Neighborhood Spruce Beauties

     I have seen many beauties in the four, tall Norway spruce trees that were planted several years ago in our yard in New Holland, Pennsylvania, and next door neighbors' lawns on both sides of ours.  One of the first beauties one would notice about those spruces is the way their branches extend out from the trunks, sweep down a bit and then up gracefully at the tips.  The needled twigs droop like prickly, green curtains from the long, curved limbs.
     Long, beige cones hang decoratively from the tips of the twigs near the tops of the trees.  Those cones formed from red, two-inch-long female flowers that hung beautifully from those same twigs in May and were fertilized by pollen carried on the wind from small, male blossoms.
     These spruces stand majestically against the sky during the day, and at night when they are silhouetted either before a clear sky of stars and moonlight, or clouds reflecting human-made outdoor lights.  They are striking when snow is piled on them.  And an additional beauty is to hear wind sighing softly through those needled boughs.     
     And, of course, those trees on our lawn, like conifers everywhere, are even more attractive and interesting with the various animals that depend on them for shelter and food.  Various kinds of birds are the most noticeable animals in our spruces.  Many summer and early autumn evenings, we sit on our deck to relax and enjoy the beauties of nature in our neighborhood.  Early in summer we notice one or two pairs of robins nesting in those spruces.  And later the young robins will be begging for food on neighborhood short-grass lawns.  One or two pairs of mourning doves also raise young in those same trees.  It's interesting to find dove egg shells on the grass where they were dropped by the parent doves.  And some years a pair of blue jays rear offspring in one of those tall spruces.  Once in a while I'll see parent jays feeding their young in a tree in our yard.
     A few gray squirrels build leaf nests in those sheltering conifers and use those same trees as highways.  It's interesting to see the squirrels moving from limb to limb and jumping from tree to tree with the greatest of ease.  Female squirrels also raise young in their leafy nurseries.
     During most evenings later in summer we see up to a dozen post-breeding house finches and a few American robins perched on the very tips of those evergreen trees.  They look around for several minutes as if surveying their domain, which they probably are.  Then, a few at a time, they leave their lofty perches, probably to settle in trees and bushes for the night.
      Other species of birds also perch in our neighborhood spruces now and again.  Many late-summer evenings, up to a dozen blue jays flip into those spruces for a while, then fly out of them again to roost somewhere else for the night.  Sometimes a few American crows land in those spruces for reasons known only to them.  Occasionally, a red-tailed hawk lands on the tip of a spruce to watch the neighborhood for unsuspecting gray squirrels to catch and eat.  Or a Cooper's hawk will hide among the needled boughs of those spruces to ambush birds, including doves.  And, once in a while, at night, we hear one or a pair of great horned owls hooting from those spruces.  At least once I saw a great horned perched on top of a spruce and silhouetted against clouds illuminated by outdoor lights as it was hooting loudly.         
     For at least a few days one March, about four years ago, a migrant great blue heron settled in the sheltering branches of a Norway spruce for the night before moving on.  One of the attractions that held that heron here was our 100 gallon goldfish pond full of goldfish.  That heron ate every goldfish we had.  One day the fish were there, a few days later, everyone of them was gone.  I know the heron ate them because a neighbor told me he saw the heron standing by our pond and watching it intently.
     I remember one sunny, warm day in July a few years ago when a ruby-throated hummingbird and a house wren were picking tiny insects off the needles of our Norway spruce trees.  It was interesting to see these summering fairy birds working at the same time on the same tree.    
     At dusk on summer evenings, I see a few big brown bats dropping out of the spruces and flying off to hunt and catch flying insects.  I like to watch the aerial gymnastics of those bats as they zig-zag and swoop after mosquitoes, flies and other insect pests to eat.
     Over the years, I have seen at least a few migrant species on our spruces in autumn.  More than once in September, I have seen up to a dozen monarch butterflies landing on their needled branches to spend the night in comparative safety.  And the next morning they were gone.  And a few times in fall over the years, I have seen a red-breasted nuthatch hitching along the trunks and branches of these evergreens and looking for insects and their eggs.  Some autumns I will see a little gang of ruby-crowned or golden-crowned kinglets fluttering among the needles in their quest for tiny insects.
     The Norway spruce trees in our neighborhood are full of life and beauty, as evergreens are throughout the world.  We only have to get out and look for that life and beauty, wherever it may be.  Nature is entertaining, intriguing, and a blessing to human souls.