Hayfield Critters

     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.