Becoming Penguins?

     Alcids are a family of seabirds that live and breed in the northern latitudes of the northern hemisphere.  They range in body length of 17 inches to eight inches, depending on the species, and look and act much like penguins, most of which live in the southern hemisphere.  Alcids are largely black on top and white below, as penguins are dark above and white underneath.  Alcids are plump and stand nearly upright when at rest on seaside cliffs.  Their legs are near the rear of their bodies, as are penguins', to give them steering while they swim under water.  Alcids and penguins both "fly" under water with their wings, but alcids can also fly through the air with rapid whirs of wing beats.  Another trait that penguins and alcids share is their spending winter in the open ocean to catch prey animals, the former species in the southern hemisphere and the other in the northern.
     Because they live in similar niches, though in opposing hemispheres, the unrelated alcids and penguins look and behave much alike.  Their environments shaped them, literally, to be what they are.  Alcids and penguins are specialized in the same ways to make their livings, though alcids can still fly through the air, which allows them access high on islands and cliffs to raise babies in relative safely.  Penguins nest on low shores and ice, and developed layers of fat as insulation against the intense cold of Antarctica, therefore they lost the power of flight. 
     There are six kinds of alcids, razorbills, thick-billed murres, thin-billed murres, Atlantic puffins, dovekies and black guillemots, nesting along the Atlantic sea coast of North America, most species in large, crowded colonies on rocky islands and cliff edges along the ocean where native predators are limited.  Today, however, cats, rats, dogs and other introduced animals create havoc among certain colonies of alcids, reducing their populations. 
     Each female alcid of every type, but black guillemots, lays one egg each breeding season: Each guillemot female lays two per season.   The eggs of razorbills, thin-billed murres and thick-billed murres are strongly tapered to keep those eggs from rolling off narrow cliff ledges.  Imagine the number of eggs of these species that fell off cliffs until a genetic quirk caused tapering of egg shapes so they would roll in tight circles and not off rock walls.  Because more chicks from tapered eggs survived to adulthood, all these birds now lay tapered eggs.  that genetic quirk helped the reproductive success of those bird species. 
      Puffins hatch young in underground burrows for the safety of the offspring.  They dig many of those nursery tunnels themselves.
     All species of alcids feed on small fish, crustaceans and molluscs.  They get their food by diving into the ocean from the air and swimming with their wings to snare their prey.  When their beaks are full of victims, they lift from the water and whir back to their breeding colonies to feed their young.           Each alcid species nests in habitats that separates it from its relatives, thus reducing competition for nesting space and food to an extent, though there is overlapping.  Razorbills breed in cavities in boulders in the coastal waters of Greenland, Iceland and in North America south to Maine.  They winter on the Atlantic Ocean south to Long Island. 
     Thick-billed murres breed on cliffs from the Arctic Ocean south to Hudson Bay and the Gulf of St.Lawrence, where they are preyed on by peregrine falcons and gyrfalcons.  This species winters on the ocean.
     Thin-billed murres nest on rocky islands and cliffs in high latitudes around the northern hemisphere.  Winters on the ocean south to the latitude of Maine.
     Atlantic puffins nest exclusively from Greenland south to Maine in North America.  It winters from Massachusets as far north as there is open water on the ocean.
     Dovekies are the smallest alcid species.  This bird breeds north of the Arctic Circle.  It winters in great flocks on the ocean below the pack ice of the polar regions, usually south to the Virginia coastline, or beyond during some winters.  Sometimes they can be spotted on the Atlantic from land on the Lower 48.  
     Black guillemots don't nest in large colonies.  They breed in cracks in cliffs from the Arctic Ocean south to James Bay and Maine.  They winter along leads in the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean and Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.   
     Alcids are a family of birds in northern latitudes that are becoming penguin-like.  It is amazing the number of traits those two unrelated families of birds share, simply by living in similar environments.  Genetic codes and habitats work together to shape the life in each environment to be ever more efficient in getting a living in each habitat. 

Atlantic Mole Crabs

     Except for gulls and little groups of sanderlings, which are a kind of sandpiper, the Atlantic Ocean beaches seem devoid of life.  But there is a species of crab, a kind of crustacean, adapted to living in the forever shifting surf zone where the ocean water constantly slides up sandy beaches and retreats again to the ocean from New York to Mexico-Atlantic mole crabs.  These are the little critters we feel wiggling in the sand with our feet.  These animals don't bite or sting us, but most people don't like the idea of something moving against them unseen and unidentified.  But mole crabs are another example of an animal adapting to a special niche.  Everything about their bodily structure allows them to live in the breaking waves and intertidal part of a sandy, ocean beach.
     If we dug them up, we would notice mole crabs are about an inch and a half long, compactly built, and the color of the sand, which camouflages them.  Their shells, known as exoskeletons, are smooth and tapered at both ends for stream-lining in the sand and water.  Their eight limbs, which are tucked compactly against their bodies, are adapted to swimming, and burrowing into the sand for shelter.    
     Mole crabs get food when wavelets slide up the beaches.  Each crab comes out of the sand, swims backward frantically to another spot and quickly digs tail first and backwards into the sand for protection, leaving two pairs of antennae protruding above the sand.  The first pair of antennae take oxygen from the water.  And the feather-like second pair waves in the water to filter plankton and detritus from it as it  moves back to the ocean.  Those antennae transport that food to the crab's mouth.  All the mole crabs gather food in that way, time after time, most of each day, every day through their life span of two to three years.    
     Mole crabs have natural predators on them, which makes them part of several food chains.  A variety of fish eat some of the swimming mole crabs.  Gulls pull them out of the sand to consume them.  Larger shorebirds, including willets and oyster-catchers also take mole crabs from the sand and ingest them as well. 
     But sanderlings are the kind of sandpiper I like to watch feeding from the beaches as the waves roll in and out.  When a wave comes up a beach, the sanderling group runs ahead of it, their little, black legs twinkling rapidly with the speed of their running.  But the instant the water rolls back down the beach, the sanderlings follow it and snatch invertebrates, including younger mole crabs, from the wet sand before those animals can dig into it.  Except for periods of rest, sanderlings continually feed in that way, all day, every day they are on ocean beaches to get food.
     Female mole crabs carry many, orange eggs under their bodies, but release the young into the water.  Those youngsters travel with the ocean currents, often for long distances, and feed on plankton in the ocean.  After floating in the ocean for about four months, each larva settles on an ocean beach where it matures in the sand under the surf.
     If you're on an ocean beach and feel something wiggling against your feet, don't be alarmed.  It's probably a harmless Atlantic mole crab.  They are interesting to see, and to know of their life history in a niche that is hard to imagine living in.  But they are perfectly adapted in bodily structures and habits for that particular niche.        

Big-Eyed Butterflies

     Every summer, I commonly see a couple of species of skipper butterflies here in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  I see brownish silver-spotted skippers among a variety of blossoms in flower gardens, particularly on butterfly bushes and bee balms.  And I notice yellowish least skippers, sometimes in abundance, flitting low among grasses and weeds along rural roadsides.
     Skippers, as a branch of butterflies, are different than other kinds of butterflies.  There are about 3,500 kinds of skippers worldwide, mostly in the tropics, and they all have several characteristics in common, revealing their common ancestry.  Some people think skippers are a cross between butterflies and moths, but skippers are strictly butterflies, with a different set of traits.  All skipper species have stout abdomens, are furry all over and have small wings for their body size.  When these butterflies are at rest, their wings are swept back like jet planes and the fore wings are held up at a 45 degree angle while the rear ones are held flat.  With those wings, skippers have a quick, darting flight from flower to flower, giving this branch of butterflies its common name.  All skippers sip nectar from the blooms they visit. 
     But their large, dark eyes are not only a distinctive trait of this family of butterflies, but their most beautiful and appealing features.  That and their fast flight are their two most unique characteristics.  Skippers have huge eyes for the sizes of their bodies, reminding me of the attractive, dark eyes of a white-tailed deer, flying squirrel or white-footed mouse.
     There are two major branches of skippers.  Species in the one division are basically brown, like silver-spotted skippers in the eastern United States.  Silver-spotted skippers have a two-inch wing span and are brown with pale-orange markings and a large, white blotch on each front wing.  Their larvae are yellowish-green with brown heads and two orange spots on the head.  Those orange spots are fake eyes that serve to intimidate birds and other would-be predators.  Those larvae eat leguminous plants, including soybean leaves.       
     Species of skippers in the other, larger, branch are small and mostly yellowish with brown markings.  The different types of skippers in this division are difficult to identify.  Least skippers, that live in the northeastern United States, have a one inch wing span and live in abundance among grasses and weeds along country roads and in moist meadows in my region.  The caterpillars of least skippers are green, with brownish heads.  They eat grasses and sedges on damp ground.
     Skippers are unique and interesting kinds of butterflies.  They add to the beauty and intrigue of Earth.  Look for them in flower gardens and along farmland roads.         

Subtle Beauties of Hackberry Trees

     There is nothing special about the appearance of hackberry trees.  And they seldom are planted as ornamental on lawns.  But this plain kind of tree has its beauties, in the animals that depend on it for food and shelter. 
     Hackberries range from New England south to Georgia and Texas, but nowhere are they common, living mostly as scattered individuals.  They do, however, prefer moist, rich soil, which my home area, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, has.  This type of tree is present in Lancaster County, mostly on floodplains along creeks and streams, and in hedgerows between fields.
     The caterpillars of two kinds of butterflies eat the leaves of hackberries.  They include the larvae of hackberry butterflies and the young of common snout butterflies.  Hackberry butterfly larvae are gregarious, feeding together in groups.  They are striped lengthwise with green, brown and white to blend into their surroundings in the trees.  And they have two spiney horns on the rear of their heads to discourage predation from birds and other critters.  Hackberry larvae overwinter in the ground when partly grown and emerge next spring to continue growing, pupate and emerge as adult butterflies ready to consume flower nectar and the juice of rotting fruit, and reproduce.
     Hackberry butterflies are mostly tawny-brown with white spots and black spots on their wings.  Their wing span is a little over two inches.
     The caterpillars of common snout butterflies also consume the foliage of hackberries.  They are green with yellow stripes for camouflage among the tree leaves.  Adult snouts are mostly brown, which camouflages them, and have a two inch wing span.  They are called that peculiar name because each one has two long, labial palps that look like a nose on the front of the head.
     Hackberry trees produce berry-like fruit wrapped in dark skin.  Though small and not attractive, those fruits are ingested by mice, eastern chipmunks and gray squirrels.  Those rodents eat the pulp and the seeds, killing the embryo inside each berry.
     But a variety of birds, including wintering American robins, eastern bluebirds, cedar waxwings, starlings, yellow-rumped warblers and other species, ingest the fruits, digest their pulp, but pass many of the seeds intact across the countryside as they flit from place to place.  Birds don't have teeth to chew the seeds.  Some of those seeds land in good soil and grow into young hackberry trees.  By spreading the intact seeds in their droppings, those birds ensure a future food supply for themselves and other critters.               
     Hackberry trees may not be particularly attractive in themselves, but they sustain the beauties of the creatures that consume their foliage and fruits.  And the birds, in turn, plant future crops of the trees that will eventually produce food for caterpillars, rodents and birds.   

Green Darners

     Green darners are a common species of large dragonflies that live throughout most of North America, and Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.  We here in the Middle Atlantic States see this kind of three-inch-long dragonfly with a three-inch wing span careening speedily over most every body of still water in the area from mid-April to early in autumn.  During summer, all dragonflies, including this type, catch and feed on a variety of flying insects, including mosquitoes, flies and moths.
     Dragonflies, including darners, are agile, opportunistic predators, well equipped for catching flying insects.  They have two large eyes that encompass most of their heads and give them excellent vision to spot prey.  They have four large, maneuverable wings to track down insects in flight, but are held straight out from the thorax, like a plane's wings, when at rest..  Wings on darners are clear.  And the six legs of all dragonflies, also extending from the thorax, are used to catch prey.
     The heads and thoraxes of male green darners are green, while their long abdomens are pale-blue. The heads and thoraxes of female and young darners are green, but they have green or brown abdomens.  The bodies of all darners are darning needle-like, hence their name.  And all darners have a black spot on the tops of their foreheads, in front of the eyes, which is bordered by thin, blue and yellow lines.  That black dot looks like the pupil of an eye, edged by lids that never close.  Its purpose probably is to intimidate birds and other would-be predators from eating green darners.
     Each male darner patrols a stretch of still water where he chases away other males and pursues females to mate with them.  Female darners spawn eggs in aquatic vegetation under shallow water.  Their mates use pincers at the end of their rears to clasp the females between their heads and thoraxes while they spawn.  The purpose is to keep other males from disturbing the egg laying.  The resulting nymphs are brown, which blends them into their surroundings on the bottom of impoundments.
     Dragonfly nymphs are aggressive carnivores, shooting out their lower jaws that have hooks to snare and eat aquatic insect larvae, tadpoles and small fish.  Most darner larvae overwinter as such and emerge from water the next spring as young adults ready to fly, catch insects and reproduce.           In September, many green darners migrate south to the southern United States, Mexico, Central America and the islands of the Caribbean to escape the northern winter.  Thousands of them may go south in great swarms, feeding on flying insects along the way and competing with migrating swifts and swallows doing the same thing.  It is felt by many scientists that those darners breed in their wintering grounds when they arrive, their larvae overwinter there, but come north during the next spring to spawn in northern waters.
     Watch for the interesting dragonflies, including green darners, this summer and fall.  They are all interesting and entertaining speeding over water and fields after insect prey and spawning in pairs in shallow water near the shoreline.   

Flowers in Moist Meadows

     Four kinds of abundant, native, flowering plants bloom in many moist, sunny meadows in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, as elsewhere in eastern North America, during the latter part of summer.  They are all noticeable to even casual observers of nature because they are tall with showy blossoms at the tops of their flower stems.  And bees, butterflies and other kinds of insects visiting them to sip nectar, pollinating them in the process, add to the beauties of these plants.  The four are swamp milkweeds, blue vervains, ironweeds and Joe-pye weeds in that arbitrary order of blooming.
     Swamp milkweeds, like all their family, have flowers that appear waxy and sculptured.  Those blooms, in upright clusters, are also pink and sweet smelling.  Standing up to three feet tall, swamp milkweeds bloom from June to August.  Female monarch butterflies lay eggs on their leaves because milkweed is the only vegetation monarch larvae will consume before pupating to become adult butterflies.
     Blue vervain plants are about five feet high and slender.  They have groups of tiny, blue-violet blossoms that bloom a few at a time from July through September on each flower stem.  Four or five flower stems together are shaped like a candleabra.    
     Ironweeds are up to five feet tall and called that because they have hard stems.  This species has several deep, purple-pink blooms per plant during late July into October.
     Joe-pye weeds are the tallest, most stately of this grouping of wild plants in damp, sunny pastures.  Each plant can stand up to seven feet high, or more, and has a few large clusters of small, dusty-pink flowers on top of each flower stem from late July into September.  The larger butterflies, including the various kinds of local swallowtails, and monarchs, like to sip nectar from this species' blossoms.
     When in farmland late in summer, check out the sunny meadows for these kinds of flowering plants.  Their blooms and the insects that visit them add much beauty and interest to those pastures.       

Post-Breeding Egrets and Herons

     Today, July 25, 2015, I went to Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area to experience whatever wildlife was noticable.  Among other bird species, I saw a few each of great egrets and great blue herons fishing from various impoundments during the hour and a half I was there.  And, more importantly, they reminded me that many post-breeding great egrets and great blue herons are in the Middle Atlantic States from late July into September, and later at times, to hunt fish, frogs, tadpoles and other aquatic prey.  Some great blues over-winter here as well, as long as there is open water to fish from. 
     Great egrets raise young in scattered colonies along the Atlantic Coast from Delaware south, the Gulf Coast and inland up the Mississippi River watershed in the United States.  They winter along the Gulf Coast, in Mexico, Central America, South America, and the islands of the Caribbean Sea.  Great blue herons have breeding colonies throughout much of the United States and winter in much of the United States, Mexico and Central America.
     When finished rearing offspring, great egrets and great blue herons scatter across the country to find good fishing areas.  Then we see many of both species here in the Mid-Atlantic States.  We see scores of them along the Susquehanna River, especially on the Conejohela Flats offshore from Washington Boro, scores along the Delaware River, many at Middle Creek Area's lake and many others at creeks and impoundments throughout this area.             
     Because they are large, the stately great egrets and great blue herons are often readily seen by even casual observers of nature.  With their long legs to wade in shallow water to catch prey and their lengthy necks and beaks, the white egrets stand almost four feet tall and the light-gray great blues are over four feet.  And they appear huge when in flight.  To me, great blues fly and soar majestically and the flight of the smaller, slimmer egrets is elegant.
      The magnificent egrets and herons stalk aquatic prey by wading slowly and carefully through shallow water on their long legs and watching the water intently for unwary or handicapped fish that are easy to catch.  Egrets and herons also have lengthy toes that work like snowshoes so they don't sink and get stuck in mud under the water.
     When a victim is spotted, each of these long-necked birds swings out its lengthy beak to catch it, often with success.  Where the fishing is good, these members of the heron family will stay for days, even weeks.  And both these species are territorial, chasing others of their own kinds away from fishing territories with swift, direct flight and raucous calls, all of which mean business. 
     Interestingly, these big members of the heron family also catch meadow voles where they can.  Voles are a larger kind of mice that live in pastures, fields and roadsides in agricultural areas.  Some of the great egrets and great blue herons leave meadow streams and stalk mice among the grass.  When they snare voles, the egrets and herons quickly kill those furry victims so they can't escape, then dunk them several times in a nearby body of water to slick their fur so they can swallow them whole and head-first more easily.
     There was a time, over a hundred years ago, when great egrets were intensely hunted and killed for their elegant breeding plumes that grow from their backs.  As one might guess, they were killed during the breeding season, which wiped out many adults and young birds every year.  In the early 1900's, the National Audubon Society was born to protect great egrets and other kinds of birds and other wildlife as well.  Today great egrets are fairly common again because of that protection. 
     Watch for great egrets and great blue herons fishing around waterways and impoundments during late July, August and September each year.  They are beautiful, stately birds that are intriguing to watch stalking aquatic prey or mice.   

Honey Bees in our Yard

     There are no hives of honey bees or a colony of wild honey bees in a tree cavity in our suburban neighborhood that I know of.  But we sure do have honey bees in our yard here in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, making it more interesting.
     Sterile female worker honey bees come to our neighborhood, as elsewhere, to satisfy their various needs.  They sip sugary nectar from white clover flowers on lawns, the blooms of rose-of-sharon bushes, the blossoms of straw flower plants and blooms from other plants in the neighborhood.  As they buzz from flower to flower, chemicals in their stomachs change that nectar to honey, which they store in waxy cells they make from honey, to store the fresh honey for winter consumption.
     Worker honey bees also visit our bird bath to suck up water, and minerals from bits of soil and rotting plants birds unwittingly deposit in the water when they come to it to drink and bathe.  The bees drink from the shallow edges and I have seen up to nine of them lined up at once.  And because that bird bath is on one spot in our yard, I can see the bees constantly bee-lining speedily to the water, and away, all day, most every summer day.
     These honey bees also ingest moisture and minerals from damp potting soil under the straw flower plants in two flower pots on our deck.  I have seen up to a dozen honey bees in one container at one time and a lesser number in the other one.
     Honey bees and other kinds of insects make our neighborhood more interesting every summer.  Each reader probably has interesting insects and other wildlife on his or her lawn as well.  One has only to get out and look for them.      

Avocets and Stilts

     About a half dozen American avocets have recently been feeding on invertebrates on the Conejohela Mud Flats in the Susquehanna River in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  These birds raise young around lakes and ponds in the American prairie pothole region, but some post-breeding avocets wander east to the Atlantic coast and feed, individually or in small groups, in marshes and shallow impoundments.  And some individuals, such as those at Conejohela, feed from large inland flats and shallows, exciting eastern birders and non-birders alike. 
     American avocets have long, blue-gray legs, lengthy necks and beaks, white bodies, black stripes on wings and backs, and light brown on their heads and necks during the breeding season.  There are a few other kinds of avocets in the world's wetlands and several kinds of stilts, all of them together making the family of birds called Recurvirostridae.  Birds of each genus live on all continents, except Antarctica. 
     Black-necked stilts live and breed along the southern parts of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the Gulf Coast of the United States.  They have long, red legs, lengthy necks and bills, and are black on top and white below.  This kind of stilt has also been spotted occasionally on flats and shallows on inland retention basins and other shallow water impoundments.      
     Because they are related to each other, all species of avocets and stilts have characteristics in common.  Both genders of all species are alike.  Each bird has one mate to raise young with each year.  Each female lays four eggs in her nest on the ground, as most shorebirds do.  Every pair of each species shares the work of raising the young.  The chicks are downy, open-eyed and ready to run and get their own food within 24 hours of hatching.  Parents brood the chicks during inclement weather and warn them of danger. 
     Each genus of birds uses its long legs to wade in water and their lengthy necks and beaks to snare prey animals, which includes aquatic insect larvae, tiny crustacea, segmented worms, tadpoles and small fish.  But the different kinds of birds in each genus are obliged to bend over to get their beaks into the water for feeding.
     Avocets and stilts have differences that reduce competition for food between them.  All species of avocets have thin beaks that curve up near the tips.  They sweep those bills from side to side in shallow water and grab and swallow any small critter their bills bump.
     The slender bills of all stilt species are straight and they use them to pick up tiny prey species from the surfaces of water and mud in shallows and flats.  They feed by rapid dabbing.  
     Avocet and stilt species through the world are uniquely built for how they get food, making them unique, and interesting to us.  American avocets and black-necked stilts are the only kinds of their family that dwell in the United States.  When along shallows and mud flats by the coast, or inland, late in summer and into autumn, one might see a few of these intriguing kinds of long-legged, long-necked birds.               

When Swallows Gather

     I was driving through cropland between New Holland and Ephrata in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania for about 40 minutes on the afternoon of July 21, 2015.  Blue flowers on tall chicory plants and flat clusters of white blooms on equally high Queen-Anne's-lace dominated the country roadsides with their omnipresent abundance.  And along one rural road, scores of tree swallows and barn swallows were lined up on roadside wires or flying over nearby fields to catch flying insects.  Tree swallows have white bellies and barn swallows have pale-orange ones.
     Those swallows are done raising broods of young for this year and are just now beginning to gather into flocks prior to their drifting south to avoid the northern winter.  They do this every year, starting at this time, so their presence in Lancaster County farmland was no surprise to me.  In fact, where there are scores of migrant swallows  now, there will soon be hundreds, then thousands through the rest of July, August and September, all of them consuming flying insects as they drift south and presenting intriguing and inspiring aerial shows for anyone who watches for them.
     And on that afternoon drive in July, as I do every year at this time and through August and September, I saw other kinds of creatures adapted to cropland, in abundance.  Cabbage white and yellow sulpher butterflies fluttered in abundance, and beautifully, among the lovely, pink flowers in red clover fields and the purple blooms of alfalfa fields.  They were sipping nectar from those beautiful blossoms before those fields get cut for hay to feed cattle and horses in barns through the coming winter.  
     And I saw flocks of rock pigeons, mourning doves and house sparrows in harvested grain fields, feeding on grain missed by harvesting machinery and lying among the beige stubble on the ground.  The pigeons and sparrows (really weaver finches) are originally from Europe, while the doves are native to North America.  The pigeons and doves are in the same family of birds and have several characteristics in common.  But all these grain-eating birds are adapted to living and nesting among farm buildings and getting their food in nearby croplands.  Farmland, it seems, is made just for them.  
     All these species of adaptable and obvious critters, and several other kinds, are adapted to local agricultural areas and make them more interesting. Watch for these farmland animals that make a ride through the countryside more enjoyable.          

Gannets and Brown Pelicans

     Gannets and brown pelicans have lifestyles in common.  Both species are in the Pelecaniformes order of birds and exciting and entertaining to us when power-diving, one after another in groups, head-first into ocean waters, with a splash, from 40 to 100 feet in the air along continental shorelines after dense schools of fish near the surface.  They prey mostly on herring and menhaden.  They also feed their offspring those fish.  There may be some competition between these species, but gannets dive deeper than pelicans, reducing some of the rivalry between them for the same food.  Both species draw their wings back just before hitting the water, beak-first to grab fish with their bills.  Both kinds of birds live in groups that nest and fly together in lines, alternately flapping their wings and gliding gracefully just above the water's surface, just off the beaches, which is intriguing and inspiring to see.  Gannets and pelicans have webbed feet for efficient swimming.  And both are coastal species, including along the mid-Atlantic shore at some time in their life histories each year.
     Each pair of gannets raises one chick each year on shelves on rocky cliffs along the North Atlantic coast, in North America along the shore of Canada.  And young and old winter along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. 
     Gannets are as big as geese, but more streamlined for diving and "flying" underwater with their wings after fish.  They have long, dagger-like beaks for grabbing their prey.  Adults are white with black wing tips, black feet and light yellow-brown on the neck.  Young gannets are mottled chocolate and white.  Young and old alike fly with rapid wing-beats and frequent soaring.
     Brown pelicans are bigger than geese, and interesting to many people, even non-birders.  They are mostly brown with yellow and white on the neck and head during the breeding season.  And they have that characteristic large, pouched bill all pelican species have to scoop up water and fish from the water's surface at the conclusion of each dive for prey.  When they surface, each pelican strains out the water from its pouch and swallows the fish it caught, headfirst and whole.      
     Brown pelicans nest from Delaware and Maryland south to Georgia along the Atlantic shore and winter along the coast of Florida, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.  There is even a nesting colony or two on islands in the Chesapeake Bay in recent years as the numbers of these pelicans increases and the birds expand their range. 
     Brown pelicans hatch about three young per clutch in stick nurseries in low, brushy trees or on the ground on small islands in shallow bays.  Some nesting colonies are destroyed by high winds or flooding, but pelicans live for several years and have other opportunities to raise young to maturity.
     When along the Middle Atlantic shore, watch for brown pelicans in summer and gannets in winter.  Both of these distantly-related, large, coastal birds are intriguing to watch diving for fish in the ocean, from high in the sky, just off the recreational beaches and boardwalks people inhabit.  

Two Feathered Farmland Families

     My wife and I were driving through Lancaster County, Pennsylvania farmland on the afternoon of July 18, 2015.  And it was our pleasant surprise to see two families of birds that afternoon, of species that are not seen everyday in this area.  The first family was red-headed woodpeckers and the second was American kestrels.
     A pair of red-heads were feeding young in a cavity they chiseled out near the top of a dead, broken-off ailanthus tree, one of several trees in a cow pasture near a creek and cropland. We caught a glimpse of white as one of the woodpeckers flew up to its nursery to feed its young.  We pulled the car off the country road and watched both parent red-heads feed their young in that hollow for about 20 minutes.  And as we did, we saw a ruby throated hummingbird perched on a wire fence for a few seconds and a couple pairs of yellow and black American goldfinches ingesting tiny stones from along the edge of the road to grind the seeds in their crops to mush.
     Red-headed woodpeckers live permanently in central and eastern United States.  Each pair of them raises one or two broods of young, if they can withstand competition for nesting spots with the aggressive starlings, and other cavity-nesting creatures. 
     Adult red-heads do have bright red heads and necks all over, white underparts, black backs and wings, with a large white patch on the back of each wing.  In fact, most people see those white banners on the wings as the birds fly before they see anything else of the birds.  Young red-heads of the year, however, have brown heads and necks, dark backs and wings and white on each wing speckled with dark.  The young birds are camouflaged for their safety against predation.
     Red-headed woodpeckers are omnivorous, eating both plant materials and animal life.  They chip insects from dead wood, as all woodpeckers do, but they also catch insects from mid-air and take them from vegetation on the ground.  The adaptable and versatile red-heads also consume nuts, seeds, berries, corn kernels and other birds' eggs when those foods are in season.
     A couple of miles down the rural road, three kestrels were lined up together on roadside wires as they watched the tall grass and weeds along the road we were on for grasshoppers, mice and house sparrows.  The kestrels, which I figured were part of a family of them, flew up swiftly when we passed under them, but quickly swung around and landed on the wire again to watch for prey.  These small falcons that are related to the larger peregrines flew on pointed, swept-back wings that help identify their species. 
     American kestrel pairs do nest annually in cavities of lone trees in meadows and fields, and hollows in hedgerows and farm yards.  They, too, have to tolerate competition for nesting sites and sometimes lose the rivalry with pairs of their kind, or other species.  However, these handsome raptors and screech owls also rear young in kestrel/owl nest boxes and wood duck nest boxes that were erected by kindly farmers.  Those nest boxes help increase the kestrels' and screech owls' nesting successes and both their numbers.
     One never  knows what he or she will find in nature when out for a drive or walk.  Be alert for any possibilities, in all habitats, at all times of the year and you will experience many nature treasures.      
    

Water Strider and Water Spider Adaptations

     There was a point I missed on my latest blog (see Friday, July 17, 2015), which regarded water striders and six-spotted fishing spiders.  Both those invertebrates have land relatives, so why do they have watery niches?   
     It could be long ago competition for space and food with their land relatives pushed water striders and six-spotted fishing spiders into water habitats.  There both found an open niche, a different niche for each species, they could exploit without competition.  No other kinds of insects do exactly what water striders do to survive and no other types of spiders do what fishing spiders do to live.
     In time, striders and fishing spiders became better adapted to their respective niches through changes in their bodily structures.  Striders' feet became longer and better suited for skating across the water's surface without breaking through it.  That insect's weight was better distributed so it didn't break the surface tension.  And the fishing spiders' long legs adapted to feeling vibrations of struggling invertebrates on the surface of the water, as the spiders' relatives feel struggling prey in their webs.  
     All species of life have special adaptations, they perfected through many generations, to work efficiently in a particular niche, one that no other species can quite fill as well.  And, in fact, I would say most every niche on Earth is filled by some kind of life.  And every niche that ever will be that we don't know about yet will be utilized by some species of life.  It is an exciting, ever-changing world we live in.  

Water Striders and Water Spiders

     Though they are from different orders of small creatures, common water striders and six-spotted fishing spiders have much in common.  And these handsome, interesting species demonstrate how the watery habitat they share shape them to be similar in appearance and habits to take advantage of that habitat to their advantage. 
     Both species walk on water surfaces without breaking through the surface film.  Both catch prey animals from the water's surface.  Both species are common in North America, east of the Rocky Mountains.  They live mostly on ponds and stretches of slow currents on streams.  And being cold-blooded, they are only active during warmer months.  But striders live on open water while the spiders dwell among shoreline vegetation and inch-deep water.  Their occupying different niches in the same habitat reduces competition for food between them.   
     Water striders are in the walking-stick family of insects.  Like all their family, they have six long legs that all emerge from the muscular thorax and resemble twigs for camouflage against predation.
     Water striders' bodies are five-eigths of an inch long, flattened, dark on top and white underneath for camouflage above and below these insects.  They look like the bottom from above and like the sky from a fishes' view from below.  Their front two legs are shorter than the rest and are used to grab helpless, invertebrate prey floating on the surface of the water.  The middle pair of legs are the longest and are used like oars to row the striders across the water's surface.  And the last pair of legs are like skates or skis that stabilize these insects on the water.  Some people call them water skaters.
     Adult water striders live several months and overwinter under fallen leaves on land near water.  They eat aquatic insects and land invertebrates that fall onto the water's surface and flounder helplessly, causing vibrations on the surface that alert the striders.  In summer, females spawn rows of cylindical eggs on objects at the water's edge.  The young mature in about five weeks on a diet of tiny invertebrates helpless on the water's surface.
     Six-spotted fishing spiders are greenish-brown with a white, lengthwise stripe along each side of the body.  They also have brown legs, 12 white spots on the upper abdomen and six dark spots on the lower thorax.  Male bodies are about a half-inch long while those of the females are three-quarters of an inch.  But with their leg span, each gender is about two and a half inches across.  
     Fishing spiders are alert to prey animals by putting some of their eight legs on the water's surface to feel for the vibrations of helpless invertebrates' floundering in the water.  Spiders that make prey-catching webs feel the vibrations of struggling victims in their webs through their legs.  The other legs of fish-catching spiders are anchored on lily pads or emergent vegetation near the shoreline.  These spiders are sometimes seen running across water plants on the water's surface.  And these spiders also catch tadpoles and tiny fish they see in the shallows along shore.  These spiders, in turn, are eaten by fish, frogs, small herons and other predatory creatures.
     Female fishing spiders lay their eggs into a white sac.  Each  stays close to her sac until the young hatch and disperse to be on their own.
     When by a pond or a sluggish stream in summer, watch for these intriguing invertebrates that have similar lifestyles because of the habitat they share.  The striders will be on open water, but the spiders will be among vegetation along the shoreline. 
















   

Black and Yellow Garden Spiders

     Living throughout much of the United Sates, female black and yellow garden spiders are most prevalent and seen by most people in southeastern Pennsylvania during late summer and into autumn when they are grown up and large.  Their bodies alone are about an inch long and their legs make them look even larger.  And, not only are they large for spiders in this area, but also quite striking in color patterns.  They have rounded, black abdomens, marked with white and yellow, "furry", light-gray cephalothoraxes (head and thorax joined together) and black legs with red on each one near the cephalothorax.      
     During summer, female garden spiders in southeastern Pennsylvania make their circular, two-feet-across webs on tall plants and shrubbery in sunny, overgrown abandoned fields, roadsides and gardens, all human-made places where they are easily seen by many people, if those folks look for them a little.  Each web has a vertical, zig-zag line of denser silk down the middle of the main web.  That more obvious, wiggly line of silk may be there to warn birds and other creatures of the presence of the web so they don't crash into it and ruin it for the spider. 
     Each female garden spider occupies the middle of her web, head down, as she waits for invertebrates of various kinds to blunder into it and become snared.  When an insect becomes entangled in her web, the owner runs across the web and injects venom into the victim, which paralyzes it.  That venom is harmless to people, by the way.  Then the spider wraps the prey in more silk and preserves it for a future meal of sucking out the victim's bodily juices.  If, however, the spider is disturbed by an animal larger than she can handle, she drops from her web and hides among foliage until the potential danger is past.
     Male garden spiders' bodies are a quarter inch long.  Each one of them finds a female and makes his smaller web adjacent to or near the female's web.  The male courts his female, but always has a drop line of silk ready in case she tries to eat him.  If the courtship goes well, the spider pair mates and the male soon dies. 
     The female spider produces a few tough, one-inch egg sacs with hundreds of eggs in each one and adheres each sac to the middle of her web.  She defends those egg sacs as long as she can, but becomes weaker as the cold of fall increases.  Each female garden spider is killed by the first heavy frost of autumn, sometime in late October in this region.   
     The tiny young hatch in their sac, but remain in it through winter.  They next spring they exit their sac and venture into the world.  Some remain in nearby vegetation, but others spin a thin web that carries them away on the wind.  Eventually, some of them land in favorable areas, and grow and reproduce.  This species is spread rapidly by that method.
     Female black and yellow garden spiders are large, beautiful spiders that are harmless to us and consume some insects.  But I think their greatest value to us is in their striking black, white and yellow abdomens and just their mere intriguing presence in human-made habitats.  But remember, they are most visible to us late in summer and into fall.                   

Ravens

     The first raven I heard and saw was at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in southeastern Pennsylvania one afternoon during an autumn several years ago.  I heard it croaking before I saw it flying just above the trees along the wooded Kittitinny Ridge.  Like all ravens, it had a characteristically wedge-shaped tail.  That raven's hoarse croaking, to me, was a cry from the wilderness. 
     Common or American crows, fish crows and common ravens live permanently in southeastern Pennsylvania.  And another race of common crows that breed in Canada spend the winter here.  These species of the crow family help make this area, particularly its farmland, more interesting and exciting the year around.
     But ravens are the most intriguing member of their family in this region because they are not abundant here, but live more commonly in wilder habitats than what is in southeastern Pennsylvania.  We people think of them as birds of wilderness, which they are.  But they are adapting to less than wilderness conditions, and that is the most impressive and interesting part of them. 
     Ravens live throughout much of the northern hemisphere.  They are adaptable and live in forested mountains, prairies, tundra areas, certain cities and other habitats.  They were once all over North America, but were pushed out of many areas by habitat loss due to agriculture, shooting and poisoning.  They have strongholds in wilder places in North America, and are now adapting to less than wild conditions, including here in overly-civilized southeastern Pennsylvania, much to the joy of some of its citizens.
     Ravens are the largest members of the crow/jay family, the biggest branch of perching or song birds.  And like their relatives, ravens are bold, playful and clever.  But they are already more hawk-like in build, habits and flight than their crow relatives.  They do more soaring than their crow cousins do.  And to reduce competition for food with crows, ravens turn more to scavenging like vultures and hunting prey like hawks than their crow relatives do, which made them what they are today- more hawk-like than crows.  It makes one wonder how many trials led to extinction before ravens could come as far as they have to being hawk-like.  
     But ravens are a species in progress.  They are not altogether like hawks.  They have the urge for killing prey, but don't totally have all the equipment to do it more efficiently and quickly.  They have long, heavy beaks, but those bills are not curved or sharp enough for more easily tearing off chunks of meat.  They have eight claws on two feet, but those claws could be stronger and sharper for quicker killing before the intended victims get away.  Probably, in time, if ravens continue to hunt and scavenge, their beaks and claws will become ever more hawk-like.  As centuries roll by, ravens with the best killing equipment will live long enough to reproduce.  Ravens probably are hawks in the making.  They are a species progressing, but not a finished product.  In the future, ravens may be efficient competitors of certain hawk species.  
     But more than having the physical equipment to subdue prey animals for food, ravens have intelligence and a capacity for problem solving.  They are always opportunists, looking for any chance of getting food everywhere they may be.  They even work together at times to procure sustenance.  One raven, for example pesters a nesting bird until that bird leaves its nest, whereupon the raven partner grabs the vulnerable eggs or young.
     Ravens are about two years old, or more, when they are old enough to raise young, and they pair for life.  They build stick, twig and grass nurseries that are about four feet in diameter and two feet high near the tops of tall trees, on power towers and bridges, or in indentations in cliffs sheltered by a rock overhang,  all of which hawks do.  They may also nest on the rock cliffs of abandoned quarries, as some kinds of hawks and vultures already do.                
     Ravens are moving into southeastern Pennsylvania.  Their population here is steadily increasing as some pairs of them are nesting here.  Through protection and their own adaptations, the wild and exciting ravens are making a comeback, as are bald eagles and peregrine falcons, raptors that were once down and out before recovering under protection from the law. 

My Favorite Lizards

     The American west has many kinds of lizards in its deserts and other habitats.  But the eastern United States doesn't have near the west's diversity of those reptiles.  But several species of lizards do live in the east and three of them I have seen fairly often over the years, including five-lined skinks, fence lizards and green anoles.  And they are cute.  For those reasons, they are my favorite lizards. 
     All my favorite lizards are small, being only a few inches long, numerous, harmless to us, camouflaged and generally hide out, except when hunting invertebrate prey and sunning themselves on sunlit rocks, trees or other objects.  They all lay eggs in sheltered places.  And the young are on their own from the start. 
     These little reptiles are not easy to see because of their blending in.  And all those I have experienced, I saw by being in the right place at the right time by pure luck.
     They are well camouflaged for good reason.  Some of them already fall prey to hawks, skunks, certain snakes and other kinds of predators that see or smell through the lizards' camouflage.  But the mortality would be higher without their blending into their surroundings.
     All reptiles are cold-blooded and scaly, including my favorite lizards.  Those in the north must seek shelter in autumn to hibernate through winter.  And all take on the temperature around them.  Reptiles bask in sunlight to warm themselves to the point of being able to have the energy to hunt food and mates.
     Five-lined skinks range across most of the eastern United States.  They do have five dark lines on top that run lengthwise from their snouts to the tips of their tails.  Juveniles have more pronounced stripes and light-blue tails, making them attractive lizards.  Here in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, for example, they live in crevices between boulders along waterways and railroad cuts and in cracks in the rock walls of buildings and the locks of remnant canals that were in this area.  Fortunately, they are quick to dart into those sheltering places at the least hint of danger.       
     Fence lizards also live in most of the eastern United States.  They are gray above, with darker markings, both of which camouflage them.  Males have dark-blue throats and black on their bellies to impress females of their kind for breeding.   
     Fence lizards live among trees that they frequently climb, and, like skinks, live among rocks in locks, buildings and cliffs where they find shelter from cold and predators.  I find them locally in the same places I see skinks. 
     Green anoles are confined to the Deep South up to the North Carolina coast.  They are green all over, but can quickly change to brown.  Both colors allow them to blend into their surroundings to the point they seem to disappear.  They mostly live in trees and on vines.  Males have a red throat pouch they inflate when courting a female of their kind.
     I have seen green anoles in abundance in various places of Florida, and in the suburbs of Charlotte, North Carolina.  But they live abundantly in all parts of the Deep South.  
     Though they are hard to spot because of their small sizes and camouflage, these little lizards are cute, interesting and harmless to us.  They are worth experiencing when spotted.  





  

Common Autumn Insects

     Several kinds of common insects in southeastern Pennsylvania are interesting, major parts of late summer and autumn.  The following are only a few examples of them.  These insects add beauty and intrigue in abundance to the local landscape. And they can be experienced and enjoyed by the most casual observers of nature.
     Cabbage white and yellow sulphur butterflies swarm among the lovely pink blooms of red clover and the purple flowers of alfalfa in local hay fields to sip nectar in July through September.  Some fields have so many of these butterflies from Europe fluttering among the blossoms at once that those fields seem to shimmer with butterflies.  Though plain as individuals, these two kinds of butterflies are beautiful in their abundance.
     Amorous males of various kinds of tree crickets and katydids begin chirping, trilling or chanting, depending on the species, by the end of July through to October to attract females of their respective species to them for mating.  They make their music by rubbing their wings or legs together, again depending on the species.  They start their chorusing at dusk and continue into the wee hours of the night, concerts that make the males more vulnerable to predation.
     Snowy tree crickets are a common member of their family.  Males of this species scrape out measured, monotonous chirps that tell us the temperature.  Count the number of chirps in 15 seconds and add 40.  That will fairly accurately record the temperature.
     Male true katydids use files and scrapers on their wings to scratch out "Katy-did" seemingly without end.  But there is an end to all the crickets' and katydids' serenading sometime in October when heavy frost kills all the adult crickets and katydids.  Those species survive the winter only in the egg stage.     
      Annual cicada grubs emerge from the ground on August nights and climb trees and other objects.  They had spent the previous year sucking sap from tree roots in the soil.  But now they are ready to be adults, reproduce and die. 
     The exoskeleton of each grub up a tree splits down the back and the adult emerges from it.  When that insect's wings are fully pumped out, it flies off in search of a mate.  Male cicadas create a whining sound by vibrating plates on their abdomens.  One can hear that trilling during the heat of the day and, especially, in the evening.  Females hear that sound and come to the males to mate.
     Grassy, weedy roadsides and some fields jump with a few kinds of common grasshoppers in summer.  And by August and September those grasshoppers are large enough to see jumping and flying away from the observer, as they do to escape predators.  All these grasshoppers eat grass and other plants.  And all are brown or green to blend into their surroundings so they are not so easily seen by predators such as birds, foxes and others.
     Carolina locusts are brown and good fliers.  When they are in flight, one can see yellow and black or their wings.   
     Differential grasshoppers and red-legged grasshoppers are both "short-horned", which means they have short antennae.  Red-legs do have a bit of red on their large, rear, jumping legs.
     And there are a couple species of long-horned grasshoppers in this area, including gladiators and cone-heads, which are both mostly green.  Gladiators seem to have a shield on their thoraxes and cone-heads have pointed heads, hence their common names.
     Monarch butterflies are most prevalent here late in summer.  We start seeing them in this area early in July.  Females of the species at that time lay eggs individually on milkweed leaves, which the caterpillars consume.  Adults sip nectar from a variety of flowers. 
     Eggs of the last generation of the year are laid on milkweed in early August.  The resulting caterpillars pupate about the third week of August and emerge as butterflies early in September.  But these monarchs do not breed.  Instead, they migrate southwest across the United States to certain forests in mountains of Mexico where they spend the winter.  But the miracle of their migration is they were never in those forests before.  Yet every year, the last generation of each year finds the very woods in Mexico their great grandparents left early in March when they migrated north.  How do they know where to go and when they arrived at their destination.  Nobody knows.  But it seems all monarchs that winter in those Mexican woods are related and originally came from a small population of monarchs in those patches of woods in Mexico.
     In September and October when we feel autumn and the approach of winter, swarms of inseminated female box elder bugs gather in sunny places near cover in rock walls, tree cavities and crevices in buildings, among other sheltered spots.  They are true bugs, in the bug family of insects, that are attractive with red and black color patterns.  Eventually, those masses of bugs will enter various shelters to spend the winter in relative safety.
     Box elder bugs spend summers sipping sap from twigs on box elder or ash-leafed maple trees that grow on flood plains along waterways.  But with the approach of winter, they seek sheltered places to spend the winter and that's when we see them in large swarms.  They are harmless to us, however.  They do not bite or sting and they don't eat anything through winter.       
     In October, we see thousands of handsome woolly caterpillars crossing country roads, as each one is seeking a place in the soil to spend the winter.  These caterpillars are bristly with stiff hairs to ward off predators.  They have black hairs at both ends and reddish-brown ones in the middle.
     Woolly caterpillars ate grass and other plants in summer.  They pupate in the ground through winter and emerge the next year as Isabella moths.  Those moths lay eggs in the soil, then die.  The young that hatch from those eggs will be another generation of attractive woolly caterpillars.                     Keep your eyes and ears open to experience some of these common and interesting species of insects in southeastern Pennsylvania.  They are entertaining and inspiring.             
      

Roadside Plants with Historic Uses

     Several kinds of adaptable flowering plants abundant along country roads in the Middle Atlantic States, including chicory, Queen-Anne's-lace, teasel, common mullein and bouncing bet, have much in common.  They all have attractive blossoms, are originally from Europe, but naturalized in much of North America, and have a history of usefulness to humans, particularly in medieval Europe.
     The perennial chicory is a four-foot tall, spindly plant with few leaves and a few lovely, sky-blue flowers every summer morning from late June through August.  But those blooms close by early afternoon each day.  Chicory dominates many roadsides and some meadows, making those human-made habitats look like they are reflecting the blue sky on sunny mornings.  Insects come to their flowers to sip nectar and goldfinches and other seed-eating birds consume some of their seeds.
     The roots of chicory can be roasted and ground to bits.  Those grinds are used by some people even today to make chicory coffee.   
     The perennial Queen-Anne's-lace have flat clusters of many tiny, white flowers from early July through August.  The flowers of this species dry in fall and curl up, resembling small birds' nests through winter, or ice cream cones when snow piles on those attractive, dried flowers.  Some people use dried blooms of this species as part of indoor decorations.
     Queen-Anne's-lace is the ancestor of domestic carrots.  This plant and carrots smell alike and each species has flowers like the other one.  But this plant s not edible to people. 
     Teasel has a two year cycle of life.  During its first summer, it is a plant of leaves close to the ground.  But the next summer it grows tall to get its tiny, lavender flowers into the wind and visible to insects that visit those blooms to get nectar, fertilizing the blossoms in the process.  I accidentally spilled teasel seeds on our lawn and the next summer we had teasel plants among the short grass.  But that summer and the next, I kept mowing those plants off until they died at the end of their life cycle. 
     In natural circumstances,when teasel seeds are developed, the whole plant dies, except its seeds that disperse in the wind.  Many of those seeds are eaten by mice and seed-eating birds.  
     Teasel plants form flower heads with several small blooms on each head.  The blossoms in the middle of each head bloom first and all other flowers bloom in their turn out to the ends of each head.      Teasel heads and stems are prickly to protect the flowers.  The dead heads and stems of this plant were used in medieval Europe to tease out wool.
     Common mullein is another biannual plant.  During its first year of life it is only a rosette of leaves hugging the soil.  But the next year each plant grows a flower spike up to six feet tall.  And each stem has several yellow flowers on it, which are pollinated by insects.  Seeds develop where the blooms were, and when those seeds are mature, the whole plant dies, except the seeds that are scattered in the wind.
     Eventually that flower stem is dry with many empty pockets in it where the blooms were.  In medieval Europe people soaked those mullein flower spikes, with their many hollows, into animal fat and lit them as torches at night.
     Bouncing bet has pink blossoms during July and into autumn.  This plant is also called soapwort because its crushed leaves can be whipped into a soapy lather, which has been used as a soap.  The name bouncing bet comes from the name of a physically well-endowed washer woman scrubbing clothes by hand over an old-fashioned washboard.       
     All these common, roadside flowering plants have lovely blossoms that we can enjoy seeing free of charge, and have a history of being useful in some practical way.  When a passenger along country roads in this area in summer, watch for these beautiful plants that also have interesting natural histories. 

Eyed Elaters and Stag Beetles

     I saw a male stag beetle on a friend's screen door one recent evening.  It had two large pincers for the size of the insect, which made it interesting, yet a little frightening to some of the people who saw it.  It stirred my imagination about stag beetles and click beetles that are sometimes seen in or near woods on summer evenings and nights. 
     Eastern eyed-elater click beetles and reddish-brown stag beetles are two species of attractive and intriguing beetles that live in the forests of the eastern United States, including here in southeastern Pennsylvania.  Adults of both species are about an inch and a half long, which helps make them intimidating to some folks, active mostly during summer nights and are attracted to artificial lights, even those inside a building.
     Eyed-elaters have two black, oval marks on the upper part of their thoraxes that resemble eyes to intimidate would-be predators such as skunks, birds and other critters.  Each of those large, oval "eyes" is bordered by a thin white line that allows each eye to stand out.  The exoskeletons of this beetle is gray to blend into the color of tree bark for protection against predation, and there are white speckles on the gray wing covers.  Adults hide by day under logs and other objects on forest floors and sip plant juices. 
     If click beetles fall onto their backs, they quickly right themselves by snapping their thoraxes and abdomens against each other and a hard, outside surface with an audible click, which flips them into the air.  Hopefully, they will land right side up, but if not, they try and try again until successful.  
     Female eyed elaters lay eggs in protective forest soil.  The resulting larvae, called wire worms because they are thin and stiff, crawl into rotting logs and stumps.  Each larva has two sharp jaws to feed on wood-boring beetles and beetle larvae in decaying wood, grows to be two inches long and remains a larva for two to five years.  They finally pupate in soil and emerge as winged adult beetles ready to search for mates and breed.
     Like many kinds of insects, adult click beetles develop wings so they can fly distances farther than they could have crawled as larvae.  That way they are more likely to find a mate and lay fertile eggs.
     Reddish-brown stag beetle males have long jaws, pincers, for the size of their bodies, that resemble the antlers of deer.  Females have noticeably shorter ones.  Males use their pincers to fight each other and court females of their kind; not to pinch us, although they can deliver a painful nip if not handled carefully.
     During summer, female stag beetles lay eggs in dead trees, logs and stumps.  The grubs hatch there, eat the decaying wood and mature in it.  Some of them may fall victim to the larvae of eyed elaters.  Survivors, however, after two years of developing as larvae, pupate in nearby soil and emerge as adults in June, ready to breed.
     Look for these large, beautiful insects during summer.  They look fierce and intimidating, but they are not.  In fact, they are quite attractive and fascinating to experience.                  

Two Finches

     American goldfinches and house finches are beautiful, permanent resident birds in southeastern Pennsylvania, as well as throughout much of North America.  These related species of small birds have much in common, including pretty feathering on the males, eating seeds the year around, males have lively, lovely songs, being adapted to human-made habitats, coming to feeders the year around and raising young on lawns, adding more interest to them. 
     Goldfinch males in summer are bright yellow with black wings, tails, and jaunty, black caps on their foreheads.  Being colored that way appeals to female goldfinches, but repels other males of their kind during the breeding season.  Males are especially attractive among the blue flowers of chicory, the hot-pink blooms of thistles and the lavender blossoms of purple coneflowers when they eat the seeds of older, already pollinated blossoms on those plants.  And they are pretty in the shallows of streams and ponds where they ingest alga and duckweed.         
     Female goldfinches the year around, and young of the year, are olive all over, with slightly darker wings and tails, which allows them to blend into their surroundings for their own protection.  Males in winter assume the coloring of females and young.  All goldfinches bound along in energetic, roller-coaster flight while uttering cheery notes.
     Goldfinches don't nest until July when thistles develop seeds, each with a fluffy, white parachute per seed that carries it away on the wind.  Goldfinches eat thistle seeds, making the fluff float away on the breezes.  Females use those parachutes to line their dainty, little nurseries tucked onto twigs of shrubbery and young trees in fields and suburban areas near patches of thistles.  Goldfinches feed their young a porridge of pre-digested thistle and other kinds of seeds. 
     Male house finches have gray-feathered bodies with darker streaks and deep-pink on their heads, chests and backs.  Females and young of this species are gray all over, with darker streaks.
     Males have pretty songs they sing early in spring.  These finches build cradles of fine grass in the sheltering, needled boughs of young spruces, firs and arborvitae, and in the protective niches on buildings.  They don't compete much with goldfinches for nesting sites.
     House finches are originally from the American west.  But many of them were captured to be sold as cage birds in the east, which was illegal several years ago.  Rather than be caught with caged house finches, shop keepers in New York City released them, the birds found each other, reproduced and now they are scattered throughout much of the eastern part of the United States, adding to the beauty of its avifauna.
     Look for these finches in lawns and gardens through each year.  They are attractive and interesting, making those human-made habitats more enjoyable.    

Birds Following Farm Machinery

     Recently I saw a couple dozen barn swallows following a hay cutter as it moved slowly through an alfalfa field.  Those swallows were catching insects stirred into the air by the cutting machinery.  They were entertaining to watch weaving swiftly among each other for several minutes without a single collision, due to their quick reflexes.  I have seen this before in the fields of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, but this time I was reminded of the birds I have seen following farm machinery of various kinds during spring and summer.
     In March and April in this area, local farmers plow fields in preparation of planting corn, soybean and cigar tobacco.  That turning the soil over is a dinner bell to gulls, mostly ring-bills this far inland, killdeer plovers, American crows, purple grackles and American robins that drop into the trenches behind the plows, often by the dozen, to catch earthworms and other invertebrates before those critters escape back into the soil.
     Ring-billed gulls behind plows really put on a show.  Groups of them at a time drop into the furrows behind the plows and compete vigorously for the creatures they can snare to eat, quickly gulping down what they catch.  Meanwhile, as the plows keep moving ahead, more gulls drop into the trenches right behind those plows and ahead of the gulls already in the furrows to grab what critters they can.  But within seconds, the gulls in the rear of the furrows fly up and ahead of the gulls that dropped into the plowed ground ahead of them, then drop to the ditches right behind the plows again.  The result of that competition for food is a pinwheel affect of gulls in the rear of trenches flying over the ones in the furrows and dropping to the soil right behind the plows.  That feathered pinwheel keeps rolling until all the birds are full of invertebrates.
     Ring-bills and killdeer evolved in open habitats such as mud flats and beaches, so their being on a plowed field is expected.  But grackles and robins developed as species in forest edges, making their entry in large, open fields quite an adaptation on their part.  Grackles and robins spread over the plowed fields to seek invertebrate food, as well as dropping into the furrows after food.
     American kestrels are a surprising bird species in plowed fields to ingest invertebrates.  I first noticed that a few years ago when I saw a male kestrel drop from a roadside wire to a plowed field right behind the moving plow one afternoon early in April.  With 16 power binoculars, I saw the kestrel pick up an earthworm and consume it.  Kestrels mostly feed on mice and grasshoppers, so this was a mild surprise to me.  But in nature, most anything is possible.
     Swallows are as entertaining in their own way behind working farm machinery in summer as ring-billed gulls are in spring.  Locally nesting swallow species involved in those, often mixed, gatherings behind farm equipment moving in the fields are barn and tree swallows, and purple martins, which are another kind of locally nesting swallows.  By July, when hay and grain crops are harvested, these swallow species are done rearing offspring, and young and older birds alike are building up strength and fat reserves for the time when they drift south to escape the northern winter.  Some of the feeding swallow flocks are of one species, but others are mixed.  But as stated before, they are all entertaining following hay and grain cutters, rakes and balers across the fields, where they catch flying insects stirred up by that moving machinery.  
     Killdeer, crows, grackles and robins are also on those harvested fields to consume invertebrates.  They don't follow the equipment, but spread over the fields, where vegetation is cut to the ground, to get food.     
     All these birds, particularly the gulls and swallows, are entertaining to see on Lancaster County fields.  And it is inspiring to note these species are adaptable enough to take advantage of human-made habitats and activities for their own survival.  Adapting is a key to success.    

Blue Mussels

     Many people who visit the Atlantic Ocean coastline of the Middle Atlantic States, and elsewhere in polar and temperate waters, see varying-sized clusters of blue mussels attached to the green-plant encrusted boulders of rock jetties that extend from the beaches into the tidal area of the ocean.  Jetties are human-made walls constructed to stop waves from washing sand off the beaches.  And the many colonies of mussels find the boulders to be handy homes.  Though they, at first, appear uninteresting, they are more intriguing than they look.  They filter impurities from a lot of sea water, and they are part of several food chains. 
     Blue mussels are animals in the mollusc family of clams, oysters and others.  They are bivalves as many kinds of molluscs are, meaning they have two shells they close with a powerful muscle.  The shells of these mussels are elongated, smooth and purple, blue or brown.  They are attached to the boulders by strong, threadlike byssal threads secreted from glands in the foot of each animal.  But each mussel can release those threads to move on its from one place to another to be in position to get food.  These mussels also use those attachments to immobilize some would-be predators such as whelks, which are a kind of snail. 
     Blue mussels, like clams, are filter feeders that consume plankton and detritus when the tide comes in and cover the rocks.  Cilia of a tube projecting from the partly open shell pull water and food into the mussels' bodies, food is filtered from the water in the body and the water is ejected through another tube.  Each mussel processes ten to eighteen gallons of ocean water each day. Interestingly, mussels, and their relatives, also filter toxins and bacteria from the water, cleansing it.  But when the tide goes out, the mussels are exposed to the drying air and predators.  During that vulnerable time they close their shells to stay moist inside and defend themselves against animals that eat them when they can.  
     Several kinds of animals eat blue mussels, including people, whelks, starfish, gulls, crows, common eider ducks, oystercatchers, which are a kind of long-legged, long-billed shore bird, and other kinds of creatures.  Oystercatchers have thin bills they poke between the shells of molluscs to pry them open to get the soft body inside.   
     Each blue mussel is of one gender.  Each female of this species spawns from five to twelve million eggs sometime between mid-May to late June.  The newly hatched larvae float freely in the ocean for three to four weeks.  Many of them are eaten by jellies and other creatures in the ocean.  The survivors, however, attach themselves with byssal threads to hard surfaces, such as piers, boulders and the like.  And there they spend the rest of their lives, feeding, growing and spawning.
     The next time the reader goes to the seacoast, look for these molluscs on rock jetties protruding into the ocean.  Blue mussels are pretty in their own, plain way and have an interesting life history.