On January 7 of this year, thousands of snow geese settled on the twin, freshwater ponds at Blackwater Refuge on Maryland's Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Those ponds were bustling and noisy with the constant calling of elegant Canada geese and tundra swans, day and night, before the snows arrived, but were even more so with the continual honking of the new waterfowl on the ponds. Snow geese really cause a stir by themselves. They dominate whatever water or field they land on with their incessant, loud honking and numbers. Because of snow geese, with the help of the Canadas and swans, Blackwater was a pleasant bedlam of sound and activities. The ponds were full of geese, swans and a small variety of ducks, mostly pintails, all intermingling among each other. The swans and pintails "tip-up" to pull water plants from the bottoms of the shallow ponds. But both species of geese apparently fed on waste corn kernels and winter rye in the fields because I didn't see them feeding in the ponds.
Blackwater Refuge, in winter, as in all seasons, is beautiful with its flat terrain, dominance of water and marshes and a big sky. I observed the refuge on our computer, as if I was looking out the window of a houseboat. Many of the waterfowl were close to the camera.
The prettiest and most exciting time of day at the refuge is around sunset at the end of a sunny day. At that time, many Canada and snow geese, amid a ruckus of honking, run across the ponds while vigorously flapping their wings, stream off the ponds, flock after flock, silhouetted black against the yellow, orange or red western sky, and fly swiftly to nearby feeding fields. The geese, as all birds do, take off into the wind for lift and flight control. And all birds land into the wind for flight control. For several minutes the lovely evening sky at Blackwater is excitedly full of magnificent, noisy geese passing across it and swirling down, group after group, to a harvested corn or winter rye field. Both species, either in pure flocks of themselves or mixed together, slide down into the wind to a field as if on an aerial waterfall that fills the fields. Meanwhile, the whole landscape is drenched in the red glow of the western sky, that also adds more beauty to the geese.
Snow geese, in winter, do everything in great masses, causing exciting, inspiring spectacles. They rest together on rivers and larger impoundments, feed in fields together and migrate in large hordes.
When both kinds of geese are full of corn kernels and/or green blades of winter rye, they come back to the ponds, again group after noisy group. They sweep low over the water and descend into the wind for flight control, each one's reflection racing through the water to meet it at impact.
In the middle of January, when the weather was very cold for a few days, the shallow ponds froze. The snow geese and many each of the swans, Canada geese and ducks left Blackwater. The swans and ducks couldn't consume aquatic vegetation. But when the weather warmed and the water thawed, the swans, ducks and Canada geese returned to the refuge. The snow geese, however, did not come back. Snow geese are notorious for being unpredictable and shifting around a lot. They feed in such large masses that they soon clean out most edibles from a field or marsh and have to move on to another feeding place, and another, and another, almost everyday through winter.
I was thrilled to see so many pintail ducks on the twin ponds of Blackwater Refuge. I haven't seen so many of those handsome ducks in several years. And they are an interesting species because of their winter and early-spring courtship flights. A few drakes gather around a female pintail and take turns raising up in a bow, then raising their rears a bit. At some point, the hen takes off in speedy flight over a pond or marsh, and surrounding land, with all suitors following closely along. The whole little group sweeps high and low in dashing flight and its said that the male who keeps up with her best becomes her mate. Pintails present a show that should be enjoyed when and where one can.
In spite of the numbers of snow geese when they were at Blackwater and the majesty of tundra swans, the stately Canada geese ultimately dominated the refuge. They remained there the longest in the largest numbers, with lusty bugling to match their magnificent bearing.
By late January, the ponds were full of ducks, mostly pintails, Canada geese and tundra swans. At that time, I stopped watching Blackwater on our computer. Now I am waiting for spring activities at that refuge on Maryland's Eastern Shore.
Monday, January 28, 2019
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
Winter Jetties, Mussels and Birds
Jetties of boulders, fishing dock pilings and stone sea walls are recent, human-made habitats along the shores of oceans, including the North Atlantic of North America. These structures are like rocky, ocean shorelines in that aquatic vegetation, (seaweed of various kinds) multitudes of blue mussels and other sea invertebrates live on them where ocean breakers regularly crash and splash. Jetties, extending up to a few hundred yards into the ocean, were built to retain sand on public, recreational beaches. New Jersey has several rock jetties that protect its money-making beaches.
Masses of blue mussels cling on to and colonize the hard surfaces of pilings, seawalls and jetties. Those dark-shelled, oblong members of the mollusk family are packed tight on the boulders. And those mussels are an important food source, either directly or indirectly, for several kinds of handsome, wintering waterfowl and shorebirds.
At least nine kinds of sea ducks, all of them attractive in appearance, consume blue mussels on jetties, including long-tailed and harlequin ducks, two types of eider ducks, three species of scoters, greater scaups and American goldeneyes. All these species raise young in northern Canada and Alaska, but winter along sea coasts. And they all ingest blue mussels from jetties at some time or another in winter. A field guide to North American birds will illustrate how beautiful these duck species are and where they rear offspring.
Long-tailed ducks are so-named because each handsome drake has a couple of long tail feathers. Small groups of long-tails fly swiftly in low, picturesque lines where breakers rise from the ocean, fall over with a crash and sweep up the beaches. The strong-swimming long-tails dive under water from the surface to tear mussels off the wave-battered jetties with their tough beaks, backed by powerful muscles.
Harlequin ducks nest along swiftly-flowing streams in Canada. Both adults and ducklings swim and walk along the bottom of those waterways to eat a variety of invertebrates. This attractive species probably is the most typical one along rock jetties. Harlequins, too, dive under water to rip mussels from the water-washed boulders.
Elegant common eider ducks and king eiders occasionally feed on blue mussels on jetties, but not as regularly as long-tails and harlequins. These two species generally winter farther out in the oceans where they dive for mollusks and crustaceans.
The three, closely-related scoter species are mostly black, with other colors that identify them. Black scoters usually winter along breakers and jetties and dive for mussels, but their close relatives, the surf and white-winged scoters, generally spend winters where estuaries flow slowly into oceans. However, surf and white-wings will also ingest blue mussels off jetties at times by diving under water after them.
Greater scaups are members of the bay duck family. But certain individuals of this species also dive under water to feed on blue mussels on jetties, adding more diversity to this group of mussel-eating sea ducks.
Many American goldeneye ducks winter on the Susquehanna River and other rivers. But some of them winter near the shores of inlets and bays, and the ocean, where they dive for aquatic crustaaceans, mollusks and insects on the bottoms of large waters. Therefore, some goldeneyes dive for mussels on jetties. This species is often called "whistling ducks" because its wings whistle loudly when the birds are in flight.
Brant are a species of attractive, small goose that feed, in little groups, on plants along the shores of bays, inlets and oceans during winter. Some individuals of this interesting species, while floating, bobbing and swimming in the wave-tossed water beside jetties, sometimes feed on the vegetation growing on those ocean-washed lines of human-placed boulders jutting into the ocean breakers. Brant, by the way, are most attractive when flying in small groups low over bodies of salt and brackish water close to shorelines.
Purple sandpipers and ruddy turnstones are species of dark shorebirds that regularly winter on rock jetties, the sandpipers exclusively so. There individuals and little groups of these species feed on small, aquatic invertebrates that shelter among the mussels and vegetation. The dark feathering of these bird species camouflage them among the rocks, which helps conceal them from the good vision of peregrine falcons wandering along the seacoast.
Though devout beachcombers for edible tidbits washed onto the beaches by ocean waves, some sanderlings, which are a light-gray and white kind of sandpiper, feed on invertebrates among the mussels and seaweed on jetties. Sanderlings might give purple sandpipers and turnstones a bit of competition for invertebrates on jetties, but the former species isn't often on jetties.
Occasionally a few American oystercatchers eat some blue mussels on jetties. This is a pigeon-sized bird on stilts. This handsome species is black on top, white below and has a long, thin, blood-red beak. They use their bills to pry open mollusk shells to eat the body inside.
Rock jetties are intriguing, human-made habitats that benefit several kinds of feeding birds in winter. Some species consume the mussels, brant ingest aquatic plants and shorebirds eat small invertebrates sheltering among the mussels and vegetation. And we can experience some of these birds, if we are along jetties in winter.
Masses of blue mussels cling on to and colonize the hard surfaces of pilings, seawalls and jetties. Those dark-shelled, oblong members of the mollusk family are packed tight on the boulders. And those mussels are an important food source, either directly or indirectly, for several kinds of handsome, wintering waterfowl and shorebirds.
At least nine kinds of sea ducks, all of them attractive in appearance, consume blue mussels on jetties, including long-tailed and harlequin ducks, two types of eider ducks, three species of scoters, greater scaups and American goldeneyes. All these species raise young in northern Canada and Alaska, but winter along sea coasts. And they all ingest blue mussels from jetties at some time or another in winter. A field guide to North American birds will illustrate how beautiful these duck species are and where they rear offspring.
Long-tailed ducks are so-named because each handsome drake has a couple of long tail feathers. Small groups of long-tails fly swiftly in low, picturesque lines where breakers rise from the ocean, fall over with a crash and sweep up the beaches. The strong-swimming long-tails dive under water from the surface to tear mussels off the wave-battered jetties with their tough beaks, backed by powerful muscles.
Harlequin ducks nest along swiftly-flowing streams in Canada. Both adults and ducklings swim and walk along the bottom of those waterways to eat a variety of invertebrates. This attractive species probably is the most typical one along rock jetties. Harlequins, too, dive under water to rip mussels from the water-washed boulders.
Elegant common eider ducks and king eiders occasionally feed on blue mussels on jetties, but not as regularly as long-tails and harlequins. These two species generally winter farther out in the oceans where they dive for mollusks and crustaceans.
The three, closely-related scoter species are mostly black, with other colors that identify them. Black scoters usually winter along breakers and jetties and dive for mussels, but their close relatives, the surf and white-winged scoters, generally spend winters where estuaries flow slowly into oceans. However, surf and white-wings will also ingest blue mussels off jetties at times by diving under water after them.
Greater scaups are members of the bay duck family. But certain individuals of this species also dive under water to feed on blue mussels on jetties, adding more diversity to this group of mussel-eating sea ducks.
Many American goldeneye ducks winter on the Susquehanna River and other rivers. But some of them winter near the shores of inlets and bays, and the ocean, where they dive for aquatic crustaaceans, mollusks and insects on the bottoms of large waters. Therefore, some goldeneyes dive for mussels on jetties. This species is often called "whistling ducks" because its wings whistle loudly when the birds are in flight.
Brant are a species of attractive, small goose that feed, in little groups, on plants along the shores of bays, inlets and oceans during winter. Some individuals of this interesting species, while floating, bobbing and swimming in the wave-tossed water beside jetties, sometimes feed on the vegetation growing on those ocean-washed lines of human-placed boulders jutting into the ocean breakers. Brant, by the way, are most attractive when flying in small groups low over bodies of salt and brackish water close to shorelines.
Purple sandpipers and ruddy turnstones are species of dark shorebirds that regularly winter on rock jetties, the sandpipers exclusively so. There individuals and little groups of these species feed on small, aquatic invertebrates that shelter among the mussels and vegetation. The dark feathering of these bird species camouflage them among the rocks, which helps conceal them from the good vision of peregrine falcons wandering along the seacoast.
Though devout beachcombers for edible tidbits washed onto the beaches by ocean waves, some sanderlings, which are a light-gray and white kind of sandpiper, feed on invertebrates among the mussels and seaweed on jetties. Sanderlings might give purple sandpipers and turnstones a bit of competition for invertebrates on jetties, but the former species isn't often on jetties.
Occasionally a few American oystercatchers eat some blue mussels on jetties. This is a pigeon-sized bird on stilts. This handsome species is black on top, white below and has a long, thin, blood-red beak. They use their bills to pry open mollusk shells to eat the body inside.
Rock jetties are intriguing, human-made habitats that benefit several kinds of feeding birds in winter. Some species consume the mussels, brant ingest aquatic plants and shorebirds eat small invertebrates sheltering among the mussels and vegetation. And we can experience some of these birds, if we are along jetties in winter.
Saturday, January 19, 2019
Wintering Coastal Shorebirds
In winter over the years, I have gone to the Atlantic Ocean coast in New Jersey many times to see what birds winter on the sandy beaches, rock jetties and salt marsh mud flats. I 've seen a small variety of gulls on the beaches and jetties and clapper rails and more gulls on the flats. But my main interest has been the intriguing, little shorebirds that nest in the Arctic and winter in specific niches in those shoreline habitats, including sanderlings on beaches, purple sandpipers and ruddy turnstones on jetties and dunlin on flats.
Beaches, jetties and mud flats are all open habitats with little, if any, vegetation. But shorebirds have long ago adapted to those "barren" environments to spend winters searching for invertebrate food, with a minimum of competition for it. Shorebirds exploit natural and human-made niches that few other species of birds will.
These shorebirds escape the attention of peregrines and merlins, both bird-catching falcons, by blending into their open surroundings. Sanderlings are light-gray and white, which camouflages them on beaches. Purple sandpipers and turnstones are mostly darkly feathered, which makes them nearly invisible on jetties. And dunlin are mostly dull-brown on top, which camouflages them on mud. But if those falcons see through the shorebirds' camouflage and dive on them, the shorebirds take wing in speedy, erratic flight to avoid being caught by those swift hawks.
All these little shorebirds depend on the actions of the ocean to get their invertebrate food. Wind-pushed waves, washing up the beaches, bring in various organisms that little gatherings of sanderlings, which are a kind of sandpiper, pick up with their beaks and consume as the water slides down the beach again because of gravity. It is entertaining and amusing to see these little sandpipers running up the beaches on their black legs as fast as they can before incoming wavelets, then running down the beaches after the receding water and picking up invertebrates as they go. This they do most all day, every day through winter.
It's equally intriguing to see congregations of sanderlings flying low along beaches and breakers to a new feeding spot on a beach. They race a few feet above the water and sand, turning this way and that in unison, then abruptly pitch down to a beach to feed on invertebrates and other tidbits washed in by the incoming wavelets.
Jetties are human-made lines of boulders extending a couple hundred yards into the ocean. Their purpose is to protect the sandy beaches from being washed away by the power of waves, or breakers, as their called.
Purple sandpipers and ruddy turnstones have long adapted to wintering along rocky shorelines. There blue mussels and a few types of green vegetation flourish, which offer living space to a variety of small invertebrates, as on naturally rocky coasts.
These jetties give small, scattered groups of purple sandpipers and turnstones more feeding space in winter. They ingest invertebrates living among the mussels and plants, and eat tiny edibles that get dumped on the boulders by waves and lodged between the mussels and vegetation.
When the tide goes out salt marsh channels to the ocean because of the moon's gravity, flocks of wintering dunlin, which are a kind of small sandpiper, walk along the exposed mud flats in salt marshes to get invertebrate food sheltering in the mud. They poke their bills into the mud to pull out invertebrates until the tide of water comes back up the channels into the marsh, covering the flats. Occasionally, the dunlin will take flight in one big flock, swirl over the salt marshes a few times, which is exciting too see, then land on the flats again and immediately begin feeding.
Each of these interesting shorebird species, wintering along the Atlantic Coastline, has its own niche for gathering food, with a minimum of competition. And each kind is a joy to watch along the seashore in winter.
Beaches, jetties and mud flats are all open habitats with little, if any, vegetation. But shorebirds have long ago adapted to those "barren" environments to spend winters searching for invertebrate food, with a minimum of competition for it. Shorebirds exploit natural and human-made niches that few other species of birds will.
These shorebirds escape the attention of peregrines and merlins, both bird-catching falcons, by blending into their open surroundings. Sanderlings are light-gray and white, which camouflages them on beaches. Purple sandpipers and turnstones are mostly darkly feathered, which makes them nearly invisible on jetties. And dunlin are mostly dull-brown on top, which camouflages them on mud. But if those falcons see through the shorebirds' camouflage and dive on them, the shorebirds take wing in speedy, erratic flight to avoid being caught by those swift hawks.
All these little shorebirds depend on the actions of the ocean to get their invertebrate food. Wind-pushed waves, washing up the beaches, bring in various organisms that little gatherings of sanderlings, which are a kind of sandpiper, pick up with their beaks and consume as the water slides down the beach again because of gravity. It is entertaining and amusing to see these little sandpipers running up the beaches on their black legs as fast as they can before incoming wavelets, then running down the beaches after the receding water and picking up invertebrates as they go. This they do most all day, every day through winter.
It's equally intriguing to see congregations of sanderlings flying low along beaches and breakers to a new feeding spot on a beach. They race a few feet above the water and sand, turning this way and that in unison, then abruptly pitch down to a beach to feed on invertebrates and other tidbits washed in by the incoming wavelets.
Jetties are human-made lines of boulders extending a couple hundred yards into the ocean. Their purpose is to protect the sandy beaches from being washed away by the power of waves, or breakers, as their called.
Purple sandpipers and ruddy turnstones have long adapted to wintering along rocky shorelines. There blue mussels and a few types of green vegetation flourish, which offer living space to a variety of small invertebrates, as on naturally rocky coasts.
These jetties give small, scattered groups of purple sandpipers and turnstones more feeding space in winter. They ingest invertebrates living among the mussels and plants, and eat tiny edibles that get dumped on the boulders by waves and lodged between the mussels and vegetation.
When the tide goes out salt marsh channels to the ocean because of the moon's gravity, flocks of wintering dunlin, which are a kind of small sandpiper, walk along the exposed mud flats in salt marshes to get invertebrate food sheltering in the mud. They poke their bills into the mud to pull out invertebrates until the tide of water comes back up the channels into the marsh, covering the flats. Occasionally, the dunlin will take flight in one big flock, swirl over the salt marshes a few times, which is exciting too see, then land on the flats again and immediately begin feeding.
Each of these interesting shorebird species, wintering along the Atlantic Coastline, has its own niche for gathering food, with a minimum of competition. And each kind is a joy to watch along the seashore in winter.
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Farmland Eagles
For a couple of hours one afternoon in the latter half of December, 2018, I saw eleven majestic bald eagles, both adults and immatures, perched like musical notes on a page, in a row of tall, leafless deciduous trees in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania farmland. The eagles had been feeding on dead chickens or turkeys that were discarded in a nearby field, but were resting and digesting when I spotted them in the trees. Though I have seen bald eagles many times soaring elegantly over farmland in southeastern Pennsylvania, it's still a thrill to see those handsome predators/scavengers in that human-made habitat where they are not expected to be. Their being in a variety of habitats, natural and human-made, demonstrates that bald eagles are adaptable, a trait that makes any species of living being successful on this planet.
I have seen many wintering bald eagles scavenging dead farm animals in Lancaster County fields. And I have even seen them feeding on wildlife killed on local country roads. Fortunately, those stately birds rise before oncoming vehicles.
Though predators on larger fish and other creatures, bald eagles, as scavengers, compete with turkey vultures, black vultures, red-tailed hawks and American crows for dead animals in fields and on roads. Eagles generally have the size and power to chase away the other kinds of scavengers as they feed on a dead animal. Often I will see vultures and red-tails either perched on the ground or soaring as they wait their turn at a carcass a bald eagle is feeding on.
Cropland in southeastern Pennsylvania is a medley of meadows, fields of crops, hedgerows of trees, shrubbery and weeds between fields, woodlots, and streams and creeks. And adaptable farmland balds find prey in all those habitats.
Bald eagles, as a species, are usually thought of as living along rivers and estuaries, and they do, in winter, and during summer as nesting pairs and their young. Scores and scores of balds winter along the Susquehanna River, particularly at Conewingo and Safe Harbor Dams where turbulence caused by water falling through turbines and into the river downstream from the dams keeps the water open. There eagles, herons, mergansers and gulls can still catch fish.
Several pairs of balds nest in trees along the Susquehanna as well. There they catch fish from the river, and other creatures, to feed their young.
But many other individuals and mated pairs of bald eagles live year around and nest in farmland, usurping or building large stick nests high in tall trees in certain fields and pastures, some of them near streams. Many of the stick nurseries bald eagles take over were originally made by red-tailed hawks, American crows, great blue herons and other kinds of larger birds adapted to cropland. The eagles enlarge those cradles to suit themselves.
The magnificent bald eagles have been and are spotted most anywhere and anytime, year around, in southeastern Pennsylvania farmland in recent years. During many of my field trips in local farmland, I see an eagle or two. Because some bald eagles live and nest in cropland, their species has gained nesting sites, food resources and populations. As a species, balds are no longer restricted to rivers and estuaries to live and reproduce.
I have seen many bald eagle nests in farmland in Lancaster County through several recent years, some of which are no longer in use. Balds tend to move to other nest sites through the years, perhaps as prey critters become scarce at a site used for a few or several years. Some of the huge, stick cradles I've seen are in lone trees in fields, in large sycamore trees along streams in meadows, and a couple in small woodlots surrounded by cropland. A bald eagle nest located in a woodlot outside Hanover in York County, Pennsylvania can be seen on the internet. Woodlots, fields and Lake Marburg surround that eagle nest site.
Bald eagles have made a great comeback in recent years, including here in southeastern Pennsylvania, because of the ban on the use of DDT, full protection of raptors, and the eagles' own ability to adapt to a variety of habitats. We can now enjoy the presence of these great birds almost anyplace, anytime of year. Bald eagles are another bit of magnificent, adaptable wildness in human-controlled farmland.
I have seen many wintering bald eagles scavenging dead farm animals in Lancaster County fields. And I have even seen them feeding on wildlife killed on local country roads. Fortunately, those stately birds rise before oncoming vehicles.
Though predators on larger fish and other creatures, bald eagles, as scavengers, compete with turkey vultures, black vultures, red-tailed hawks and American crows for dead animals in fields and on roads. Eagles generally have the size and power to chase away the other kinds of scavengers as they feed on a dead animal. Often I will see vultures and red-tails either perched on the ground or soaring as they wait their turn at a carcass a bald eagle is feeding on.
Cropland in southeastern Pennsylvania is a medley of meadows, fields of crops, hedgerows of trees, shrubbery and weeds between fields, woodlots, and streams and creeks. And adaptable farmland balds find prey in all those habitats.
Bald eagles, as a species, are usually thought of as living along rivers and estuaries, and they do, in winter, and during summer as nesting pairs and their young. Scores and scores of balds winter along the Susquehanna River, particularly at Conewingo and Safe Harbor Dams where turbulence caused by water falling through turbines and into the river downstream from the dams keeps the water open. There eagles, herons, mergansers and gulls can still catch fish.
Several pairs of balds nest in trees along the Susquehanna as well. There they catch fish from the river, and other creatures, to feed their young.
But many other individuals and mated pairs of bald eagles live year around and nest in farmland, usurping or building large stick nests high in tall trees in certain fields and pastures, some of them near streams. Many of the stick nurseries bald eagles take over were originally made by red-tailed hawks, American crows, great blue herons and other kinds of larger birds adapted to cropland. The eagles enlarge those cradles to suit themselves.
The magnificent bald eagles have been and are spotted most anywhere and anytime, year around, in southeastern Pennsylvania farmland in recent years. During many of my field trips in local farmland, I see an eagle or two. Because some bald eagles live and nest in cropland, their species has gained nesting sites, food resources and populations. As a species, balds are no longer restricted to rivers and estuaries to live and reproduce.
I have seen many bald eagle nests in farmland in Lancaster County through several recent years, some of which are no longer in use. Balds tend to move to other nest sites through the years, perhaps as prey critters become scarce at a site used for a few or several years. Some of the huge, stick cradles I've seen are in lone trees in fields, in large sycamore trees along streams in meadows, and a couple in small woodlots surrounded by cropland. A bald eagle nest located in a woodlot outside Hanover in York County, Pennsylvania can be seen on the internet. Woodlots, fields and Lake Marburg surround that eagle nest site.
Bald eagles have made a great comeback in recent years, including here in southeastern Pennsylvania, because of the ban on the use of DDT, full protection of raptors, and the eagles' own ability to adapt to a variety of habitats. We can now enjoy the presence of these great birds almost anyplace, anytime of year. Bald eagles are another bit of magnificent, adaptable wildness in human-controlled farmland.
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
Beauties of Winter Trees
Some days in winter, when driving here and there in southeastern Pennsylvania, I don't see many birds or mammals. It is then I concentrate on the beauties of deciduous and coniferous trees.
In winter, when they are bare, one can easily see that deciduous trees are sun worshippers; their stately limbs are held aloft as if in praise of the sun, which powers green chlorophyll in leaves so they make food for the trees' lives and growth. Delicate twigs on those branches also reach upward to get their leaves into as much sunlight as possible. And trunks of deciduous trees are solid pillars of strength that support the trees' upright weight to get sunshine. Some of those limbs and trunks are gnarled, adding esthetic beauty to the pragmatic trees.
Each kind of deciduous tree has its own majestic shape, which adds to its beauty, and helps us identify the various species. Tulip trees grow straight up and have trunk shapes like roadside poles. Flowering dogwood trees have short trunks and gnarled limbs.
Some deciduous trees have interesting, even pretty bark, which is most easily seen in winter. The bark of American beeches is gray and smooth. River birches have thin bark that peels off in papery curls. Sycamore bark is patched dark and lighter, while the bark of shagbark hickories peels off in large, vertical slabs, making hickories look quite rustic.
Some older deciduous trees, including American beeches, sugar maples, white oaks and sycamores, are massive. Young saplings, on the other hand, are thin and flexible. But all stages of growth in these trees are attractive in their own ways.
Some deciduous trees bear pretty nuts, fruit or berries through winter. Many nuts are consumed by white-tailed deer, wild turkeys, blue jays, deer mice and a few kinds of squirrels. Some fruits and berries are eaten by a variety of birds and mammals, including American robins, cedar waxwings, white-tailed deer, red foxes, deer mice and other species. Crab apple trees bear fruits, while hackberry trees, black gum trees and American hollies have berries on them most of each winter.
Many of the big, older deciduous trees have hollows where wind ripped limbs from their trunks, or woodpeckers chiseled out nesting cavities. A host of birds and mammals, including screech owls, barred owls, American kestrels, raccoons, opossums, a small variety of squirrels and deer mice use those holes as shelters, and to raise young. I have seen many screech owls dozing in the entrances to hollows during winter days through the years.
Rows and stands of coniferous trees mark the presence of suburban areas in southeastern Pennsylvania. This part of the state has some wild eastern hemlock trees in wooded, cool ravines, some white and pitch pines on wooded hill tops and red junipers on the shoulders of expressways.
But most conifers here are planted northern white cedars, Norway spruces, white pines, eastern hemlocks and blue spruces, in that arbitrary order of abundance on lawns. They are all commonly planted for their evergreen beauty, magnificent shapes and as wind breaks.
I would also recommend planting more red junipers on lawns. They are hardy, attractive and produce lovely, pale-blue, berry-like cones that mice and berry-eating birds like to eat in winter.
Conifers grow differently than deciduous trees. Their needles cling to their twigs through each winter, making these trees, seemingly, forever green. And conifers are cone-shaped, with the point on top of each tree. Lower limbs on evergreens are older and had more time to grow outward than younger limbs near the tops of conifers.
Most evergreen trees have decorative, biege-colored cones, each one of which produces winged seeds. The seeds fall out of the mature and opening cones and flutter away on the wind. Many of those seeds, however, are eaten by mice and a variety of small birds, including two kinds of chickadees, American goldfinches, pine siskins and two species of crossbills. Crossbills have crossed mandibles on their beaks that allow those birds to more easily pry open the scales of the cones and extract the seeds with their sticky tongues.
Red-tailed and Cooper's hawks, mourning doves and dark-eyed juncos are some of the birds that shelter in conifers each night through winter. And great horned owls, long-eared owls and saw-whet owls roost in them by day, because of conifers' breaking the force of wind.
The beauties of deciduous and coniferous trees are enhanced by sunsets and sunrises, moonlight or artificial, outdoor lights that illuminate cloud covers. Every twig, limb and trunk of bare deciduous trees is silhouetted black against the illuminated sky. And each pyramidal shape of conifers is a solid, dark mass against the same lightings in the sky. These are beauties like no others.
Snow, ice and frost also enhances the beauties of both these major kinds of trees. Wet snow clings to each needle, twig and branch, outlining their lengths. That heavy snow pushes evergreen boughs down tight against each other, making better wind breaks for birds.
Freezing rain coats every bit of the trees with ice that glitters more than jewelry when the sun "comes out". And frost makes every twig or needle white in what looks like thin layers of downy, white fluff.
During succeeding days after a storm, the snow, ice or frost on deciduous and coniferous trees melts in the afternoons and freezes again during nights, causing icicles that gradually get longer and longer on those trees as the days go by. Those translucent icicles are also quite decorative on the trees until they melt completely off.
Deciduous and coniferous trees have many beauties in winter, both in themselves, and in the elements and wildlife around them. One can see some of those beauties anytime in winter, just by keeping an eye out for the possibilities.
In winter, when they are bare, one can easily see that deciduous trees are sun worshippers; their stately limbs are held aloft as if in praise of the sun, which powers green chlorophyll in leaves so they make food for the trees' lives and growth. Delicate twigs on those branches also reach upward to get their leaves into as much sunlight as possible. And trunks of deciduous trees are solid pillars of strength that support the trees' upright weight to get sunshine. Some of those limbs and trunks are gnarled, adding esthetic beauty to the pragmatic trees.
Each kind of deciduous tree has its own majestic shape, which adds to its beauty, and helps us identify the various species. Tulip trees grow straight up and have trunk shapes like roadside poles. Flowering dogwood trees have short trunks and gnarled limbs.
Some deciduous trees have interesting, even pretty bark, which is most easily seen in winter. The bark of American beeches is gray and smooth. River birches have thin bark that peels off in papery curls. Sycamore bark is patched dark and lighter, while the bark of shagbark hickories peels off in large, vertical slabs, making hickories look quite rustic.
Some older deciduous trees, including American beeches, sugar maples, white oaks and sycamores, are massive. Young saplings, on the other hand, are thin and flexible. But all stages of growth in these trees are attractive in their own ways.
Some deciduous trees bear pretty nuts, fruit or berries through winter. Many nuts are consumed by white-tailed deer, wild turkeys, blue jays, deer mice and a few kinds of squirrels. Some fruits and berries are eaten by a variety of birds and mammals, including American robins, cedar waxwings, white-tailed deer, red foxes, deer mice and other species. Crab apple trees bear fruits, while hackberry trees, black gum trees and American hollies have berries on them most of each winter.
Many of the big, older deciduous trees have hollows where wind ripped limbs from their trunks, or woodpeckers chiseled out nesting cavities. A host of birds and mammals, including screech owls, barred owls, American kestrels, raccoons, opossums, a small variety of squirrels and deer mice use those holes as shelters, and to raise young. I have seen many screech owls dozing in the entrances to hollows during winter days through the years.
Rows and stands of coniferous trees mark the presence of suburban areas in southeastern Pennsylvania. This part of the state has some wild eastern hemlock trees in wooded, cool ravines, some white and pitch pines on wooded hill tops and red junipers on the shoulders of expressways.
But most conifers here are planted northern white cedars, Norway spruces, white pines, eastern hemlocks and blue spruces, in that arbitrary order of abundance on lawns. They are all commonly planted for their evergreen beauty, magnificent shapes and as wind breaks.
I would also recommend planting more red junipers on lawns. They are hardy, attractive and produce lovely, pale-blue, berry-like cones that mice and berry-eating birds like to eat in winter.
Conifers grow differently than deciduous trees. Their needles cling to their twigs through each winter, making these trees, seemingly, forever green. And conifers are cone-shaped, with the point on top of each tree. Lower limbs on evergreens are older and had more time to grow outward than younger limbs near the tops of conifers.
Most evergreen trees have decorative, biege-colored cones, each one of which produces winged seeds. The seeds fall out of the mature and opening cones and flutter away on the wind. Many of those seeds, however, are eaten by mice and a variety of small birds, including two kinds of chickadees, American goldfinches, pine siskins and two species of crossbills. Crossbills have crossed mandibles on their beaks that allow those birds to more easily pry open the scales of the cones and extract the seeds with their sticky tongues.
Red-tailed and Cooper's hawks, mourning doves and dark-eyed juncos are some of the birds that shelter in conifers each night through winter. And great horned owls, long-eared owls and saw-whet owls roost in them by day, because of conifers' breaking the force of wind.
The beauties of deciduous and coniferous trees are enhanced by sunsets and sunrises, moonlight or artificial, outdoor lights that illuminate cloud covers. Every twig, limb and trunk of bare deciduous trees is silhouetted black against the illuminated sky. And each pyramidal shape of conifers is a solid, dark mass against the same lightings in the sky. These are beauties like no others.
Snow, ice and frost also enhances the beauties of both these major kinds of trees. Wet snow clings to each needle, twig and branch, outlining their lengths. That heavy snow pushes evergreen boughs down tight against each other, making better wind breaks for birds.
Freezing rain coats every bit of the trees with ice that glitters more than jewelry when the sun "comes out". And frost makes every twig or needle white in what looks like thin layers of downy, white fluff.
During succeeding days after a storm, the snow, ice or frost on deciduous and coniferous trees melts in the afternoons and freezes again during nights, causing icicles that gradually get longer and longer on those trees as the days go by. Those translucent icicles are also quite decorative on the trees until they melt completely off.
Deciduous and coniferous trees have many beauties in winter, both in themselves, and in the elements and wildlife around them. One can see some of those beauties anytime in winter, just by keeping an eye out for the possibilities.
Saturday, January 5, 2019
Northern Finches in Winter
One winter day, many years ago, several redpolls, which are a kind of northern finch down from the high Arctic tundra where they nest, swarmed through a large sweet gum tree on my lawn in Neffsville, Pennsylvania. With binoculars, I saw that the redpolls were picking out and ingesting the tiny, dark seeds from the innumerable, bristly seed balls on that tree, and the seeds that peppered the snow below. Redpolls came this far south that winter because of a scarcity of seeds in the Far North.
Now that winter is here again, I've been looking for wintering northern finches, including two species of grosbeaks, pine siskins, purple finches, two kinds of crossbills and two species of redpolls, in southeastern Pennsylvania, so far to no avail. However, I have been seeing a few kinds of finches and grosbeaks at a feeder a bit north of Lake Superior in Ontario Canada via our computer.
All birds in the Fringillidae family have beautiful feathering, each kind in its own way. Look for them in field guides to American birds or on-line to see their coloring, shapes and sizes.
All these species of northern finches are small, lively and colorful. All prefer northern climates, and all, but the redpolls, live in mixed deciduous and coniferous forests in Canada, Alaska and the Rocky Mountains of the American west.
All these species winter in the north, unless their winter food supplies of berries, and seeds in coniferous cones, birch trees and grasses are scarce, then they drift south through that winter. Their migrations south, therefore are sporadic, and often irruptive.
Some winters, some of these northern finches make their ways to southeastern Pennsylvania in big numbers. I have seen seven of these northern species over the years, including evening grosbeaks, pine grosbeaks, siskins, purple finches, red crossbills, white-winged crossbills and common redpolls.
One winter in the 1970's, several striking, male and female evening grosbeaks came to bird feeders I maintained in a woodlot in southern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. I usually heard them before I saw them because they sounded much like the chirping of house sparrows and I knew there were no house sparrows around. Those marvelous evening grosbeaks were the highlights of the feeders that winter. These grosbeaks, incidentally hatch offspring in evergreen woods across Canada, Alaska and along the Rocky Mountains.
Several years ago, I saw a small group of pine grosbeaks in a thicket of small trees and shrubbery in farmland on a winter's day in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. The pretty pink males and gray females were eating berries from a multiflora rose bush in that thicket. Pine grosbeaks raise young in coniferous woods across Canada, Alaska and down the Rocky Mountains.
I have seen small flocks of pine siskins more frequently than the grosbeaks wintering here, but not every winter by any means. Siskins look like thin sparrows, are streaked, and have yellow in their wings and tails, which is especially visible when they fly. That act and feed much like American goldfinches, including their chirping notes and feeding on seeds in evergreen cones, particularly those of eastern hemlocks. Siskins rear youngsters in western Canada and the United States.
Purple finches are related to house finches, and come south more frequently than most of the other winter finches in eastern North America, but not every winter. Male purple finches' feathering appear to have been dipped into black raspberry juice. Females are brown and heavily streaked. This species nests in mixed boreal woods in southern Canada.
I have experienced flocks of both kinds of crossbills here in Lancaster County, but only once or twice per species. And both the red crossbills and the white-winged crossbills, when I saw them, were eating seeds from coniferous cones in planted patches of evergreens. These closely related species, by a genetic quirk that proved useful, have beak mandibles that cross one another, allowing easier harvesting of seeds from evergreen cones. The mandibles hold the cones open, while the crossbills' sticky tongues pull the seeds out from the scales.
Common redpolls and hoary redpolls are closely related birds that raise young on the Arctic tundra of northern Canada and Alaska. As already stated, I saw many common redpolls one winter, but I have never seen the less common hoary redpolls.
All these northern finches eat various kinds of seeds in winter. And all of them, except the closely related crossbills, come to feeders to eat seeds and grain. It's at the feeders we are most likely to see most kinds of northern finches because they leave their shelter to dine at the feeders. But with looking, and luck, we might spot some of these lovely northern birds wintering in the Middle Atlantic States, as elsewhere in North America.
Now that winter is here again, I've been looking for wintering northern finches, including two species of grosbeaks, pine siskins, purple finches, two kinds of crossbills and two species of redpolls, in southeastern Pennsylvania, so far to no avail. However, I have been seeing a few kinds of finches and grosbeaks at a feeder a bit north of Lake Superior in Ontario Canada via our computer.
All birds in the Fringillidae family have beautiful feathering, each kind in its own way. Look for them in field guides to American birds or on-line to see their coloring, shapes and sizes.
All these species of northern finches are small, lively and colorful. All prefer northern climates, and all, but the redpolls, live in mixed deciduous and coniferous forests in Canada, Alaska and the Rocky Mountains of the American west.
All these species winter in the north, unless their winter food supplies of berries, and seeds in coniferous cones, birch trees and grasses are scarce, then they drift south through that winter. Their migrations south, therefore are sporadic, and often irruptive.
Some winters, some of these northern finches make their ways to southeastern Pennsylvania in big numbers. I have seen seven of these northern species over the years, including evening grosbeaks, pine grosbeaks, siskins, purple finches, red crossbills, white-winged crossbills and common redpolls.
One winter in the 1970's, several striking, male and female evening grosbeaks came to bird feeders I maintained in a woodlot in southern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. I usually heard them before I saw them because they sounded much like the chirping of house sparrows and I knew there were no house sparrows around. Those marvelous evening grosbeaks were the highlights of the feeders that winter. These grosbeaks, incidentally hatch offspring in evergreen woods across Canada, Alaska and along the Rocky Mountains.
Several years ago, I saw a small group of pine grosbeaks in a thicket of small trees and shrubbery in farmland on a winter's day in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. The pretty pink males and gray females were eating berries from a multiflora rose bush in that thicket. Pine grosbeaks raise young in coniferous woods across Canada, Alaska and down the Rocky Mountains.
I have seen small flocks of pine siskins more frequently than the grosbeaks wintering here, but not every winter by any means. Siskins look like thin sparrows, are streaked, and have yellow in their wings and tails, which is especially visible when they fly. That act and feed much like American goldfinches, including their chirping notes and feeding on seeds in evergreen cones, particularly those of eastern hemlocks. Siskins rear youngsters in western Canada and the United States.
Purple finches are related to house finches, and come south more frequently than most of the other winter finches in eastern North America, but not every winter. Male purple finches' feathering appear to have been dipped into black raspberry juice. Females are brown and heavily streaked. This species nests in mixed boreal woods in southern Canada.
I have experienced flocks of both kinds of crossbills here in Lancaster County, but only once or twice per species. And both the red crossbills and the white-winged crossbills, when I saw them, were eating seeds from coniferous cones in planted patches of evergreens. These closely related species, by a genetic quirk that proved useful, have beak mandibles that cross one another, allowing easier harvesting of seeds from evergreen cones. The mandibles hold the cones open, while the crossbills' sticky tongues pull the seeds out from the scales.
Common redpolls and hoary redpolls are closely related birds that raise young on the Arctic tundra of northern Canada and Alaska. As already stated, I saw many common redpolls one winter, but I have never seen the less common hoary redpolls.
All these northern finches eat various kinds of seeds in winter. And all of them, except the closely related crossbills, come to feeders to eat seeds and grain. It's at the feeders we are most likely to see most kinds of northern finches because they leave their shelter to dine at the feeders. But with looking, and luck, we might spot some of these lovely northern birds wintering in the Middle Atlantic States, as elsewhere in North America.
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