Window to a Creek

     I no sooner stopped at a sluggish section of Mill Creek at the country road I was on in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania farmland, than I saw an adult yellow-billed cuckoo on the edge of shrubbery about 30 yards across that waterway from me.  I saw the chestnut flight feathers on one wing of the bird and its long tail.  Then the cuckoo flew across the creek and out of sight, but I saw its long, white-spotted tail and thrilling, almost hawk-like flight.  A few minutes later, I saw that cuckoo, or another one, in the same bushes across the creek from me.  And I began to see other kinds of wildlife among the trees, shrubbery and tall grass flanking both sides of the waterway.
     I was sitting in a ten-yard "window" in a wall of ash-leafed, black walnut and crab apple trees, gray-stemmed dogwood bushes and tall reed canary-grass at the edge of the creek for about an hour on the warm afternoon of August 10, 2017.  That hole in the leafy wall allowed me to see the water, and vegetation on the other side of the creek.  Usually, mid-afternoon in August is not the best time to look for wildlife, but I was pleasantly surprised by how many kinds of birds and other critters I saw in an hour.
     I was also happily struck by the beauty of that sunny, little spot along Mill Creek; with its almost non-existent current, the green vegetation all around the water, and the blue sky, patched with puffy white and gray cumulus clouds above the water and plants.  The strips of trees and other wild plants on the creek's banks are there because the ground is always too moist to cultivate.
     I saw a few kinds of birds flitting in the thickets of gray-stemmed dogwoods and crab apples, including a few gray catbirds, a pair of attractive yellow warblers, a Carolina chickadee, a song sparrow and a pair of striking northern cardinals.  These birds were catching invertebrates among the shrubbery, and the catbirds and cardinals were also eating ripening crab apple fruits.
     Meanwhile, a few other species of small birds were catching flying insects along and over the creek, each kind in its own way, providing me with more entertainment.  A few barn swallows zipped low over the water and vegetation, snapping up and swallowing flying insects, one after another, as they flew.  And a willow flycatcher, a couple of cedar waxwings and a family of eastern kingbirds,  perched on twigs here and there and watched for flying insects.  I noticed that when a flying insect passed close by one or another bird's perch, that bird sallied out to snap up the insect in its beak in mid-air, then hurried back to its perch, or another one, to consume its victim.     
     A few kinds of larger, easily noticeable insects were along the creek where I was, providing me with more entertainment.  Green darner and white-tailed and long-winged skimmer dragonflies dashed back and forth over the water and vegetation in pursuit of flying insects to ingest.  And I saw a few kinds of colorful butterflies fluttering by my perch.  A couple of monarchs were either looking for flowers to sip nectar, or milkweed plants to lay eggs on.  I saw a few red admiral butterflies, which made sense considering the many stinging nettle plants along the creek shorelines where caterpillars of this species lived and dined until they pupated and changed to butterflies.  I saw a question mark butterfly and a couple silver-spotted skippers.  The skippers were there because of the many soybean fields nearby.  Caterpillars of this skipper species consume the leaves of soybeans.
     I also saw a few kinds of water creatures on the creek.  A family of wood ducks, the hen and at least five of her mostly-grown ducklings paddled discretely on the water under grasses and tree limbs hanging over the water's edge.  A few bluegill sunfish swam along the edge of water, while an occasional carp jumped partly out of the water, with a splash, to catch low-flying insects with their mouths.  And I saw two lovely painted turtles sunning themselves on a half-submerged limb.  They are called painted because of the red and yellow stripes on their necks and forelegs.
     Obviously, I spent an interesting, inspiring hour along Mill Creek that hour in August.  Readers can do the same close to home.  Just be outside most anytime and wait and watch quietly for wildlife to go about its daily business.  And some of those times will pay off in experiencing intriguing and beautiful wildlife in their natural habitats.