On the afternoon of April 7th, this past, I was driving through farmland in northern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. I stopped at a short-grass cow pasture watered by Muddy Creek and studded with several mature, riparian trees of various kinds that thrive in moist soil. I stopped because I saw a white flash of a wing among the trees. And as I thought, that white wing was on a red-headed woodpecker, a species of bird not common in this county. Red-heads are acclimated to meadows with several large, live trees and one or two dead ones or dead limbs on live trees where they hatch offspring. But that kind of habitat is uncommon Lancaster County because people are quick to remove dead trees from the landscape.
But this bottomland pasture is pretty with green, lush grass, several multiflora rose bushes already sprouting green leaves and deciduous trees, including pin oaks, sycamores, red maples, ash-leafed maples, black walnuts, shag-bark hickories and river birches. Some of the trees are riddled with cavities caused by wind and woodpeckers, making them more picturesque, and homes for wildlife of various kinds.
As I searched among the trees for birds for a couple of hours, I saw two pairs of red-heads that were actively flying here and there looking for invertebrate food among the trees and on the ground. They didn't seem ready to nest yet, but they probably will rear youngsters in cavities they chip into dead, but still-standing, trees.
Red-headed woodpeckers are striking and the genders are identical. Their heads are entirely red. They have white under parts and large, white patches on their wings. The rest of their feathering appears black.
A pair of eastern bluebirds were also searching for invertebrates on the ground. They probably will stay to hatch young in a tree cavity in the meadow. But, unfortunately, they and the red-heads may have problems competing for nesting hollows with the starlings in this pasture.
I heard a red bellied woodpecker and a northern flicker, which is another type of woodpecker, calling among the trees. A pair each of these woodpecker species probably will attempt to raise young here, too, and like the red-heads, these woodpeckers chisel out their own nesting cavities. But they, too, may also have to compete with starlings.
One hollow in a dead river birch tree seemed odd to me. And when I looked at it with my 16 power binoculars, I saw a sleeping, gray-phase screech owl in its entrance. The owl's feathers were the color of its hollow, making it nearly invisible.
I saw a male red-winged blackbird perched on a twig of a tree. That red-wing and his mate might raise young in a grassy nursery the female will build a few off the ground in tall grasses in the meadow beyond the shade of the trees, when those grasses grow high.
A few kinds of birds were in that pasture because of the stream. I saw a pair each of mallard ducks and wood ducks on the water. The hen mallard probably is working on laying a clutch of up to 12 eggs among tall grasses near the stream. And the female woody is probably in the process of producing a clutch in a larger tree hollow somewhere in the meadow. A male belted kingfisher was perched on a tree limb hanging over the water as he watched for minnows to catch and eat. A pair of kingfishers might dig a tunnel into the high stream bank in which they will raise young.
And there were a few other common bird species in the pasture because of the trees and shrubbery. A few tree swallows zipped over the pasture after flying insects. A pair or two of them might hatch young in tree hollows in this pasture. I saw a mature red-tailed hawk soaring over the meadow in search of gray squirrels and other prey. That hawk's mate probably is setting on eggs in a stick platform high in a nearby tree. I saw a few each of blue jays and American robins among the trees and on the ground in their quests for food. Eventually, some of the jays and robins will settle in the meadow to nest in the trees. And I saw a couple pairs of song sparrows among the multiflora rose bushes, a place where they are already rearing offspring.
This is a pretty meadow in Lancaster County farm country, made the more interesting by the birds living in it. Readers need only to quietly visit similar habitats to enjoy the birds, other critters and plant life in them. Enjoy them, but please leave them alone.
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