Nature on a Ride Home

     I was on business at Park City Mall outside Lancaster City in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania until about 5:10 PM on February 10, 2015.  I started driving home around 5:15 in full daylight because the daylight per day is getting longer each succeeding day.  The sky was cloudy, but pretty with a few ribbons of blue, yellow and orange.  I also saw that the deciduous trees and coniferous trees, the yellow and green grass and patches of snow on the ground were lovely in the late afternoon light.  The snow beautifully highlighted the vegetation's colors. 
     As I drove away from Park City, I saw airborne streams of wintering American crows approaching that shopping mall and many hundreds more perched on bare, deciduous trees on the edges of the mall, in preparation to roost there for the night.  They have been doing that every evening all winter.
     A few minutes later, as I was driving home on Route 23 through the village of Eden, I saw a loose river of thousands of crows going west toward their nightly roost near Park City.  Those crows were quite a wild spectacle pouring low over tall deciduous and coniferous trees.
     A minute later I saw a flock of wintering American robins flying over Route 23 in Eden on their way to their roost for the night in spruce trees somewhere in town.  The needled boughs of those conifers protected the robins from cold winds and predators through the winter. 
     Meanwhile, I spotted several mourning doves perched on roadside wires.  Most of them were in pairs and ready for the breeding season this spring and summer.
     As I was leaving Eden, a small flock of stately Canada geese were circling where I knew the Conestoga River to be.  Those geese were checking the river and its environs for danger before landing on the water.
     A few minutes later, I saw another group of Canada geese flying south low over the town of Leola that straddles Route 23.  Those geese probably were winging out to a harvested cornfield to eat loose kernels of corn.     
     And while driving through Leola, I noticed two different, small gatherings of starlings swirling and diving in unison, and without collision, low over the town in preparation for bedding down for the night.  Eventually, both those starling groups will zip into the needled, sheltering boughs of coniferous trees where they will be protected from cold wind and predators. 
     As I continued to drive east on Route 23 to my home in New Holland, Pennsylvania, I noticed that the landscape and trees were getting darker, as the sky was.  But there was still beauty in the sky, countryside and vegetation.
     The flocks of birds I saw while driving along were silhouetted against the darkening sky.  But I identified them by their sizes, shapes and flight patterns as I drove along. 
     I finally rolled into New Holland and parked in front of my house.  And as I got out of my car at about 5:45, I heard the honking of many snow geese overhead.  Looking up, I saw thousands of noisy snow geese in wave after wave sliding quickly across the sky and powering low right over my house and neighborhood.  The timing to see and hear them could not have been better.  When snows come into this area in such numbers, spring is right around the corner, as we say.      
     Not every drive home, no matter the season, is as eventful as this one was.  The reader can have similar experiences by simply watching for beauties in nature at all times, whenever that can be safely done.