Spring inches forward through mid-February and March, but suddenly explodes in the middle of April, because of increased daylight and warmth each succeeding day. On April 12th of this year, I drove through New Holland, Pennsylvania and in the surrounding farmland on errands, with an eye on what was happening in nature along the way. Readers in the Middle Atlantic States can see the same obvious, beautiful signs of the vernal season while riding through towns and countryside.
Driving through town, I noticed the short grass on lawns was getting greener and plants of several kinds were in full bloom, or soon will be. Red maple trees with red blossoms, Bradford pear trees that have white flowers and two kinds of magnolia trees were in bloom, as well as forsythia bushes with their yellow blossoms. The purple flowers of grape hyacinth plants and the yellow of daffodil blooms were obvious in flower beds. And the light-blue patches of tiny Veronica flowers on prostrate plants, pink blooms on dead nettles, yellow dandelion blossoms and the lovely blue-violet of blue violet blooms dotted and sprinkled many short-grass lawns.
I also saw several pretty American robins, one or two here and there, on lawns as they searched for earthworms and other kinds of invertebrates to eat. One robin had dead grass poking out of each side of her beak because she was making a nursery in a fork of a nearby, young tree.
And I noticed several common grackles in little groups walking across lawns in their looking for invertebrates to consume. One grackle had dried grass in her bill as she walked about to get more.
Driving through cropland around New Holland, I noticed rye was getting taller and greener in the fields, freshening the landscape. I also saw great carpets of pale-blue Veronica flowers and pink dead nettles on the mostly bare soil of harvested corn fields from last year. And the yellow flowers of dandelions and field mustards were blooming along the shoulders of those rural roads. All those blossoms together offer much beauty and cheer to Lancaster County cropland in April.
I stopped at a meadow where I saw a few each of beautiful barn swallows and tree swallows careening low and swiftly over the short grass and creek in that pasture after flying insects to ingest. Watching the entertaining swallows, I thought "hurray, the swallows are back for another summer breeding season". Barn swallows will hatch young on support beams in barns and under bridges and tree swallows will raise offspring in tree hollows, and boxes erected for them and bluebirds to nest in. A few each of robins and red-winged blackbirds were in the short grass of that same pasture in search of invertebrates to eat. Male red-wings are jet black with red shoulder patches they lift when singing to establish nesting territories and mates. Female red-wings are brown and dark-streaked, which camouflages them on their cradles while incubating eggs.
I saw a pair of striking wood ducks hiding under tree limbs hanging over the water in that section of creek lined by a patch of tall, riparian trees. Those ducks may have been taking a break from looking for a tree cavity in a sycamore tree or ash-leafed maple tree, the latter one being loaded with silky,decorative tassels (pollen-producing, male flowers). Or the woodies might select a nesting box erected by interested farmers. Both sites are used by female woodies to hatch ducklings.
Driving on, I came to a quarter-acre pond and shallow puddles in another meadow in farmland. Right away I spotted a dozen stately Canada geese grazing on tender, short grass. And one goose was setting on eggs in a grassy nest on one bank of the pond.
And I immediately saw two dozen or more common grackles in this pasture around the pond and puddles. The grackles were looking for invertebrates among the short grass and around the shallows in that meadow. I spotted one grackle gathering dried grass in her bill to make a nest, presumably in one of a circle of twelve, half-grown Scotch pines planted around the pond. Without doubt, other female grackles will soon be doing the same.
Other kinds of critters were around that pond in a meadow. A pair of fish crows called to each other while I was there. Perhaps, they will raise young in a stick cradle in a Scotch pine.
And I spotted four painted turtles sunning themselves on a bank of the pond. The air lately as been warm enough for these cold-blooded creatures to be active again after a winter's dormancy.
I drove by a strip of riparian trees on a floodplain, prone to occasional flooding, along another creek near New Holland. As always, at this time of year, the floor of that bottomland woods was covered with the striking, bright-yellow of lesser celandine blooms. And I noticed that patches of garlic mustard plants and stinging nettle were already covering the woodland floor where the celandine was not. All those floor plants and the roots of the trees help prevent soil erosion on those floodplains.
Spring explodes in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania by the middle of April. It was a joy, as always, to be in nature and see its beauties and intrigues among human habitats and activities.
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