A few kinds of hawks in southeastern Pennsylvania, including red-tails, American kestrel's and Cooper's, have adapted to living and nesting in farmland, and older suburban areas with their many tall trees. But other kinds of hawks, including goshawks, broad-wings and red-shoulders, still winter or nest in this area's woodlands.
I have been thrilled to see two wintering goshawks so far in my lifetime. Both birds were flying low and fast, with quick, powerful wingbeats through maturing forests in southeastern Pennsylvania. They do that to surprise, flush up and catch a variety of woodland birds and mammals, including ruffed grouse, blue jays and squirrels.
Goshawks are exciting to see hunting in the woods. But they are only in this part of Pennsylvania during winter, and not every winter at that. They only migrate south when food is scarce in northern forests where they raise young.
Goshawk pairs nest high in trees in the northern, mixed forests of Eurasia and North America. In America, they hatch young across Alaska and Canada, in New England, down the Rocky Mountains and down the Appalachians to Maryland. They fiercely protect their young from all comers.
Goshawks are large, heavy birds that are bigger than crows. Adults are gray on top and finely-barred gray below. The young, however, are brown above and brown-flecked underneath. And both genders and all ages have a broad, white stripe above each eye, back to the upper neck.
Broad-winged hawks only nest in deciduous woods in the eastern United States. They winter in Central America and northern South America. Arriving in southeastern Pennsylvania in mid-April, they quickly pair, prepare stick nurseries high in woodland trees and raise young until they leave their cradles late in July. Broadies feed on frogs, snakes, mice, insects, small birds and other critters in the woods.
Starting in September, broad-wings migrate in spectacular flocks of themselves out of the United States to wintering areas in Central and South America. Each sunny morning during that month, broadies rise from tree tops in the woods where they spent the night and search for rising columns of warmed air called thermals. When each broad-wing feels the rising of a thermal, it enters it and is spiraled higher and higher by the warm air. More and more broadies enter the thermal until it is filled with many raptors spinning upward. At the zenith of the thermal, the broadies peel off in long lines or flocks and head southwest, soaring high above the ground for mile after mile with little effort. But gravity pulls them down and so the broad-wings are obliged to find another thermal and another, all day, day after day of their migration southwest to their wintering places.
As a species, red-shouldered hawks are permanent residents in southeastern Pennsylvania's wet, bottomland woods. And there is where they nest, in stick nurseries in the tree tops. Their summer range is all of the eastern United States and most of them winter in the southeastern United States.
Adult red shoulders are pretty hawks, being robin-red underneath, with black and white stripes on their upper wings and tails and having rufous-red "shoulder" patches. Immatures, however, are brown on top and brown-streaked on white below, which camouflages them. And like broad-wings, red-shoulders mostly perch in ambush to catch and ingest frogs, snakes, mice, insects and other small critters in the woods. Broadies and red-shoulders might compete a bit for food in bottomland woods, though broadies are not restricted to that habitat as red-shoulders are.
Though not seen as much as farmland hawks, these woodland hawks are an exciting part of southeastern Pennsylvania's avifauna. They can be spotted with stealth and patience at the times they are living in this part of the state, and elsewhere across much of North America.
Sunday, November 6, 2016
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Nature in Fall
On November 2, 2016, I went looking for highlights of nature in farmland and wood lots around Honey Brook in Chester County, Pennsylvania. I made two stops where meadows, woodlots and small waterways mingle in bottomlands. The weather that day was delightful with clear skies, warm temperatures and little wind. And autumn leaves were at their peak of beautiful colors in woodlots and on distant wooded hills.
Stop one was a mix of a small pasture overgrown with reed canary-grass and multiflora rose bushes that bordered a brook, all under an open canopy of several tall silver maple and black alder trees. The rose bushes had many red berries that will feed deer mice and berry-eating birds, including northern mockingbirds, American robins and cedar waxwings, during the coming winter. The alders had many decorative, tightly-closed catkins (male flowers) hanging from twigs that will open and undulate in the wind next March. The alders also had small, woody cones with tiny seeds in them that will feed seed-eating sparrows and finches through winter.
I saw a few species of birds during the hour I visited that little meadow, including a pair of Carolina chickadees, a few house finches, a song sparrow, a pair of northern cardinals, a few white-throated sparrows, a pine warbler and a family of about six tufted titmice. The chickadees, titmice, finches, cardinals and song sparrow are all permanent residents of that overgrown, tree-studded meadow and its surrounding cropland. But the white-throats and pine warbler are migrants or winter residents only.
While I was there, the house finches were feasting on ragweed seeds on the dried plants. The white-throats scratched among fallen leaves for invertebrates and seeds under those leaves. The titmouse family was all over the alders in search of tiny invertebrates to eat. The feeding activities of those birds made this little pasture the more interesting.
I made a second stop a few miles from the first one because I saw an adult red-headed woodpecker land on a wooden fence post near the road just as I drove by that post. Quickly stopping along the side of the road, I noticed two adult red-heads on a dead tree in a small pasture studded with living pin oak and red maple trees. The maples' leaves were breathtakingly red, especially against the blue sky. The woodpeckers' feathers on their wings and bodies were black and white patterned, and their heads were completely, strikingly red! Both woodpeckers were actively catching flying insects in mid-air, as their species often does.
A pair of red-tailed hawks were perched in different trees in a nearby, colorful woodlot of red maples mostly. Those hawks probably were quietly watching for gray squirrels gathering acorns and storing them for winter use in tree cavities and holes the squirrels dig into the ground. Any squirrel caught off guard could be caught and eaten by the hawks. If that happens, some of the acorns buried in the soil could sprout into new trees.
Meanwhile, three lovely blue jays were taking turns gathering and flying away with pin oak acorns in their beaks to that same red maple wood lot. There they will stash those nuts in tree hollows or in shallow holes in the soil of the woods. The jays make those holes in the ground with their beaks and push a nut into each one of them. But if a jay is killed or forgets where it buried acorns in the ground, those nuts could develop into young trees, if squirrels and mice don't find them first.
A flock of about 20 mourning doves and a gathering of around 30 purple grackles were feeding on the ground among each other where the meadow and woodlot met. The doves were eating weed seeds while the grackles were consuming invertebrates and seeds. The grackles constantly flipped fallen leaves over to uncover those food items.
I thought this was an intriguing, enjoyable nature trip in the beauties of colored leaves, nice weather and interesting birds. It's days like this that are inspiring and uplifting. Anyone can enjoy nature most anytime, anywhere. One just has to get out to experience it and let it work its wonders.
Stop one was a mix of a small pasture overgrown with reed canary-grass and multiflora rose bushes that bordered a brook, all under an open canopy of several tall silver maple and black alder trees. The rose bushes had many red berries that will feed deer mice and berry-eating birds, including northern mockingbirds, American robins and cedar waxwings, during the coming winter. The alders had many decorative, tightly-closed catkins (male flowers) hanging from twigs that will open and undulate in the wind next March. The alders also had small, woody cones with tiny seeds in them that will feed seed-eating sparrows and finches through winter.
I saw a few species of birds during the hour I visited that little meadow, including a pair of Carolina chickadees, a few house finches, a song sparrow, a pair of northern cardinals, a few white-throated sparrows, a pine warbler and a family of about six tufted titmice. The chickadees, titmice, finches, cardinals and song sparrow are all permanent residents of that overgrown, tree-studded meadow and its surrounding cropland. But the white-throats and pine warbler are migrants or winter residents only.
While I was there, the house finches were feasting on ragweed seeds on the dried plants. The white-throats scratched among fallen leaves for invertebrates and seeds under those leaves. The titmouse family was all over the alders in search of tiny invertebrates to eat. The feeding activities of those birds made this little pasture the more interesting.
I made a second stop a few miles from the first one because I saw an adult red-headed woodpecker land on a wooden fence post near the road just as I drove by that post. Quickly stopping along the side of the road, I noticed two adult red-heads on a dead tree in a small pasture studded with living pin oak and red maple trees. The maples' leaves were breathtakingly red, especially against the blue sky. The woodpeckers' feathers on their wings and bodies were black and white patterned, and their heads were completely, strikingly red! Both woodpeckers were actively catching flying insects in mid-air, as their species often does.
A pair of red-tailed hawks were perched in different trees in a nearby, colorful woodlot of red maples mostly. Those hawks probably were quietly watching for gray squirrels gathering acorns and storing them for winter use in tree cavities and holes the squirrels dig into the ground. Any squirrel caught off guard could be caught and eaten by the hawks. If that happens, some of the acorns buried in the soil could sprout into new trees.
Meanwhile, three lovely blue jays were taking turns gathering and flying away with pin oak acorns in their beaks to that same red maple wood lot. There they will stash those nuts in tree hollows or in shallow holes in the soil of the woods. The jays make those holes in the ground with their beaks and push a nut into each one of them. But if a jay is killed or forgets where it buried acorns in the ground, those nuts could develop into young trees, if squirrels and mice don't find them first.
A flock of about 20 mourning doves and a gathering of around 30 purple grackles were feeding on the ground among each other where the meadow and woodlot met. The doves were eating weed seeds while the grackles were consuming invertebrates and seeds. The grackles constantly flipped fallen leaves over to uncover those food items.
I thought this was an intriguing, enjoyable nature trip in the beauties of colored leaves, nice weather and interesting birds. It's days like this that are inspiring and uplifting. Anyone can enjoy nature most anytime, anywhere. One just has to get out to experience it and let it work its wonders.
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Dark Birds in Flight
In the morning of October 28, 2016, I was driving through Lancaster County, Pennsylvania farmland. It was a typical late-October day of clear skies and blustery, cold wind. Suddenly I saw about a dozen turkey vultures and a few black vultures maneuvering together into the wind, and a tattered line of American crows struggling into the wind over the farmland. It was interesting to see the turkey vultures rocking from side to side a bit on their outstretched, slightly tipped-up wings to cope with the wind while soaring and the black vultures' usual flight pattern of alternately soaring and flapping their wings as if in a panic. The crows recently came south from their nesting areas in Canada to spend the winter here, as they do every late-October.
Continuing on, I saw a half dozen, probably different, turkey vultures maneuvering masterfully in the strong wind over rye fields, harvested corn fields and a field of orange pumpkins. Then I saw more, and more, turkey vultures, which finally numbered to about 20 individuals, with a few black vultures among them. It was entertaining to see that many vultures, which are large and dark, tacking and tipping masterfully in the wind.
Something dead must have been in a rye field because six of the turkey vultures landed in that field and were pulling on something, though I couldn't see what because of the blades of rye. And I didn't want to walk out there and disturb those big birds. With my 16 power binoculars, I noticed two of the turkey vultures were young of this year. They had gray faces rather than the red faces of adults.
Meanwhile, a few ragged lines of crows struggled by into the wind. Those airborne crow flocks were a bit scattered because of the wind tossing the crows about. But the crows were looking for harvested corn fields to land on and eat kernels of corn left on the fields after the harvests.
Another mile down a country road, I saw a flock of a few thousand purple grackles in a corn field where they were eating invertebrates and waste corn kernels, which is what grackles do at this time of year. The grackles in that large gathering fed for a few minutes, then took to the air in a great, dark mass, swirled over the fields a minute, then dropped to another harvested corn field. At one point, a red-tailed hawk repeatedly dove into the wind and into the flock of airborne grackles, either for fun or to catch a meal, or both. But I didn't see the hawk catch a grackle.
During summer and into the fall, post-breeding purple grackles gather into larger and larger groups which is how they spend the winter from our latitude south in the United States. Daily their great congregations seek corn kernels and other edibles in farmland and roost on winter nights in stands of tall coniferous trees.
In the morning of October 31, 2016, I was driving on another country road in Lancaster County farmland. Again the wind was cold and the sky was clear. The foliage on distant wooded hills and in farmland wood lots was at its peak of warm colors. It was another typical, beautiful autumn day. As I drove, I saw a column of turkey vultures as high as a small mountain in the blue sky. There must have been over 30 swirling vultures in that feathered pillar. And, interestingly, there were about six red-tailed hawks and a few black vultures among those circling turkey vultures. When I stopped to observe that feathered column more closely, I noticed two large, dark birds that I suspected were bald eagles. Looking at them with 16 power field glasses, I saw they were, indeed, immature balds that were chasing each other across the sky and low over the fields. What a thrill to see those two magnificent birds so close, and in binoculars!
All those large, scavenging birds were attracted to a chicken farm of two, long chicken houses. Some chickens die on those farms and are dumped in fields with manure, providing meals for scavenging birds and mammals. A few turkey vultures were perched on the chicken houses as if waiting for lunch.
It was inspiring to experience gatherings of these large, dark birds in flight and on Lancaster County fields. Each species went about its daily routine for this time of year. And each species is well adapted to farmland, a human-made habitat, to get food. People unwittingly provided that habitat, which benefits the birds' getting food from it, and benefits us in that we see these awe-inspiring birds daily through fall and winter.
Continuing on, I saw a half dozen, probably different, turkey vultures maneuvering masterfully in the strong wind over rye fields, harvested corn fields and a field of orange pumpkins. Then I saw more, and more, turkey vultures, which finally numbered to about 20 individuals, with a few black vultures among them. It was entertaining to see that many vultures, which are large and dark, tacking and tipping masterfully in the wind.
Something dead must have been in a rye field because six of the turkey vultures landed in that field and were pulling on something, though I couldn't see what because of the blades of rye. And I didn't want to walk out there and disturb those big birds. With my 16 power binoculars, I noticed two of the turkey vultures were young of this year. They had gray faces rather than the red faces of adults.
Meanwhile, a few ragged lines of crows struggled by into the wind. Those airborne crow flocks were a bit scattered because of the wind tossing the crows about. But the crows were looking for harvested corn fields to land on and eat kernels of corn left on the fields after the harvests.
Another mile down a country road, I saw a flock of a few thousand purple grackles in a corn field where they were eating invertebrates and waste corn kernels, which is what grackles do at this time of year. The grackles in that large gathering fed for a few minutes, then took to the air in a great, dark mass, swirled over the fields a minute, then dropped to another harvested corn field. At one point, a red-tailed hawk repeatedly dove into the wind and into the flock of airborne grackles, either for fun or to catch a meal, or both. But I didn't see the hawk catch a grackle.
During summer and into the fall, post-breeding purple grackles gather into larger and larger groups which is how they spend the winter from our latitude south in the United States. Daily their great congregations seek corn kernels and other edibles in farmland and roost on winter nights in stands of tall coniferous trees.
In the morning of October 31, 2016, I was driving on another country road in Lancaster County farmland. Again the wind was cold and the sky was clear. The foliage on distant wooded hills and in farmland wood lots was at its peak of warm colors. It was another typical, beautiful autumn day. As I drove, I saw a column of turkey vultures as high as a small mountain in the blue sky. There must have been over 30 swirling vultures in that feathered pillar. And, interestingly, there were about six red-tailed hawks and a few black vultures among those circling turkey vultures. When I stopped to observe that feathered column more closely, I noticed two large, dark birds that I suspected were bald eagles. Looking at them with 16 power field glasses, I saw they were, indeed, immature balds that were chasing each other across the sky and low over the fields. What a thrill to see those two magnificent birds so close, and in binoculars!
All those large, scavenging birds were attracted to a chicken farm of two, long chicken houses. Some chickens die on those farms and are dumped in fields with manure, providing meals for scavenging birds and mammals. A few turkey vultures were perched on the chicken houses as if waiting for lunch.
It was inspiring to experience gatherings of these large, dark birds in flight and on Lancaster County fields. Each species went about its daily routine for this time of year. And each species is well adapted to farmland, a human-made habitat, to get food. People unwittingly provided that habitat, which benefits the birds' getting food from it, and benefits us in that we see these awe-inspiring birds daily through fall and winter.
Saturday, October 29, 2016
Eating Invertebrates from Trees
Several kinds of small, wintering woodland birds in the Middle Atlantic States, including two species of chickadees, tufted titmice, golden-crowned kinglets, two kinds of nuthatches, brown creepers, seven types of woodpeckers and two species of wrens, eat invertebrates from different parts of trees, thus reducing competition for that food among those birds. Different groups of birds exploited unique niches on trees to get food, causing the development of different bird species in forests. But, being adaptable, these birds also get food in woodlots, and older suburban areas with their many maturing trees. And these birds are entertaining to us as each species gets food from a different part of every tree.
The closely-related and nearly look-alike black capped and Carolina chickadees, titmice and kinglets flutter lightly among the tiny crevices of twigs and buds on trees in winter to find and eat invertebrates and/or their eggs. The birds' little bodies and tiny, tweezer-like beaks allow them to feed the way they do. These handsome birds fill a niche that larger birds could not, thus having it mostly to themselves.
Permanent resident white-breasted nuthatches and wintering red-breasted nuthatches and creepers are attractive small birds that search for invertebrates and their eggs in crevices in tree bark. The gray or brown upper part feathers of these birds camouflage them on tree trunks.
Nuthatches are real acrobats, creeping up vertical tree trunks, and down them headfirst in their search for invertebrate food. Nuthatches also cling and walk along the under sides of branches. And they have stout, sharply-pointed bills for poking into cracks in bark to pull out invertebrates.
Creepers travel along tree trunks differently than nuthatches. Creepers flutter to the base of a large tree and slowly, jerkily hitch up the trunk in a spiral, all the while peeking into cracks in bark for invertebrates. When satisfied with one tree, creepers flutter down to the bases of others and repeat their spiral climbs, all day, every day. Creepers have stiff tail feathers to help hold them upright on vertical trunks and thin, curved-down bills for probing crevices for food.
Having diverged from a common ancestor, all woodpecker species on earth, including the seven kinds in the Mid-Atlantic States in a year's time, have characteristics in common, including stiff tail feathers to help hold them erect on vertical tree trunks and feet with two toes in front and two in back to help them cling to tree trunks. Woodpeckers chip away bark from trunks and limbs and chisel into the wood underneath. Then they push their long, sticky tongues into invertebrate tunnels in the wood to snare those little critters and pull them out into their beaks to swallow.
Permanent resident Carolina wrens and wintering winter wrens live among and get invertebrate food from fallen logs, brush piles and piles of leaves carpeting woodland floors and under planted shrubbery and log piles on maturing suburban lawns. The feathers of wrens are brown, which blends them into their habitats of forest floors and older lawns. To capture invertebrates through winter, they scurry like feathered mice among those sheltering niches.
All these attractive, wintering birds eat invertebrates from various parts of trees, each kind in its own way, in its own niche, which reduces rivalry for food. Every species on Earth has its particular niche that it evolved in, a niche that suits its needs better than any other species.
The closely-related and nearly look-alike black capped and Carolina chickadees, titmice and kinglets flutter lightly among the tiny crevices of twigs and buds on trees in winter to find and eat invertebrates and/or their eggs. The birds' little bodies and tiny, tweezer-like beaks allow them to feed the way they do. These handsome birds fill a niche that larger birds could not, thus having it mostly to themselves.
Permanent resident white-breasted nuthatches and wintering red-breasted nuthatches and creepers are attractive small birds that search for invertebrates and their eggs in crevices in tree bark. The gray or brown upper part feathers of these birds camouflage them on tree trunks.
Nuthatches are real acrobats, creeping up vertical tree trunks, and down them headfirst in their search for invertebrate food. Nuthatches also cling and walk along the under sides of branches. And they have stout, sharply-pointed bills for poking into cracks in bark to pull out invertebrates.
Creepers travel along tree trunks differently than nuthatches. Creepers flutter to the base of a large tree and slowly, jerkily hitch up the trunk in a spiral, all the while peeking into cracks in bark for invertebrates. When satisfied with one tree, creepers flutter down to the bases of others and repeat their spiral climbs, all day, every day. Creepers have stiff tail feathers to help hold them upright on vertical trunks and thin, curved-down bills for probing crevices for food.
Having diverged from a common ancestor, all woodpecker species on earth, including the seven kinds in the Mid-Atlantic States in a year's time, have characteristics in common, including stiff tail feathers to help hold them erect on vertical tree trunks and feet with two toes in front and two in back to help them cling to tree trunks. Woodpeckers chip away bark from trunks and limbs and chisel into the wood underneath. Then they push their long, sticky tongues into invertebrate tunnels in the wood to snare those little critters and pull them out into their beaks to swallow.
Permanent resident Carolina wrens and wintering winter wrens live among and get invertebrate food from fallen logs, brush piles and piles of leaves carpeting woodland floors and under planted shrubbery and log piles on maturing suburban lawns. The feathers of wrens are brown, which blends them into their habitats of forest floors and older lawns. To capture invertebrates through winter, they scurry like feathered mice among those sheltering niches.
All these attractive, wintering birds eat invertebrates from various parts of trees, each kind in its own way, in its own niche, which reduces rivalry for food. Every species on Earth has its particular niche that it evolved in, a niche that suits its needs better than any other species.
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Seeds, Nuts and Berries
For an hour one afternoon late in October of this year, I visited an overgrown habitat of deciduous trees, shrubs, vines, weeds and grasses to experience what birds and mammals those plants were feeding and sheltering. A flock of American robins, smaller groups of eastern bluebirds, cedar waxwings and yellow-rumped warblers, and an individual each of Carolina wren and northern cardinal were feasting on dark wild grapes hanging on their vines on ash-leafed maple trees.
Meanwhile other robins were eating earthworms on a nearby short-grass lawn, a half-dozen northern flickers were on that same lawn consuming ants in their tunnels in the soil and a northern mockingbird was eating a variety of invertebrates from the short grass. And a red-tailed hawk circled that impenetrable thicket and watched for gray squirrels to catch and ingest.
Overgrown thickets form from woods that were lumbered off, abandoned fields and meadows, and deserted corners of fields and developments. Seeds either blow into abandoned areas on the wind, or are brought in on animal fur or in digestive tracts, depending on the kind of plant that produced them. The resulting plants get much sunlight without a canopy of tree foliage over them, resulting in rapid growth that densely covers the ground. That thick growth provides abundant food and shelter for insects, birds, mammals and other kinds of critters.
In southeastern Pennsylvania, as elsewhere in the world, thickets of successional vegetation produce seeds, nuts and berries in abundance that feed several kinds of birds and mammals in fall and winter. And those same jungles of plants shelter those wild creatures as well. Small seeds are produced by foxtail grass and other types of grasses, Queen-Anne's-lace, chicory, smartweeds, goldenrods, asters, ragweeds and other, weedy plant species. American goldfinches, house finches, song sparrows, white-throated sparrows, dark-eyed juncos, northern cardinals and other kinds of small, seed-eating birds consume many of those small seeds during winter.
Deer mice and eastern chipmunks also ingest some of those grass and weed seeds and store others in their nests. They consume those seeds during the hardships of winter. And the many seeds that survive the appetites of birds and mammals in winter will sprout the next spring.
Nuts grow on black walnut, pin oak, white oak and other kinds of trees in successional thickets after timbering or deserting farmland. White-tailed deer, black bears, deer mice, eastern chipmunks, at least three kinds of squirrels, American crows, blue jays, wild turkeys and ruffed grouse are some of the local critters that consume acorns in fall and winter. But only the squirrels, chippies and mice, being rodents, can chew through the tough husks and hard shells of black walnut tree nuts because only they have jaws strong enough and teeth sharp enough to do so.
During fall, squirrels of every kind and blue jays stash nuts and acorns into tree cavities or bury them in the ground. And during inclement weather in winter when food would be hard to find, the squirrels and jays eat some of those nuts and acorns. But they don't get around to all of them, and surviving nuts sprout into trees the next spring and summer.
Acorns and their "caps", by the way, are beautiful and decorative. Most of them are warm-brown in color and shiny.
Many kinds of trees, shrubs and vines grow small fruits or berries that birds and mammals consume in overgrown habitats in fall and winter. Some local, fruit and berry-producing plants are Bradford pear, crab apple hackberry, staghorn sumac and American holly trees, multi-flora rose, Tartarian honeysuckle and winterberry shrubs, pokeweed, and green briar, deadly nightshade, wild grape, tearthumb, poison ivy, Virginia creeper and bittersweet vines. Crab apples, hollies, winterberries, sumacs, Tartarian honeysuckles and multiflora roses have red fruits or berries while bittersweet has bright-orange ones. Those fruits are not only attractive for us to see, but they also attract the attentions of hungry birds that eat them.
Greenbriar, poison ivy, Virginia creeper and pokeweed have beautifully colored foliage in fall that adds to the beauty of that enjoyable season. Virginia creepers have red autumn leaves and deep-purple fruits on short, red stems at the same time, which makes than vine quite pretty to see.
Flocks of wild turkeys, American robins, eastern bluebirds, cedar waxwings and yellow-rumped warblers and individual northern mockingbirds and ruffed grouse are some of the birds that regularly eat berries and small fruits in southeastern Pennsylvania in fall and winter. Those birds liven and brighten those berry patches when feeding on their colorful, nutritious fruits.
As the birds consume fruits and berries, they also ingest the seeds in them. The birds digest the pulp of those fruits and berries, but pass many of the seeds, intact, in droppings all over the countryside as they fly from place to place. Seeds not eaten by mice and squirrels have a chance to sprout into new plants. It's a win/win situation. Each plant species colonizes new areas and the birds insure food supplies for future bird generations.
Several kinds of local mammals eat fruits and berries in fall and winter, including white-tailed deer, black bears, three kinds of squirrels, chipmunks, deer mice, raccoons, opossums, striped skunks and two species of foxes. Those mammals, other than squirrels, chippies and mice, pass many of the seeds in droppings, therefore, helping spread each plant species across the landscape.
Overgrown thickets are great sources of food and cover for several kinds of wildlife from insects to birds and mammals. They are wonderful wildlife refuges, however big or small. And those thickets develop wherever the soil is not worked by people for at least a few years.
Meanwhile other robins were eating earthworms on a nearby short-grass lawn, a half-dozen northern flickers were on that same lawn consuming ants in their tunnels in the soil and a northern mockingbird was eating a variety of invertebrates from the short grass. And a red-tailed hawk circled that impenetrable thicket and watched for gray squirrels to catch and ingest.
Overgrown thickets form from woods that were lumbered off, abandoned fields and meadows, and deserted corners of fields and developments. Seeds either blow into abandoned areas on the wind, or are brought in on animal fur or in digestive tracts, depending on the kind of plant that produced them. The resulting plants get much sunlight without a canopy of tree foliage over them, resulting in rapid growth that densely covers the ground. That thick growth provides abundant food and shelter for insects, birds, mammals and other kinds of critters.
In southeastern Pennsylvania, as elsewhere in the world, thickets of successional vegetation produce seeds, nuts and berries in abundance that feed several kinds of birds and mammals in fall and winter. And those same jungles of plants shelter those wild creatures as well. Small seeds are produced by foxtail grass and other types of grasses, Queen-Anne's-lace, chicory, smartweeds, goldenrods, asters, ragweeds and other, weedy plant species. American goldfinches, house finches, song sparrows, white-throated sparrows, dark-eyed juncos, northern cardinals and other kinds of small, seed-eating birds consume many of those small seeds during winter.
Deer mice and eastern chipmunks also ingest some of those grass and weed seeds and store others in their nests. They consume those seeds during the hardships of winter. And the many seeds that survive the appetites of birds and mammals in winter will sprout the next spring.
Nuts grow on black walnut, pin oak, white oak and other kinds of trees in successional thickets after timbering or deserting farmland. White-tailed deer, black bears, deer mice, eastern chipmunks, at least three kinds of squirrels, American crows, blue jays, wild turkeys and ruffed grouse are some of the local critters that consume acorns in fall and winter. But only the squirrels, chippies and mice, being rodents, can chew through the tough husks and hard shells of black walnut tree nuts because only they have jaws strong enough and teeth sharp enough to do so.
During fall, squirrels of every kind and blue jays stash nuts and acorns into tree cavities or bury them in the ground. And during inclement weather in winter when food would be hard to find, the squirrels and jays eat some of those nuts and acorns. But they don't get around to all of them, and surviving nuts sprout into trees the next spring and summer.
Acorns and their "caps", by the way, are beautiful and decorative. Most of them are warm-brown in color and shiny.
Many kinds of trees, shrubs and vines grow small fruits or berries that birds and mammals consume in overgrown habitats in fall and winter. Some local, fruit and berry-producing plants are Bradford pear, crab apple hackberry, staghorn sumac and American holly trees, multi-flora rose, Tartarian honeysuckle and winterberry shrubs, pokeweed, and green briar, deadly nightshade, wild grape, tearthumb, poison ivy, Virginia creeper and bittersweet vines. Crab apples, hollies, winterberries, sumacs, Tartarian honeysuckles and multiflora roses have red fruits or berries while bittersweet has bright-orange ones. Those fruits are not only attractive for us to see, but they also attract the attentions of hungry birds that eat them.
Greenbriar, poison ivy, Virginia creeper and pokeweed have beautifully colored foliage in fall that adds to the beauty of that enjoyable season. Virginia creepers have red autumn leaves and deep-purple fruits on short, red stems at the same time, which makes than vine quite pretty to see.
Flocks of wild turkeys, American robins, eastern bluebirds, cedar waxwings and yellow-rumped warblers and individual northern mockingbirds and ruffed grouse are some of the birds that regularly eat berries and small fruits in southeastern Pennsylvania in fall and winter. Those birds liven and brighten those berry patches when feeding on their colorful, nutritious fruits.
As the birds consume fruits and berries, they also ingest the seeds in them. The birds digest the pulp of those fruits and berries, but pass many of the seeds, intact, in droppings all over the countryside as they fly from place to place. Seeds not eaten by mice and squirrels have a chance to sprout into new plants. It's a win/win situation. Each plant species colonizes new areas and the birds insure food supplies for future bird generations.
Several kinds of local mammals eat fruits and berries in fall and winter, including white-tailed deer, black bears, three kinds of squirrels, chipmunks, deer mice, raccoons, opossums, striped skunks and two species of foxes. Those mammals, other than squirrels, chippies and mice, pass many of the seeds in droppings, therefore, helping spread each plant species across the landscape.
Overgrown thickets are great sources of food and cover for several kinds of wildlife from insects to birds and mammals. They are wonderful wildlife refuges, however big or small. And those thickets develop wherever the soil is not worked by people for at least a few years.
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Rodent Preparations for Winter
In autumn, some species of rodents in southeastern Pennsylvania, as throughout the northern temperate areas on Earth, annually make preparations for the coming winter. They all developed the habit of doing that because food is hard to get when locked away in snow and ice.
Squirrels, including the abundant and omnipresent gray squirrels, for example, eastern chipmunks and deer mice store seeds and nuts to eat in winter. Gray squirrels stash nuts mostly, including those from black walnut, hickory, beech and oak trees, in tree cavities and in the ground in woodlands and older suburban areas with their many maturing trees. The squirrels dig little, shallow holes in the soil with their front feet, push a nut into each one with their noses, then bury those nuts with their front feet again, tamping the soil down with noses and feet for good measure. In winter, the squirrels sniff out the food they buried in the soil, even when it's under snow. But some of those nuts and seeds don't get eaten, perhaps sprouting into new vegetation.
Chipmunks store seeds and nuts in underground burrows they dig out themselves. They make many scurried forays over woodland floors and lawns, pick up the foods in their mouths and store them in their two cheek pouches. When their pouches are full, the chippies race home and empty those grocery containers into a storage room in their burrows. Then out they go for more edibles, risking their lives in doing so because of weasels, foxes, hawks and other predators. Surviving chipmunks sleep in their dens in winter, waking every few days to eat from their stores.
Deer mice winter in old squirrel and bird nests, under logs, in brush piles, crevices among rocks and in and under buildings. They stash many seeds in those sheltering places for winter use. Being active all winter, they probably feed from their stores when the weather is too snowy or cold for them to want to venture out, and when food is buried by snowfalls.
Wood chucks and meadow jumping mice hibernate through winter, in burrows in the ground from early November to mid-February with regards to the chucks and March for the mice. In fall, the chucks and mice put on fat their bodies use in the coming winter. Chucks consume green plants while the jumping mice ingest seeds and berries.
Beavers are large, aquatic rodents that eat green plants and the bark of twigs and branches. In fall, beavers stick limbs they gnawed off trees into the mud at the bottom of the ponds they created with their dams. They got the branches from trees they gnawed off with their sharp, strong teeth.
In winter, when ice covers their ponds, beavers leave their lodges through under water entrances to bring back limbs from their stores to those lodges. There they consume the bark of those branches.
Beavers also store fat in their tails. That fat helps sustain them through winter.
These rodents' preparations for winter make the outdoors in fall the more interesting. And the rodents survive winter because of those laid away stores of food, or the fat they stored on their bodies in autumn, depending on the species.
Squirrels, including the abundant and omnipresent gray squirrels, for example, eastern chipmunks and deer mice store seeds and nuts to eat in winter. Gray squirrels stash nuts mostly, including those from black walnut, hickory, beech and oak trees, in tree cavities and in the ground in woodlands and older suburban areas with their many maturing trees. The squirrels dig little, shallow holes in the soil with their front feet, push a nut into each one with their noses, then bury those nuts with their front feet again, tamping the soil down with noses and feet for good measure. In winter, the squirrels sniff out the food they buried in the soil, even when it's under snow. But some of those nuts and seeds don't get eaten, perhaps sprouting into new vegetation.
Chipmunks store seeds and nuts in underground burrows they dig out themselves. They make many scurried forays over woodland floors and lawns, pick up the foods in their mouths and store them in their two cheek pouches. When their pouches are full, the chippies race home and empty those grocery containers into a storage room in their burrows. Then out they go for more edibles, risking their lives in doing so because of weasels, foxes, hawks and other predators. Surviving chipmunks sleep in their dens in winter, waking every few days to eat from their stores.
Deer mice winter in old squirrel and bird nests, under logs, in brush piles, crevices among rocks and in and under buildings. They stash many seeds in those sheltering places for winter use. Being active all winter, they probably feed from their stores when the weather is too snowy or cold for them to want to venture out, and when food is buried by snowfalls.
Wood chucks and meadow jumping mice hibernate through winter, in burrows in the ground from early November to mid-February with regards to the chucks and March for the mice. In fall, the chucks and mice put on fat their bodies use in the coming winter. Chucks consume green plants while the jumping mice ingest seeds and berries.
Beavers are large, aquatic rodents that eat green plants and the bark of twigs and branches. In fall, beavers stick limbs they gnawed off trees into the mud at the bottom of the ponds they created with their dams. They got the branches from trees they gnawed off with their sharp, strong teeth.
In winter, when ice covers their ponds, beavers leave their lodges through under water entrances to bring back limbs from their stores to those lodges. There they consume the bark of those branches.
Beavers also store fat in their tails. That fat helps sustain them through winter.
These rodents' preparations for winter make the outdoors in fall the more interesting. And the rodents survive winter because of those laid away stores of food, or the fat they stored on their bodies in autumn, depending on the species.
Saturday, October 22, 2016
Woodland Birds on our Lawn
For a couple of minutes one afternoon in the middle of this October, I was thrilled to see, by rare chance, a pair each of Carolina wrens, Carolina chickadees and tufted titmice at once at our bird feeder, bird baths and their bordering shrubbery on our suburban lawn in New Holland. A pair each of these permanent resident, woodland species has lived in our neighborhood for years, but I never before saw both genders of all three kinds at once. These species of small, handsome birds are neat to experience in their native woods and, especially, on lawns of trees and bushes, including ours.
Our lawn is not a woods, or even near one. But these types of lovely, lively birds are adaptable and flourish in less than woodland habitats, such as older suburban areas with tall trees and large bushes, including ours. These birds, and other species, add intrigue to those human-made habitats, and are entertaining to watch going about their daily business of getting food and avoiding predators by sticking to the cover of trees and shrubbery.
The colors of the feathers of these attractive birds indicate where each species spends most of its time each day. The wrens are warm-brown, which allows them to blend in with soil, fallen leaves and logs, and brush piles where they get much of their invertebrate food. The closely related chickadees and titmice, however, are mostly gray, which camouflages them among the bark and twigs of trees where they seize tiny invertebrates. Our Carolina wrens often frequent the crevices in our wood pile to hunt for food, as their kind does.
The chickadees and titmice daily come to our bird feeder and bird baths to supplement their food supply with sunflower seeds, and to get water. The wrens pick up invertebrates and sunflower seeds from the ground under the feeder and nearby shrubbery, and visit the bird bath. Those activities were why I saw all three species at once. When feeling threatened, all these birds zip into the nearby, sheltering bushes and hide until the danger is gone.
These three permanent resident, woodland bird species are attractive and entertaining on our lawn. They add more beauty and intrigue to it the year around.
Our lawn is not a woods, or even near one. But these types of lovely, lively birds are adaptable and flourish in less than woodland habitats, such as older suburban areas with tall trees and large bushes, including ours. These birds, and other species, add intrigue to those human-made habitats, and are entertaining to watch going about their daily business of getting food and avoiding predators by sticking to the cover of trees and shrubbery.
The colors of the feathers of these attractive birds indicate where each species spends most of its time each day. The wrens are warm-brown, which allows them to blend in with soil, fallen leaves and logs, and brush piles where they get much of their invertebrate food. The closely related chickadees and titmice, however, are mostly gray, which camouflages them among the bark and twigs of trees where they seize tiny invertebrates. Our Carolina wrens often frequent the crevices in our wood pile to hunt for food, as their kind does.
The chickadees and titmice daily come to our bird feeder and bird baths to supplement their food supply with sunflower seeds, and to get water. The wrens pick up invertebrates and sunflower seeds from the ground under the feeder and nearby shrubbery, and visit the bird bath. Those activities were why I saw all three species at once. When feeling threatened, all these birds zip into the nearby, sheltering bushes and hide until the danger is gone.
These three permanent resident, woodland bird species are attractive and entertaining on our lawn. They add more beauty and intrigue to it the year around.
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