Spring has arrived in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and these days, the end of March, there are indications of it everywhere. On March 27 of this year, I drove through Lancaster County farmland around New Holland to see signs of that vernal season. I stopped at a built marsh and saw a few pairs each of the omnipresent mallard ducks and Canada geese, with at least one goose setting on a clutch of eggs. A loose grouping of over two dozen fish crows were perched in a few large sycamore trees. Having arrived there to raise young, the crows were calling excitedly the whole 20 minutes I was in that marsh. And a half dozen handsome, recently arrived tree swallows were entertaining to watch swooping and banking through the air over the wetland to catch flying insects. Four bluebird/tree swallow nesting boxes, freshly mounted on stakes in the marsh, is what helped attract the swallows. Probably four pairs of tree swallows will attempt to raise young in those boxes.
Driving by a shallow pool of water that was created for ice skating in a cow pasture in winter, I was pleasantly surprised to see three Bonaparte's gulls swimming on the water with a few mallards. Those dainty, petite gulls were busily snapping up gnats and other kinds of insects from the surface of the water. All three of these migrant gulls were still in their winter plumage of white tails and underparts, light-gray wings and backs, and a black patch behind each eye. Most bonnies migrate along rivers, but a few move inland, sometimes stopping at impoundments to rest and get food.
While watching the Bonaparte's, I saw two migrant pectoral sandpipers walking along the edge of the water in search of invertebrates in the mud and shallow water. They had wintered in South America and were going to the Arctic tundra to nest, but occasionally they must stop here and there to rest and feed. The pectorals and the Bonnies together made an interesting sight in local cropland.
Next I stopped at a farm pond, about a mile outside of New Holland, where nine ring-necked ducks, five of them drakes, were mingled with a few each of mallards and Canada geese. Usually ducks of larger waters, the ring-necks were intriguing to watch diving to the bottom of the pond to pull up water plants with their beaks. Then they would surface to swallow that food and dive for more. Soon the ring-necks will arrive on the American and Canadian prairie pothole ponds to raise ducklings.
At another farm pond on the edge of New Holland, I saw about 25 pretty, little American wigeon ducks mixing with mallards and Canadas on the water and feeding on short grass on the impoundment's banks. The wigeon, too,will soon go to mid-western prairie ponds to hatch young.
Moving on, I saw at least three pairs of green-winged teal on a slow section of Mill Creek. They, too, will eventually migrate farther north and west to nest. I also noted a couple of drake wood ducks swimming alone on different sections of that same part of Mill Creek. Their solitary existence told me that their mates were either laying eggs in nearby tree hollows or incubating clutches of eggs. And I observed an osprey along that same stretch of Mill Creek. It was migrating, but stopped at the creek to search for fish to eat.
While driving from place to place in Lancaster County cropland around New Holland, I noticed a sudden large increase in the number of American kestrels I was seeing on roadside wires. I suppose these attractive falcons are here from farther south and intend to nest locally. But I wondered what they could be eating in the manicured and harvested fields. There are many horned larks, and other kinds of small birds, in the fields, and field mice in roadside banks. And, in spring, I have seen kestrels eating earthworms that were turned up by plows. Kestrels seem to fare alright until their are lots of larger insects in the fields and along rural roads to feed on and give to their young in tree cavities and nesting boxes.
And while driving along, I saw a few pairs of beautiful eastern bluebirds investigating small tree hollows and bluebird boxes erected for them. They will settle down to rearing youngsters locally, if they can find unused nesting sites, but tree swallows and house sparrows give them competition.
And most everywhere I went in farmland that day, I saw loose groups of American robins and purple grackles, with a few red-winged blackbirds mixed in with some of the grackle flocks. One field full of grackles and robins even had three migrant eastern meadowlarks among the other bird species, all of them feeding on invertebrates and grain.
Early in March, generally, floods of grackles and red-wings pour into Lancaster County from farther south and inundate some fields and lawns to eat invertebrates and grain. And not long after, loose robin groups are on those same human-made habitats.
By late March, many grackles and robins are still feeding in the fields, but also starting to investigate suburban lawn nesting sites, the grackles mostly in planted, half-grown conifers with dense limbs and sheltering needles, and the robins in planted deciduous shrubs and young trees for the most part. Grackles usually form breeding colonies among the evergreens, but solitary pairs of robins raise offspring. And both species stalk across nearby lawns and fields to pick up invertebrates to feed their youngsters. They might compete with each other for food, but not for nesting places. And those different nesting habitats can spread the two species, reducing rivalry for food.
I saw several lovely and interesting examples of spring's arrival to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania farmland on March 27 of this year, but I know there was much I didn't see that day. Every environment, every season has much beauty and joy to offer to those people who look for them, wherever they happen to be. Nature is unending and truly wonderful.
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