Spring Near Home

     On March 20, a few days ago, I drove around the New Holland, Pennsylvania area on errands and visited a few small nature spots in local farmland along the way.  I stopped at a quarter-acre farm pond where I saw a pair of mallard ducks that probably have a clutch of eggs near that little impoundment, and a group of 19 migrant ring-necked ducks, 14 of which were drakes.  I was thrilled to see so many ring-necks, including the attractive males, on a small, pretty pond so close to home.  And those ring-necks were entertaining and inspiring to watch taking turns diving under water, time after time, to pull aquatic vegetation from the bottom of the pond and suddenly popping above the water line to consume the plants they dredged up with their shovel-like beaks.   
     Ring-necks are increasingly wintering in ever larger numbers in eastern North America and adapting to inland, human-made impoundments, large and small.  And, although they are a species of bay ducks, with relatives that winter on estuaries and other large bodies of brackish water, ring-necks have always favored fresh water and are naturals on inland, freshwater lakes and ponds.
     As I drove through cropland that warm, sunny day, I saw two pairs of eastern bluebirds, one perched on the twigs of trees and the other on fence railings farther down the road.  Both pairs of those beautiful birds were watching for invertebrates in the grass and other vegetation below their perches.  And when prey was spotted, they would drop to the plants, grab the invertebrates in their bills and fly up to a roost to eat their victims.  Male bluebirds exhibited a striking flash of beautiful blue when they fluttered after prey.
     Bluebirds will soon settle down to finding a nesting territory with a tree cavity or bird box in it.  Then they will attempt to raise up to three broods during spring and summer.  But bluebirds have problems with tree swallows and house sparrows that want to use cavities themselves, house wrens that destroy other birds' eggs and black rat snakes that crawl into a cavity and eat the eggs of young in the nest. 
     Continuing on my errands, I stopped at a half-acre farm pond where I was thrilled to see 28 migrant American wigeon ducks together in their own gathering among several mallard ducks.  I never saw so many wigeon on a small pond so close to home.  The adaptable wigeon, too, are wintering in ever larger numbers in eastern North America. 
     Most of the wigeon on that lovely, half-acre pond were paired and all of them were handsome. And it was interesting to watch them feed on two types of vegetation in and around that impoundment.  Some of them shoveled up water plants lying on the surface of the shallows, while others grazed on the short grass on the lawn around the pond, much as geese and swans do.
     Reflecting on the migrating ring-necked ducks and American wigeons, I was thrilled and inspired to see so many of each kind on small farm ponds.  And since these attractive ducks were on the only two ponds I visited, I have to imagine they are also on many other impoundments.  Perhaps, as their populations grow, they adapted to using impoundments they hadn't before.  Maybe their population pressures are making them change their habits, including having migration stopovers close to the works of people.        
     At home in our neighborhood suburb on the morning of March 21, I was treated to several expressions of spring's arrival.  The high temperature that day was 58 degrees and daylight each succeeding day continues to get longer, stirring all life to reproductive activities.  Three mourning doves were cooing in our yard, two of them from each of two upstairs bedroom air conditioners where they have nested in past years.  A northern cardinal was singing lustfully from a tree top while two male American robins were fighting over nesting territories.  Among the bushes on our lawn, I saw a pair of tufted titmice that did everything together; certainly a mated pair.  And I saw a gray squirrel seemingly at play and several newly arrived purple grackles that will soon set up a nesting colony in a grove of spruce trees in our neighborhood, as they've done in the past.  Meanwhile, crocuses and daffodils continue to bloom and the fuzzies on our pussy willow shrubs are turning yellow with pollen.
     These are a few of the signs of spring I enjoyed in the last few days in local farmland and suburbs.  And, as that vernal season progresses, we will experience other natural events of spring, each in its own time.  Readers can do the same.