Wildlife in Treated Water

     On the afternoon of August 30, 2016, I spent an hour at the place where treated water from a business in New Holland, Pennsylvania pours into a meadow brook that almost immediately flows into Mill Creek about a mile outside New Holland.  As always, my intent was to experience what plant and animal life adapted to that human-made habitat.  And plenty of wildlife has.
     Water pouring out of a one and a half foot in diameter pipe was clear and about the only water in the brook at the time.  I saw scores of stream-lined, yellow-brown and dark-striped banded killifish in a few schools swimming easily into the current of that treated water.  And with 16 power binoculars, I could see how beautiful and wonderfully camouflaged they are, which is a defense against herons, kingfishers and other predators on small fish. 
     I know from past observations that black-nosed dace are also in that brook.  The killifish, and, particularly, the dace, are sensitive to water quality.  The presence of those minnows in the brook, year after year, indicates there is nothing human-made in the water that harms them.    
     There were clumps of alga of various sizes in the water, tall grasses on the banks and flowering arrowhead plants with white blooms emerging from the shallows along both shores.  I saw a few American goldfinches bathing and drinking, and eating strands of alga from the brook.  And I saw a pair of song sparrows moving about among the grasses, on the shoreline mud and inch-deep water on the edge of the brook as they searched for invertebrates.
     As I watched the killifish, goldfinches and sparrows, I began to notice little bumps in the alga that seemed out of place.  Looking at those objects with xbinoculars at fairly close range, I saw they were the heads of three green frogs, one young snapping turtle and a northern water snake sticking out of the water.  The rest of their bodies were covered by the alga, which concealed them from the prying eyes of herons, egrets, minks and other predators.  Stalking killifish is one of the reasons the turtle and snake were in the brook.  
     I also noticed other kinds of interesting small birds, including several American robins, a few each of eastern bluebirds, house finches and chipping sparrows, and one gray catbird, northern cardinal and mourning dove taking turns drinking and bathing in the water of the brook I was studying.  Those drinking birds are further proof of the cleanness of the water. 
     The pretty birds mentioned above are there because of vegetation near the brook.  Thickets of young trees, tall grass and perennial plants line both sides of nearby Mill Creek.  A long row of six-foot-tall northern white cedar (arborvitae) were planted near the brook.  And an American elm tree and a choke cherry tree stand close to the brook in the meadow.  Clumps of nodding thistles and pokeweeds grew in the thickets and along the line of arborvitae.  When not drinking or bathing, the goldfinches ate thistle seeds.  Robins and bluebirds ingested red cherry fruits while the catbird dined on the juicy fruits of pokeweed, when those birds were not along the brook.  And the cardinal, mourning dove, house finches, and chipping sparrows consumed grass and weed seeds close to the brook.  They, too, occasionally drink and bathe in the brook water. 
     The robins probably nested in the young trees along Mill Creek while the catbird, and its mate, reared offspring in bushes along that same waterway. And, perhaps, the chipping sparrows raised young in a cedar.  But, also, by August most birds are done nesting and begin moving about in search of abundant food sources to fatten up before migrating or enduring winter in the north, depending upon the strategy of each kind of bird.  And during the hot days of late summer into fall, birds are always looking for water supplies.
     The treated water from a business in New Holland is one of innumerable human-made habitats being used by a variety of adaptable plants and wild animals.  More and more, people are taking care of the environment, something we as a society always need to do to have healthy lives on Earth and be able to enjoy nature's beauties and intrigues.