Christmas Trees, Broom Grass and Wildlife

     Many Christmas tree plantations have been planted in the hillier, rockier sections of southeastern Pennsylvania, as well as in other parts of the United States.  They are a unique, human-made habitat with much natural beauty.  And there is a particular coniferous tree farm on a sunny slope close to home that I like to visit once every few winters for its beauty of young, pyramid-shaped trees and whatever wildlife might be around.  I visited that conifer farm again just a few days ago and was treated to the beauty of the trees, the scenery around them and the wildlife living among them.  
     This plantation is over 100 acres of young spruces and firs surrounded by deciduous woods and picturesque scenery of woodlands and agricultural areas in southeastern Pennsylvania.  The ground between the trees is covered everywhere by golden-beige, three-foot-tall broom grass, which makes a striking contrast among the green conifers and provides more shelter and food for wildlife.  Several dead, fluffy seed heads of goldenrod poke up among the broom grass, offering yet another touch of winter beauty.  Those goldenrod plants had yellow flower heads, swarming with bees, butterflies and other kinds of insects during late summer and well into autumn.
     Several kinds of small birds fluttered among the evergreens, broom grass and goldenrod during the hour and a half I visited this Christmas tree farm.  I estimated there were about two dozen lovely eastern bluebirds that alternated between perching on the very tips of the conifers across the tree farm and dropping to the ground to seize and eat invertebrates they found among the broom grass the warm afternoon I was there.  Needless to say, the bluebirds were a beautiful sight.
     Several dark-eyed juncos flitted among the conifers they hide in, the white V's of their tails flashing briefly as they flew.  I have always thought that wintering juncos are THEE birds of planted stands of younger coniferous trees.  They shelter among those needled trees and consume nearby weed and grass seeds, as these juncos were doing as I watched them.       
     There also were little groups of American goldfinches and house finches among the immature evergreens during the time I visited that Christmas tree farm.  They, too, shelter among needled boughs, as they also do in thickets of deciduous shrubbery and vines, and ingest weed and grass seeds from patches of those plants near stands of conifers and bushes. 
     I saw a handsome red-tailed hawk perched in a tree on the edge of a deciduous woodland bordering those acres of conifers.  That hawk was looking for white-footed mice in the woods and field mice among the broom grass of the coniferous tree farm.  I imagine that great horned owls and red foxes prowl among the conifers at night in their searches for mice and voles.  And I can visualize a group of stately white-tailed deer emerging from the bordering woods and into the evergreen plantation at night to graze on grass.
     Human-made habitats, including Christmas tree plantations, have benefits for certain species of adaptable wildlife.  Hurray for adaptable wild plants and animals.  They help make life more interesting and enjoyable.