Pill Bugs and Sow Bugs

     I often find little colonies of pill bugs and sow bugs under objects such as stones, boards and lawn ornaments I pick up from the ground in our yard.  I have also found pill bugs, also known as roly-polies, and sow bugs, frequently referred to as wood lice, on soil and fallen leaves under logs and limbs on woodland floors.  And I see them behind loose bark and in small cavities of still-standing trees.  All these places are moist, dark and sheltering; niches that keep these interesting little creatures from drying out, and safe from predators.
     When uncovered, or touched, pill bugs roll into small, tight balls so their hard, shiny exoskeletons or "shells" protect their legs and internal organs.  Sow bugs, however, can not curl into balls, but still rely on their hard shells for protection.
     Pill bugs and sow bugs are not bugs at all.  They're not even insects, but appear that way to some people.  These little, related isopods of woods, gardens and lawns are intriguing cousins to crustaceans, including crabs and shrimp.  In fact, pill bugs and sow bugs are the only crustaceans that live wholly on land across much of the world, including the United States; but in moist places where they can respire.
     Being related, appearing similar and sharing habitats, pill bugs and sow bugs have several characteristics in common.  Both species, as adults, are half an inch long, have dark-gray, segmented exoskeletons that protect and camouflage them in soil, dead wood and other dark niches they live in. Both kinds have seven pairs of legs, two pairs of antennae, two simple eyes and trachae-like lungs.  They emerge from damp shelters on summer nights to feed.  And mature females carry up to 100 eggs in pouches under their bodies until their young hatch.
     Being part of nature's clean-up committee, these related species are scavengers, decomposers, feeding mostly on decaying plant material.  But they also consume live plants, including fruits and berries, lettuce and so on, but usually cause little damage. 
     But these ancient crustacean cousins have a few differences, too.  Pill bugs' bodies are rounded and close up tightly, while those of sow bugs are more flattened and don't close tight. 
     A variety of small birds, plus shrews, skunks, small snakes, box turtles, toads, certain spiders, centipedes and other predatory creatures ingest many of these roly-polies and wood lice, making them part of several food chains.  That is another reason why these little crustaceans stay hidden most of the time.
     Pill bugs and sow bugs are interesting little critters that usually don't cause any harm to people.  But one usually has to look for them to acknowledge their presence.     
       

Green Frogs and Bullfrogs

     I remember with pleasure occasionally taking a canoe out on an eight acre pond on summer evenings in southeastern Pennsylvania.  I stayed on that human-made impoundment until dark and saw several entertaining little brown bats flickering and swooping over the water after flying insects to eat and a silent, fantasy world of innumerable, flashing fireflies in the woods surrounding the pond.  And I heard many unseen green frogs and bullfrogs twanging and bellowing respectively and loudly along the shores of the impoundment.  The darkness over the water, bats, fireflies and frogs all combined to make enchanting evenings in a canoe on the pond.
     One can hear the gutteral belching of green frogs and the low moaning of bullfrogs from most any pond, marsh, roadside ditch, sluggish waterway and any other permanent water body, day and night, through June and July in this area.  Some even live on the edges of backyard goldfish ponds, where they were introduced as tadpoles or wandered in themselves on rainy or dewy summer nights as adult frogs or froglets.  But wherever they are, the boisterous croaking of green frogs and bullfrogs helps make summer nights more mysterious and intriguing.  
     Those froggy calls are from males coaxing females of their respective kinds into water to spawn.  Each female of both kinds spawns thousands of eggs in several scattered clusters attached to submerged vegetation.  The eggs and resulting tadpoles receive no protection or guidance from their parents, ever.  The tads eat algae and other aquatic plants and decaying animal bodies in the water.  They take almost two years to transform from polliwogs to froglets.
     Green frogs and bullfrogs are both in the Rana genus, and are closely related to each other.  Therefore, they have characteristics in common.  Both species are adaptable and quite common in southeastern Pennsylvania, as they are across much of the eastern United States.  Both types are mostly green and brown, with darker markings on their smooth, moist skins.  Both are predatory, feeding on invertebrates and any other critters they can stuff into their large mouths.  Adult males of both species have larger ear drums than do females of their kinds.  Adult, breeding males of both types have yellow throats.  And, as with all frogs, these species have their tongues attached to the front of their mouths so they can flip their mucus-covered tongues out, snare intended victims with their sticky tongues, and flip that prey back into their caverns to swallow whole.
     Green frogs and bullfrogs do have a few differences between them, however.  They have different calls to attract females for spawning.  Bull frogs are bigger. And green frogs have a ridge down each side of their backs, which bullfrogs don't have.     
     As with all frog species and their tadpoles, green frogs and bullfrogs, and their fish-like young, have many predators.  Larger fish, turtles, water snakes, kingfishers and herons are some of the wildlife that prey on polliwogs.  And mink, raccoons, herons, barred owls, red-shouldered hawks and other critters catch and ingest adult frogs.  With such heavy losses, no wonder that producing lots of eggs per female helps keep frog populations going.
     When out near water in summer, listen for the burping and groaning of these two kinds of common frogs.  They help make summer more interesting.  
        

Entertaining Surface Insects

     Every niche on Earth has its community of creatures, even the surface tension of water here in southeastern Pennsylvania, as throughout the world.  Water strider bugs and whirligig beetles inhabit surface tensions of ponds and slow-moving parts of streams, the striders more on streams and the whirligigs more on ponds.
     Water striders and whirligigs both have flat, dark, half-inch bodies, are active in the warm temperatures of summer, predatory on spiders and other kinds of insects, lay eggs on stones and plants on the bottoms of waters, and entertaining to watch on water surfaces, particularly when there are several of one kind or the other in gatherings of themselves.  Both species are easily seen with only a little looking for them.  Sometimes I see the shadows of these insects on the bottoms of streams and ponds before I see the critters themselves.  Being insects, both species have six legs and two wings that grow from their thoraxes.  And the legs and bodies of both kinds are adapted to their niches and ways of life.
     Water striders ski on the surface tension of water because of their long legs and feet that distribute their weight across the tension, making dimples on the water's surface, but not breaking it.  The front pair of legs of each strider grabs prey animals.  The second pair rows or propels each strider across the tension and the third pair spread their weight over a lot of water so each insect doesn't break the water's surface.  It's interesting to watch these insects that are so well adapted to water surfaces, ski or skate on top of it.
     Each water strider has a long, firm mouth that pierces and sucks.  Each strider finds prey by its front feet feeling ripples in the surface tension from insects and spiders struggling on the surface.  Each strider skates up to the prey animal, pierces it with its mouth, injects its enzyme-filled saliva into the victim to break down its body cells and sucks out the resulting liquid.  And, in turn, water striders are preyed on mostly by a variety of birds.
     When courting, male striders rhythmically tap the water surface with their front feet to send out ripples (signals) that females, and rival males, feel with their front feet.  Receptive females respond back and their suitors mount them.         
      I think whirligig beetles are even more entertaining to watch than water striders, especially when several whirligigs are together in a mass.  I have to chuckle when I see them.  Whirligigs live IN the water surface rather than on top of it like the striders.  Therefore, whirligigs have different adaptations for their life style than striders do.  Like striders, whirligigs' two front legs grab tiny invertebrates, but their back four legs are short, flattened like paddles and strong for swimming.  These beetles are superbly streamlined, and each eye is divided so that the upper part of each one sees above the surface while the lower part of each eye can see below the surface at the same time.
     Whirligig gatherings on the move on the waters' surfaces, with our imaginations, form letters and figures that rapidly appear and disappear.  Each beetle is fast in the water and zips around, often in circles, like a tiny speed boat.  And groups of them together zoom among each other without collision.  Sometimes they form tightly-packed masses on the surface.  Then the outer beetles try to push their ways toward the middle of each congregation.
     Water strider bugs and whirligig beetles are entertaining on or in the surfaces of water during warmer months.  When fishing, picnicing or whatever by a pond or slow stream, look for these predatory, interesting insects.  They help make the day more enjoyable.  

A Delightful Summer Evening

     The evening of June 12th in southeastern Pennsylvania was lovely with warm sunlight, cool, dry breezes and green vegetation everywhere.  I took a drive in rural, northwest Chester County to enjoy its beautiful scenery and whatever wildlife was visible.
     That part of Chester County has many fields of tall grass, deciduous woodlots and crack-willow-lined streams.  And there are several built ponds and natural wetlands in that area as well.  All these habitats, natural and human-made, make good wildlife habitats in a quiet, lovely countryside.
     Summer cold fronts, one of which dominated the weather that evening, with their pleasant and comfortable temperatures and humidity, are the nicest weather we can expect to get here.  It was a real joy to be out that evening in the combination of pretty scenery and delightful weather.
     As I slowly, blissfully drove along peaceful, country roads with almost no traffic, the sweet scent of honeysuckle blossoms permeated the gentle breezes.  I saw some of those vines, with their many white or beige flowers, climbing trees here and there along rural roads.
     As I drove along and watched for interesting plants and animals, I saw several kinds of farmland birds.  Most notably, they included a pair of eastern bluebirds perched on a fence, several barn swallows skimming fast and low over fields after flying insects to eat, a couple woodpeckers, called flickers, in flight and a male orchard oriole in flight. 
     I also saw a few kinds of mammals along the way, including three wood chucks, three white-tailed deer, a gray squirrel and an eastern chipmunk.  Northwest Chester County is a good area for these mammals, and others, because of its abundant sheltering vegetation.
     Each chuck was consuming plants along a hedgerow, here and there, near the road I was on.  One even sat up to look at me in my car.  But at the least sign of danger, each of those big rodents would dive into the thickets of its hedgerow to seek cover. 
     The deer were a couple of hundred yards back from where I saw them, but with binoculars I noticed they were two does and one big buck with half-grown antlers in velvet.  That buck was about half again as big as the female deer.  And all of them were in their red, summer fur coats.  Each doe probably had twin fawns hidden somewhere nearby. 
     The squirrel ran across the road when I saw it and farther down that road the chipmunk apparently was gathering seeds on the shoulder of that road.  I stopped to see that cute, little chippy better, but he dashed into roadside vegetation in an instant.  I thought "good for him"!
     I stopped briefly at a small, built pond that closely paralleled a rural road I was on.  A couple wary painted turtles slid off half-submerged limbs and into the water to hide.  I heard a few green frogs croaking as I watched the tight circles made by several shiny-black, swirling whirligig beetles on the water's surface, looking for all the world like they were tiny motor boats.
     Next, I went to a series of ponds and marshes where cattails, bull lilies, pickerel-weed and crack willows dominate the wetlands and shores of the ponds.  Several male red-winged blackbirds sang from wind-swayed cattails and willows while their females went about the business of feeding their young.  The striking males are jet-black with red shoulder patches to impress the ladies and discourage would-be rivals.  The camouflaged females are dark-brown, streaked with black.
     I also heard a few male bull frogs moaning from those ponds and wetlands.  Their calls, and those of male green frogs, attract females of their respective species to them for spawning in the water.  And, I am sure, those love songs alert herons, mink and raccoons of the frogs' presence.
     Surprisingly, I heard the fluttering trills of a half dozen or more gray tree frogs in trees along the road I was on, across the road of that series of ponds and wetlands.  That suggested to me that those little amphibians might lead dangerous lives when ready to spawn.  But there were puddles in a field of young corn plants on their side of the road.  However, I'm afraid that if they spawned in those pools in the fields, their larvae would not have the couple of months it takes for those tadpoles to develop into froglets and leave the water equipped with legs and lungs to live on land.  Those adult gray tree frogs were in a dilemma because of our transportation.        
     The sun set and the western sky was a lovely, soft pink and orange, with pink-tinted clouds.  And as the sky and countryside got darker, a few creatures were suddenly visible in the twilight, including many fireflies, four adult cottontail rabbits on and along a rural road and a couple of flying bats silhouetted beautifully against the fading sunset.  The flashes of cold light from firefly abdomens were enchanting as always.  The rabbits hopped casually off the road as I slowly drove by them.  And the bats were fascinating to watch swooping and diving after the innumerable flying insects.  The small, flying insects I saw in my car headlights were so numerous that they looked like a bowl of thick insect soup.
     I experienced pretty and interesting wildlife, in a beautiful countryside, during wonderful weather at a lovely time of year.  What greater joy could I ask God for?           
  

Flycatchers in Pennsylvania Forests

     Five species of flycatchers nest in southeastern Pennsylvania woods, and other forests across much of the eastern United States.  All species of these small, plainly-feathered birds catch flying insects in mid-air to feed themselves and their young.  They are all hard to spot because they are camouflaged against tree bark and the shadows created by leaves.  They mostly find each other for mating among the concealing, protective foliage of the woods by the males' simple, but distinctive, songs.  We humans mostly find and identify them by song as well.  And these related flycatchers summer in different niches in the same woodlands, which reduces competition among them for food.
     Great crested flycatchers are different in appearance than the other three kinds of flycatchers in eastern woods.  They are a bit larger, and have dull-rusty tails and pale-yellow bellies, colors that the other flycatchers in eastern woods don't have.
     Crested flycatchers raise young in abandoned woodpecker holes in the dead wood of woodland trees and other cavities in trees.  But they also rear offspring in bird boxes, open mail boxes and so on.  And some, more adaptable, pairs hatch young in older suburban areas with many tall trees.  Crested flycatchers' defining calls are an ascending "wheeeeep". 
     Eastern phoebes are gray flycatchers that traditionally hatch young in mud and moss nurseries on rock ledges under overhanging boulders near water in woods.  But being adaptable, some pairs of these flycatchers also build their cradles on support beams under porch roofs and small bridges in the woods. To phoebes the beams are rock ledges and the roofs and bridges are overhanging boulders.  All those places, natural and human-made, shelter young phoebes from predators and the weather.
     Some pairs of phoebes even nest under small bridges in heavily tree-dotted pastures that have a stream running through them.  And wherever phoebes raise young, one can hear their often-repeated "fee-bee, fee-bee" songs.   
     Eastern wood pewees rear offspring in deciduous woods in bottomlands and lower slopes, but not necessarily near water.  These gray birds have two white wing bars on the shoulder of each wing.  And their cradles, which are made of rootlets and grasses and anchored to the forks of two outer twigs on forest trees, sag like grassy cups beneath those twigs.
     But the most wonderful part of wood pewees as a species, to us humans, is their songs, particularly when heard at dusk in the rapidly darkening woods in concert with the flute-like phrases of wood thrushes.  Pewees' beautiful, seemingly sad songs are a whistled "pee-a-weee", pee-a-weee", "peee-oooo", with a descending "oooo".  The haunting phrases of pewees and thrushes are repeated over and over until dark, at last, hushes the birds for the night.     
     Acadian flycatchers build rootlet and grass nurseries that droop below the outer twigs of deciduous trees, especially American beeches, that lean over streams in bottomland woods.  And they get most of their flying insect food around the streams they nest along.  These flycatchers resemble other species in their genus of flycatchers so much that the only safe way to identify them is to listen for their short, explosive "peet-suh" song.  
     Willow flycatchers nest in bushy thickets along the edges of woods and in overgrown meadows and fields near woodlands.  Again, they are so similar to relatives in their genus that the only way to find and identify them is to hear their explosive "fitz-bew" song.
     All these flycatcher species are common in woods in southeastern Pennsylvania.  Each has its own niche that reduces rivalry for food and its own song so the genders of each kind can find each other. 
Though not brightly feathered, they are pretty and interesting in their own ways. 

Church Campus Wildlife

     For two hours late in May, I sat in my car on a church campus parking lot by a cattail-rimmed retention basin of inches-deep water and watched and listened to about eight male red-winged blackbirds sing "kon-ga-ree" from swaying cattails and several male green frogs belching at the base of the cattails.  Both those wild choruses were songs of courtship and reproduction.  The red-wings were jet-black with red shoulder patches.  Meanwhile, brown and dark-streaked female red-wings were feeding their young in their grassy nurseries anchored to cattail stalks.
     There was a large snapping turtle moving slowly through the shallows of that retention basin and a green heron stalking among the bases of the cattails on the shores of the water.  The main foods of the snapper would be frogs and their tadpoles and any helpless red-wing babies that fell from their cradles.  The green heron would mostly eat frogs, tadpoles and larger insects around the water.   
     This cattail basin is at the end of a regularly mowed lawn, sparsely dotted with planted trees, on a large church campus in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  And while parked at the retention basin, I noticed a half dozen adult killdeer plovers walking about on the blacktop parking lot and the lawn bordering it.  Those plovers could have been hatching young on the islands of gravel, each of which protected a planted tree from vehicles.  But because killdeer and their young and eggs are camouflaged on stones and I didn't look for their stony cradles, I didn't see any fuzzy young, or eggs, among the stones.         
     While I sat in my car on that parking lot, I noticed several each of barn swallows and tree swallows speeding low, and without collision with each other, over the lawns, parking lots and retention basin after flying insects to ingest and feed to their young in their nurseries.  
     Barn swallows mostly nest in barns and under bridges these days, though they traditionally have raised offspring on cliffs and in the mouths of shallow caves.  They build mud pellet nurseries on the sides of support beams and feed insects to their young.  The swallows on this campus came from nearby barns to catch flying insects. 
     Tree swallows hatch young in abandoned woodpecker holes and other tree cavities, and also in bird boxes erected for them and eastern bluebirds.  They, too, catch insects on the wing to consume and feed to their babies.  People of the church put out bird boxes to encourage the nesting of tree swallows and bluebirds.  Everyone likes nature in some way.
     I spotted a few other species of birds on that church campus.  A few each of American robins and purple grackles moved over the short grass in search of invertebrates.  A pair of Canada geese and their young wandered over a lawn and ate short grass, as sheep would.  And an eastern kingbird, that probably had a nest in one of the parking lot trees, repeatedly fluttered over the blacktop in pursuit of flying insects.   
     A stream, flanked on both sides by young trees, cattails and tall grass, flows through another back part of the campus.  There I saw several kinds of aquatic creatures, including fish-eating ones.  Large carp jumped partly out of the water to gulp down insects flying just over the water.  A belted kingfisher repeatedly dove headfirst from a tree after young carp and other minnows.  A couple of green herons stalked along the shores of the stream after frogs, tadpoles and small fish.  And I saw a snapping turtle swimming in the waterway.  Its food, too, would be mostly fish, including dead ones it can scavenge.  Although I didn't see any in that couple of hours, northern water snakes should also be in this stream where they would hunt fish, tadpoles and frogs. 
     And as I watched the kingfisher and herons hunting food, I saw a muskrat swimming across the stream, a few dragonflies darting over the water after flying insects to eat and a family of mallard ducks on the water along a shoreline.
     There are many other large campuses like this one, including those around schools, churches, corporate centers and other places.  And several kinds of adaptable wildlife find homes on those campuses where we humans can enjoy their close presence, beauties and intrigues.