it is with the breeding colors on each drake, that green sheen is a part of each male's courting of his mate.  It is a flashy color, but still camouflages each drake to some extent.  Probably through trial and error over the eons, other bright colors highlighted the males' existence to predators that killed them.  But iridescent-green expressed the males' readiness to mate with their female partners while not exposing themselves to predation.  Drakes with green on their heads survived.  And partly due to that, so has each species to the present day.
     Nature works in wondrous ways.  Changes that benefit each species help it survive from one generation to the next.  Today's species of life are the result of a long time of changing form and color to fit into a habitat.        

River Ducks Look Alike

     American goldeneye, bufflehead and common merganser ducks winter on rivers and larger impoundments through winter in southeastern Pennsylvania, as elsewhere.  The drakes of those species of ducks look alike, though their are minor traits that set them apart.  And the hens of these
 kinds of ducks also resemble each other.  These birds of different species are similar because they are adapted to a similar habitat. 
     Drakes are striking with dark plumages on top and white below and on their flanks so they are light like the sky above to predators deeper in the water, and dark on top to resemble the water to predators in the sky.  Males also have contrasting dark and white patterns, different in each species, on their upper parts to entice females of their respective kinds to mate.  Males of each type duck have their own pattern they share with their male kin because of their common genetic code.
     Females of each of these species have gray feathering on their bodies, but browner heads and necks.  They have subtle colors to be camouflaged, which is particularly beneficial to each species when the hens are incubating eggs and raising ducklings.  But they, too, have lighter feathering underneath. 
     Goldeneyes and buffleheads are related to each other, so one would expect them to look somewhat alike.  But mergansers are not related to either species, yet resemble both in several ways.  Species' habitats shape them so they will fit into and be successful in each kind's niche, including in the various forms of camouflage to be invisible when need be. 
     Goldeneyes and buffleheads slip under water to eat a variety of molluscs and crustaceans they shovel off the bottoms of rivers and larger impoundments.  But mergansers dive beneath the surface to catch small fish in their serrated, red beaks.  These species of ducks have different food sources to reduce competition among themselves in the same habitat.
     These river ducks are an example of how each habitat shapes its inhabitants to be somewhat similar in body form and coloring to live successfully in its niche.  Another example would be the streamlining of ocean-dwelling fish and whales.  Adapting to habitats is happening all the time.          

Mallards and Canadas are the Draw

     Flocks of mallard ducks and Canada geese spend successive winters on certain human-made ponds of about a half-acre to one or two acres in size, even ones with people use on them.  Those adaptable ducks and geese draw other kinds of attractive and interesting ducks and geese to those ponds during autumn, winter and early spring in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, as elsewhere.  Not being constructed particularly for wildlife, those built impoundments have little shelter around them, but the presence of mallards and Canadas on those ponds must indicate to the stray ducks and geese that those built impoundments are safe to rest and feed on.  And so they do, mostly as individuals.
     For years I have visited some of those local ponds to see what kinds of waterfowl have been drawn to them, including in early November of 2014.  Within a few days at that time, I saw a young male shoveler duck and a drake green-winged teal among a couple hundred mallards on one two-acre pond and a young male wigeon and an immature drake black duck with about 180 mallards on another, half-acre impoundment.  Why were they all male?  I don't know.  And why were most of them adolescents?  I don't know.  But it was interesting to see those beautiful ducks on the impoundments.  And they prompted this article because I remember seeing stray individuals of other types of ducks and geese on private ponds in this county in November through to March over the years because of the omnipresent mallards and Canada geese that are also around them.
     Some of the ducks I have seen on ponds through the years, other than those on impoundments on wildlife preserves, include pintails, gadwalls, wood ducks, hooded mergansers, ruddy ducks, buffleheads, ring-necked ducks, canvasbacks and a kind of scaup.  All these birds were migrants or over-wintering when I saw them.  The mergansers caught fish in the ponds, while the ruddies, buffleheads, ring-necks, scaups and canvasbacks dove under water to consume aquatic vegetation and invertebrates.  Only the woodies stay here to nest in woodlands, and woodlots in farmland.
     I also think the few American coots and pied-billed grebes that are on these ponds in winter and during migrations are also drawn down by mallards and Canadas.  The coots mostly eat vegetation
while the grebes are fish catchers.
     In winter over the years, Canada geese have brought down a few individuals each of tundra swans, cackling geese, brant, snow geese and white-fronted geese to small, human-made impoundments outside of wildlife refuges.  Those larger waterfowl rest with the Canadas on ponds, and feed with them on waste corn and rye shoots in local fields.   
     I don't know why these individual ducks and geese get separated from their own flocks.  But when they do, they join groups of their relatives for safety.  There is safety in numbers.  Watch for these stray ducks, geese and swans on small impoundments inland in winter.  They can make a winter day cheerier and more interesting.   
               

Blue-winged Ducks

     Three kinds of blue-winged ducks in North America are small, but attractive.  They are blue-winged teal, cinnamon teal and northern shovelers, all of which have a patch of pale-blue feathers on each upper wing of each gender of all species.  They all have that light-blue feathering because they are derived from a mutual ancestor.  Drakes of these species are handsome, but the females of each type are nearly look-alikes, and mottled-brown for camouflage, which is especially beneficial when raising young. 
     Female blue-winged teal and cinnamon teal are almost indistinguishable, showing their close relatedness, but drakes of each species have different breeding plumages, because each species developed apart from the other in the near past.  Male blue-wings are two-tone brown all over with a white crescent on each cheek and white on each side of the rump.  Cinnamon drakes have reddish-brown on their heads, necks and underparts, but are brown on their backs.
     The two teal species have almost identical voices, habits and food sources in their different niches, which demonstrates their being closely related.  At some point in time, one kind became isolated from the others and developed its own species in its niche, but with most of the characteristics of their relatives intact.              
     Shovelers are a bit larger than the teal, and have exceptionally long, broad beaks, even for ducks.  The attractive drakes have green heads, white chests and rufous flanks.  Hens of this species can be distinguished from female teal because of their slightly larger size and much bigger bills.  Both species of teal and the shovelers fly swiftly and erratically in compact flocks, again showing their common ancestry and making them hard to identify in flight, except for the shovelers' big beaks.
     All these duck species developed and continue to nest, for the most part, in the western United States and western Canada.  But some blue-winged teal and shovelers migrate through the Middle Atlantic States each spring and autumn.  However, it's a rare cinnamon teal that enters the Mid-Atlantic States at any time of year.
     Blue-wings winter along the Gulf Coast in the southern United States, the West Indies and in Latin America.  Shovelers spend winters along the Gulf Coast of the United States and through much of Mexico and cinnamon teal do so in Mexico.  As in their breeding territories, these duck species overlap one another, to some extent, on their wintering grounds.  
     Blue-wings are most likely to be seen in the Mid-Atlantic States late in spring and early in autumn.  But they are not always easy to spot because they are small, camouflaged and shelter among emergent vegetation in the shallows. 
     Though blue-wings nest for the most part in the west, a few do raise young in the eastern part of North America, including at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge near the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and John Heinz Refuge along the Delaware River at Philadelphia.  This is the most eastern nesting species of this grouping of ducks. 
     The two kinds of teal eat the seeds of aquatic plants, plus water insects, snails and small crustaceans.  Ducklings mostly consume tiny animals to get protein for rapid growth. 
     Shovelers are mostly in the Middle Atlantic States during fall, including at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in southeastern Pennsylvania.  They have a unique method of feeding, an interesting and entertaining way that is exclusively theirs.  Little groups of them spin in one direction together in shallow water to stir plant material and tiny animals from the muddy bottom with their webbed feet.  Meanwhile, they scoop up water just above the mud with their shovel-like bills and strain edibles from it, using the combs on the edges of their beaks to do so.                
     Look for blue-winged teal and shoveler ducks in the Middle Atlantic States in spring and autumn.  They are not common here, and are small and camouflaged, making them a treat when seen.  

Coniferous Cruisin

     As the colored veil of autumn leaves falls away from its twig moorings late in October and into early November, coniferous trees come to the forefront in woods and suburban areas.  Some days those dead deciduous leaves drop in great numbers, swirling and side-slipping down, resembling a snow fall with big, multi-colored flakes.  Those leaves become crunchy carpets of yellow, red and brown underfoot.  At that same time, the green needles of the conifers become more visible  and enhance the beauties of woods and suburbs.  The evergreens have come into their own for the winter. 
      Suburban areas are the fastest growing human-made habitat in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, as throughout much of the nation.  During late October and well into November I like to drive this county's, woodlands and suburbs, mostly the suburbs, to see remnant autumn leaves and
emerging conifers.  At no time are the conifers' beauties more visible.  And at no time do those habitats seem as wild, nor look more beautiful.  Berries, nuts and seeds are everywhere in those environments; foods that sustain several kinds of birds and mammals through winter.  And many kinds of lovely and interesting birds are noticed feasting on those wild foods.       
     There are a few kinds of native and wild coniferous trees in Lancaster County.  Small clumps of eastern hemlocks remain in Susquehanna River ravines in spite of the devastation of the wooly adelgids killing many hemlocks.  Wild white pines and pitch pines are sprinkled through the Furnace Hills of northern Lancaster County.  Little colonies of table mountain pines blotch rock outcroppings in the forested river hills along the Susquehanna.  Red junipers and scrub pines dominate the pine barrens of southern Lancaster County.  And many more red junipers dot the broad shoulders of expressways in this county. 
     But most conifers in Lancaster County were planted on lawns, including hemlocks and white pines that are native to this county, and non-native Norway spruces, blue spruces, red spruces, northern white cedars (arborvitae) and yews.  These trees are planted on lawns because of their handsome shapes, attractive cones, and their needles that stay green all year around, including winter when we need that symbol of life the most.  And it's mostly the suburbs I drive through late in fall and through winter to see the magnificent shapes, pretty cones and evergreen needles of coniferous trees on those lawns.  Their beauties are most visible then, against the gray trunks of bare deciduous trees, snow and blue skies. 
     I create routes of coniferous cruising in suburban areas to see the most magnificent conifers of several kinds in the least amount of time and gasoline.  And those trees' beauties are always impressive and inspiring.  They are always well worth the trip, especially when covered with snow with snow on the ground.  And they are handsomely silhouetted at night against clouds that are illuminated by outdoor lights, particularly during a snowfall.
     Norway spruces are my favorite conifers on lawns.  They become tall and majestic, and, so far, don't seem subject to strong winds, pests or diseases.  White pines break off easily in high wind and hemlocks are being destroyed by wooly adelgids.  Norway spruces also have beautiful, red female flowers in May and large, attractive cones in fall and winter.      
     Several kinds of birds roost in conifers in winter, including those in the suburbs.  They include mourning doves, red-tailed and Cooper's hawks, great horned owls, American crows, dark-eyed juncos and other species.  One can see some of those birds entering conifers late in winter afternoons.  Those same types of birds also nest in evergreens. 
     Squirrels and certain species of birds eat the seeds from coniferous cones in winter, including American goldfinches, pine siskins, dark-eyed juncos, two kinds of chickadees and two species of crossbills.  Crossbills have bills especially adapted to getting seeds from between the scales of cones.  Their beaks are crossed to pry open the scales while their sticky tongues extract the seeds.   
     Readers may want to create driving routes to see coniferous trees during the last part of fall and well into winter.  Those trees are impressive and inspiring. 









    

Local Wetland Shrubs in Fall and Winter

     Certain native, wild shrubs are attractive in autumn and winter in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, each kind in its own way.  They are spicebushes, speckled alders, red-osier dogwoods and winterberries.
     Spicebushes are abundant in the understories of many local bottomland woods with constantly moist soil.  Their berries turn red in September and are a favorite food of flocks of American robins, cedar waxwings and other kinds of berry-eating birds that roam through the woods in fall. 
     Spicebush leaves turn yellow in October, brightening the bottomland woods they thrive in.  One can notice how common spicebushes are when their golden leaves stand out in woodland understories.
     The bark, twigs, leaves and berries of spicebushes have a lemony, spicy scent through the year.  One has only to scrape the bark or a twig with a thumb nail or crush a leaf or berry to experience their delightful scent.
     Speckled alders grow wild along streams, where they often grow dense, sheltering thickets of themselves.  This kind of shrub has light-colored, horizontal lenticels on its bark that give it its name.  And in winter they bear deep-purple, inch-and-a-half-long catkins (male flowers) and last year's seed cones.  Those catkins, and woody seed cones, hang abundantly and decoratively from the tips of twigs through winter.  The open-scaled alder cones somewhat resemble the cones of coniferous trees, such as pines and spruces.
     A variety of animals get shelter and food from speckled alders.  Small birds seek insect food among their twigs and leaves, and nest on their limbs.  American woodcocks, which are a kind of inland sandpiper, pull worms from the soil under their sheltering branches.  Mammals, including beavers, cottontail rabbits and field voles, eat the bark of these shrubs in winter.
     Red-osier dogwoods have red twigs that brighten wetlands, pond edges and the banks of the streams they inhabit through winter.  This striking shrub is planted on some lawns because of its decorative twigs in winter, that offer contrast to the gray, green and white of winter.
     Red-osier dogwood twigs are more green in summer.  But in autumn and winter when the green chlorophyll fades, the beautiful red is quite visible.
     Winterberries are a species of deciduous holly that loses its leaves in fall.  This uncommon shrub is native to bottomland woods with regularly wet soil.  It has red berries in autumn through winter that make it decorative in woods, and on the lawns where it is planted.  Its attractive, red berries through winter are edible to birds, particularly northern mockingbirds, and flocks of robins and waxwings.  Some people use those berries for indoor décor.         
     Look for these attractive shrubs in fall and winter.  They are well worth seeing.