I drove through Lancaster County, Pennsylvania farmland on October 29, 2018 to see what was stirring in the natural world. The habitats in that cropland were an intermingled combination of fields, meadows, overgrown thickets in hedgerows, small woodlands and streams. The weather was a bit wintry, with partly cloudy skies and cold wind.
While driving along rural roads, I saw a flock of thousands of blackbirds in hedgerow trees bordering cornfields and a pasture. There were so many blackbirds in those tall trees, the otherwise bare trees appeared to have black foliage. Purple grackles dominated that horde of thousands, but some red-winged blackbirds, cowbirds and starlings were in that great gathering as well.
Through my 16 power binoculars, I saw those blackbird species were pretty, each in its own way. The grackles had a purple iridescence, adult male red-wings flashed red shoulder patches when in flight and the cowbird males had black bodies and brown heads. The starlings, which are not blackbirds, but originally are from Europe, were also attractive in their white-speckled, dark plumage. Swarms of blackbirds drifted out of the trees like flowing, black waterways, down to a harvested corn field to eat corn kernels still lying in the fields, turning that beige field black with their abundance. Interestingly, new arrivals on the field dropped onto it ahead of those blackbirds already on it, which spread the great flock across most of the field.
Always restless, after feeding for awhile most of the blackbirds suddenly flew, with a roar of wings, back into the nearby trees. Then down to the corn field again for corn, and a meadow to feed on invertebrates, always amid a boisterous chorus of loud vocalizing. Finally, all the blackbirds moved on, and so did I. The grackles and red-wings will eventually drift farther south for the winter.
Along another roadside, I saw several birds darting about in a thicket of red juniper trees, poison ivy vines and multiflora rose and tartarian honeysuckle bushes. Stopping to see what kind of birds they were and what they were doing, I discovered they were small, mixed groups of American robins and cedar waxwings feeding on berries in that roadside thicket, particularly those of red junipers. Each of those attractive birds of both types, bolted down a few berries, then dashed off to rest and digest among nearby foliage. As always, each waxwing had a yellow band on the end of its tail, except one. That bird had a light-orange band that was unusual and equally beautiful as the yellow tail bands.
Moving on, I came to a lovely pasture dotted with many tall trees, including several pin oaks, each with some beautifully-colored leaves. Four striking red-headed woodpeckers and several handsome blue jays repeatedly took turns dropping to the ground under the pin oaks to pick up an acorn each time and fly away swiftly with that nut in its beak. Obviously these birds were not going to migrate south for the winter because they were stashing those acorns in tree cavities or in the ground to be eaten during winter when food is scarce. But in the meantime, both those bird species were lovely to experience under those striking pin oak trees.
At another roadside thicket, I saw a small group each of lively eastern bluebirds and American goldfinches foraging for food. The pretty bluebirds were eating the red berries on multiflora rose and the dull-white ones on poison ivy vines; and some invertebrates as well. The handsome goldfinches were ingesting the small seeds on ragweed and fox-tail grasses. It's not likely that these species will migrate south either, as long as berries and seeds hold out for them to eat through winter.
All these birds were attractive and interesting as they gathered food, either to consume immediately, or store for winter. And they were experienced in the midst of lovely, colored leaves, brightly-colored berries and leftover goldenrod and aster flowers in fields and meadows, and along roadsides.
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