For about an hour and a half early in November, I drove through part of the Welsh Mountains, a peninsula of wooded hills jutting into a sea of farmland in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. My goal on this little trip near home was to see what nature was stirring and visible.
Since most of the deciduous leaves had fallen from their trips and were crisply carpeting the forest floors, I could better see the still green foliage and twisted limbs of mountain laurel shrubbery. Those leaves will stay green all winter and into next spring. Most of the laurel bushes were six feet tall or shorter, which is about average for this woody species. Late in May and into early June these wild shrubs are spangled with many pale-pink flowers. Most people who build homes in local woods recognize the beauties of mountain laurel limbs and blossoms and don't remove those shrubs from the lawns they create in the woods.
Driving by a hundred-yard-long ditch along a road in Welsh Mountain woods, I saw a few wild winter-berry bushes loaded with red berries. Winter-berry shrubs do well in constantly moist ground. And American robins and other kinds of birds eat many of their berries during their spring migrations north.
Winter-berries are planted on lawns for the beauty of their berries. But each neighborhood must have one male shrub to a few or several female bushes for the females to develop the scarlet berries. Pollen from the male bush flowers spreads on the wind to the female blooms, fertilizing them.
To my surprise, I saw barberry bushes in a row about one hundred and fifty yards long and around 20 yards in from another rural road. They were impressive. I had never before seen so many barberry bushes in one place.
Those many barberry shrubs must have been planted and were now strikingly loaded with thousands and thousands of red berries. This winter those prickly barberries will provide food and cover for many birds of several kinds, including northern mockingbirds, robins, eastern bluebirds, cedar waxwings and others.
I saw a few domestic animals as I drove through the Welsh Mountains. One place I spotted nine mostly-grown bantam hens crossing a country road to scratch up and feed on invertebrates and seeds on the other side. I drove slowly to avoid hitting them and noticed how petite and pretty they were.
At another spot near the road, I saw a half-dozen young long-horned cattle grazing in a pasture. Though they were only half-grown, they already had long, picturesque horns that make a person stop to look closer.
Along another road in the Welsh Mountains, I saw several small birds fly up from a roadside shoulder. I eased to a stop near where those birds were and waited in my car. As long as conditions were peaceful and they didn't see the human figure, the birds will be back. There was no traffic on that road and, sure enough, they soon started coming close to where I was parked along the road.
The summary of small birds I saw along that country road was over a hundred dark-eyed juncos eating grass seed from the ground on the road's shoulder. These are gray, little birds on top and white below, with a white tail feather on each side of the tail that looks like a V when they fly.
A couple of song sparrows were eating seeds with the juncos on the ground. Song sparrows are brown with darker streaking and quite common in this area.
Meanwhile, a couple dozen white-throated sparrows were scratching among the dead and fallen leaves for seeds and invertebrates a few yards into the woods near where the juncos were. Being sparrows, they were brown with darker streaking and a white throat patch. Like the juncos, white-throats nest farther north and spend winters in Lancaster County, and through much of the eastern United States. And like juncos and all other sparrow species, white-throats are hard to see because of their camouflaged feathering.
Just off that same road I was parked on, I noticed a pair of northern cardinals eating multiflora rose berries and a dozen American goldfinches consuming weed seeds on the top of five-foot-tall stems near the road. Obviously, some of the birds were feeding on the ground while other species were eating berries and seeds above the soil. Because of their reducing competition for food, more species of birds in greater numbers can live in any one place.
When outside, one can almost always count on seeing something of interest in nature. Nature is always inspiring wherever the reader may be.
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Friday, November 6, 2015
More on Seed Dispersal
When I wrote the previous blog about seed dispersal, I forgot to mention kinds of trees in southeastern Pennsylvania that grow beautiful and intriguing seeds that blow away on the wind from the parent trees. Those trees are a few kinds of maples, plus ashes, tulip trees and elms.
Red, sugar and ash-leafed maple trees, for example, grow beige-colored, or red in the case of red maples, "veined"seeds that twirl in the wind away from the parent trees. Hopefully those seeds will colonize new ground with maples.
Maple seeds grow in pairs and each seed has a fat part that houses the tree embryo and stored food to get the sprout started in life. But each maple seed also has a long, thin section that is the seed's wing. That single wing enables the seed to rotate in the wind like a helicopter blade, which carries the seed far before dropping to the ground where it might grow into a new tree, if not consumed by rodents.
Maple seeds are often so numerous that they might pile up against objects. These seeds have little chance of sprouting and growing in soil.
Ash trees and tulip trees also grow beige seeds that have a thick part and a long, slender one, the wing. Though these seeds are shaped differently than those on maples, they, too, swirl in the wind away and down to the ground where they might sprout if not eaten by rodents.
Elm seeds are rounded and fairly flat all over, but a little raised in the middle where the embryo and its food are. Elm seeds have two tiny wings, one on each side of the thicker, middle part. Elm seeds blow away lightly on the wind and often form great heaps against fallen logs and other objects on the ground. Those piles of elm seeds could be places where invertebrates and small vertebrates can hide from critters that would eat them. And warm-blooded, small mammals could also bury under blankets of elm seeds to stay warm.
Maple, ash, tulip tree and elm seeds are not only picturesque, but valuable to their parent plants, wildlife and the habitats they fall on. They spread their species far and wide. And they provide food and cover to a variety of wildlife, including certain kinds of birds, several types of mammals and hosts of invertebrates. But if they don't sprout, or get ingested by wildlife, they will rot into the soil, enriching it.
Red, sugar and ash-leafed maple trees, for example, grow beige-colored, or red in the case of red maples, "veined"seeds that twirl in the wind away from the parent trees. Hopefully those seeds will colonize new ground with maples.
Maple seeds grow in pairs and each seed has a fat part that houses the tree embryo and stored food to get the sprout started in life. But each maple seed also has a long, thin section that is the seed's wing. That single wing enables the seed to rotate in the wind like a helicopter blade, which carries the seed far before dropping to the ground where it might grow into a new tree, if not consumed by rodents.
Maple seeds are often so numerous that they might pile up against objects. These seeds have little chance of sprouting and growing in soil.
Ash trees and tulip trees also grow beige seeds that have a thick part and a long, slender one, the wing. Though these seeds are shaped differently than those on maples, they, too, swirl in the wind away and down to the ground where they might sprout if not eaten by rodents.
Elm seeds are rounded and fairly flat all over, but a little raised in the middle where the embryo and its food are. Elm seeds have two tiny wings, one on each side of the thicker, middle part. Elm seeds blow away lightly on the wind and often form great heaps against fallen logs and other objects on the ground. Those piles of elm seeds could be places where invertebrates and small vertebrates can hide from critters that would eat them. And warm-blooded, small mammals could also bury under blankets of elm seeds to stay warm.
Maple, ash, tulip tree and elm seeds are not only picturesque, but valuable to their parent plants, wildlife and the habitats they fall on. They spread their species far and wide. And they provide food and cover to a variety of wildlife, including certain kinds of birds, several types of mammals and hosts of invertebrates. But if they don't sprout, or get ingested by wildlife, they will rot into the soil, enriching it.
Seed Dispersal
As we all know, plants can not travel. Where they sprout is where they stay. So why are certain kinds of vegetation seemingly everywhere? They must get around somehow, including here in southeastern Pennsylvania, for example. They spread across the countryside by virtue of their seeds, on the wind, in birds' digestive tracts, on animal fur and by being stored by certain critters to be eaten in winter.
Dandelions, thistles and milkweeds are types of plants that produce small, brownish seeds, each one with a white parachute that carries its burden away on the wind, often for long distances. It's neat to watch those beautiful, fluffy parachutes blowing off the parent stalks with their dangling cargo. And the seeds that land on soil, and are not consumed by mice and birds, sprout into new plants.
Many kinds of trees and shrubbery have a different strategy for traveling over the landscape. They produce pretty berries, many kinds of which are brightly colored, allowing birds to see them to ingest them during fall and winter. Birds, including flocks of American robins, eastern bluebirds, starlings, cedar waxwings, yellow-rumped warblers and other species, eat the berries of spice bushes, multiflora rose, Tartarian honeysuckle, barberry, yews and hollies, all of which are red, and other kinds of woody-barked plants. Those birds digest the pulp of the berries, but pass many of the seeds in their droppings, often miles away from the parent vegetation. Some of the seeds, when not eaten by rodents, sprout into new plants that, eventually, produce more berries for birds and rodents to eat.
Stick tights from tick-trefoil plants, beggar ticks from bur-marigolds, cockleburs and other kinds of prickly seeds stick to the fur of medium-sized to large mammals such as foxes, raccoons and white-tailed deer as those critters push through dense vegetation near the ground. Eventually those animals tire of those irritating seeds and pull them out of their fur with their teeth and claws. The seeds drop to the ground and sprout, thus spreading their kind across the landscape.
Blue jays and a small variety of squirrels bury a diversity of acorns and other nuts in the ground in autumn. Those nuts are stored by those creatures to be dug up and eaten in winter when food is scarce and buried under blankets of snow. The animals must remember where they buried the nuts to retrieve them so easily. But if a jay or squirrel is killed by a predator, the nuts it buried will not be consumed in winter, but sprout and grow during the following spring and summer, often far from the parent vegetation. Whole woodlands have been started by deceased jays and squirrels.
Nature is interesting and all aspects of it work together for the benefit of all species. We only need to step outside, almost wherever we may be, to experience seed dispersal at work and other intrigues of nature.
Dandelions, thistles and milkweeds are types of plants that produce small, brownish seeds, each one with a white parachute that carries its burden away on the wind, often for long distances. It's neat to watch those beautiful, fluffy parachutes blowing off the parent stalks with their dangling cargo. And the seeds that land on soil, and are not consumed by mice and birds, sprout into new plants.
Many kinds of trees and shrubbery have a different strategy for traveling over the landscape. They produce pretty berries, many kinds of which are brightly colored, allowing birds to see them to ingest them during fall and winter. Birds, including flocks of American robins, eastern bluebirds, starlings, cedar waxwings, yellow-rumped warblers and other species, eat the berries of spice bushes, multiflora rose, Tartarian honeysuckle, barberry, yews and hollies, all of which are red, and other kinds of woody-barked plants. Those birds digest the pulp of the berries, but pass many of the seeds in their droppings, often miles away from the parent vegetation. Some of the seeds, when not eaten by rodents, sprout into new plants that, eventually, produce more berries for birds and rodents to eat.
Stick tights from tick-trefoil plants, beggar ticks from bur-marigolds, cockleburs and other kinds of prickly seeds stick to the fur of medium-sized to large mammals such as foxes, raccoons and white-tailed deer as those critters push through dense vegetation near the ground. Eventually those animals tire of those irritating seeds and pull them out of their fur with their teeth and claws. The seeds drop to the ground and sprout, thus spreading their kind across the landscape.
Blue jays and a small variety of squirrels bury a diversity of acorns and other nuts in the ground in autumn. Those nuts are stored by those creatures to be dug up and eaten in winter when food is scarce and buried under blankets of snow. The animals must remember where they buried the nuts to retrieve them so easily. But if a jay or squirrel is killed by a predator, the nuts it buried will not be consumed in winter, but sprout and grow during the following spring and summer, often far from the parent vegetation. Whole woodlands have been started by deceased jays and squirrels.
Nature is interesting and all aspects of it work together for the benefit of all species. We only need to step outside, almost wherever we may be, to experience seed dispersal at work and other intrigues of nature.
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Autumn Ducks and Geese Inland
By the middle of October and through November, stately Canada geese and several kinds of ducks are common on impoundments and fields in inland Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Mallard ducks, wood ducks and Canadas nested here and remained into fall, though most of the woodies flew south by October. Many of the mallards and Canadas are permanent residents here and won't leave until forced to by a severe winter. And other kinds of ducks and brant geese come here from their nesting territories farther north or west. Some of them will also stay until lakes and ponds freeze over and fields are covered by snow, locking away their food supplies.
All these geese and ducks are adaptable, even in highly civilized areas, which allows them to use built habitats, including impoundments and fields. Instead of being driven away by our activities as a society, these water birds put them to use for their own benefit.
Resident Canada geese form large flocks of themselves on most every human-made lake, pond, flooded quarry, retention basin and flooded field in this county at one time or another. There they rest and honk almost constantly, but when hungry, off they go in inspiring, bugling groups, flock after flock, to harvested corn fields and winter rye fields, also human-made habitats, where they eat waste corn kernels and the green shoots of rye. Their hordes noisily circle the field they intend to land on several times, then finally come down, group after group, as if on an aerial highway, to the ground. The majestic Canadas are always thrilling and inspiring to see and hear, in the air, on the fields and on water. And they are especially exciting when they take off from or come down on water or fields amid their boisterous honking.
In October and November, a few small gatherings of migrating brant geese stop to rest on the Susquehanna River in Lancaster County, or on a couple of its winter rye fields to graze on the green rye stems. These are small, attractive geese, barely larger than mallard ducks, that are related to Canada geese. They nested on the tundra along the Arctic Ocean and are now going to salt marshes along the Atlantic shore for the winter.
Mallard ducks are the most common duck species in Lancaster County any time of year. Most every pond, retention basin, wetland, flooded field and creek has its groups of pretty mallards. Drakes have dark-rufous chests and totally green heads.
Mallards dabble for aquatic vegetation in the shallow water and fly out to harvested corn fields to shovel up waste corn kernels. I have seen flocks of them powering out on whistling wings to feeding fields during winter sunsets when wind pushed snow over those fields like pink smoke. The ducks descended into and disappeared in the drifting snow in the gathering darkness and continued to feed on corn among the snow drifts until darkness enveloped them. What a wild sight for such a common creature in overly-civilized Lancaster County.
And there are little gatherings and individuals of other duck species in this area in autumn, including dabbling ducks and diving ducks. Dabblers here in November include black ducks, green-winged teal, shovelers, gadwalls, northern pintails and American wigeons. Diving ducks on inland lakes include a few each of ring-necked ducks, lesser scaup, ruddy ducks, buffleheads and hooded mergansers.
Black ducks nest in woodland habitats in the northeastern United States and eastern Canada. And, although many of them spend winters on Atlantic Coast salt marshes, some of them winter on creeks, ponds and lakes in Lancaster County and other inland locations. Black ducks are closely related to mallards and a few blacks join mallards on water and in feeding fields.
The other dabblers are in Lancaster County mostly as pairs or individuals, usually in groups of mallards. The exception is a flock of about 30 shovelers on the impoundment at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in November. These ducks, as a group, are interesting to watch feeding in their own, unique way on small vegetable and animal matter in very shallow water. A group of shovelers will form a circle in the shallows and swim round and round to stir up the mud on the bottom with their webbed feet. Then they strain the mud with their over-sized beaks to consume the edibles in it. I presume they have fed in this way from the origin of their species. Their large, spatula-like bills developed later through genetic quirks to more efficiently feed in the way they do.
I like to watch the diving ducks slip under water from the surface to get either vegetable or small animal foods in the water, depending on the species. Hooded mergansers catch small fish, while the other kinds consume a combination of water plants and small animals, including insect larvae, and small mollusks and crustaceans, including crayfish of various sizes.
This autumn and winter, watch for these inland types of geese and ducks in the Middle Atlantic States, and elsewhere. They are another interesting part of nature in this developed area.
All these geese and ducks are adaptable, even in highly civilized areas, which allows them to use built habitats, including impoundments and fields. Instead of being driven away by our activities as a society, these water birds put them to use for their own benefit.
Resident Canada geese form large flocks of themselves on most every human-made lake, pond, flooded quarry, retention basin and flooded field in this county at one time or another. There they rest and honk almost constantly, but when hungry, off they go in inspiring, bugling groups, flock after flock, to harvested corn fields and winter rye fields, also human-made habitats, where they eat waste corn kernels and the green shoots of rye. Their hordes noisily circle the field they intend to land on several times, then finally come down, group after group, as if on an aerial highway, to the ground. The majestic Canadas are always thrilling and inspiring to see and hear, in the air, on the fields and on water. And they are especially exciting when they take off from or come down on water or fields amid their boisterous honking.
In October and November, a few small gatherings of migrating brant geese stop to rest on the Susquehanna River in Lancaster County, or on a couple of its winter rye fields to graze on the green rye stems. These are small, attractive geese, barely larger than mallard ducks, that are related to Canada geese. They nested on the tundra along the Arctic Ocean and are now going to salt marshes along the Atlantic shore for the winter.
Mallard ducks are the most common duck species in Lancaster County any time of year. Most every pond, retention basin, wetland, flooded field and creek has its groups of pretty mallards. Drakes have dark-rufous chests and totally green heads.
Mallards dabble for aquatic vegetation in the shallow water and fly out to harvested corn fields to shovel up waste corn kernels. I have seen flocks of them powering out on whistling wings to feeding fields during winter sunsets when wind pushed snow over those fields like pink smoke. The ducks descended into and disappeared in the drifting snow in the gathering darkness and continued to feed on corn among the snow drifts until darkness enveloped them. What a wild sight for such a common creature in overly-civilized Lancaster County.
And there are little gatherings and individuals of other duck species in this area in autumn, including dabbling ducks and diving ducks. Dabblers here in November include black ducks, green-winged teal, shovelers, gadwalls, northern pintails and American wigeons. Diving ducks on inland lakes include a few each of ring-necked ducks, lesser scaup, ruddy ducks, buffleheads and hooded mergansers.
Black ducks nest in woodland habitats in the northeastern United States and eastern Canada. And, although many of them spend winters on Atlantic Coast salt marshes, some of them winter on creeks, ponds and lakes in Lancaster County and other inland locations. Black ducks are closely related to mallards and a few blacks join mallards on water and in feeding fields.
The other dabblers are in Lancaster County mostly as pairs or individuals, usually in groups of mallards. The exception is a flock of about 30 shovelers on the impoundment at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in November. These ducks, as a group, are interesting to watch feeding in their own, unique way on small vegetable and animal matter in very shallow water. A group of shovelers will form a circle in the shallows and swim round and round to stir up the mud on the bottom with their webbed feet. Then they strain the mud with their over-sized beaks to consume the edibles in it. I presume they have fed in this way from the origin of their species. Their large, spatula-like bills developed later through genetic quirks to more efficiently feed in the way they do.
I like to watch the diving ducks slip under water from the surface to get either vegetable or small animal foods in the water, depending on the species. Hooded mergansers catch small fish, while the other kinds consume a combination of water plants and small animals, including insect larvae, and small mollusks and crustaceans, including crayfish of various sizes.
This autumn and winter, watch for these inland types of geese and ducks in the Middle Atlantic States, and elsewhere. They are another interesting part of nature in this developed area.
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Golden Eagles in Eastern North America
The majestic golden eagles live in forested mountains and other wilderness habitats throughout the northern hemisphere, including here in eastern North America. But because the eastern United States is so developed, most golden eagles in eastern North America raise young in the forests of eastern Canada, and in northern Maine in the United States. And, although this stately type of raptor is tough and can tolerate cold weather, they still need abundant food in winter like any other kind of bird. So many golden eagles leave their breeding territories in eastern Canada and migrate south, mostly along the southwest-running Appalachian Mountains, to wintering grounds in the more rural sections of New York State, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia.
Golden eagle autumn migrations mostly occur from the middle of October to mid-December, with a peak of moving south during the bulk of November. Goldens generally move on brisk northwest or north winds that are forced up the Appalachians, pushing the big, magnificent eagles up with them for easy traveling with little effort expended on the birds' parts.
Although migrating goldens are spotted most anywhere along their migration routes in the Middle Atlantic States in fall, they are seen in biggest numbers at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary on wooded mountains in northern Berks County and Waggoners' Gap, a wooded mountain off Route 74 on the border of Perry and Cumberland Counties.
Both those look outs are on the famous Blue Ridge Mountains of southeastern Pennsylvania so they both host many of the same eagles each autumn. But Waggoner's Gap usually sees more migrant golden eagles in a fall than Hawk Mountain. Waggoners' Gap averages about 235 goldens each fall. And it saw 275 goldens migrate by in 2006. Those numbers are a fair indication of how many of those stately eagles live in eastern North America. And I'm sure not all migrant goldens move along the Blue Ridge, which tells us there must be more than 275 of them in eastern North America.
Golden eagles are adapting to less than wilderness conditions to winter in. Some have wintered in developed Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and Maryland's heavily populated Eastern Shore between the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. But many goldens winter in Pennsylvania's and West Virginia's remote and wild wooded valleys where they scavenge dead white-tailed deer and other animals, as well as catch cottontail rabbits, snowshoe hares, gray squirrels and red and gray foxes. They catch many of those same animals in warmer months, and wood chucks and other critters that are available.
Golden eagles are big and majestic, and wilderness birds for the most part. But they are slowly adapting to less than wild habitats, which may help them increase their numbers because of more places to nest and a lower death rate in winter when getting enough food is tough. Watch for these magnificent birds. They are thrilling and inspiring whenever and wherever found. And, fortunately, they are protected by law.
Golden eagle autumn migrations mostly occur from the middle of October to mid-December, with a peak of moving south during the bulk of November. Goldens generally move on brisk northwest or north winds that are forced up the Appalachians, pushing the big, magnificent eagles up with them for easy traveling with little effort expended on the birds' parts.
Although migrating goldens are spotted most anywhere along their migration routes in the Middle Atlantic States in fall, they are seen in biggest numbers at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary on wooded mountains in northern Berks County and Waggoners' Gap, a wooded mountain off Route 74 on the border of Perry and Cumberland Counties.
Both those look outs are on the famous Blue Ridge Mountains of southeastern Pennsylvania so they both host many of the same eagles each autumn. But Waggoner's Gap usually sees more migrant golden eagles in a fall than Hawk Mountain. Waggoners' Gap averages about 235 goldens each fall. And it saw 275 goldens migrate by in 2006. Those numbers are a fair indication of how many of those stately eagles live in eastern North America. And I'm sure not all migrant goldens move along the Blue Ridge, which tells us there must be more than 275 of them in eastern North America.
Golden eagles are adapting to less than wilderness conditions to winter in. Some have wintered in developed Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and Maryland's heavily populated Eastern Shore between the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. But many goldens winter in Pennsylvania's and West Virginia's remote and wild wooded valleys where they scavenge dead white-tailed deer and other animals, as well as catch cottontail rabbits, snowshoe hares, gray squirrels and red and gray foxes. They catch many of those same animals in warmer months, and wood chucks and other critters that are available.
Golden eagles are big and majestic, and wilderness birds for the most part. But they are slowly adapting to less than wild habitats, which may help them increase their numbers because of more places to nest and a lower death rate in winter when getting enough food is tough. Watch for these magnificent birds. They are thrilling and inspiring whenever and wherever found. And, fortunately, they are protected by law.
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Bittersweet and Multiflora Rose Berries
Bittersweet vines and multiflora rose bushes have obvious, brightly-colored berries by the beginning of November in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, as elsewhere. And these two fast-spreading species of plants have other characteristics in common, though they are not closely related. They both are originally from Asia, and decorative where they grew and as indoor decor. In fact, both species can be bought at some markets in fall. They are bare of leaves in winter. Both these species provide outdoor color in winter, and food and shelter for a variety of rodents and small birds. They both flourish along the edges of woods, in hedgerows and along roadsides. And they are most attractive when they grow side by side.
These two kinds of vegetation are beautiful and interesting in winter, in themselves, but particularly so when birds such as American robins, eastern bluebirds, cedar waxwings and other species visit them to consume their berries. The birds digest the pulp of those berries, but pass many of the seeds in their droppings as they fly here and there, thus spreading these two species of plants, and others, over the landscape.
Though their warmly-colored berries are pretty and decorative, and provide some food and shelter for certain kinds of wildlife, these plants are invasive. Bittersweet with their red or deep-orange berries that emerge from stiff, yellow petals early in November can quickly cover trees and shrubbery with their vines, perhaps shutting off sunlight enough to kill those host plants. Thus this vine can lower the diversity of other kinds of plants that provide food and shelter for wildlife.
Multiflora rose bushes, that produce red berries, were originally planted to provide living fences to keep farm livestock confined to pastures. But this kind of wild rose spreads rapidly in sunny habitats, which meadows are, and rapidly gets out of hand. Canes of this rose arch up, over and down to the ground. When the tip of each cane touches the soil, it sends roots into the ground, forming a new shrub. In this way, multiflora rose bushes "march" across sunny habitats and take them over.
However, certain kinds of birds have adapted to nesting in prickly multiflora rose thickets, including northern mockingbirds, brown thrashers, gray catbirds, northern cardinals, song sparrows, willow flycatchers, yellow warblers, common yellowthroat warblers and other species. These thorny rose thickets are a blessing to those kinds of birds to raise young in with relative safety from predators. And larger animals, such as red foxes, coyotes, opossums, skunks, cottontail rabbits and other kinds, can also find shelter under these bushes.
Like all forms of life, bittersweet and multiflora rose have good and not so good qualities. But they are both in the United States to stay, no matter how we try to get rid of them. So we may as well enjoy their beauties and intrigues.
These two kinds of vegetation are beautiful and interesting in winter, in themselves, but particularly so when birds such as American robins, eastern bluebirds, cedar waxwings and other species visit them to consume their berries. The birds digest the pulp of those berries, but pass many of the seeds in their droppings as they fly here and there, thus spreading these two species of plants, and others, over the landscape.
Though their warmly-colored berries are pretty and decorative, and provide some food and shelter for certain kinds of wildlife, these plants are invasive. Bittersweet with their red or deep-orange berries that emerge from stiff, yellow petals early in November can quickly cover trees and shrubbery with their vines, perhaps shutting off sunlight enough to kill those host plants. Thus this vine can lower the diversity of other kinds of plants that provide food and shelter for wildlife.
Multiflora rose bushes, that produce red berries, were originally planted to provide living fences to keep farm livestock confined to pastures. But this kind of wild rose spreads rapidly in sunny habitats, which meadows are, and rapidly gets out of hand. Canes of this rose arch up, over and down to the ground. When the tip of each cane touches the soil, it sends roots into the ground, forming a new shrub. In this way, multiflora rose bushes "march" across sunny habitats and take them over.
However, certain kinds of birds have adapted to nesting in prickly multiflora rose thickets, including northern mockingbirds, brown thrashers, gray catbirds, northern cardinals, song sparrows, willow flycatchers, yellow warblers, common yellowthroat warblers and other species. These thorny rose thickets are a blessing to those kinds of birds to raise young in with relative safety from predators. And larger animals, such as red foxes, coyotes, opossums, skunks, cottontail rabbits and other kinds, can also find shelter under these bushes.
Like all forms of life, bittersweet and multiflora rose have good and not so good qualities. But they are both in the United States to stay, no matter how we try to get rid of them. So we may as well enjoy their beauties and intrigues.
Today, November 3rd, I was driving through the wooded Welsh Mountains about a mile and a half south of New Holland, Pennsylvania. It is a warm, sunny day with blue skies and the remnant of colored leaves; a god day to be outside exploring nature. Dead, red, yellow and brown leaves fell constantly from deciduous trees and planted, tall Norway spruce and white pine trees emerged from the falling veil of foliage. Meanwhile, the forest floors became ever more covered with carpets of dead, crispy leaves.
As I stood and marveled at the autumn leaf beauties for a couple of hours that morning, several creatures came into my view, but not all at once. A group of about six turkey vultures and around eight black vultures flapped and soared overhead for several minutes as they sought a thermal of warmed air that would carry them up and up and away in the sky. Those vultures roosted overnight somewhere in the forests of the Welsh Mountains, but are now getting airborne to soar over nearby cropland to look for dead animals to eat. Excitingly, as I watched the circling vultures, I saw an immature bald eagle float by, fairly low, on huge, flat wings.
Since I was relatively still and quiet, I began to see gray squirrels gathering nuts for the winter and a flock of about a dozen sparrow-sized, dark-eyed juncos eating weed seeds along the road I was on in the woods. I was amused to see a red-tailed hawk circling above the trees tops and thought those squirrels need to be careful with that hawk around.
About the time I saw the red-tail on high, the juncos suddenly zipped into roadside shrubs and disappeared. Within a second I saw a hawk abruptly land on a fallen tree near where the juncos were. Through my 16 power binoculars, I saw the hawk was a young, male sharp-shinned hawk. That sharpy stood on the downed tree for a minute, then flew into a nearby tree, presumably to wait until the juncos forgot about him and came out to forage on weed and grass seeds again. The hawk was camouflaged in the tree and maybe the juncos wouldn't see him, allowing him to ambush one or more of them.
Because it was early November, I saw many colorful berries of four kinds along the road in the woods, as in many other woodland edges, hedgerows and roadsides in this area in autumn. Those berries add much color and beauty to those overgrown, human-made habitats in fall and winter. There were red ones on deciduous multiflora rose bushes, bittersweet vines and staghorn sumac trees and pale-blue ones on coniferous red juniper trees. Those berries will be food for white-footed mice, gray squirrels, flying squirrels, and such birds as flocks of American robins, eastern bluebirds, cedar waxwings, and individual northern mockingbirds and a few kinds of woodpeckers. This winter I will enjoy visiting that berry-producing vegetation to experience their beautiful berries and the birds that eat many of them. The birds will ingest the berries, digest the pulp, but pass many of their seeds in their droppings across the countryside, thus spreading those plants far and wide.
Staghorn sumacs are interesting little, native trees. They have compound leaves that produce several leaflets that turn red in October or before and flutter in autumn winds like banners. They produce fuzzy-covered, red berries in pyramid-shaped clumps on the tops of their twigs. And many of those decorative berries stay on their twigs through much of the winter when they can be admired.
Most any day any time of year is a good day to be outdoors. There one can enjoy and be inspired by the beauties and intrigues of nature.
As I stood and marveled at the autumn leaf beauties for a couple of hours that morning, several creatures came into my view, but not all at once. A group of about six turkey vultures and around eight black vultures flapped and soared overhead for several minutes as they sought a thermal of warmed air that would carry them up and up and away in the sky. Those vultures roosted overnight somewhere in the forests of the Welsh Mountains, but are now getting airborne to soar over nearby cropland to look for dead animals to eat. Excitingly, as I watched the circling vultures, I saw an immature bald eagle float by, fairly low, on huge, flat wings.
Since I was relatively still and quiet, I began to see gray squirrels gathering nuts for the winter and a flock of about a dozen sparrow-sized, dark-eyed juncos eating weed seeds along the road I was on in the woods. I was amused to see a red-tailed hawk circling above the trees tops and thought those squirrels need to be careful with that hawk around.
About the time I saw the red-tail on high, the juncos suddenly zipped into roadside shrubs and disappeared. Within a second I saw a hawk abruptly land on a fallen tree near where the juncos were. Through my 16 power binoculars, I saw the hawk was a young, male sharp-shinned hawk. That sharpy stood on the downed tree for a minute, then flew into a nearby tree, presumably to wait until the juncos forgot about him and came out to forage on weed and grass seeds again. The hawk was camouflaged in the tree and maybe the juncos wouldn't see him, allowing him to ambush one or more of them.
Because it was early November, I saw many colorful berries of four kinds along the road in the woods, as in many other woodland edges, hedgerows and roadsides in this area in autumn. Those berries add much color and beauty to those overgrown, human-made habitats in fall and winter. There were red ones on deciduous multiflora rose bushes, bittersweet vines and staghorn sumac trees and pale-blue ones on coniferous red juniper trees. Those berries will be food for white-footed mice, gray squirrels, flying squirrels, and such birds as flocks of American robins, eastern bluebirds, cedar waxwings, and individual northern mockingbirds and a few kinds of woodpeckers. This winter I will enjoy visiting that berry-producing vegetation to experience their beautiful berries and the birds that eat many of them. The birds will ingest the berries, digest the pulp, but pass many of their seeds in their droppings across the countryside, thus spreading those plants far and wide.
Staghorn sumacs are interesting little, native trees. They have compound leaves that produce several leaflets that turn red in October or before and flutter in autumn winds like banners. They produce fuzzy-covered, red berries in pyramid-shaped clumps on the tops of their twigs. And many of those decorative berries stay on their twigs through much of the winter when they can be admired.
Most any day any time of year is a good day to be outdoors. There one can enjoy and be inspired by the beauties and intrigues of nature.
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