Birds Coping With Snow

     On March 21, 2018, we in southeastern Pennsylvania were hit by a twelve-inch snowfall.  And on March 22, I drove the streets of New Holland and roads in farmland around that town to see how some adaptable, common birds were coping with the biggest snowfall we had so far this year.  Individuals and small groups of American robins, purple grackles and starlings were on the plowed streets and sidewalks of New Holland to look for invertebrates and seeds where soil and short grass were exposed on the edges of those pavements by plowing and shoveling.  And they searched for that food on parts of lawns made bare by children building snow people and snow forts.       
     In farmland around New Holland, however, I saw more species of birds and bigger numbers of them as I drove slowly along rural roads.  Several flocks of horned larks took flight from road edges as my car approached them.  They were there to consume weed and grass seeds in soil exposed by snow plows accidentally scouring stretches of roadside shoulders.  And because of their brown feathering that camouflages them, I didn't see those larks until close to them.  But, fortunately, I didn't see any of them hit by vehicles on the roads, so they all got up and away before vehicles got too close to them.
     Horned larks live in our croplands the year around, but are not seen much until snow forces them along plowed roadsides to get seeds.  Then we see how many hundreds or thousands of them are wintering in that local habitat.  And, with binoculars, one can see the black and yellow head patterns that make these sparrow-sized birds so attractive
     Lots of individual robins and a killdeer plover or two here and there were also along the edges of the country roads to look for invertebrates in the exposed soil.  These lovely birds, too, flew up in front of my slow-moving car without collision.
     Farmers' lanes were plowed out, exposing the soil, gravel and tufts of grass they are composed of.  One farmer's lane, in particular, was loaded with a small variety of birds, including about two dozen horned larks, 16 robins, 8 killdeer and about 10 starlings.  The larks were there to consume seeds, but the other kinds of birds were after invertebrates.  These pretty, actively-feeding birds made that nondescript lane interesting.      
     Little, shallow seepages and running trickles in short-grass cow pastures also attract farmland birds because snow did not lay on them, leaving the invertebrates they harbor exposed to the searching of birds.  One shallow, grassy rivulet that was about 20 yards long and ten feet across in a grassy meadow was particularly intriguing to me because of the number of birds, including robins, killdeer and American pipits, in it looking for invertebrates to eat in the inch-deep, slowly-flowing water.  The handsome birds waded in the crystal-clear shallows and perched on clumps of lush grass in that broad trickle of sparkling water.
     Narrow, muddy and grassy stream edges, paralleling brooks and streams in pastures, were visited by many birds of several species.  Along the muddy margins of one, particular, clear-water brook, I saw several robins, about a dozen pipits, a couple of killdeer, several purple grackles, a few red-winged blackbirds and one rusty blackbird, which was a pleasant surprise to me because rusties are not common in this part of North America.  All these attractive, entertaining birds were busily looking for invertebrates in the shallow water and the mud under it on the thin waterway edges.  The grackles vigorously flipped over leaves and twigs to catch invertebrates that might be under them. And a few American wigeons grazed on short grass where it was exposed.
     I also saw a few other kinds of birds along some of the running brooks and streams, habitats these brownish birds normally winter in, snow or no snow.  Some song sparrows are permanent residents along many of the little waterways in meadows.  I saw a couple of Wilson's snipe, which is a kind of inland sandpiper that winters along small waterways in pastures.  And I saw a winter wren along a stream in a farmland woodlot; a habitat its species winters in.
     Robins were the dominant birds in every habitat, everywhere I went that day because, it seems,  they are particularly adaptable.  And, some robins winter here, eating berries and spending winter nights in younger coniferous trees that block cold, winter wind.  Others of their omnipresent kind are back to nest, bolstering the numbers of robins in this area.
     Snow is perishable in temperatures above 32 degrees and by the time of this writing, much of it was melted away, exposing more soil every succeeding day.  And the birds, of course, spread out to old feeding areas freed of snow.  They quickly went back to their normal routines.         
     I thought seeing how some kinds of birds coped with several inches of snow on the ground was interesting.  All wildlife must daily adapt to all kinds of changes in their habitats, including those imposed by human activities.  And the individuals that do, survive long enough to reproduce.