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.