Flowers in a Wooded Bottom Land

     Much of a wooded valley in the forested hills of northern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania has been owned by the Pennsylvania Game Commission for many years for hunting, and has changed little in my lifetime.  It probably has changed little since the days of American Indians over 300 years ago.  This valley contains a typical bottom land woods where, over the years, I have seen ruffed grouse, white-tailed deer, box turtles, black rat snakes and many kinds of forest birds, with different species in different seasons.  And there I have heard the croaking of male wood frogs, the peeping of male spring peeper frogs, the trilling of male American toads, the drumming of male ruffed grouse and the courtships of male American woodcocks.  But on April 29, 2015, I tallied the plants and flowering plants, both native and alien, growing along a gravel road that runs closely parallel to a clear stream in that wooded valley.
     Many acres of succulent, three-foot-tall skunk cabbage leaves dominated the moist soil in the bottom land.  The flower hoods of this native plant emerged from the damp ground early in February and the foliage sprouted in March.  Skunk cabbage flower hoods create heat to melt their way through snow.  Crushed leaves of this species smell like skunk spray, hence the common name.
     The lush foliage of other kinds of plants, here and there, covered drier ground abundantly.  They include native May apples and wild leeks, and alien day lilies.  May apple leaves are folded when they poke through the ground in April.  But those leaves unfold like umbrellas as they develop.  I often imagine a fairy or gnome standing under each May apple leaf.
     Leeks are related to onions, but have broad leaves.  One can smell their onion fragrance by crushing a leaf.
     Some of the native woodland wildflowers blooming along that woodland road on April 29 include bloodroots, spring beauties, northern downy violets, yellow violets, wild gingers, trout lilies, and rue anemones.  Bloodroots, being an early species, only had a few blooming flowers left, although I saw many leaves of this plant just off the road.  I lifted a few of the heart-shaped leaves of the ginger to see the small, purple-brown flower of each plant.  The yellow blossoms of trout lilies were at their peak of blooming and quite attractive.  The two or three delicate, white flowers on each of the equally fragile rue anemone plants were also at the height of blooming. 
     Most of the flowering plants in this woodland were behind schedule in blooming because of the cold weather we had here during March and much of April.  But deciduous forest floors are warmer in April than any other month of the year.  That's because leaves on the trees didn't develop yet and the hot sunlight shines directly on the forest floor, warming it and allowing plant growth.  And plants on the woodland floor get more light, which also spurs their rapid growth before tree leaves shade the ground.
     A few alien plants originally from Europe, including colt's-foot, lesser celandine and dandelion, help cheer the April woods with their innumerable golden blossoms.  Colt's-foot and dandelion produce seeds on fuzzy parachutes that carry those seeds some distance before landing and sprouting.  These species of vegetation inhabit the drier parts of the woods, especially along road cuts and clearings where they get ample sunlight at least part of each day.
     Lesser celandine, however, thrives best in the damp soil of bottom land woods along creeks and streams, where this species forms large patches of itself, dominating some of the bottom lands.  And it does well in a combination of sunlight and shade each day.
     Spicebushes had tiny, yellow flowers on them the day I was in that wooded valley, while red maple trees had red-orange blossoms and shad bushes had white flowers.  Those flowers, together, brightened the understories and canopies of the woods, while the forest floor blooms cheered that level of the woods.  
     I noticed that day, too, that the long leaf buds of American beech trees were swelling and offering their own beauties to that of the bottom land forest that day.  Those buds were particularly pretty when the sunlight shone behind them.
     That relatively unchanged floodplain forest was lovely and interesting with flowers the day I was there.  And as those blooms fade, migrant bird species will arrive to raise young in the woods.  This valley, like most everywhere on Earth, always has something in nature to experience.                

Eastern Basking Turtles

     Several species of inland water turtles in the eastern United States are notorious for basking in the warm sunlight.  Being cold-blooded, like all other species of reptiles, and amphibians, turtles soak up sunlight to warm up to be active enough to hunt food, and mates during their breeding season.  In fact most kinds of fresh water turtles are most likely to be seen by us people only when they bask.  And when there is a shortage of logs and rocks in the water to bask on, these species of water turtles stack on top of each other when resting in the sunshine.  But if they sense danger, they quickly flop into the water and rapidly swim to the bottom of the water to hide in mud or among aquatic vegetation until that danger passes.
     The rest of the time these turtles are under water hunting aquatic food or resting on the surface of water with only their noses sticking out to breathe.  A list of those turtles includes eastern painted, northern red-bellied and map turtles, plus pond sliders, two types of cooters and chicken turtles.  Generally, they inhabit ponds, lakes, and sluggish creeks and rivers.  And there they hibernate, or are dormant, during winter. 
     Water turtles in the eastern United States mate during the heat of mid-summer.  Females store sperm from one mating for a few years of laying eggs.  June is the main time when female turtles lay eggs in the eastern United States.  They all lay eggs in nests they dig with their back legs in soil or sand near the water they live in.  The sun's warmth incubates the eggs and the young hatch about two months later and try to enter nearby water for safety.  But some nests of eggs are dug up and eaten by raccoons, skunks and other critters.  And many young turtles are eaten by gulls,  crows, vultures, alligators, raccoons and other predatory creatures.
     Eastern painted turtles live throughout much of the eastern United States, from New England south, except the Deep South and Florida.  They are the most abundant and widespread of turtles in this region.  They live in small ponds, marshes, retention basins, roadside ditches and other small bodies of fresh water.  The young and older line up on logs to sun themselves. 
     Painted turtles have top shells that can be up to nine inches long.  They are beautiful turtles, and so-named because they have yellow bottom shells and red and yellow stripes on their necks, legs and tails.  The young eat small animals to get protein for growth, but adults mostly consume aquatic vegetation.
     Northern red-bellied turtles' upper shells can be up to 15 inches long.  This uncommon species has dull-red on its under shell and is dark on top.  This species mostly inhabits deeper ponds and lakes in extreme southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, the Delmarva Peninsula and the coasts of Maryland and Virginia.  It feeds on crayfish, snails, tadpoles, carrion and water plants.
     Map turtles are mostly green with many yellow lines, rings and markings on their top shells, heads and legs.  The markings on their upper shells do give the appearance of maps.  Males' upper shells can be up to six inches long while those of females might be as much as ten inches in length.  Females also have larger heads, proportionally, than their male relatives.
     Map turtles live fairly commonly in rivers and larger creeks in the eastern United States.  There they ingest crayfish, snails, fresh water clams, aquatic insects and other water creatures they catch on the muddy bottoms of those waterways.                   
     There are two major subspecies of pond sliders, red-eared and yellow-bellied.  The red-eared variety is mostly green when young, with a red bar on each side of the neck.  These were the baby turtles most likely sold to be pets.  Yellow-bellies have a few vertical, yellow bars on their top shells and a large, yellow blotch behind each eye. 
     Pond sliders can grow upper shells up to ten inches long.  They are a species of the Deep South and the Mississippi River Basin.  But many baby sliders, bought as pets, were released into the wild at some point, including outside their original range.  There they grew up, found mates and started populations of themselves in The North.  Today they are common in some creeks and ponds in The North, as they are in The South. 
     In the wild, young sliders consume insects, crayfish and other small critters, but turn to water vegetation as they get older.  Not only do the young get protein for growth, but they are not competing with adults for food that might be limited in places.
     Cooters are large turtles of The South.  Their top shells can be up to 15 inches long.  Those upper shells are greenish or brown with many thin, yellow circles and other golden markings.  And there are lines of yellow on their heads, necks and tails.  Adult male cooters have elongated nails on their front feet that they use to tickle the chins of potential mates to induce them into mating.
     The shells of chicken turtles can be as much as ten inches in length.  This species has a really long, yellow-striped  neck.  When extended, their necks can be about as long as their shells.  Males are smaller than females in this species, and have proportionally longer, thicker tails.  And, generally, chicken turtles have brown, upper shells.
     These six kinds of turtles that live in fresh water waterways and impoundments and bask together on partly submerged logs and rocks are interesting when spotted sunning themselves.  And each species is pretty in its own way.  But one has to be cautious when approaching these turtles because they are quick to splash into the water and hide.

Rye and Alfalfa in Spring

     Rye and alfalfa are two plants grown abundantly in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania farmland because of their great value to farmers.  Each plant feeds livestock, helps enrich and contain the soil and is valuable to certain species of adaptable wildlife living in cropland.  And each species of plant begins to grow rapidly, and is beautifully lush green, when the weather warms in April.
     These species of vegetation have much in common.  They are both originally from Europe where they had been grown for centuries before being introduced to North America as farm crops.  Both are cut for hay several times during the warmer months to be baled and stored to feed cattle and horses in barns during winter.  Or cows and horses could graze on alfalfa and rye growing in the fields.
     Rye and alfalfa hold down the soil through the year, keeping it from washing away during heavy rains, and take nitrogen from the air and fix it in the ground, helping enrich the soil.  Or those growing plants could be plowed under and left to decay in the soil, enriching it that way, too.  Farmers call that green manure.
     Rye could be let go to grow tall and produce grain.  The grain is sold by the farmers and the stems, (straw) which turn yellow in the death of the plants, except for the seeds, is baled to be used for animal bedding in the barns. 
     Rye and alfalfa have values to certain kinds of wildlife.  After rye is harvested by machinery, mostly late in June and early in July, rock pigeons, mourning doves, purple grackles house sparrows, field voles and other kinds of birds and mammals eat grains of rye that were missed by the harvesters and fell to the ground.  That grain is a big source of food for those critters during summer.  Flocks of pigeons settle on the fields like handfuls of gray and white confetti tossed into the wind.  The light-brown doves generally land on the fields in pairs and small groups and "disappear" against the golden stubble.
     Alfalfa produces purple, fragrant flowers that bees, butterflies and other kinds of insects visit to sip sugary nectar.  Many alfalfa fields hum with insect activity until the alfalfa is cut for hay.  But it soon grows back and produces another batch of blossoms.
     During the warmer months, white-tailed deer, cottontail rabbits and wood chucks graze on the green shoots of rye and alfalfa, as do farm animals.  And when those plants grow tall, they provide cover for those same species of animals.   
     During winter and into early spring, Canada geese snow geese and tundra swans consume many of the green shoots of rye lying dormant, but green and alive, in the fields.  Most of the Canadas remain here to nest, but the snows and swans migrate north to the Arctic tundra to rear offspring in its endless daylight of summer.  Both species of geese and the swans are exciting to experience in the air, on the ground and in water.  They are big, fly in dramatic formations and constantly honking or otherwise vocalizing, which is food for many peoples' spirits when the experience them.
     Rye and alfalfa are green and lush, starting in April.  And, beyond their beauties, they are valuable to farmers and certain types of adaptable wildlife.  When possible, watch for rye and alfalfa fields to enjoy their beauties and intrigues.        
          

An Example of Bird Divergence and Convergence

     Bonaparte's gulls and solitary sandpipers have much in common.  Both these kinds of birds, which are members of what are regarded as shoreline families, diverged from their respective families' usual habitats and habits in treeless environments.  That departure allows them to use nesting niches to rear offspring free of competition for space and food from their respective relatives.  That divergence also makes each family more diverse, and successful.    
     While the relatives of these birds raise young on the ground in open habitats, including shores, marshes and the tundra, Bonaparte's and solitaries adapted to hatching offspring in nests high in spruce and fir trees, where they won't be bothered by ground predators, near inland lakes and rivers in the forests of Canada and Alaska.  And there they converged with each other in the same habitat that shaped them into somewhat similar creatures.       
     Unlike their relatives that power swiftly in groups in open country, Bonaparte's and solitaries both fly more buoyantly than their cousins, probably to be able to fly safely among trees with ease.  And Bonaparte's and solitaries migrate through the Mid-Atlantic States; north in spring and south during fall.  But the gulls spend northern winters along both sea coasts of the United States while the sandpipers winter in northern South American forests.
     Bonaparte's are pretty gulls in summer, with dark heads, light-gray upper wings and backs, white under parts and red legs.  They also have a broad, white stripe on each wing.  When those gulls are in flight, those white bars, from a distance, look like banners waving in the wind. 
     Bonaparte's build nurseries of twigs, grass and moss in spruce and fir trees in boreal forests.  Each female lays two to four olive or buff, and dark-spotted eggs in her cradle.  The parent gulls bring insects and small fish to the fluffy chicks in their cradles until they are ready to fly.
     Solitaries lay their four eggs in the abandoned nests of jays, thrushes and blackbirds in Canadian and Alaskan forests.  Their four eggs per clutch are pale-green or buff and spotted with gray or brown.  Soon after hatching, the young jump from their nursery to the ground below where they forage for invertebrates.         
     Solitaries are handsome birds.  They are dark on top with several light spots that mimic sunlight dappling through trees in the shadowy woods.  This is a departure from plumage colors in other sandpipers, most of which are brown or light gray for camouflage on mud and in shallow water.  And true to their name, they generally are individuals wading in shallow water after aquatic invertebrates.  That trait probably is a result of solitaries nesting in isolated pairs in dense forests where birds of any kind would have trouble navigating together in flocks.     
     Though we here in the Middle Atlantic States only see Bonaparte's and solitaries on migration, it is interesting to note how these unrelated species use similar nesting niches in the same summer environment for the safety of the youngsters.  Habitats shape the critters that live in them into similar creatures; like the shapes of fish and whales. 

Spring Flowers From Planted Bulbs

     Three kinds of flowering plants that are abundantly planted as bulbs on some lawns in the Middle Atlantic States, as elsewhere in the United States, bloom early in spring, or in the middle of it, depending on the species.  These perennial plants spread rapidly across lawns and flower gardens, and even in fields and woodlands, creating large patches of themselves.  In most human-made habitats, these plants resemble wild flowers, when they grow randomly through grass, mulch or carpets of dead leaves. 
     These flowering plants are originally from southern Europe, North Africa and western Asia, but were domesticated long ago and introduced to many parts of the world as ornamental flowers that blossom beautifully on lawns every year.  They are winter aconites, scilla and grape hyacinths in that order of blooming each spring.  All these plants form seeds that scatter on the wind across the countryside.
     Winter aconites generally bloom around the middle, or toward the end, of February, depending on the weather.  Each aconite plant has a single yellow flower above a ring of tiny, narrow leaves.  The whole plant stands only a couple inches above the ground to avoid cold winds, yet receive the warming sunlight and heat from the sun-warmed ground.  Masses of those striking, golden blossoms are cheering to see in February, and into early March in some years.
     Each scilla plant  has two or three lovely, sky-blue flowers above grass-like leaves that are thicker than grass.  This plant grows up to six inches tall.  Perhaps it doesn't have to be so short because it sprouts and blooms around the middle of March and toward the end of that month when, generally, the weather is warmer.  Great patches of beautiful scilla blossoms on a lawn look like they are reflecting the clear sky.
     Grape hyacinth plants bloom around the middle of April.  Each plant has many round, bluish-purple flowers in pyramidal form that also resemble an up-side-down bunch of grapes above several long, broad leaves.  Each blossom is open at one end to release pollen, and seeds later.  This species spreads more than any other plant in this grouping.  It colonizes large sections of lawns, meadows, roadsides and abandoned fields, given enough time.  In fact, I have seen whole pastures, and fields that were deserted, turn blue with the blossoms of grape hyacinths during mid-April.                       
     The flowers on these plants fade too soon.  But they were lovely and cheering when they were blooming.  Look for them each early spring on lawns and other human-made habitats.  And the reader could buy bulbs of these plants, and other species, to plant, scattered, on a lawn or in a flower bed.    

Stream Wildlife

     Lancaster County, Pennsylvania has many streams that run through meadows.  Those grassy pastures were originally created along waterways so cattle, horses and other farm animals can get water.  And as the streams turn this way and that in following the lower contours of the land, they create high banks on the outside of the turns where the water moves quickly and erodes the ground, and form mud flats and gravel bars on the inside of each curve where the current flows slower and drops its load of soil, sand and stones.  Certain kinds of vertebrate animals take advantage of each niche along every meadow waterway in this county, as each of their species does elsewhere.
     Some stream banks become up to eight feet high.  At least three kinds of creatures create holes in those banks where they raise young.  Summering belted kingfishers and rough-winged swallows dig burrows into the soil near the tops of the banks.  Kingfishers excavate a few feet back while the much smaller swallows do so for more than a foot.  Kingfishers eat small fish, for which they dive into the water beak-first.  The swallows catch flying insects while on the wing.   
     Muskrats, which look like large meadow mice, dig into the soil at the normal water level so they can swim along the surface of the water and right into their homes without exposing themselves to predators.  After tunneling into the soil more than a foot, the muskrats excavate up to just below the grass roots level so they and their young don't drown during times of high water.  Muskrats eat a variety of vegetation.
     Permanent resident song sparrows also live along streams in meadows.  They shelter and raise young among the tall grasses and bushes along those waterways.  They constantly patrol the mud flats and gravel bars for insects and other kinds of invertebrates. 
     Summering spotted sandpipers and killdeer plovers, which are types of inland shorebirds, are also drawn to the mud flats and gravel bars where they rear offspring and eat invertebrates along the water's edge.  The sandpipers bob as they walk along the shore line.  That dancing mimics debris bouncing in the current, which is a type of camouflage.  In fact, the song sparrows, spotties and killdeer, which are all brown on top, are well camouflaged along their stream habitat.  The killdeer also have black lines through their faces and two black bars on their chests to interrupt their shapes.
     Wherever bridges cross meadow waterways, one to a few pairs of barn swallows build mud pellet cradles on support beams under the bridges.  These swallows, too, seine the air of flying insects, but migrate south in late summer.
     And wherever a bluebird box is erected along the waterway, a pair of tree swallows are the most likely birds to use it to raise babies.  As if with all swallows, they take flying insects from the air and migrate south in late summer and autumn.
     A simple stream in a short-grass cow pasture can be a haven for a variety of wildlife, each one in its own particular niche.  It's interesting to see how tied to their niche each species of life is.    

Beauties of Bradford Pears

     Bradford pears, also known as Callery pears, are in full bloom every mid-April here in the Middle Atlantic States of the United States, which adds much beauty to the cities, towns and suburbs where they are abundantly planted as ornamental trees.  Each tree is white with innumerable white, five-petaled blooms that remain on the tree for a couple of weeks.  One can tell a tree, not only by its fruit, but by its flowers as well.  By the end of April, each pear tree begins to grow smooth, glossy, dark green leaves that create shade, and produce oxygen like any other green plant. 
     Callery pears are originally from China and Vietnam.  They became popular here in the United States around the 1980's because of their small size, which fits into city environments, rapid growth and numerous beautiful blossoms at a time when people need an emotional lift after winter's hardships.  One downside of this kind of pear is their fast-growing, but weak, limbs can be easily broken off during strong winds.  Some municipalities have rethought the wisdom of Bradford pears along city streets where broken limbs could cause damage to vehicles and people.
     Insects of several kinds visit the blossoms on Bradford pears to sip nectar and ingest pollen.  And if the insects distribute pollen from different types of this cultivar, the flowers produce fertile seeds in their berry-sized, brown fruits.  Those fruits are hard and almost woody, until a frost softens them.  Then a variety of birds, particularly starlings, American robins and cedar waxwings eat the fruits through winter, digest their pulp, but pass their seeds across the countryside as the birds travel about.  The birds, and squirrels and mice, have more food in winter and the pear tree seeds spread across the landscape and sprout.  Those wild Bradford pear trees continue to produce fertile seeds in their fruits.
     Another downer to some people is that Bradford pears are invasive trees in disturbed soil such as along roadsides and fields that were cultivated, then abandoned.  Lines of them are seen wild along roads where birds perched on roadside wires after feeding on pear fruits and relieved themselves of droppings.  And pure stands of Callery pears sprout and grow in deserted fields where birds foraged for food after feasting on pear fruits.  But, probably, native tree species are not as likely to thrive as well in disturbed niches as Callery pears.  Those pears provide food where, otherwise, there may not be so much.  And the roots of the pear trees help retain the soil during heavy rain.  I say let Bradford pears grow in places where they are not likely to out-compete native trees anyway.  
     Bradford pears are just as beautiful and interesting in November as they are in April.  When the green chlorophyll in their foliage dies, the other colors, bright red or maroon, in the leaves are visible to us.  Whole patches and thickets of this type of pear, sometimes in pure stands of them alone in overgrown, human-made habitats, and where planted in suburban neighborhoods are beautiful with those striking autumn leaves.
     And these pear trees are delightful in winter when they are without foliage.  Then their beauty is in the birds that are still eating their numerous fruit until it is gone.
     Bradford pears are aliens to North America.  They grow quickly, but can be broken down quickly by wind, perhaps causing injury or damage.  And they are invasive in many places.  But their flowers and fall leaves are pretty.  Their fruits and flowers feed a variety of wildlife.  And their roots retain soil.  I think they are here to stay and will take their place in the wild, benefiting it and  providing beauty for us.         

Wild Trout in Lancaster County

     I am not a fisherman, but I have had a few intimate experiences with wild, native brook trout in cold water streams here in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  One winter day I was walking on a four-inch snow cover in a woodland when I came upon a clear brook by an uninhabited cabin.  I saw a tin cup on a nail in a tree, so I thought I would like to taste the water in that tiny waterway.  I laid down in the snow and was about to take a sip directly from a "hole" of deeper, slower water when I saw a small trout just inches below my face looking up at me.  I backed away to not disturb the fish more, but it darted away under a stream bank.
     Years later, I was walking along a brook in a woods during October.  Golden and orange leaves carpeted the ground.  I saw a six-inch fish, and then another about the same size, dash upstream along the bottom of a deeper, slower pool in the waterway and disappear.  I sat on a log above the leafy carpet and watched that stretch of stream where the fish were and saw one of the fish in my binoculars.  It was a brook trout in full breeding colors of mostly brown on top and red on the underside; an attractive creature, in cold, clear water, in a pretty woodland on a lovely day.  
     Trout are kinds of freshwater fish that live in, and often dominate, cold, flowing streams with crystal-clear water, stony bottoms and no vegetation in woodland habitats.  They are powerful and streamlined fish, well able to cope with the constant current of their flowing water habitats. 
     Two species of trout live wild and reproduce themselves in several nearly-pristine streams and brooks in the more natural areas of Lancaster County.  They are brook trout that are native to much of northeastern North America, and brown trout that were introduced to much of the United States from Europe to replace brook trout in waterways that became too warm or polluted for the health of the more demanding brook trout.  
     Brook trout and brown trout are handsome fish, each in its own, camouflaged way.  They can be hard to see against the stones on the bottom of waterways.  Brook trout are mostly pale-brown above with lots of yellowish spots and squiggles and a few red dots, and red below.  Each of their red fins has a white leading edge, followed by a vertical, black bar.  That white edge is the single most characteristic mark on this species.  Brown trout are brownish all over with many black spots on their upper parts and sides, and some red dots on their flanks. 
     Both these species spawn in autumn in their cold waterway homes.  Their eggs lodge between stones on the bottoms where they are protected from crayfish, predatory insect larvae, young dusky salamanders and other critters that would eat them. 
     Both these species of trout feed on the aquatic larvae of mayflies, stoneflies and other kinds of insects, young crayfish, dace, which are a kind of minnow, and other small critters on the bottom, in mid-stream or at the surface.  The camouflaged trout generally hide to ambush their prey.  And these powerful fish also jump out of the water to catch insects flying just above the surface.  These two types of trout might compete a little for homes and food, but brown trout are a bit more tolerant of warmer water than brook trout are.    
     Trout leaping out of the water after prey gives away their presence and thrills fishermen and other people.  Fly fishermen like to catch trout on their lines, but anyone can thrill from seeing live, wild trout in their beautiful, natural habitats.               
     Though wild trout are hard to see because of their camouflage and hiding under stream banks and under rocks, they are worth the effort of looking when spotted.  And even if they are not seen, it's still fascinating to note they are lurking in clear, flowing streams and brooks, here in Lancaster County and throughout much of North America.

Wildlife at a Restaurant

     My wife and I stopped at a restaurant on the edge of a mall near York City, Pennsylvania one afternoon in the middle of April, 2015.  We sat inside at a window overlooking a wooden dining deck, a small lawn of short grass, a slow-moving stream coming away from the shopping mall and an old, wooden covered bridge sheltering a walkway.  While dining, we began to notice certain species of wildlife outside the windows.  They were kinds of animals that are common here because they are adaptable and use human-made habitats, structures and activities to their own advantage. 
     The first creatures I saw were a few each of Canada geese and mallard ducks lounging on the shallow stream that I believe drains at least some rain water off the large parking lot of the mall.  But then I noticed a female goose on her grassy nest on the ground up a slope from the water and another goose on her nursery on mulch just off the deck.  At this time of year, both geese were probably incubating clutches of about four eggs each.  We saw one of the geese stand up to roll her eggs over, as all birds do.  Both those broods of goslings will soon hatch.    
     Of the four mallards, only one was a hen.  That leads me to think that the other drakes' mates are hatching eggs somewhere.  But because ducks are smaller than geese and not as pugnacious as their larger cousins, female ducks hide their clutches of 12 or more eggs.
     A couple of American robins hunted earthworms and other invertebrates on the lawn around the restaurant.  Several young trees planted on the lawn will provide nesting sites for those robins.
     When looking at the covered bridge, I noticed several large insects flying around and through it.  I knew they were female carpenter bees that recently emerged from spending the past winter in nearby soil to escape the cold.  Since the bridge was old and the wood soft from the start of decay, I knew those female carpenter bees would use their mouth parts to chew perfectly round holes the width of their bodies into the underside of the wood to create nurseries for their larvae.  When the holes would be completed, each bee will stuff a ball of flower nectar and pollen in the back of the hollow, lay an egg on it and partition it off with wax.  Then she will section off another egg with food and so on until the cavity is filled and closed.  Each bee continues doing that with every cavity she created until all holes are filled with eggs and stored food.  Each larva hatches, eats the nectar and pollen, changes to an adult bee and exits its birth chamber as it becomes empty from the front of the tunnel to its end.  Carpenter bees today use built wooden structures, AND traditional, dead tree limbs to raise their broods.  Built structures, in part, replace the trees that were removed to create farmland and lawns.       Amusingly, when people on the deck were finished eating and left, a troop of house sparrows suddenly swept onto the deck and hopped about on the floor to eat crumbs.  Those sparrows long ago discovered that people on the deck meant crumbs to eat.  Presumably, those little, brown birds perch nearby all day, every day during warmer months and wait for the diners to leave.  Since that restaurant only recently served food in warm weather on the deck, it is amazing how those sparrows remembered food on that deck last year.  And it's equally noteworthy how fast critters learn knew ways to survive.  In fact, it is the adaptable plants and animals that will ultimately survive human activities on Earth.       
     When I went on the deck to see what else might be living in the clear water, I saw small schools of banded killifish, which are a kind of minnow.  Actually, I saw their shadows on the muddy bottom of the stream better than the fish themselves because they were brown like the mud and nearly invisible even when they swam as a group.  Camouflage saves lives. 
     My wife and I were at that restaurant only an hour, but we saw adaptable, interesting  wildlife.  Anyone can have the same experience.  Just stay alert and watch for the possibilities wherever you might be, anytime of year. 
    
  

Pairs of Birds

     I was riding through farmland in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on a warm, sunny afternoon in the middle of April in 2015 to see what wildlife was visible.  I wasn't seeing much from the quiet rural roads I was traveling on until I came to a stretch of the upper Conestoga River, which has been a good spot in the past for experiencing wildlife.  I saw a pair of mallard ducks mating on a slow section of the river, so I parked on a bridge over the water to see what else might be going on in that spot. 
     At first I didn't see anything except the mallards in the middle of the Conestoga.  But then I started to see through the other bird species' camouflage as they moved about, including a couple of Wilson's snipe, which are a kind of inland sandpiper.  The snipe wintered along smaller waterways here and consumed invertebrates they pulled out of the mud under shallow water with their long beaks.  But soon they will migrate farther north to nest. 
     As it turned out, and in spite of most of the birds being camouflaged in their respective niches in an overgrown meadow, I counted 13 species of birds in an hour's time in the area of the Conestoga and the bridge I was parked on, 11 of which were in pairs that probably will nest in that pasture.  The mallard hen will nest in that area because she can conceal her clutch of at least 12 eggs on the ground under the tall grass near the river.
     The first pair of birds I saw after the mallards was a pair of wood ducks swimming behind the mallards.  The woody hen will raise young in that area because of wind-caused hollows in large trees and a couple of wood duck nest boxes erected in that overgrown pasture straddling the river.
     I saw a pair each of cardinals and song sparrows that will hatch youngsters in grassy nurseries in shrubbery in that meadow.  Males of both those common species were singing from the tops of saplings while I was there.
     I saw a sparrow that seemed different than the song sparrows.  I looked at the bird perched in a sapling with 16 power binoculars and saw it was a male savannah sparrow with much yellow on its face.  It was singing "tsee, tsee, tsee, tseeeeeee-saaaaaaaa".  Another sparrow "caught my eye" and I saw through the binoculars that it was a female savannah.  That pair of savannahs probably will nest on the ground in the pasture when the grass grows taller.
     A couple male red-winged blackbirds were singing "kon-ga-reeee" from saplings in the meadow while female red-wings moved about to feed on insects.  The female red-wings will build grass cradles among blades of tall grass above the ground.
     I saw one pair of American robins fluttering among the young trees and shrubbery in that overgrown pasture.  They will probably stay in the meadow to rear offspring in a mud and grass nursery in a young tree because there is mud along the river to make a nest and earthworms and other invertebrates to feed on and feed to their youngsters.
     A pair each of rock pigeons and mourning doves came to a mud flat along the river, not at the same time, to drink from shallow water.  The pigeons will nest in a nearby barn while the doves will hatch young in two staggered cradles in trees or bushes in a nearby farmyard.  The related pigeons and doves eat weed seeds and grain from nearby fields and drink regularly from the river.
     A pair each of rough-winged swallows and barn swallows were flying over the river and pasture after flying insects or perching on saplings between feeding forays.  Those pairs of swallows of both species will nest under the bridge, the rough-wings in a drainage pipe and the barns in a mud pellet cradle plastered to a wall just under the bridge ceiling.  Those different nesting niches reduce competition between these related birds for nesting sites.  But both species will eat the plentiful flying insects that will be in the area all summer.      
     At least a pair each of other species of birds, including killdeer plovers, one of which I saw that April day in 2015, spotted sandpipers, northern flickers, American kestrels and eastern bluebirds,  have nested in years past in that overgrown pasture along the Conestoga near the bridge I was on.  I saw those species there in the last few summers, but not yet this year.  Spotties hatch young on the ground under tall grass and feed on invertebrates on mud flats along the river.  Killdeer young eat insects and so on along the edges of the water and the country road.  The northern flickers chip a cavity out of a dead limb on a large, live tree in the meadow where they raise youngsters on invertebrates.  Kestrels and bluebirds hatch offspring in abandoned flicker holes or other tree cavities.       With patience and seeing through the birds' camouflaged plumage, I spotted several kinds of birds in that weedy, shrubby pasture.  Most of those species, and a few others I mentioned, will likely stay in that meadow to rear offspring.  With time and patience, the reader can find places filled with adaptable wildlife like the spot I watched for an hour that day in mid-April.  Observing plants and animals where they naturally live is always entertaining and inspiring. 

Inland Northbound Shorebirds

     During April and May, several species of shorebirds (sandpipers and plovers) migrate north through the Middle Atlantic States on their way to Canadian and Alaskan nesting grounds.  Many of those birds, which are ambassadors of their wintering grounds in South America and the Arctic tundra where they nest, move north along the Atlantic Coast, and many others migrate inland on their way north.
     But those inland northbound shorebirds have to stop to rest and eat invertebrates in temporarily flooded fields and meadows left from heavy or prolonged, spring rains, and along waterways in farmland before continuing their travels.  The sandpipers are most likely to wade in the shallows of those pools in fields and meadows or walk along their muddy edges to get food, while the plovers walk on higher, drier croplands and pastures to ingest theirs, which reduces competition for food among those related species.
     Early in April, several Wilson's snipe, which are a kind of sandpiper that winters along small waterways in agricultural pastures, are still in this area. These robin-sized, brown and dark-streaked shorebirds rapidly probe their long beaks into mud under shallow water to pull out invertebrates.
Killdeer plovers, that arrived from farther south in March, walk along the edges of those same streams in search of small critters to eat.  The snipe leave the southern part of this area by late April, but the killdeer nest throughout the region.  
     Also in April, a small variety of migrant sandpipers arrive in this area, including flocks of pectoral sandpipers, least sandpipers, greater yellowlegs and lesser yellowlegs.  These species wade in the shallows of field and meadow puddles to catch invertebrates in the mud under the water, or in the water after they came out of the ground to keep from drowning.  The two kinds of yellowlegs, which do have yellow legs, by the way, wade into deeper water because their legs are longer than those of other sandpipers that migrate inland.  Greater yellowlegs emit clamorous, melodious calls when in flight and lesser yellowlegs often fly up from feeding for no reason I can see, circle the fields and puddles, then land on them again and immediately start feeding.  
     The pectoral and least sandpipers wade in shallower water or the muddy edges of the puddles because of their shorter legs.  Leg length has reduced rivalry for food among the various sandpipers.
     Interestingly, the yellowlegs are gray, which is camouflage in the water that reflects gray skies.  The pectorals and least sandpipers are brown to blend into the color of the mud they walk on.  Least sandpipers resemble feathered mice creeping about on the mud.  Flocks of them huddle into the wind when not feeding, but often wheel up into the wind from puddles and mud for no reason apparent to us, circle the water a few times in fast, erratic flight, alternately flashing white bellies with one turn and brown backs with another, amid their own excited, rasping cries.  Then they settle on the mud again like pebbles tossed randomly across the mud, disappearing the instant they alight.  And, remarkably, they do all that without a single collision.  Their groups in wild, swift flight are perfectly coordinated with the split-second timing of each aerial turn. 
     Later in April, while the yellowlegs and other types of sandpipers are still here, spotted sandpipers move into the area to raise young, as they do across most of the Lower 48.  Spotties seek food along waterways and inundated cropland and pastures and finally settle down to hatch babies near water in those same agricultural habitats.
     Interestingly, spotted sandpipers bob and dance as they walk along water to find invertebrate food.  That action imitates debris bouncing in water, which is a form of camouflage.  And the spotties are brown above and white below, with dark spots all over, again to blend into their surroundings.
     Early in May, solitary sandpipers, semi-palmated plovers and black-bellied plovers pass through the Mid-Atlantic States in their northbound migrations.  True to their name, solitaries wander about singularly in the shallows of flooded fields and meadows and back waters of streams to catch tiny critters to eat.  Solitaries are dark-gray on top with many light spots to blend into the shadows under tree limbs hanging over shallow water.  They have a dainty flight; buoyant like that of butterflies. 
     Solitaries are the only sandpiper in North America that nest in other birds' nests in the tops of spruce trees in Canada's boreal forests.  They nest in that niche because the eggs and young are away from ground predators.  The four, newly-hatched chicks must leap from their nests to the ground to be able to find invertebrate food.    
     Semi-palm plovers and black-bellied plovers generally walk through plowed fields and other denuded ones in their quest for tiny creatures to consume.  Their doing that reduces competition for food with their sandpiper relatives.  Neither plover species is common here and are thrilling when spotted during their May migration north.
     Eventually the water from spring rains seeps away and the migrant shorebirds continue north to their breeding territories.  But those sandpipers and plovers were thrilling to see while they were here, however short their stay.  I think it's exciting to see wildlife living in habitats we people created for ourselves.  Long live adaptable life.       
               

Lawn Birds in April

     Scores each of American robins, purple grackles, starlings and Canada geese have adapted to getting some of their food from short-grass lawns in the Middle Atlantic States during April.  The robins, grackles and starlings are there to eat invertebrates among the grass blades and roots while the geese consume the grass itself.  Lawns benefit these kinds of birds, by greatly increasing their food supplies, and, therefore, their numbers.  And being abundant and familiar on lawns, these birds make those lawns more lively and interesting in April when we people need an emotional lift close to home in spring after the hardships of winter.
     It's interesting to watch congregations of these birds landing on lawns and quickly taking off from them, particularly when they perceive danger.  The geese always take flight with a roar of wing beats and a clamoring of honking.  
     Flocks of robins and grackles scatter loosely across the lawns, especially on larger ones in suburban areas and in community parks.  There they watch for earthworms and other invertebrates at the grassroots level.  The handsome robins run and stop, run and stop, across the lawns, cocking their heads to the side to look and listen for earthworms in the soil at every stop.  The iridescent and attractively purple and green grackles walk slowly and methodically over lawns while intently searching for invertebrates in the grass and soil.
     Both the robins and grackles originally were forest edge birds hundreds of years ago in North America.  As farmland and lawns rapidly developed on this continent, the habitats of these two species of adaptable birds expanded tremendously, as did their populations.  As the numbers of some species of life shrank with the shrinking forests, the numbers of robins and grackles are probably greater today than ever in their life histories.  Being adaptable is a key to species success.    
     The adaptable and aggressive starlings are originally from Europe.  Several of them were released in Central Park of New York City over a hundred years ago and they have spread across the United States ever since. 
     Starlings are handsome birds in spring and summer, with a purple and green sheen with light speckles in their feathering.  Starlings form tight, restless groups on lawns where they walk about rapidly poking their yellow beaks through the short grass and into the soil after a variety of invertebrates.  I call them "grasspipers" because of their poking into the short grass like sandpipers probing into mud and sand after invertebrates.
     Gatherings of stately Canada geese spread over short-grass lawns and eat the short grass itself, as sheep graze on it.  Geese have long necks for pulling aquatic vegetation from shallow water and thick beaks for plucking land plants so they are well adapted for consuming the tender blades of short grass on lawns.  As with the other bird species discussed in this writing, short-grass lawns are a blessing to Canada geese.
     Not all people favor Canada geese on lawns.  The geese leave large, slippery droppings on lawns and walkways that can cause a mess and are a hazard to people who might slip on them.  Some people even put silhouettes of dogs on lawns to keep the geese off them, though I think the geese get used to those silhouettes and eventually ignore them.
     Though eating grass in short-grass lawns, these adaptable birds are still wild and interesting to see on our lawns.  I think it's a blessing to have creatures adaptable enough to live close to our homes where we can experience them daily.  They have increased populations, and make our lives more interesting and fulfilling right at home.       
        
   



 

Red Maple Flowers

     One of many pleasant memories I have of spring here in southeastern Pennsylvania is hearing choruses of male spring peeper frogs peeping and male American toads trilling from pond edges and soggy wetlands on rainy, early-April days and warm April evenings under red canopies of red maple flowers in bottomland woods.  Those ancient, amphibian songs under the glow of red in the tree tops is enjoyable and inspiring.  And those interesting amphibian concerts and beautiful red flowers together signify that spring has arrived and there is no going back to winter, not that I want to.
     The squeaking of male purple grackles and songs of male American robins add more intrigue to the red tree tops.  And upon looking up, one can see a small group of grackles among red maple flowers or a couple of robins in the red of those blossoms.  Those species of birds will nest somewhere near the red maples.   
     The lovely male flowers of red maple trees are open by late in March and through the early part of April.  Each blossom in itself is small, but multitudes of them blooming together in each tree is overwhelmingly beautiful.  And, on top of that, all red maple trees bloom at once because of an inherited inner timing the species shares with all its individuals.  The result is the canopies of  bottomland woods are dominated by red maple blossoms that cast a lovely glow of red seen from a distance.  One can tell by the glow of red that the woods is growing from moist soil.   
     Red maples dominate many bottomland woods in this area because they prefer damp ground.  But this kind of maple is adaptable and can be found growing most anywhere, including the suburban areas it is planted in for the year around beauty each tree offers.  In winter red maples have red flower buds, and red twigs near those buds.  Red flowers dominate the trees in spring.  The paired, winged seeds are red and fall from the trees early in summer.  And in fall, the leaves of this species of maple turn red, again dominating wooded bottomlands with red.  There is even a red glow to the woodlands on overcast days.
    Red maples grow wild throughout the eastern United States.  They are unmistakable because of the red on them during all seasons.  And younger trees have smooth, gray bark that gets a bit rougher as they grow older.  Rodents eat their seeds and deer consume their leaves, and twigs and buds in winter.     Try to get out early in April to see the lovely, red flowers of red maple trees.  And you might hear the timeless choruses of frogs and toads while seeing red maple blooms in moist woods.   

Migrant Swallows and Bonies

     It happens every year during the latter part of March and into early April.  Flocks of tree swallows and groups of Bonaparte's gulls migrate up the Susquehanna River in southeastern Pennsylvania.  They are going to their breeding areas farther north and west and creating interesting natural spectacles along the river at the same time that is fun for me to watch each spring.   
     Those many swallows daily stop here and there on the wing low over the river to catch hatches of flying insects to fuel their bodies for the next part of their migration north to their nesting territories.  There those hundreds and hundreds of swallows create entertaining natural spectacles of themselves.  They swiftly swoop, turn and dive after flying insects among their many fellows, without ever having a collision with them.  Birds low to the river seem to dance on the water.  We can see the swallows rowing with powerful wing beats into the wind for flight control, then sweeping up and around with the wind, and powering into it again.  All that in fast, direct flight for extended periods of time until the swallows are full of insects.  Then they rest for awhile and eventually push north again.
     Tree swallows are handsome birds, particularly in flight.  Males are iridescent blue on top and immaculate white below.  Females are blue-gray above and off-white underneath.
     Tree swallows traditionally hatch young in abandoned woodpecker cavities and other tree hollows, often near bodies of water or waterways.  And they have adapted to nesting in bird boxes erected for eastern bluebirds.  Often a little gang of tree swallows gangs up on a pair of bluebirds and chases it away from a nesting site so a pair of swallows can use that place themselves.
     Young tree swallows fledge their nurseries toward the end of June.  By the end of July flocks of tree swallows begin to gather for their migration south to escape the northern winter when they won't be able to find insect food.  And great gatherings of thousands and thousands of them pass through this area during August, September and into October.  At that time, we often see hordes of them lined up and resting on roadside wires for hundreds of yards or flying in swarms over fields and meadows to catch flying insects.  Their autumn migrations are just as intriguing as their spring ones.  
     Bonaparte's gulls are small gulls, and fast fliers.  They winter around back waters off the Atlantic Ocean where they catch small fish from the surface of the water.  Each spring, many small groups of bonies power swiftly  up the Chesapeake Bay and the Susquehanna, as they do other rivers, to get to their breeding grounds in western Canada and Alaska.  Sometimes they stop here and there along a river to catch small fish near the surface of the water or insects lying on the water before those birds continue their migrations.
     Bonies are easily identified by the broad, white stripe they have on each gray wing.  In flight, those stripes look intriguingly like many banners fluttering together in the wind.
     In winter, Bonaparte's gulls are light gray on top and white below with a black mark behind each eye.  Many spring migrants are still in their winter plumage when they come through here in migration.  But some have part of their summer feathering when we see them here in spring.  Bonies' more attractive summer plumage includes having a black head and red legs.
     Migrating tree swallows and Bonaparte's gulls are almost guaranteed along the Susquehanna River in late March and into much of April.  They are beautiful and intriguing to watch along the river at that time and make this area, in general, a bit more interesting.                        

Map Turtles Versus Red-eared Sliders

     Interestingly to me, map turtles and red-eared slider turtles live inland in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, though they both seem out of place here.  Map turtles are a river species, living in river systems in the United States, including the Susquehanna along this county's western border.  Red-ears, which are a race of yellow-bellied sliders, and have a red bar on each side of their necks when younger, are originally from ponds, ditches and slower parts of creeks in The South and the Mississippi River watershed. 
     The Conestoga, which is a small river flowing across the length of Lancaster County and a tributary of the mile-wide lower Susquehanna River, has map and red-eared turtles living in it.  The red-ears were introduced to this county by people who bought baby pet turtles from local pet shops, but later released them into the Conestoga, and some creeks and human-made impoundments in this county.  Many of those red-ears grew up and reproduced, establishing themselves in the wild here, as in much of the United States outside their original range and other parts of the world.  But the Conestoga River is the only waterway in this county where I have seen both map turtles and red-eared turtles. 
     These species of turtles have similarities.  They both can have upper shells up to a foot long at maturity.  Maps and red-ears certainly are bigger than the native pond turtles called painted turtles. Maps and red-ears are both green-brown for camouflage in the water and when sunning themselves on half-submerged rocks, and logs fallen into the water.  Some of them are partly covered with mud or moss, which also blends them into their background.  They usually are difficult to see, in the water and out of it.  Few people know they exist at all in Lancaster County. 
     Both these turtle species have yellow stripes on their heads, necks and legs, which are best seen on younger individuals.  Young map turtles have yellow markings on their upper shells that remind one of a map, hence their common name. 
     Both kinds of turtles are shy, and quick to plunge into the water at the slightest hint of danger.  And they both eat snails, small clams, crayfish, aquatic insects, tadpoles, carrion and water vegetation, all of which is easy for them to seize from the bottoms of the waterways and impoundments they live in.  However, these two species might be in direct competition for food, and living space, with each other: But perhaps not.  Only time will tell which species gets the upper hand, if either one.   
     Map turtles and red-ears are not seen much, except when sunning themselves, which they do a lot during spring, summer and fall.  Like many kinds of aquatic turtles, they crawl out of the protective water onto rocks and logs to bask in the hot sunlight, which warms them and speeds their  metabolism, as it does other kinds of reptiles, so they have the energy to hunt food.  The heat of the sun also kills some aquatic parasites on their bodies.
     Like all cold-blooded creatures this far north, map turtles and red-ears hibernate in the mud in the bottoms of their watery homes through winter.  Then their metabolism is very slow.  They need little oxygen, eat nothing and take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide into the water through thin tissues of their bodies.  But the warmth of the next spring, awakens them for another year of eating, growing and reproducing. 
           

Wind, Waves and Wings

     April 4, 2015 was a sunny, pretty day in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, so my wife Sue and I took a drive that afternoon to Long Level which is a floodplain along the Susquehanna River in neighboring York County.  The afternoon was windy and I was not surprised to see shoreline trees waving in it and that the river's surface was rough.  The wind was also uncomfortable with its chill and velocity, but it created a bit of a show along the river. 
     The Susquehanna runs northwest to southeast and the wind was from the northwest, which was allowed to blow strongly and unopposed down the river.  As Sue and I sat in our car in a parking lot right on the edge of the river, we could see innumerable white caps on the high waves (for a river) of its green surface.  Water birds sitting on the water, such as hundreds of ring-billed gulls, a dozen Canada geese, a half dozen mallard ducks and a few double-created cormorants, would be visible on the crests of waves, but momentarily disappear in the troughs between them, only to appear again on top of the next wave. 
     The wind blew the waves across the river which, ultimately caused large breakers for a river in the shallows close to shore.  Those breakers, in turn, crashed and splashed noisily and constantly on logs, rocks and the ground along the shoreline.  Water dripped off soaked logs and, sometimes, spray from those breakers splashed onto our car.
     But the best part of the wind over the river and along its shores was the way arious kinds of birds coped with its strength.  The ducks and geese, as usual, powered through it and landed on the water by descending into the wind for control of their downward flight. 
     The many ring-bills floated on the wind like so many kites, and gracefully banked and circled in the wind.  When the gulls came down for a landing on water or the ground, they set their wings and coasted into the wind as lightly as a feather, descending, descending without a wing beat, apparently a perfect balance between the power of gravity and that of the wind, until they set foot on water or soil.  Watching those graceful gulls descending gently into the wind was feathered poetry; a work of art created by The Master Artist.  Other species of birds are just as beautiful to watch in flight, but that day it happened that the ring-bills were evident.  Every living being is perfectly designed for what it does.               
     Readers can have the same experiences I had that sunny, windy day in April.  Just be outside with an open mind and watch for the possibilities unfold before you.

Two Birds With Unique Beaks

     When I was about nine to 13 years old, my family would rent a house in Margate City, New Jersey for a week in summer so we could walk to the beach and ocean every afternoon.  My favorite part of the whole day, however, was when I went to a nearby inlet in the evenings to watch gulls, herons, sandpipers and black skimmers.  The intriguing and entertaining skimmers were my favorite birds during those summer evenings at that inlet.  They flew, back and forth, low to the water with the lower part of their bills in the still water a bit to snare small fish that bumped their beaks.  Their bills left thin wakes in the water and when the mandibles bumped fish, the skimmers snapped their beaks shut to catch the finny prey and swallow it.  Those skimmers were particularly interesting when seen as silhouettes against the sunsets.     
     Black skimmers and American oystercatchers inhabit and nest on beaches and mudflats of the Atlantic seacoast from New England to Florida and around Florida to the Gulf of Mexico.  Though they are not related, they have at least a few characteristics in common, including being about 18 inches in length, dark on top and white below with red beaks.  And those bills are specialized to do specific jobs in food gathering along the seacoast.  Both these species rest on mud flats and sandy beaches on the shores of inlets, harbors and salt marsh channels off the ocean, as along other shorelines in the world.  Both these kinds of handsome birds gather in groups, with the skimmers having the larger congregations.
     But these species of birds have different food sources and unique ways of getting food, therefore they have different body shapes and beak structures.  Skimmers have short legs and lower mandibles that are longer than their upper ones for feeling for fish as they fly low to the water.  The oystercatchers have long legs for walking on beaches and flats and long, thin bills for prying open bivalve mollusks, including oysters, clams and mussels they find on the beaches and flats.  Obviously these two types of birds don't compete for food.
     Both these species of shoreline birds have lost habitat, and numbers, to people using those same coastal environments for recreation.  But both these species are hanging on where they can and even use human-made debris dumps near inlets to raise young on.  Those built beaches and flats help these birds recover from natural habitat loss. 
     The young of both species are born fuzzy and able to move about soon after hatching.  But they are fed by their parents until maturity.  Each pair of skimmers raises two young at a time while oystercatcher pairs rear two or three offspring in a clutch.    
     Look for these large, striking coastal birds when visiting the seacoast anytime of year, but particularly in summer.  They are attractive, and interesting, especially with their specialized bills.    

Migrant Hawks in Spring

     At least ten kinds of hawks and two species of eagles migrate north over Lancaster County, Pennsylvania during March and April.  They are going to their breeding territories farther north where they will spend the summer raising young.  They can be spotted, along with common loons, geese and other species of birds, if one looks to the sky with binoculars from most any point of land.  But these raptors are scattered across the landscape, so time and much patience is required to spot them in the sky.  The twelve species are sharp-shinned and Cooper's hawks, merlins, peregrines and American kestrels, northern harriers, red-tailed, red-shouldered and broad-winged hawks, ospreys, bald eagles and golden eagles.  But the most common raptor migrants noticed powering or soaring north through here during March and April are bald eagles, red-tails, sharpies, kestrels, ospreys and broad-wings in that arbitrary order of being spotted during those months.
     Bald eagles are one of the first raptors to migrate north through Lancaster County, as early as February, and into March.  Many of them winter in Lancaster County, but one knows they started their migrations when their winter gatherings disperse.  Those majestic migrants can be spotted anywhere soaring on high, but are most likely seen near waterways and impoundments where they sometimes stop to catch fish.  But they also scavenge dead farm animals disposed of in cropland.  And we can see those magnificent birds feeding in those fields before they continue their flight north.  The white heads and tails of adult balds gleam from high in the sky, making their identification unmistakable.  Some balds raise young here in Lancaster County, particularly along the Susquehanna River and in farmland where they scavenged dead chickens and turkeys all winter.
     Red-tails are the most abundant of all diurnal raptors wintering in this area, and the most commonly spotted spring migrant here, mostly during March.  And many pairs of this buteo hawk rear offspring in stick nurseries in cropland and suburbs in this county, feeding the young a variety of rodents and other prey.  The reddish-orange tails of the adults identify this species.  Immature birds have brown tails until they are three years old. 
     The large red-tails do a lot of soaring on the wind, which saves them much energy.  They gain altitude by seeking rising columns of warmed air (thermals) that spiral them higher and higher, without expending energy beating their wings.      
     The diminutive sharp-shinned hawks do a lot of alternate flapping and soaring in speedy, head-long flight.  These little accipitor hawks are about the size of blue jays and are fast on the wing to catch their prey of small birds.  Their size, shape, speed, squared-off tail and manner of flight identify this species in the sky.  I also know when sharpies are on migration during March into April because they show up at bird feeders to prey on small birds in places where they had not been all winter.  They are suddenly at the feeders and just as suddenly gone. 
     American kestrels, too, are swift on the wing.  This species is robin-sized with pointed, swept-back wings for fast flight.  This is a farmland hawk and occasionally, in April, several of them on migration can be spotted hovering together, by chance, over a field or pasture as they watch for invertebrates on the ground to catch and eat before flying farther north.
     Kestrels are colorful little members of the falcon family of hawks.  Males are pale-orange and brown with black and gray markings.  Females are more brown with black markings, a plumage that camouflages them.  Some kestrels raise young in tree cavities or boxes erected especially for them here in Lancaster County farmland.  
     The large, stately ospreys sail over this area from the end of March through much of April.  This species of fish-eating hawk doesn't winter here at all.  But a few pairs nest along the Susquehanna River, while the rest of the ospreys spotted here are migrants heading farther north.  Ospreys are dark above and white below with a dark, horizontal stripe through each side of the white head.   
     Broad-wings are the most exciting of migrant hawks here in spring.  They come through here in spectacular, silent flocks on high around the middle of April, with a peak of migration about the 20th of that month.  Though they may be high in the sky, they can be observed circling in a thermal or floating north in groups or long lines with the aid of binoculars.  Many broadies nest in local forests, while others continue farther north to raise youngsters.
     Broad-wings are small buteos and are so-named because they have broad wings for the size of their bodies.  These are not power fliers, but their wide wings catch every breeze or thermal that lifts them high with little effort on their part. 
     Hawks migrating without expending much energy is good because predatory creatures expend a lot of time and energy catching their elusive prey.  So any conservation of energy on the hawks' parts
allows them to travel farther and longer between meals, without their health and stamina suffering.
     By the end of April, north-bound hawk migration is completed.  But that migration is not obvious; one must look for it with binoculars.  But it is thrilling when noticed.   

Nesting on Bare Ground

     Northern horned larks and killdeer plovers are the only species of birds in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania adapted to regularly and commonly nesting on bare ground.  Both species are pre-adapted for rearing offspring in denuded soil because larks inhabit open ground, including prairies and tundra, and killdeer, which are inland shorebirds, live on patches of bare soil, mud flats and patches of gravel, all with little or no vegetation.  Plowed fields, which are human-made habitats in this area, as elsewhere, expanded the breeding world of both these species.  By nesting on plowed soil, these species increased their breeding potential and numbers. 
     Both the larks and killdeer are brown on top to blend into their habitat of denuded ground.  They can't be seen until they move.  And if that wasn't enough, both species have black markings around their faces to break up their shapes.  But larks are light underneath and killdeer have white chests and bellies.
     Horned larks and killdeer eat a variety of invertebrates on bare-ground fields, but the larks also eat weed seeds and grain, particularly during winter.  When snow covers the fields, larks eat chewed, but undigested, corn kernels from animal manure spread on top of the snow while killdeer retreat to seepages of running, shallow water to catch invertebrates kept active by the warmer water.  
     Both these species of open country birds lay their camouflaged eggs on the bare ground.  Larks dig shallow, tea-cup-sized nurseries in the bare ground for their eggs, but killdeer lay their four eggs right on the soil, or gravel driveways, parking lots or roofs, with no hint of a cradle.   
     Corn fields and tobacco fields are mostly bare ground when those plants are young.  If the parents of both bird species place their nests in rows of cultivated plants, the young have a chance of surviving.  But if their cradles are between rows of plants, the eggs or young may be destroyed by cultivators that dig out weeds and loosen the soil.  Some nests are destroyed by cultivation, but each pair tries again, and, maybe, again, until they hatch a brood.  But it's interesting that, maybe, future larks and killdeer will all put their nurseries in rows of plants because over the years only the young hatched in a row of plants will survive to pass on their genes.  Eggs in clutches between rows of vegetation will be destroyed before they hatch.      
     Young larks hatch practically naked, camouflaged, completely helpless and with their eyes closed, all of which keeps them from leaving the safety of their nursery.  Their parents, of course, feed them invertebrates in the nest until they fledge and feed themselves.  Newly-hatched killdeer are born fully fuzzed, camouflaged and with their eyes open.  They are ready to run to feed themselves and escape hawks, cats and other predators within 24 hours of hatching.  These two types of chick behavior are different experiments in survival on bare ground.  So far, both strategies work.
     Not even bare ground in farmland is devoid of breeding birds.  If the reader sees birds nesting on denuded soil in cropland, chances are good they are horned larks and/or killdeer plovers.