At least ten big natural events make southeastern Pennsylvania intriguing through each year. And these annual, exciting happenings are so overwhelming that anyone can enjoy them.
A snow fall changes the whole landscape from green to white, often within minutes, making it a winter wonderland. Snow can cover everything horizontal that is exposed to it, quickly creating a cold, white blanket on the ground and gray tree limbs. Snow on the ground, however, insulates a variety of plant roots and small animals living in the soil, including moles, shrews, mice and a large variety of invertebrates, from deeper cold in the air.
Many thousands of ring-billed gulls dominate landfills during winter. Great, swirling clouds of ring-bills settle on the landfills like snowfalls to feed on anything edible. And there the gulls are joined by flocks of starlings, and numerous American crows, fish crows, turkey vultures and black vultures, all of which pick through the daily delivered trash for tidbits. Scavengers all, these birds have adapted well to rummaging through garbage to make a living, which has increased their populations because there is no need for any of them to starve to death in winter.
Large, noisy flocks of migrant snow geese, Canada geese, tundra swans and a variety of ducks settle here for a few weeks in February and March each year and wait for spring to catch up to their restless urges to push north to their northern and western nesting territories. Here the gatherings of geese, swans and some of the duck species feed in fields and rest on human-made impoundments, and make inspiring spectacles when flying in noisy flocks between fields and water, or the other way, to the enjoyment of birders and non-birders alike. Other kinds of ducks dive under water from the surface to either feed on small fish or aquatic plants and invertebrates, depending on the species.
Four kinds of wild plants, introduced here from Europe, have overwhelming multitudes of beautiful, yellow flowers in April and May. These plants are, in arbitrary order of blooming, lesser celandines that grow in bottomland woods, field mustards in fields, dandelions on lawns, all in April, and buttercups in meadows in May. All these alien plants are adaptable, hardy and practically everywhere in suitable habitats. The abundance of flowers of each species turns their, otherwise green niches, yellow for a few weeks.
The quickly growing leaves on deciduous trees and shrubbery in the warmth of late April and into early May suddenly changes the whole landscape in woods and suburbs from gray to green, literally almost overnight. Last year's sugary sap lying in wait at the buds is the fuel for that rapid growth. Suddenly there is shade where a few days ago there was none. And suddenly there is shelter for wildlife where a few days ago there was none.
Late in May each year and through summer, white clover flowers dominate many short-grass lawns with their millions of white blooms. Whole lawns appear white in summer because of those blossoms. And weekly mowing actually encourages the growth of new flowers all through summer. As blooms are cut off, the plants respond by growing new ones. Bees and other kinds of insects have a summer-long supply of nectar from white clover blooms because of mowing.
In June, every 17 years, swarms of seventeen year cicada grubs pour out of the soil of woodland floors, climb trees, squeeze out of the backs of their shells and emerge as winged adults. Males then fly around and emit a buzzing drone from plates on their abdomens. That monotonous droning, which may continue as much as a couple of weeks, is overwhelming, and almost deafening, because of the millions of cicadas in any one woodland. And many people are really annoyed by that seemingly unending sound. The cicadas eventually, mate, lay eggs and die, littering the ground with their dead bodies. But another generation of 17 year cicadas has been started.
Fireflies reach a peak of numbers and flashing their abdomens at dusk early in July of each year. Soon after sunset, thousands of male fireflies climb grass stems and other vegetation from the grass roots where they spent each day and take off in slow, hovering flight while flashing their cold lights every few seconds in their searches for mates. As darkness deepens, the lights of those flashing beetles is beautiful and charming, almost otherworldly, as if those insects are airborne fairies swinging their lit lanterns in the night. If there was a sound with each flashing of the great multitudes of tiny lights, it would be deafening. Eventually, many male fireflies perch on trees, making those trees appear as if they are holiday trees with flashing decorative lights. Multitudes of flashing firefly lanterns make July nights like intriguing fairy tales.
The courting sounds of true katydids, snowy tree crickets and other kinds of katydids and tree crickets overwhelmingly dominate the dusk and into the night of woods and older suburban areas from late July through September. Males of these grasshopper relatives make those mechanical chirps and trills by rubbing their wings together to attract females to themselves for mating. Those stridulations are THEE wildlife fiddling music of late summer and fall nights.
In October, locally, foliage on deciduous trees that abruptly changed the landscape early in May, change the green woods and suburbs again, to yellow, red and orange. In fall when periods of daylight become shorter each succeeding day and average temperatures become cooler, deciduous trees shut off the water supply to their leaves, causing them to die. And as the leaves die, so does their green chlorophyll, allowing the other colors in the leaves to be visible to us in a dominating shouting of warm colors that completely changes the look of forests and suburbs.
Every area has major natural events that are overwhelming and intriguing. Each reader probably can find some big nature happenings to experience and enjoy.
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