Woodlot Stream Birds

     I parked along a short stretch of stream in a 20-acre, deciduous woodlot, surrounded by farmland, a mile south of New Holland, Pennsylvania for two hours on the afternoon of April 4, 2018 to see what creatures were visible.  I stop there occasionally in all seasons, but that April day's birding was exceptional.  And each species I saw then, including two song sparrows, one swamp sparrow,  a winter wren, one Louisiana waterthrush, a pair of eastern phoebes and a pair of wood ducks, has reason to be around stream-in-a-woods habitats.  They all are adaptable, inland shoreline birds.  And individuals of each kind are camouflaged, which helps protect them from predators.
     Small waterways and ponds, bordered by thickets of shrubbery and young trees, are a favorite habitat of the abundant, permanent resident song sparrows.  That kind of sparrow finds invertebrate and seed foods in the thickets and along the muddy or gravelly shores of the waters.  And many pairs of this type nest near the water as well.
     Swamp sparrows uncommonly winter in thickets bordering small waters along woodland edges in southeastern Pennsylvania, but hatch young farther north.  Though related to song sparrows, the mostly brown swamp sparrows are a bit more colorful with rufous-red on crowns and shoulders.of their wings.  All winter they scratch for invertebrates and seeds in the muddy shores of small waters, but quickly hide in thickets when they sense danger.
     Warm-brown winter wrens mostly spend winters along the edges of brooks in forests, but some of them have adapted to wintering in woodlots surrounded by cropland.  Therefore, song sparrows that adjusted to farmland and an adaptable winter wren occupy the same section of stream in a little woods in an agricultural habitat.     
     All day, every day in winter, winter wrens scurry like feathered mice along the water's shores and among tree roots and fallen logs as they search for invertebrates in protected niches.  The wrens shelter at night in crevices in streambanks and between exposed tree roots in those banks that block cold wind and protect the wrens from mink.   
     A Louisiana waterthrush, recently arrived from wintering in Central America, bobbed and danced over stones and gravel in the inch-deep shallows of this little, woodland stream while that bird looked for invertebrates under the stones.  Waterthrushes' tendency to bounce as they walk along waterway shorelines is a form of blending in.  They have the same bobbing as bits of bark and other debris bouncing in the current, leading predators to believe that waterthrushes are just more stuff floating and dipping up and down in the water.  
     A pair of adaptable waterthrushes might stay to nest in a bank along this woodland stream.  But maybe the woodland isn't big enough to suit them.      
     A pair of overall-gray eastern phoebes perched on twigs over the stream to watch for flying insects to flutter by.  When prey is spotted, each phoebe sallies out after it, grabs it in its beak and returns to a perch to swallow its victim whole. 
     A pair of phoebes is in this woodlot every summer because of a small bridge that carries vehicles over the stream in the woods.  The phoebes build a mud and moss nursery on a support beam under the bridge which protects the young from weather and most predators.  Parents feed their young flying insects they catch on the wing. 
     A pair of beautiful wood ducks swam quickly downstream while I was along that little waterway in the woodlot.  By this time the hen should be laying eggs in a tree cavity, of which there are several in this woodlot.  But that female woody probably is not ready to set on her eggs until her clutch is complete.  That way all ducklings hatch the same day and follow their mother as one group. 
     Woodies nest in tree hollows and nest boxes erected for them in woodlands and woodlots near streams and ponds.  When hatched, ducklings creep up to the exit, leap to the water or ground below and follow their mothers to water, where they feed on aquatic invertebrates to get protein for growth.     These are woodland and thicket birds adapted to a woodlot in farm country for nesting, or just feeding while wintering or on migration.  And they feed in different niches, which reduces competition for food among the species, allowing them all to be in that woodlot at the same time.  But there is some overlap for resources among these birds in that remnant woodland habitat in Lancaster County farmland.