For a few hours one afternoon in the middle of August of this year, I visited a few hay fields of red clover and alfalfa that were blooming together in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania farmland. Each field was of several acres in size and alive with migrant groups of barn swallows and tree swallows careening overhead after flying insects to grab with their mouths in mid-air and consume. Meanwhile, swarms of fluttering yellow sulphur butterflies sipped nectar from the innumerable lovely flowers.
The red clover blooms were pink while those of alfalfa were deep-purple and fragrant. Those blossoms projected much beauty in themselves. And the numerous yellow sulphurs added to that loveliness.
July, August and September are the months of insects in southeastern Pennsylvania, including butterflies of several kinds. Besides the numerous "dancing"yellow sulphurs in the hayfields I visited, there were several each of other kinds of pretty butterflies, including least skippers, silver-spotted skippers, meadow fritallaries, buckeyes, cabbage whites, three species of swallowtails, painted ladies and monarchs. Those types of butterflies were sipping nectar in those red clover and alfalfa fields because as caterpillars they ate other kinds of plants in nearby habitats. For example, least skipper larvae ingested grasses. Silver spotted skipper caterpillars ate soybean leaves in neighboring fields. Fritallary larvae consumed violet leaves while black swallowtail caterpillars ate parsley and wild carrot foliage. And monarch larvae fed on milkweed leaves.
I spotted other kinds of insects in those same hay fields, including a few each of lady bug beetles and Colorado potato beetles, and several each of bumble bees and carpenter bees. The bees were busily buzzing among the lovely flowers to sip nectar, while lady bug beetles were consuming tiny insects in the hay fields.
I also noticed several grasshoppers of a few kinds, either leaping out of my way as I walked through the red clover and alfalfa, or flying low on buzzy wings over the vegetation and crash landing among other plants to hide. Being camouflaged among the hay plants and tall grasses, I didn't see the grasshoppers until they moved.
And I saw a few dark field crickets hopping over the ground at the bases of the hay field plants.
I had to look for the crickets by pushing the tall vegetation aside and peering down to the ground.
The related grasshoppers and crickets both consume the grasses and other plants in the hay fields.
Many grasshoppers and crickets are food for striped skunks, red foxes and American kestrels that live in Lancaster County cropland. Some skunks and foxes live in holes dug out by wood chucks in hedgerows and rural roadsides, and then abandoned. Kestrels live in tree hollows in those same hedgerows and roadsides.
Wood chucks, white-tailed deer and cottontail rabbits emerge from sheltering hedgerows and woodland edges to munch on red clover and alfalfa in neighboring fields. Sometimes, I am happy to see more than one individual of each species nibbling plants in those hay fields during lovely summer evenings.
Try to visit red clover and alfalfa fields while they are in flowers and before they are mowed for hay. The beauties of the blossoms and the intrigues of the wildlife are rewarding and exciting because those hay fields are human-made habitats that adaptable plants and animals have adjusted to, much to their survival, and our pleasure in experiencing them.
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Thursday, August 15, 2019
Mill Creek Life in August
For a couple of hours in the afternoon of August 14, 2019, I visited one of my favorite nature spots, close to home, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania's farmland. The "spot" is an overgrown, quarter-mile long, 20 yards wide strip of young ash-leafed maples, silver maples and black walnuts, red-twigged and gray-twigged dogwood shrubbery, tall grass and flowering plants. That beautiful, overgrown thicket of vegetation is bisected by a clear, running stream and closely paralleled by a country road.
My nature snooping that day became one of summer and fall wild flowers, butterflies and aquatic creatures, all of which are typical here at this time of year.
Some of the stream-side flowers in bloom that day included lots of orange, cornocopia-shaped blooms on spotted jewelweeds, some great lobelias with dark blue blossoms, pink-flowered swamp milkweeds, the bluish-purple blossoms of blue vervains, the streamside hugging arrowhead plants with white flowers and wild mints with tiny, pale-purple blossoms. One swamp milkweed plant was especially interesting because up to four monarch butterflies visited it at once to at least sip nectar. Perhaps a female or two was also laying eggs, one at a time, on the milkweed's leaves. The branching stems of the blue vervains resembled candlabras. And several lovely, dark and rusty-red digger wasps were busily sipping nectar from the mint blossoms, pollinating them as well.
There were other kinds of butterflies visiting those stream-side flowers that day, including spicebush swallowtails, big, yellow and black tiger swallowtails, fritillaries, silver-spotted skippers, least skippers, cabbage whites and yellow suphurs. Those butterflies, constantly fluttering from bloom to bloom, added lots of beauty and entertainment to the flowering plants along Mill Creek.
I soon turned my attention to Mill Creek by sitting in an eight yard "window" composed of short grass in a dense, green wall of young trees and tall shrubbery. That window of short vegetation allowed a view of Mill Creek.
There the creek was shallow, clear and about fourteen feet across. Using 16 power binoculars, I saw a couple of small schools of banded killifish swimming upstream as they watched for tiny invertebrates to eat. I also saw three carp, each about a foot long, groveling upstream for plant and invertebrate food in the mud on the bottom of the waterway. Both kinds of fish blended into the bottom of the stream, which made them hard to see without binoculars, but, of course, that protects them from bald eagles, ospreys, herons and other kinds of predators.
While watching the fish with binoculars, I suddenly noticed two submerged mud turtles half-hidden under a leafy limb in a slower-moving part of the creek. They were walking on the bottom of the waterway, perhaps looking for invertebrate and plant food. I was surprised to see them because I didn't think they would be in that waterway. Unfortunately for me, they soon crawled out of sight under the limb.
Scanning the shoreline of Mill Creek, I spotted two young painted turtles perched on a small log to sun themselves and a big green frog sitting on a narrow, muddy shore under tall grass hanging protectively over that frog. The paints were beautiful with red and yellow stripes on their necks and front legs and the frog probably was watching for invertebrates it could catch and swallow.
I also saw two kinds of pretty and charming damselflies fluttering over Mill Creek, and landing on creek-side vegetation. They were black-winged damselflies, with the males having iridescent-green abdomens and four black wings they hold up at a 45 degree angle when at rest, and bluet damselflies, with males having blue abdomens and clear wings.
Each of these types of damselflies were youngsters under stones on the bottom of the creek where they caught and ate tiny invertebrates. But now as adults, they fly about looking for flying insects to eat and mates to reproduce with.
A few male black-winged damselflies "flutter-danced" in the sunlight over the creek, their green abdomens glistening in the sun, to attract females to them for mating. And one pair of black-wings were spawning eggs into plants in the slow-moving shallows along a shore.
There are other kinds of critters along this stretch of Mill Creek that I didn't see that day, including muskrats, snapping turtles, northern water snakes, mallard ducks, least sandpipers on exposed gravel bars, belted kingfishers, great blue herons, and an occasional great egret late in summer. Red-winged blackbirds, eastern kingbirds and willow flycatchers nest in the tall grass and shrubbery along the creek earlier in the summer. Even after abuse of this creek, and its surrounding cropland, several kinds of wildlife still live in and around it. Because these plants and animals are adaptable, they will survive indefinitely
My nature snooping that day became one of summer and fall wild flowers, butterflies and aquatic creatures, all of which are typical here at this time of year.
Some of the stream-side flowers in bloom that day included lots of orange, cornocopia-shaped blooms on spotted jewelweeds, some great lobelias with dark blue blossoms, pink-flowered swamp milkweeds, the bluish-purple blossoms of blue vervains, the streamside hugging arrowhead plants with white flowers and wild mints with tiny, pale-purple blossoms. One swamp milkweed plant was especially interesting because up to four monarch butterflies visited it at once to at least sip nectar. Perhaps a female or two was also laying eggs, one at a time, on the milkweed's leaves. The branching stems of the blue vervains resembled candlabras. And several lovely, dark and rusty-red digger wasps were busily sipping nectar from the mint blossoms, pollinating them as well.
There were other kinds of butterflies visiting those stream-side flowers that day, including spicebush swallowtails, big, yellow and black tiger swallowtails, fritillaries, silver-spotted skippers, least skippers, cabbage whites and yellow suphurs. Those butterflies, constantly fluttering from bloom to bloom, added lots of beauty and entertainment to the flowering plants along Mill Creek.
I soon turned my attention to Mill Creek by sitting in an eight yard "window" composed of short grass in a dense, green wall of young trees and tall shrubbery. That window of short vegetation allowed a view of Mill Creek.
There the creek was shallow, clear and about fourteen feet across. Using 16 power binoculars, I saw a couple of small schools of banded killifish swimming upstream as they watched for tiny invertebrates to eat. I also saw three carp, each about a foot long, groveling upstream for plant and invertebrate food in the mud on the bottom of the waterway. Both kinds of fish blended into the bottom of the stream, which made them hard to see without binoculars, but, of course, that protects them from bald eagles, ospreys, herons and other kinds of predators.
While watching the fish with binoculars, I suddenly noticed two submerged mud turtles half-hidden under a leafy limb in a slower-moving part of the creek. They were walking on the bottom of the waterway, perhaps looking for invertebrate and plant food. I was surprised to see them because I didn't think they would be in that waterway. Unfortunately for me, they soon crawled out of sight under the limb.
Scanning the shoreline of Mill Creek, I spotted two young painted turtles perched on a small log to sun themselves and a big green frog sitting on a narrow, muddy shore under tall grass hanging protectively over that frog. The paints were beautiful with red and yellow stripes on their necks and front legs and the frog probably was watching for invertebrates it could catch and swallow.
I also saw two kinds of pretty and charming damselflies fluttering over Mill Creek, and landing on creek-side vegetation. They were black-winged damselflies, with the males having iridescent-green abdomens and four black wings they hold up at a 45 degree angle when at rest, and bluet damselflies, with males having blue abdomens and clear wings.
Each of these types of damselflies were youngsters under stones on the bottom of the creek where they caught and ate tiny invertebrates. But now as adults, they fly about looking for flying insects to eat and mates to reproduce with.
A few male black-winged damselflies "flutter-danced" in the sunlight over the creek, their green abdomens glistening in the sun, to attract females to them for mating. And one pair of black-wings were spawning eggs into plants in the slow-moving shallows along a shore.
There are other kinds of critters along this stretch of Mill Creek that I didn't see that day, including muskrats, snapping turtles, northern water snakes, mallard ducks, least sandpipers on exposed gravel bars, belted kingfishers, great blue herons, and an occasional great egret late in summer. Red-winged blackbirds, eastern kingbirds and willow flycatchers nest in the tall grass and shrubbery along the creek earlier in the summer. Even after abuse of this creek, and its surrounding cropland, several kinds of wildlife still live in and around it. Because these plants and animals are adaptable, they will survive indefinitely
Saturday, August 10, 2019
Wet Meadow Flowers
By late July and through August, low, wet spots in many sunny meadows in southeastern Pennsylvania, and elsewhere in the eastern United States, are made more lovely and interesting because of the pretty flowers of blue vervains, swamp milkweeds, ironweeds and Joe-Pye weeds. These native, blooming plants have much in common, including sharing sunny, damp habitats, and blossoming about the same time. All these tall plants have multitudes of colorful, small blossoms that are well worth seeing in sunny, bottomland meadows in the heat of late summer.
Blue vervains and swamp milkweeds bloom together in many of the same damper spots in some of the same meadows. They are often lovely, floral neighbors. Each blue vervain plant has a handsome, candalabra-shaped stalk and several tiny, bluish-purple blooms at the top of each stem. Swamp milkweed plants have pink flowers. The attractive flower colors of vervains and milkweeds are a pretty combination in certain low, moist meadows.
Bees, small, but colorful butterflies and other kinds of insects sip sugary nectar from the diminutive blooms of vervains and milkweeds, pollinating those blossoms as they fly from one to another and another. Meanwhile, caterpillars of monarch butterflies consume the juicy leaves of milkweeds, grow, pupate, and later each one emerges from a green chrysalis as a striking butterfly.
The purple-pink blossoms on clumps of ironweed plants in the damper parts of pastures are also beautiful, and attract many bees, pretty butterflies and other types of insects to their nectar. While sipping nectar, those insects pollinate the ironweed blooms. And several each of yellow and black tiger swallowtail butterflies, black and orange monarch butterflies, painted ladies, a variety of skippers and other kinds of colorful butterflies add more beauty to those flowers and the moist, sunny meadows that contain them.
Joe-Pye-weeds, like ironweeds, usually grow in stands of their own in damp spots in pastures, and along moist roadsides in the case of the present species. Joe-Pye is the tallest of these July and August, wet meadow plants, often growing up to twelve feet high. This common plant is named after a Native American medicine man called Joe-Pye.
Each striking Joe-Pye stalk has whorls of lance-shaped leaves at regular intervals along the stem, and bunches of tiny, dusty-pink flowers at the top of each stalk. Those lovely flowers attract lots of butterflies and other insects to their nectar, again helping make the blooms and the pastures they live in more attractive and interesting.
These wet pasture plants' flowers, and the insects they attract, offer more beauty and intrigue to the habitat they inhabit. The blossoms benefit insects with their ample supplies of nectar and pollen. The plants are benefitted by the insects' spreading pollen as they fly from bloom to bloom. And we gain lots of inspiration and joy from seeing the lovely flowers and the pretty, interesting butterflies that visit those various kinds of blossoms.
Blue vervains and swamp milkweeds bloom together in many of the same damper spots in some of the same meadows. They are often lovely, floral neighbors. Each blue vervain plant has a handsome, candalabra-shaped stalk and several tiny, bluish-purple blooms at the top of each stem. Swamp milkweed plants have pink flowers. The attractive flower colors of vervains and milkweeds are a pretty combination in certain low, moist meadows.
Bees, small, but colorful butterflies and other kinds of insects sip sugary nectar from the diminutive blooms of vervains and milkweeds, pollinating those blossoms as they fly from one to another and another. Meanwhile, caterpillars of monarch butterflies consume the juicy leaves of milkweeds, grow, pupate, and later each one emerges from a green chrysalis as a striking butterfly.
The purple-pink blossoms on clumps of ironweed plants in the damper parts of pastures are also beautiful, and attract many bees, pretty butterflies and other types of insects to their nectar. While sipping nectar, those insects pollinate the ironweed blooms. And several each of yellow and black tiger swallowtail butterflies, black and orange monarch butterflies, painted ladies, a variety of skippers and other kinds of colorful butterflies add more beauty to those flowers and the moist, sunny meadows that contain them.
Joe-Pye-weeds, like ironweeds, usually grow in stands of their own in damp spots in pastures, and along moist roadsides in the case of the present species. Joe-Pye is the tallest of these July and August, wet meadow plants, often growing up to twelve feet high. This common plant is named after a Native American medicine man called Joe-Pye.
Each striking Joe-Pye stalk has whorls of lance-shaped leaves at regular intervals along the stem, and bunches of tiny, dusty-pink flowers at the top of each stalk. Those lovely flowers attract lots of butterflies and other insects to their nectar, again helping make the blooms and the pastures they live in more attractive and interesting.
These wet pasture plants' flowers, and the insects they attract, offer more beauty and intrigue to the habitat they inhabit. The blossoms benefit insects with their ample supplies of nectar and pollen. The plants are benefitted by the insects' spreading pollen as they fly from bloom to bloom. And we gain lots of inspiration and joy from seeing the lovely flowers and the pretty, interesting butterflies that visit those various kinds of blossoms.
Monday, August 5, 2019
Twilight Voices
Late in July of 2019, we visited relatives in the wooded mountains of South Carolina for a couple of days. And while there, we heard a whip-poor-will chanting its name from the deep woods at dusk, and a barred owl calling from that same forest the next afternoon. It was thrilling to hear both those birds in that forested wilderness.
As daytime bird songs fade away during summer twilights in the woods of the eastern United States, the voices of nocturnal birds can be heard, including the hooting of great horned owls and barred owls and the chanting of whip-poor-wills and Chuck-will's-widows. All these birds nest in woods and are most active at dusk and through each night. And they all call at dusk and into the night, giving away their wild presence, even when they are not seen.
Many people like to hear these birds calling at night. Some lie in bed at night and are thrilled to hear these unseen birds that represent the mysterious nighttime woods. I always feel privileged to hear any one of these birds calling in the night woods.
Listening to the rthym of each species' calling identifies it. Great horned owls' hooting generally consists of three short, quick hoots, closely followed by two long ones. The birds of each pair of horned owls most often hoot to each other at dawn and dusk during winter, which is their time of courting. But they also hoot anytime of the day, and year.
Barred owls are called "eight-hooters" because their classic hooting anytime of day and year is of four hoots, a brief pause, then another four hoots. But barred owls also utter screeches, moans and other spine-chilling calls throughout the year as well.
The closely related whip-poor-wills and Chuck-Will's-widows monotonously chant their names over and over and over from the woods at night. There is a slight distinction of beat that identifies these two kinds of nightjars from each other. I think they and their other relatives are called nightjars because they jar the night with their loud, seemingly unending, chanting.
Great horned owls and barred owls are permanent residents, each individual living in a woods all its life, including raising young there. But the nightjars only come to eastern North America woods in summer to raise two chicks per pair. In autumn, the whips migrate south to Central America where flying insects, their food, is available the year around. And the chucks winter in Central America, the West Indies and northern South America, again where flying insects are abundant the year around.
All these beautiful species of woodland night birds have brownish and mottled plumage that camouflages them in forests. They are invisible until they fly. Their blending into their shared environment protects them when perched during the day and brooding eggs and small young, the owls in the trees and the nightjars on dead-leaf forest floors.
At night, the predatory owls catch and consume small creatures, including mice and rats, small birds, snakes, frogs and other critters. They grab those animals in their sharp talons. Meanwhile, nightjars use their gaping mouths to snare moths, beetles and other, larger insects in mid-air. Obviously, each of these groups of woodlland birds have their own niche and don't compete for food, or nesting sites in their shared environment.
The owls nest in trees early in spring, the great horns on abandoned, stick cradles made by crows or hawks in upland woods, and the barred in larger tree cavities in wooded bottomlands. Females of each kind of owl usually lay two white eggs per clutch.
Female whips and chucks each lay two eggs on dead leaves on the forest floor of upland woods in May. Brooding nightjars and their eggs and young are well camouflaged on those dead leaves.
All these birds of the woods are enjoyable to hear during spring and summer twilights and nights. They offer a touch of exciting woodland wilderness.
As daytime bird songs fade away during summer twilights in the woods of the eastern United States, the voices of nocturnal birds can be heard, including the hooting of great horned owls and barred owls and the chanting of whip-poor-wills and Chuck-will's-widows. All these birds nest in woods and are most active at dusk and through each night. And they all call at dusk and into the night, giving away their wild presence, even when they are not seen.
Many people like to hear these birds calling at night. Some lie in bed at night and are thrilled to hear these unseen birds that represent the mysterious nighttime woods. I always feel privileged to hear any one of these birds calling in the night woods.
Listening to the rthym of each species' calling identifies it. Great horned owls' hooting generally consists of three short, quick hoots, closely followed by two long ones. The birds of each pair of horned owls most often hoot to each other at dawn and dusk during winter, which is their time of courting. But they also hoot anytime of the day, and year.
Barred owls are called "eight-hooters" because their classic hooting anytime of day and year is of four hoots, a brief pause, then another four hoots. But barred owls also utter screeches, moans and other spine-chilling calls throughout the year as well.
The closely related whip-poor-wills and Chuck-Will's-widows monotonously chant their names over and over and over from the woods at night. There is a slight distinction of beat that identifies these two kinds of nightjars from each other. I think they and their other relatives are called nightjars because they jar the night with their loud, seemingly unending, chanting.
Great horned owls and barred owls are permanent residents, each individual living in a woods all its life, including raising young there. But the nightjars only come to eastern North America woods in summer to raise two chicks per pair. In autumn, the whips migrate south to Central America where flying insects, their food, is available the year around. And the chucks winter in Central America, the West Indies and northern South America, again where flying insects are abundant the year around.
All these beautiful species of woodland night birds have brownish and mottled plumage that camouflages them in forests. They are invisible until they fly. Their blending into their shared environment protects them when perched during the day and brooding eggs and small young, the owls in the trees and the nightjars on dead-leaf forest floors.
At night, the predatory owls catch and consume small creatures, including mice and rats, small birds, snakes, frogs and other critters. They grab those animals in their sharp talons. Meanwhile, nightjars use their gaping mouths to snare moths, beetles and other, larger insects in mid-air. Obviously, each of these groups of woodlland birds have their own niche and don't compete for food, or nesting sites in their shared environment.
The owls nest in trees early in spring, the great horns on abandoned, stick cradles made by crows or hawks in upland woods, and the barred in larger tree cavities in wooded bottomlands. Females of each kind of owl usually lay two white eggs per clutch.
Female whips and chucks each lay two eggs on dead leaves on the forest floor of upland woods in May. Brooding nightjars and their eggs and young are well camouflaged on those dead leaves.
All these birds of the woods are enjoyable to hear during spring and summer twilights and nights. They offer a touch of exciting woodland wilderness.
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