Farmland Beauties in January

     On January 2, 2018, I drove around in farmland east of New Holland, Pennsylvania, stopping here and there to see what wildlife was evident.  I started my trip around 2:30 PM and ended it close to 6:30 that evening.  The day was clear and sunny, but cold, with an inch of snow on the ground.
     During that trip, I saw one or two flocks each of a few kinds of birds, including loudly honking Canada geese taking off from an ice-free, slow-flowing creek to fly out to a harvested corn field to consume corn kernels lying on the ground beneath the snow cover.  I noted a couple groups of rock pigeons circling two different barnyards before landing on top of silos, which is one of their roosting places between feeding forays in harvested corn fields.  I saw a few rows of starlings perched on roadside wires between their feeding times.  The pigeons and starlings, both species originally from Europe, rest, and digest grain, while on their roosts.   And I watched a little flock of about a dozen white-throated sparrows scratching among dead leaves on the floor of a woodland edge for weed and grass seeds, and invertebrates.  Obviously, all these bird species spend the bulk of each winter day foraging for food.
     I also saw a few individuals of other types of birds on my ride in the countryside.  A few American crows were here and there in corn fields to eat corn kernels or in the air as they flew from one feeding place to another.  A couple pairs of mourning doves were perched on roadside wires between feeding forays in corn fields.  I noticed a red-tailed hawk soaring on high as it watched for gray squirrels and other rodents to catch and eat.  And I saw about a half-dozen each of turkey vultures and black vultures circling low as they were either coming down to consume a dead animal or going to roost for the night.
     My last stop was about 4:30 PM in a public park along the Conestoga River, which is about the size of a stream near its headwaters.  And that slow flowing waterway was not frozen, as are local impoundments.
     I saw a couple of gray squirrels foraging for acorns in the woods of the park when I first drove into it.  I parked along the Conestoga and stayed in my car to avoid the cold.  The sunset was a brilliant-red in the western sky in front of me and silhouetted the trees.  Soon a great blue heron flew low upstream and landed by a large sycamore tree on the waterway's bank.  And there that heron stayed, huddled and standing on one leg in the shallow water, presumably through the night.
     From my car window, I noticed the unmistakable tracks of a cottontail rabbit in the snow just off the parking lot.  Squirrels and rabbits in this park need to be wary because of the red-tailed hawks, great horned owls and red foxes that include the park in their hunting territories.
     I saw a muskrat swimming steadily upstream in the Conestoga, apparently on a mission.  And with my binoculars, I noticed five black ducks farther upstream.  But by 5:10 PM, those ducks took off from the water to feed on corn in nearby fields.
     About 5:15 PM, as dusk deepened and I was about to leave the park, I saw a red fox trotting across a snow-covered meadow in the park.  I knew it was a red fox because of its silhouetted shape, size, demeanor, and because January is the time of love among red foxes, a time when they throw caution to the wind.
     I meandered home into the red sunset that continued to fade until the sky was dark in the west around 5:40 that evening.  I parked and waited for the nearly full moon to rise from the eastern horizon, which it did, large and pale-orange, a little after 6:00 PM.  And I watched the moon gradually become smaller and white as it "rose" behind a clump of trees.  The landscape became almost as light as day with moonlight bouncing off the snow cover on the ground. 
     There was no single, extraordinary part of nature seen that cold, sunny day.  But everything I saw; the wildlife, snow, sunset, and moon glow shining on the snow made it a beautiful, interesting day.  Anyone can experience the beauties and intrigues of nature most anytime.  One just has to get out and look for it.