In mid-November of this year, I got a live camera on Long Beach Island, New Jersey on our computer to see if I could spot Atlantic brant geese and black ducks in Atlantic Coast salt marshes. I was thrilled to see a small flock each of brant and black ducks in the same view at the same time on the shallow water of a backwater off the ocean, where that water borders a salt marsh. And there were other brant farther out on the backwater at that same time. Other species of wildlife winter in coastal salt marshes in the eastern United States, but, to me, Atlantic brant and black ducks are icons, the spirits, of that habitat in winter. They are exciting and inspiring to experience in winter salt marshes.
I've seen both these species of waterfowl, in the feathers, wintering in Atlantic Coast salt marshes in the past, but I haven't been to a salt marsh in winter in years. Furthermore, It's easier to see some kinds of wildlife by these live cameras than to try to see them in the wild. Most wild creatures shy away from the human figure.
Brant and black ducks have much in common, though each is from a different genus of waterfowl. They raise young in different habitats, but many individuals of each kind winter in the same salt marshes along the Atlantic Coast from New Jersey to North Carolina.
The elegant brants and handsome blacks have dark feathering that makes them stand out beautifully in the beige salt grass of winter. Both types of birds often live, feed and fly in highly visible flocks. Brant and black ducks are also easily noticed in open water on the edges of salt marsh back waters and channels. They both appear black in the distance and against snow. These species are about the same size because brant are a small type of goose and black ducks are robust ducks. But brant have a typical goose shape with a long neck while blacks are built like typical ducks with shorter necks. They are easy to identify from each other by shape alone.
Brant and blacks both ingest vegetation through winter. Both of them "tip-up" in shallow water to dredge alga and other aquatic vegetation from the mud. But brant also pluck grass and the green shoots of winter grains in fields while blacks also shovel up corn kernels in harvested fields.
Being different species, brant and blacks have differences, too. Brant run over water or ground to take flight, while black ducks simply leap into the air and fly away. Brant fly in loose flocks and long lines, "shoulder to shoulder". Brant honk hoarsely while female blacks quack loudly. Brant raise goslings on the Arctic tundra, while black ducks rear offspring in eastern Canada and the United States. Some female blacks hatch ducklings in Atlantic salt marshes in the United States.
Flocks of Atlantic brant and black ducks are striking species in Atlantic Coast salt marshes in winter. I enjoy experiencing these handsome spirits of those winter habitats.
Friday, November 29, 2019
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Mississippi Flyway in Fall
The shallow channels, mud flats and beds of emergent grasses in Lake Analaska, which is bordered by steep, wooded hills and is located along the Mississippi River in northwestern Wisconsin, are habitats of wonderful mixes of southbound water birds, at least during October and November. I "have been" to that lovely lake several times in those two months via a live camera and our home computer. Watching the gatherings of large water birds on the lake, which is a backwater off the Mississippi, has been enjoyable and inspiring to me, just as viewing some of those same birds, in the flesh and feathers, along my home Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania.
Not all the birds were along that lake in Wisconsin at once, and some didn't stay there long before pushing farther south for the winter. American white pelicans, in their thousands, dominated this backwater off the Mississippi during a few weeks in October. Big and bulky, pelicans plod stoically, but majestically, on mud flats and in the shallows. Pelicans have boat-like bodies for floating on water, and long beaks and large lower mandible pouches for snaring fish from the water's surface.
The pelicans in this species work together on the water's surface to snare fish. Groups of them swim in a line, and daintily dip their beaks in the water at the same time to scoop up the confused and frantic fish.
American white pelicans fly strongly, and gracefully, in lines and V's. They often flap in unison, then glide for several seconds before flapping together again. When landing on the water, they ski to a stop on their broad, webbed feet.
During the latter part of October and into mid-November, flocks of noisy, southbound sandhill cranes settle on the flats and shallows of this backwater off the Mississippi. They are tundra nesters heading for their wintering grounds in parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Mexico.
Stately sandhill cranes stand about four feet tall, have gray feathering all over, except a red spot on each bird's forehead. They are elegantly long-necked and long-legged, and wade in shallow water after aquatic invertebrates and vegetation. They also walk through harvested corn fields to pick up and ingest corn kernels on the ground. And sometimes in autumn, these magnificent cranes engage in graceful courtship dances; pairs of them leaping and flapping as the partners face each other.
Each late afternoon for a few weeks, many sandhills converged on Lake Analaska for the night. But their flocks in fall are nowhere near the size of the northbound hordes of these cranes in March and April along the Platte River in Nebraska.
Flocks of noisy Canada geese and tundra swans converge in numbers on Lake Analaska in November. These species of large, elegant waterfowl rest on flats and in the shallows, but fly out, group after group, to harvested corn fields where they scoop up corn kernels on the ground. These geese and swans are majestic on the wing when flying to and from corn fields and the bodies of water where they rest between feeding forays. These two kinds of large birds also graze on short grass and green blades of winter rye.
In fall, a variety of puddle ducks, including loose flocks of mallards, pintails, American wigeons and gadwalls, "tip-up" among protective emergent grasses and extend their beaks down to water plants on the shallow bottoms of this lake along the Mississippi. They use their beaks to tear loose that vegetation and bring it to the surface to swallow it and get a breath of air. These puddlers also shovel up corn kernels in fields. And wigeons graze on short grass, as do Canada geese.
Certain kinds of diving ducks, particularly thousands of buffleheads, and lesser numbers of common goldeneyes, ring-necked ducks and lesser scaup, dove into open, deeper waters to dredge up aquatic vegetation, invertebrates and small mollusks and crustaceans. It was interesting to see mixed rafts of these diving ducks floating and bobbing on deeper water, while some individuals dove under and others popped to the surface to swallow and get a breath.
Little gangs of ring-billed gulls, a common, inland kind of gull, fluttered lightly over the flats and shallows each late afternoon as those birds prepared to spend the night roosting on the flats. They had spent each day searching for anything edible along the lake shores, the nearby Mississippi and on fields between those large bodies of water. Ring-bills will also eat edible scraps from dumpsters and landfills.
Up to 60 majestic bald eagles, of every age, formed groups of themselves on flats, large trees fallen into the shallows and standing trees in woods along the lake's shores. These stately eagles catch fish from larger bodies of water, and scavenge dead animals, including fish washed up on shores.
These attractive and migrating water birds on Lake Analaska at the same time were exciting and inspiring to experience in the air, and on the water and mud flats. There was much to see and hear at once, including flocks of large water birds flying before a sunset, or standing still and silhouetted in water and on the flats at dusk. It was also neat to hear the birds calling, or splashing water as they fluttered their wings during bath times.
Not all the birds were along that lake in Wisconsin at once, and some didn't stay there long before pushing farther south for the winter. American white pelicans, in their thousands, dominated this backwater off the Mississippi during a few weeks in October. Big and bulky, pelicans plod stoically, but majestically, on mud flats and in the shallows. Pelicans have boat-like bodies for floating on water, and long beaks and large lower mandible pouches for snaring fish from the water's surface.
The pelicans in this species work together on the water's surface to snare fish. Groups of them swim in a line, and daintily dip their beaks in the water at the same time to scoop up the confused and frantic fish.
American white pelicans fly strongly, and gracefully, in lines and V's. They often flap in unison, then glide for several seconds before flapping together again. When landing on the water, they ski to a stop on their broad, webbed feet.
During the latter part of October and into mid-November, flocks of noisy, southbound sandhill cranes settle on the flats and shallows of this backwater off the Mississippi. They are tundra nesters heading for their wintering grounds in parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Mexico.
Stately sandhill cranes stand about four feet tall, have gray feathering all over, except a red spot on each bird's forehead. They are elegantly long-necked and long-legged, and wade in shallow water after aquatic invertebrates and vegetation. They also walk through harvested corn fields to pick up and ingest corn kernels on the ground. And sometimes in autumn, these magnificent cranes engage in graceful courtship dances; pairs of them leaping and flapping as the partners face each other.
Each late afternoon for a few weeks, many sandhills converged on Lake Analaska for the night. But their flocks in fall are nowhere near the size of the northbound hordes of these cranes in March and April along the Platte River in Nebraska.
Flocks of noisy Canada geese and tundra swans converge in numbers on Lake Analaska in November. These species of large, elegant waterfowl rest on flats and in the shallows, but fly out, group after group, to harvested corn fields where they scoop up corn kernels on the ground. These geese and swans are majestic on the wing when flying to and from corn fields and the bodies of water where they rest between feeding forays. These two kinds of large birds also graze on short grass and green blades of winter rye.
In fall, a variety of puddle ducks, including loose flocks of mallards, pintails, American wigeons and gadwalls, "tip-up" among protective emergent grasses and extend their beaks down to water plants on the shallow bottoms of this lake along the Mississippi. They use their beaks to tear loose that vegetation and bring it to the surface to swallow it and get a breath of air. These puddlers also shovel up corn kernels in fields. And wigeons graze on short grass, as do Canada geese.
Certain kinds of diving ducks, particularly thousands of buffleheads, and lesser numbers of common goldeneyes, ring-necked ducks and lesser scaup, dove into open, deeper waters to dredge up aquatic vegetation, invertebrates and small mollusks and crustaceans. It was interesting to see mixed rafts of these diving ducks floating and bobbing on deeper water, while some individuals dove under and others popped to the surface to swallow and get a breath.
Little gangs of ring-billed gulls, a common, inland kind of gull, fluttered lightly over the flats and shallows each late afternoon as those birds prepared to spend the night roosting on the flats. They had spent each day searching for anything edible along the lake shores, the nearby Mississippi and on fields between those large bodies of water. Ring-bills will also eat edible scraps from dumpsters and landfills.
Up to 60 majestic bald eagles, of every age, formed groups of themselves on flats, large trees fallen into the shallows and standing trees in woods along the lake's shores. These stately eagles catch fish from larger bodies of water, and scavenge dead animals, including fish washed up on shores.
These attractive and migrating water birds on Lake Analaska at the same time were exciting and inspiring to experience in the air, and on the water and mud flats. There was much to see and hear at once, including flocks of large water birds flying before a sunset, or standing still and silhouetted in water and on the flats at dusk. It was also neat to hear the birds calling, or splashing water as they fluttered their wings during bath times.
Thursday, November 14, 2019
Adaptable, Common Farmland Birds
While recently driving in farmland to do errands around New Holland, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in mid-November, it again occurred to me that I was easily seeing the same flocks of wintering birds I always see in local cropland at this time of year. For example, as I drove by a couple of crab apple trees in a hedgerow of sapling trees, bushes and tall weeds and grasses along a clear-water stream that day, I noticed flocks of American robins and starlings flying in and out of those crab apple trees. I stopped for several minutes and watched those two kinds of bids eating some of the many yellow fruits clinging to those trees and lying on the ground under them. And as I watched those birds ingesting crab apples, I thought about some of the other kinds of flock birds I repeatedly see wintering in Lancaster County.
All these handsome and interesting bird species live in Lancaster County's farmland the year around, and raise young here. All are adaptable, common in this area and large enough to be readily noticed. And each kind has its daily habits, food sources and nightly roosts.
Though unrelated, wintering robin and starling flocks are often seen together in cropland hedgerows where they consume a variety of berries from trees, shrubbery and vines. And both species eat invertebrates from lawns, when they can, and roost in planted, wind-breaking coniferous trees on lawns during winter nights. These two attractive species converge in winter because they have similar needs and body forms during that bitter season.
I also regularly see flocks of related and petite mourning doves and rock pigeons eating waste corn kernels in harvested corn fields through winter. Sometimes, both species flutter down, at the same time, on whistling wings, through snow falls, to the fields to feed. Both species walk about, with heads bobbing at each step, among the stubble and light snow, to pick up kernels with their beaks, one kernel at a time. The doves are more difficult to see because they have brown feathering, which blends them into the color of the corn stubble.
When not feeding, however, the doves and pigeons retire to different roosts to rest, and digest the kernels they ingested. The doves perch on roadside wires where they are easily seen, and in coniferous trees. And the pigeons retire to the coned tops of farmland silos, the only local birds that do that. However, doves spend winter nights in evergreen trees, while pigeons do the same in barns and under bridges.
Gatherings of wintering mallard ducks and majestic Canada geese congregate on farmland ponds and creeks. Both these aquatic species eat much water vegetation, but also get food in nearby human-made, land habitats. Both kinds consume grass on lawns, and shovel up corn kernels among the stubble of harvested corn fields, where they encounter doves and pigeons. Like doves and pigeons, mallards and Canadas can be spotted dropping through snowfalls to acres of corn stubble to feed. Sometimes, they have to shovel their bills under the snow to get their food. When full, the mallards and geese wing back to their watery roosts on ponds and waterways. The elegant geese always honk and bugle boisterously when flying in V shapes and long lines from place to place.
Though commonplace in Lancaster County cropland the year around, these types of adaptable, interesting birds are always welcome sights in farmland, at least to me. They add daily life and intrigue to that human-made habitat these lovely birds adjusted to.
All these handsome and interesting bird species live in Lancaster County's farmland the year around, and raise young here. All are adaptable, common in this area and large enough to be readily noticed. And each kind has its daily habits, food sources and nightly roosts.
Though unrelated, wintering robin and starling flocks are often seen together in cropland hedgerows where they consume a variety of berries from trees, shrubbery and vines. And both species eat invertebrates from lawns, when they can, and roost in planted, wind-breaking coniferous trees on lawns during winter nights. These two attractive species converge in winter because they have similar needs and body forms during that bitter season.
I also regularly see flocks of related and petite mourning doves and rock pigeons eating waste corn kernels in harvested corn fields through winter. Sometimes, both species flutter down, at the same time, on whistling wings, through snow falls, to the fields to feed. Both species walk about, with heads bobbing at each step, among the stubble and light snow, to pick up kernels with their beaks, one kernel at a time. The doves are more difficult to see because they have brown feathering, which blends them into the color of the corn stubble.
When not feeding, however, the doves and pigeons retire to different roosts to rest, and digest the kernels they ingested. The doves perch on roadside wires where they are easily seen, and in coniferous trees. And the pigeons retire to the coned tops of farmland silos, the only local birds that do that. However, doves spend winter nights in evergreen trees, while pigeons do the same in barns and under bridges.
Gatherings of wintering mallard ducks and majestic Canada geese congregate on farmland ponds and creeks. Both these aquatic species eat much water vegetation, but also get food in nearby human-made, land habitats. Both kinds consume grass on lawns, and shovel up corn kernels among the stubble of harvested corn fields, where they encounter doves and pigeons. Like doves and pigeons, mallards and Canadas can be spotted dropping through snowfalls to acres of corn stubble to feed. Sometimes, they have to shovel their bills under the snow to get their food. When full, the mallards and geese wing back to their watery roosts on ponds and waterways. The elegant geese always honk and bugle boisterously when flying in V shapes and long lines from place to place.
Though commonplace in Lancaster County cropland the year around, these types of adaptable, interesting birds are always welcome sights in farmland, at least to me. They add daily life and intrigue to that human-made habitat these lovely birds adjusted to.
Friday, November 8, 2019
Some Successional Trees
Certain kinds of trees in eastern Pennsylvania, including staghorn sumacs, sassafras, red junipers, large-toothed aspens and gray birches, pioneer denuded land after burning, timbering, farming or mining and then abandoned. All native to North America, these interesting, successional trees help hold down soil against erosion, benefit wildlife and have certain beauties the year around, while building up nutrients in the abused soil from their decaying fallen leaves, bark and wood over several years. Eventually, successional trees will be replaced by more demanding ones that will permanently inhabit land that was degraded, but enriched by successional trees.
Successional trees need much sunlight, which they get on denuded soil. But these trees can't tolerate being shaded, so they gradually die out when shade-tolerant trees replace them and live permanently on what-had-been bare ground.
Sumac limbs are forked like antlers on buck deer. This small tree has compound leaves, each leaf having several leaflets that turn red in autumn and flutter like banners in the wind, adding beauty to degraded landscapes. Female sumacs grow cone-shaped clusters of red, fuzzy berries that help beautify abused landscapes. Many of those striking berries are eaten by rodents and berry-eating birds, including starlings, American robins, cedar waxwings and other species.
Sassafras trees have three leaf shapes on each tree. One leaf shape is a simple oval. Another one is shaped like a mitten and the third has three chubby prongs, like a fork. In fall, sassafras foliage turns to red, orange or yellow.
Sassafras trees also have deep-purple berries in autumn that are eaten by a variety of seed-eating birds, rodents, raccoons and other kinds of mammals. The birds digest the pulp of the berries, but pass sassafras seeds in their droppings wherever they happen to perch. Sassafras grows abundantly along rural roadsides because of birds perched on electric lines along those roads.
Spicebush swallowtail butterfly caterpillars consume the foliage of spicebushes and sassafras trees. Each larvae spins webbing to wrap a leaf around itself so it can eat in relative safety. These caterpillars are green to blend into the leaves' color if those leaves are opened by birds or other predators. Furthermore, each larva has two black spots on its forward "back" that resemble eyes, which frighten away would-be predators.
Red junipers are a kind of conifer, with green needles on them the year around. This pillar-shaped tree is mistakenly called red cedar, but it is in the juniper genus.
Red junipers produce tiny, fleshy cones that are pale-blue. Multitudes of those berry-like cones are decorative on the green junipers in winter. And they are eaten by deer, rodents and berry-eating birds through fall and winter. Cedar waxwings get their name, in part, from eating juniper cones.
Saw-whet owls roost during winter days in red junipers. And dark-eyed juncos, mourning doves and other kinds of birds roost overnight in them during winter.
House finches, American goldfinches, chipping sparrows and field sparrows nest in junipers in summer. Obviously, the attractive junipers are valuable to wildlife.
Large-toothed aspens have leaves that quiver noticeably in the wind, and have toothed margins. That foliage turns yellow in autumn. But aspens' long, hanging catkins, swaying in the spring wind, are the trees' most beautiful features.
Beavers commonly chew down these trees to eat their leaves, twigs and bark, and use the woody trunks and branches to build their dams and lodges. Deer, hares and mice consume aspen buds, twigs and bark on still-standing trees in winter.
Gray birches are particularly noted for pioneering deserted strip mines and slag piles in coal regions in eastern Pennsylvania. This birch has "dirty-white" bark and dark triangles below where the limbs emerge from the trunks. And like aspens, this birch species has yellow foliage in fall, attractive catkins in spring, and buds, twigs and bark that are consumed by beavers, mice and deer. Beavers also use birch branches and trunks to build dams and lodges. And the tiny, winged seeds of birches are ingested by small, seed-eating birds through fall and winter.
Look for these successional trees in successional landscapes any time of year. They build up soil, feed and shelter wildlife and provide us with beauty where, otherwise, it may not be.
Successional trees need much sunlight, which they get on denuded soil. But these trees can't tolerate being shaded, so they gradually die out when shade-tolerant trees replace them and live permanently on what-had-been bare ground.
Sumac limbs are forked like antlers on buck deer. This small tree has compound leaves, each leaf having several leaflets that turn red in autumn and flutter like banners in the wind, adding beauty to degraded landscapes. Female sumacs grow cone-shaped clusters of red, fuzzy berries that help beautify abused landscapes. Many of those striking berries are eaten by rodents and berry-eating birds, including starlings, American robins, cedar waxwings and other species.
Sassafras trees have three leaf shapes on each tree. One leaf shape is a simple oval. Another one is shaped like a mitten and the third has three chubby prongs, like a fork. In fall, sassafras foliage turns to red, orange or yellow.
Sassafras trees also have deep-purple berries in autumn that are eaten by a variety of seed-eating birds, rodents, raccoons and other kinds of mammals. The birds digest the pulp of the berries, but pass sassafras seeds in their droppings wherever they happen to perch. Sassafras grows abundantly along rural roadsides because of birds perched on electric lines along those roads.
Spicebush swallowtail butterfly caterpillars consume the foliage of spicebushes and sassafras trees. Each larvae spins webbing to wrap a leaf around itself so it can eat in relative safety. These caterpillars are green to blend into the leaves' color if those leaves are opened by birds or other predators. Furthermore, each larva has two black spots on its forward "back" that resemble eyes, which frighten away would-be predators.
Red junipers are a kind of conifer, with green needles on them the year around. This pillar-shaped tree is mistakenly called red cedar, but it is in the juniper genus.
Red junipers produce tiny, fleshy cones that are pale-blue. Multitudes of those berry-like cones are decorative on the green junipers in winter. And they are eaten by deer, rodents and berry-eating birds through fall and winter. Cedar waxwings get their name, in part, from eating juniper cones.
Saw-whet owls roost during winter days in red junipers. And dark-eyed juncos, mourning doves and other kinds of birds roost overnight in them during winter.
House finches, American goldfinches, chipping sparrows and field sparrows nest in junipers in summer. Obviously, the attractive junipers are valuable to wildlife.
Large-toothed aspens have leaves that quiver noticeably in the wind, and have toothed margins. That foliage turns yellow in autumn. But aspens' long, hanging catkins, swaying in the spring wind, are the trees' most beautiful features.
Beavers commonly chew down these trees to eat their leaves, twigs and bark, and use the woody trunks and branches to build their dams and lodges. Deer, hares and mice consume aspen buds, twigs and bark on still-standing trees in winter.
Gray birches are particularly noted for pioneering deserted strip mines and slag piles in coal regions in eastern Pennsylvania. This birch has "dirty-white" bark and dark triangles below where the limbs emerge from the trunks. And like aspens, this birch species has yellow foliage in fall, attractive catkins in spring, and buds, twigs and bark that are consumed by beavers, mice and deer. Beavers also use birch branches and trunks to build dams and lodges. And the tiny, winged seeds of birches are ingested by small, seed-eating birds through fall and winter.
Look for these successional trees in successional landscapes any time of year. They build up soil, feed and shelter wildlife and provide us with beauty where, otherwise, it may not be.
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