Nest Builders at Work

For many animals, an adequate shelter is paramount for their successful reproduction.  Here’s a sample of some of the lower Susquehanna valley’s nest builders in action…

Pileated Woodpecker Excavating Nest
Many of our year-round resident bird species get a head start on the breeding season as cavity nesters.  Some of these mated pairs use naturally occurring hollows, while still others take advantage of the voids left vacant by the more industrious previous occupants.  Woodpeckers in particular are responsible for excavating many of the cavities that are later used as homes by a variety of birds and mammals to both rear their young and provide winter shelter.  Pileated Woodpeckers, like other members of the family Picidae, have an almost mystic ability to locate diseased or insect-infested trees for selection as feeding and nesting sites.  In this composite image, a pair is seen already working on a potential nursery during mid-January.  After use by the woodpeckers, abandoned cavities of this size can become nesting sites for a variety of animals including bees, small owls, Great Crested Flycatchers, Wood Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, and squirrels.
Downy Woodpecker at Nest
After use as a nesting site, a void excavated by Downy Woodpeckers can be occupied in subsequent years by chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, wrens, and other cavity-dwelling species.
Muskrat with Leafy Twig
This Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) with a leafy twig in tow takes advantage of spring’s new growth to construct or repair its house,…
Muskrat with Leafy Twig
…a process that can be repeated or renewed as necessary throughout the year.
Muskrat House
A Muskrat house in March.  In the absence of leafy twigs, dried cattail stems will suffice.  As it ages and decays, the house’s organic matter generates heat and makes an ideal location for turtles to deposit and hatch their eggs.
Wood Thrush
Soon after Neotropical migrants begin arriving in the forests of the lower Susquehanna watershed, they begin constructing their nests.  The majority of these species build “outdoors”, not within the confines of a tree cavity.  Here we see a Wood Thrush with its bill full of dried leaves and other materials…
Wood Thrush Nest
…ready to line the cup of its nest in the fork of a small understory tree.
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Though it often arrives during early April after spending the winter in sub-tropical and even some temperate climes, the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher must wait to start construction of its nest until many of the Neotropical migrants arrive in early May.
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
You see, the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher relies on plenty of web-spinning spider activity to supply the construction materials it needs.
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
A Blue-gray Gnatcatcher pulling apart a spider’s web on a warm May morning.
Blue-gray Gnatcatchers
Back at the nest site…
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
…the sticky spider webs bind together lichens and small bits of bark…
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
…to form a perfect little cup for the nesting Blue-gray Gnatcatchers.
Baltimore Oriole with Nesting Material
Baltimore Orioles weave one the most unique nests of any species occurring in eastern North America.
Baltimore Oriole Nest
Unfortunately for them, man-made litter can often seem to be the ideal material for binding the nest together.  In an area only sporadically visited by anglers, this oriole had no trouble finding lots of monofilament fishing line, trash that can fatally entangle both adult and young birds of any species.  If you see any fishing line at all, please pick it up and dispose of it properly.
Baltimore Oriole
Always keep an eye open for fishing line and get it before the birds do!
Brown-headed Cowbirds
Like many other avians, male Brown-headed Cowbirds are now relentlessly pursuing females of their kind.
Brown-headed Cowbirds
All his effort is expended in an attempt to impress her and thus have a chance to mate.
Brown-headed Cowbirds
This male can indeed put all his energy into the courtship ritual because Brown-headed Cowbirds toil not to build a nest.  They instead locate and “parasitize” the nests of a variety of other songbirds.  After mating, the female will lay an egg in a host’s abode, often selecting a slightly smaller species like a Yellow Warbler or native sparrow as a suitable victim.  If undetected, the egg will be incubated by the host species.  Upon hatching, the larger cowbird nestling will dominate the brood, often ejecting the host’s young and/or eggs from the nest.  The host parents then concentrate all their efforts to feed and fledge only the young cowbird.
Indigo Bunting
Watching and waiting.  The Indigo Bunting evades cowbird parasitism by first recognizing the invader’s egg.  They then either add a new layer of nest lining over it or they abandon the nest completely and construct a new one.  Some patient buntings may delay their breeding cycle until after cowbird courting behavior ceases in coming weeks.

Their Songs Give Them Away

After repeatedly hearing the songs of these Neotropical migrants from among the foliage, we were finally able to get a look at them—but it required persistent effort.

Magnolia Warbler
Often found closer to the ground among shrubs and small trees, this Magnolia Warbler was a challenge to find in the upper reaches of a Chestnut Oak.
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Not far away, we spied this Yellow-rumped Warbler.
Red-eyed Vireo
Despite its status as probably the most common Neotropical songbird to nest in the deciduous woodlands of the lower Susquehanna valley, the Red-eyed Vireo is nevertheless notoriously difficult to locate among the leaves.
Ovenbird
The Ovenbird spends much of its time on the forest floor where it builds a domed oven-like nest. 
Ovenbird
A fortunate observer may catch a glimpse of one perched in an understory shrub or small tree.
Ovenbird
But hearing the Ovenbird’s song, “teacher-teacher-teacher”, is frequently the only way to detect it.
Worm-eating Warbler
The Worm-eating Warbler nests in understory thickets on steep forested slopes.  Its rich chipping song is often the only indication of its presence.
American Redstart
Frequently easier to locate is the American Redstart, a Neotropical warbler that calls out its territory in damp woodlands from perches atop shrubs or among the lower limbs of trees.
Warbling Vireo
Warbling Vireos nest near streams or other bodies of water in large deciduous trees like this Northern Hackberry.
Gray Catbird
Gray Catbirds are abundant in shrubby gardens and thickets.  Most will come out of hiding to investigate disturbances like an observer making a pishing sound.
Common Yellowthroat
Another inhabitant of brushy successional growth is the Common Yellowthroat.  It too is curious and responds quickly to squeaky sounds made by human visitors to their home ground.
Yellow-breasted Chat
The Yellow-breasted Chat is a bird of early successional growth.  To establish and defend a breeding territory, this one adopted a perch along the edge of a woodlands overlooking a field in which prescribed fire was administered less than two months ago.
Yellow-breasted Chat
Like the mockingbird and thrasher, the Yellow-breasted Chat is a mimic.  Its song is a repertoire of the calls and songs of the bird species that may compete with it for food and nesting space.  Unique to the chat is a whistle or “chuck” note that creates a bridge between many of its song’s elements.

Sometimes we have to count ourselves lucky if we see just one in five, ten, or even twenty of the birds we hear in the cover of the forest canopy or thicket.  But that’s what makes this time of year so rewarding for the dedicated observer.  The more time you spend out there, the more you’ll eventually discover.  See you afield!

Scarlet Tanager
A singing Scarlet Tanager lurking in the shade of an oak.  Seeing is believing.

Singing in the Rain

Neotropical birds are fairly well acquainted with repetitive periods of thundershowers.  With that in mind, we decided not to waste this stormy Tuesday by remaining indoors.

Thundershower
Periods of rain need not put a damper on a day outdoors observing birds that wintered in a rain forest or other tropical environment.
Utility Right-of-way with Successional Habitat
We hiked this utility right-of-way to the north of a heavy thunderstorm and found plenty of activity in the shrubby successional habitat there.
Indigo Bunting
Rain or shine, male Indigo Buntings were busy singing.  All this exuberance is intended not only to establish and defend a nesting territory…
Indigo Bunting
…but to attract the attention of a mate as well.
Blue-winged Warbler
Prior to the implementation of the intensive manicuring practices we see currently applied to most utility right-of-ways, shrubby thickets filled miles of these linear corridors to create a webbed network of early successional growth throughout the lower Susquehanna valley.  Loss of this specialized habitat has led to the almost total elimination of the formerly common Blue-winged Warbler as a breeding species here.
Blue-winged Warbler
We found three male Blue-winged Warblers singing on territories in this bushy clearing where electric transmission lines pass over Third/Stony Mountain on State Game Lands 211.
Blue-winged Warbler
Their presence at this site is testament to the importance of maintaining corridors of quality successional habitat in the landscape.
Blue-winged Warbler
The Blue-winged Warbler is a Neotropical migrant with an easy-to-learn song.  It’s a very simple, buzzy sounding “beeee-bzzz”.
Prairie Warbler
Another Neotropical species that nests in successional thickets is the Prairie Warbler (Setophaga discolor), seen here during one of this morning’s downpours.
Prairie Warbler
The Prairie Warbler can sometimes be found in stands of pioneer plants like Eastern Red Cedar on sites with barren soils or those that have been subjected to wildfire.
Hooded Warbler
The Hooded Warbler is fond of wooded thickets along the edge of forested land such as those in the Third/Stony Mountain utility right-of-way.
Hooded Warbler
The presence of a Mountain Laurel thicket also enhances a forest’s ability to host breeding Hooded Warblers.

We hope you enjoyed our walk in the rain as much as we did.  If you venture out on a similar excursion, please remember this.  The majority of the wild animals around us have busy lives, particularly at this time of year.  Most don’t take a day off just because it rains—that includes ticks.

Female Deer Tick
Be certain to check yourself for ticks, especially these very small Deer Ticks (Ixodes scapularis), also known as Black-legged Ticks.  Deer Ticks are vigilantly looking for something to latch onto, even in the rain, and they can be vectors of Lyme disease.  We found this adult female as a stowaway on the editor’s neck just before heading home from today’s stroll.

Shad Run at Conowingo Dam

As the Flowering Dogwoods remind us, it’s time for adult sea-run shad and other fishes to ascend the Susquehanna to spawn.  So yep, we’re off to Fisherman’s Park on the river’s west shoreline below Conowingo Dam in Harford County, Maryland, to check it out.

Anglers at Conowingo Dam
Anglers were in the water and seeing action as we arrived below Conowingo Dam’s powerhouse at Fisherman’s Park.  The east lift, which was constructed during the 1990s to raise American Shad and other migratory fish over the dam during their spring spawning runs, sits idle at the impoundment end of the wing wall in the distance.
The entrance to the idle east fish lift at Conowingo Dam.
The entrance to the idle east fish lift at Conowingo Dam.
Northern Snakehead
Within minutes, we watched one of the culprits responsible for the lift’s shutdown being reeled in.  The invasive population of introduced Northern Snakeheads continues to thrive in the waters of the Susquehanna and its tributaries below the dam.  To prevent it from expanding its range to upriver sections of the watershed, all American Shad are being manually separated from among the snakeheads and other fish species deposited into sorting tanks using the west lift near the powerhouse.
Shad Transport Truck
One of several specialized transport vehicles returns from a “shad run” to the waters of the Susquehanna above York Haven Dam at Conewago Falls after delivering and releasing American Shad sorted from among the fish collected at Conowingo’s west lift earlier in the day.
American Shad began their run up the Susquehanna as water temperatures reached 60 degrees Fahrenheit…just about the time the Flowering Dogwoods started to bloom within the river’s riparian woodlands.  Later this month, spawning activity peaks when the water warms to about 65 degrees.  Earlier in the season, when the water reached about 55 degrees, another anadromous species, the Hickory Shad (seen here), began their spring spawning run from sea to freshwater rivers and streams.
While American Shad are seldom caught on hook and line, Hickory Shad are a popular catch-and-release target.  Though they will energetically strike baits like the small shad dart seen here, Hickory Shad are very cautious while ascending the river; they very rarely enter the fish lifts to join the dozens of other species that readily accept their use.  With water temperatures now in the sixties, an angler is seen here bringing in what may be among the last of this season’s Hickory Shad.  Their spawning run is presently drawing to a close for the year.
Gizzard Shad
The most commonly caught herring at Fisherman’s Park is the Gizzard Shad.  This plankton feeder seldom takes bait; it is instead foul-hooked.  Though not a sea-run species, Gizzard Shad by the tens of thousands leave open waters to seek shallower flowing riffles and pools to spawn.
Gizzard Shad
Unlike the other herring occurring in the Susquehanna, the Gizzard Shad has a blunt, snub-nosed appearance to the snout. The mouth is small and often unnoticeable.
Gizzard Shad
The Gizzard Shad is the only species of Susquehanna herring that can legally be harvested.  All others are sea-run migrants in varying degrees of population peril and must be returned to the water without delay.
Gizzard Shad
Note the elongated last ray on the dorsal fin of this foul-hooked Gizzard Shad.  It’s a not-often-visible but nevertheless tell-tale field mark.
Double-crested Cormorant
Humans aren’t the only creatures attracted by the fish migration on the lower Susquehanna.  This is just one of hundreds of Double-crested Cormorants we watched during our visit.
Cormorant along the base of Conowingo Dam
Hungry cormorants gather along the base of the dam where ascending fish congregate and become further disoriented by water turbulence.
Double-crested Cormorants
Fishing efforts here can bring great success to these accomplished piscivores.
Double-crested Cormorant with Gizzard Shad
Latching onto an oversize Gizzard Shad can make you very popular with your peers.
Double-crested Cormorant with Gizzard Shad
So popular that you may never have the opportunity to eat your lunch.
Double-crested Cormorant with Gizzard Shad
Take it from this old bird: you’ve gotta swallow ’em fast, head first, tail and all.
Bald Eagle with Gizzard Shad
A Bald Eagle hauls off a Gizzard Shad.
Osprey with Gizzard Shad
An Osprey saw this Gizzard Shad swimming close enough to the water’s surface to dive in and snag it with its talons.
Bald Eagle with Gizzard Shad
And yet another successful Bald Eagle calls out to its mate as it approaches its nest and hungry young.
Striped Bass
An angler releases a small Striped Bass caught on a shad dart while fishing for Hickory Shad.  To reduce pressure on their populations during the spring spawning run, the “Striper” harvest is presently closed.  The fishing season resumes later this month in some areas, in June within others.  On the Susquehanna Flats and other Chesapeake Bay waters, Striped Bass are also known as “Rockfish”.
Angler in Action
This angler is reeling in a big one.
Channel Catfish
A nice Channel Catfish weighed in at about six pounds and was released.
White Perch
This angler brought in yet another interesting catch.
White Perch
The White Perch (Morone americana) is a bay species that ascends the Chesapeake’s tributaries to spawn during the spring.  On the lower Susquehanna, numbers of this relative of the Striped Bass are falling, very possibly due to depredation by invasive snakeheads, Blue Catfish, and Flathead Catfish.
Double-crested Cormorant with Blue Catfish
A Double-crested Cormorant does its duty and snatches up an invasive Blue Catfish.   Very large Blue Catfish exceeding 24 inches in length are becoming increasingly plentiful on the upper Chesapeake and its tributaries resulting in a significant negative impact on the aquatic ecosystems there.  Like the Northern Snakehead and Flathead Catfish, these invasive species are very palatable and anglers are encouraged to catch and keep as many as they like.
Maryland DNR sign at Fisherman’s Park.
Angler with Northern Snakehead
What can we do about the plague of Northern Snakeheads (Channa argus) in the Susquehanna?  Well, let’s start by answering a question with a question…Why deplete ocean stocks when you can follow this angler’s example and harvest excellent fillets while helping to control an invasive species at the same time?  And no, you don’t have to call them “Chesapeake Channa” if you don’t want to.  Though you will make us laugh if you start calling them “Susquehanna Channa” or  just “Susquechanna” from time to time.

Six Flowering Woody Plants

Here’s a look at six native shrubs and trees you can find blooming along forest edges in the lower Susquehanna valley right now.

Black Locust
The Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), a member of the pea or legume family (Fabaceae), can be a dominant pioneer plant of sunny successional habitats, particularly on poor soils.  Nodules along its roots fix nitrogen to help facilitate the growth of the intermediate and climax species of trees and shrubs that replace the pioneers.  Initially armed with protective spines to reduce browsing, the Black Locust’s branches become mostly thornless as the tree matures.
Pinxter Flower
The Pinxter Flower, also known as the Pink Azalea, is certainly a contender for our most spectacular native blossoming shrub;…
Spicebush Swallowtail on Pinxter Flower
…this Spicebush Swallowtail seems to like it too.
Black Cherry
When in bloom, the Black Cherry is a common sight in regional woodlands.  Often seen already covered with blossoms when young and shrub-like, many of these trees will continue flowering and producing fruit throughout the decades required to reach a mature height of 60 feet or more.
Blackhaw
The Blackhaw is an understory shrub preferential to sun-dappled areas beneath a break in the forest canopy.  Pollinated flowers later produce clusters of blue-black berries for birds and other wildlife.
Common Pawpaw
It’s easy to overlook the flowers of the Common Pawpaw.  By the time the leaves are fully emerged and casting shade, blooming time is over.
Flowering Dogwood
Nowadays, the Flowering Dogwood is most frequently encountered as a transplanted cultivar in city and suburban landscapes.  In the wild, it is sparingly distributed throughout the region’s deciduous forests.  These slow-growing little trees produce bright red berries that are quickly seized by a variety of birds upon ripening in the fall.

Local old timers might remember hearing folklore that equates the northward advance of the blooming of the Flowering Dogwoods with the progress of the American Shad’s spring spawning run up the river.  While this is hardly a scientific proclamation, it is likely predicated on what had been some rather consistent observation prior to the construction of the lower Susquehanna’s hydroelectric dams.  In fact, we’ve found it to be a useful way to remind us that it’s time for a trip to the river shoreline below Conowingo Dam to witness signs of the spring fish migration each year.  We’re headed that way now and will summarize our sightings for you in days to come.

Flowering Dogwood
Tree blossoms open in response to the presence of adequate moisture and exposure to the warming effects of sunshine.  Shad ascend the Susquehanna to spawn in response to suitable river flow and increasing water temperature.  Sun and rain in the appropriate proportions can often conspire to synchronize otherwise unrelated events.  Hence, a Flowering Dogwood in bloom along the edge of a mature forest means it’s time to go check out the shad run.

Photo of the Day

Indigo Bunting
Brilliantly colored migrants continue to arrive from their tropical wintering grounds.  Look for the Indigo Bunting in thickets and other successional habitat.  They are particularly fond of seldom-manicured utility right-of-ways and railroads where males like this one can be seen singing from an exposed perch to defend a nesting territory and attract a mate.

Fresh Foliage and Plumes

Despite what seemed to be a chilly early spring, the bright green leaves that unfold to close the canopy of our deciduous forests were dense and casting shade by the last days of April.  For northbound migrants, this fresh foliage provides the cover they need for foraging, resting, and, for those that will stick around to breed in the lower Susquehanna valley, nesting.

We recall many occasions when sparse foliage during the first days of May seemed to delay the big push of Neotropical species, but the seasonal arrival of these birds in 2025 is thus far mostly ahead of schedule.  This absence of delay is due in part to the lushness of the oaks.  Some stands have not only leafed out, but are finished flowering and have added up to 12 inches of new branch growth.  We spent these early hours of May among the oaks.  Here’s a look at the Neotropical migrants and other species we found…

Cape May Warbler
Dozens of species of Neotropical warblers have arrived in the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed.  Some will nest locally while others will continue along flight paths that will ultimately take them far to our north.  We spotted this Cape May Warbler in the upper reaches of a Northern Red Oak feeding among its spent flowers.  Its destination: the spruce forests of northern New England and Canada.
Yellow-throated Vireo
Slightly larger than the warblers are the vireos, including this Yellow-throated Vireo that has arrived to nest in an oak-maple bottomland.
Baltimore Oriole
Always a fan favorite, we found this marvelously tropical Baltimore Oriole among the foliage of a flowering White Oak.
Red-tailed Hawk
This young Red-tailed Hawk has survived its first winter.  It appears to have learned from experience how to hunt from advantageous locations such as this Chestnut Oak along a utility right-of-way where prey may include numerous squirrels as well as mice and other small mammals.
American Kestrel
We were taking a break beneath this Pin Oak when suddenly an American Kestrel arrived to begin scolding a trespasser that was straying a bit too close to its nest;…
Northern Harrier
…the intruder, a Northern Harrier, soon took the hint and continued on its way.
Veery
While among the oaks, it pays to check the understory where Neotropical thrushes including the Veery are arriving to fill the forests with their melodious songs.
White-throated Sparrow
Following their nocturnal flights, the last of the season’s northbound White-throated Sparrows may presently be found spending the day in the cover of the oak woodland understory.

The movements of our migratory birds typically continue through much of the month of May.  And peak numbers of Neotropical species often occur sometime during the second week of the month.  But with habitat at the ready, favorable flight conditions could facilitate quick arrival and/or passage of the bulk of the remaining migrants during the coming week.  You may want to venture out sooner rather than later—but watch your step!

Mayapple
The Mayapple, a native wildflower also known as the Mandrake, is now in bloom among the oak leaf litter.
Canada Mayflower
And the Canada Mayflower (Maianthemum canadense), a native species also known as Wild Lily-of-the-valley, is blooming in moist mixed-oak forests.
White-crowned Sparrow
At the edge of an oak-maple woodland, we found this lingering White-crowned Sparrow foraging among the leaf litter and fresh, shiny foliage of Poison Ivy.  Songbirds can spend their days scratching the ground among these leaves of three.  If you do it, you’ll be scratching something else, and you may need an ocean of calamine lotion to boot!

Busy Bees

During a warm spell back in late March, adult Mason Bees began emerging from nest sites to begin mating.  During recent days, we photographed the fertile females as they continued the process that will produce the next generation of these fruit-friendly pollinators.

Mason Bee Nest Box
Mason Bees visiting a box stocked with blocks of wood wherein holes have been drilled to provide nesting cavities for the egg-laying females.
Osmia Mason Bee
Mason Bee populations using man-made nesting structures in our region include two non-native species.  Both show horn-like structures on the face, denoted here by the white hairline.  To pollinate orchard crops, Osmia cornifrons, the Horn-faced Bee, was intentionally introduced to the eastern United States from northern Asia in 1978.  Another early season pollinator, Osmia taurus, was accidentally introduced to North America from eastern Asia.  O. taurus was first reported in Maryland and West Virginia in 2002 and had reached Pennsylvania by 2006-2008.
Female Mason Bees at Nest
Inside a nest cavity, a female Mason Bee will deposit pollen balls and an egg within each cell she creates using mud partitions.  Cell by cell she fills the cavity with eggs and pollen.  When the cavity is full, a thicker mud plug is constructed to seal off the entrance.  After hatching, each larval bee will remain inside a cocoon within its individual cell consuming the enclosed pollen ball and maturing.  After passing the winter in the nest, the new generation of adults will emerge in the spring…outermost cell occupants first.
Mason Bee Excavating Nest
When reusing a nest cavity from a previous year, a female Mason Bee will excavate old partitions and other debris before starting her own nest.  This female is removing saw dust and is possibly enlarging the hole on this new block of wood that we drilled just a few weeks ago.
Mason Bees at Small Holes
The majority of our Mason Bees prefer 1/4-inch holes, but some use the smaller 3/16-inch ones.  Holes up to 3/8 of an inch in diameter are readily accepted by both Osmia cornifrons and taurus.
Packing Pollen and Eggs
A look at several female Mason Bees backed into their nest cavities to deposit eggs and pollen.  Note the load of pollen adhering to the abdomen of the head-first bee at the bottom of the image and the yellow residue around the entrance to the cavity above it.
Drosophila Fly at Mason Bee Nest Entrance
Before a female Mason Bee has a chance to seal up a cell or to plug up the entrance to the cavity, a Drosophila fly (left) or other nest raider may show up to plunder a portion of the stash of pollen.
Mason Bee Sealing a Nest Cavity
Once filled with cells, each containing an egg and a pollen cache, the mother bee seals the nest cavity with a wall of mud.
Mason Bee Sealing Cavity
A bee seals up a 3/16-inch cavity with a mud barricade.  Adult female Mason Bees may select smaller than usual holes to deposit eggs that will produce their smaller male young.
Mason Bee Closing Nest
Upon finishing the masonry job here, this female will move on to yet another cavity to deposit the balance of her fertilized eggs.
High-occupancy Mason Bee Nest
One week later, the Mason Bees’ work is done.
High-occupancy Mason Bee Nest
The adults are then soon to perish.  But meanwhile, the next generation begins hatching and growing within the protection of the nest.  We’ll see them early next spring.

Photo of the Day

Juvenile Eastern Cottontail
This petite Eastern Cottontail somehow found a path through weekend traffic to discover an abundant supply of lush green Indian Strawberry (Potentilla indica) leaves in the garden at susquehannawildlife.net headquarters.  The widely naturalized Indian Strawberry, also known as Mock Strawberry, is native to Asia.  It is most easily recognized by its bright yellow flowers which soon yield edible, but not very tasty, little red fruits.  I wonder, might the berries be more palatable if dipped in a melted-down chocolate bunny?  Food for thought, unless of course you have an aversion to hare in your romantic confections.

Coastal Waterfowl at the Capital City

In early April of each year, we like to take a dreary-day stroll along the Susquehanna in Harrisburg to see if any waterfowl or seabirds have dropped in for a layover before continuing their journey from wintering waters along the Atlantic seaboard to breeding areas well to our north and northwest.  As showers started to subside this Saturday morning past, here are some of the travelers we had the chance to see…

Mixed flock of scaup species.
Hundreds of scaup were feeding at mid-river.  To remain in suitable foraging habitat, the group is seen here flying upstream to the area of the Governor’s Mansion where they would commence yet another drift downstream to Independence Island before again repositioning to a favorable spot.
Lesser and Greater Scaup
By far, the majority of the ducks in this flock were Lesser Scaup showing white inner margins of the secondary flight feathers and more grayish margins in the primaries.  Several Greater Scaup, including the one denoted by the hairline in this image, could be detected by the presence of bright white margins not only in the secondary flight feathers, but extending through the primaries as well.
Lesser Scaup
A pair of Lesser Scaup feeding along the river shoreline at the Governor’s Mansion.  Both scaup species spend the colder months in bays and coastal estuaries, but the Lesser Scaup is the most likely to be found venturing inland to fresh water in the southern United States during winter.  The Lesser Scaup nests in the northwestern United States and in the southern half of Canada.  The Greater Scaup is the more northerly nesting species, spending its summers at the northern edges of the border provinces and beyond.
Common Loon
Common Loons spend the winter in Atlantic surf.  April is the best time to see them on the lower Susquehanna River as they drop in to rest and reenergize during a break in their annual northbound trip to nesting sites on the lakes and ponds left behind by the retreat of Pleistocene glaciers.
Buffleheads
We saw dozens of Buffleheads during our morning hike, often segregated into paired couples like this one.  Being cavity nesters, these migrating ducks are headed no further north than southern Canada, to lakes and ponds within forests, for the summer.
Male Harlequin Duck
Harlequin Ducks (Histrionicus histrionicus) spend the summer nesting on turbulent high-gradient streams in Canada and Greenland.  They mostly winter along rocky coastlines as far south as New England, but have adapted to feeding along man-made rock jetties in coastal New York and New Jersey.  This winter, they were seen along jetties and sea walls at least as far south as Cape Charles, Virginia, and the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.  During the past month, at least two Harlequin Ducks, including this male seen in flight on Saturday, have appeared on the river in the Harrisburg area, possibly as strays from this year’s wintering population at the mouth of the bay.  These ducks are very rare habitat specialists, possibly (according to Behrens and Cox, 2013) numbering less than 1,500 birds along the entire east coast.
Horned Grebe
In spring, the Horned Grebe transitions from a drab gray-brown winter (basic) plumage into rather surprisingly colorful breeding (alternate) plumage.
Adult Horned Grebe
An adult Horned Grebe in breeding (alternate) plumage.  Horned Grebes spend the winter on large rivers, bays, and ocean waters from Nova Scotia to Texas. They are presently on their way to breeding areas on ponds and lakes in Alaska and Canada west of Ontario.

If you want a chance to see these seldom-observed visitors to the lower Susquehanna at Pennsylvania’s capital city, try a morning walk along mid-town’s Riverfront Park from Maclay Street to Forster Street.  Also, try a stroll on City Island, particularly to the beach at the north end where you have a view of the mid-river areas upstream.  To have better afternoon light, try the river’s west shore along Front Street in Wormleysburg from the Market Street Bridge upstream to Conodoguinet Creek.  Once there, be certain to check the river from the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission’s West Fairview Access Area at the mouth of the creek.  And don’t be afraid to visit on a gloomy day; you never know what you might find!

Eastern Phoebe
Don’t forget to check the trees along the river shoreline where early stonefly hatches can often attract hungry insectivores.  We found this and six other Eastern Phoebes crowded into the trees at water’s edge just upriver from the Governor’s Mansion during Saturday’s migrant fallout.

SOURCES

Behrens, Ken, and Cameron Cox.  2013.  Seawatching: Eastern Waterbirds in Flight.  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.  New York, NY.

Photo of the Day

Palm Warbler
Colorful songbirds like this Palm Warbler are beginning to migrate through the lower Susquehanna valley on their way north.  Even when the weather is damp and gloomy, be certain to spend some time outdoors if you’d like the chance to see them.  Palm Warblers are most frequently found in damp thickets and streamside, but they’ll sometimes show up in densely vegetated parks and gardens during a springtime fallout.

Photo of the Day

Ring-necked Pheasant
A Ring-necked Pheasant forages among the fresh green growth two weeks to the day after prescribed fire was administered to this parcel at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area to turn back plant succession and maintain grassland habitat.

Three Items to Add to Your Tacklebox to Be a Better Conservationist

Soon after their arrival during the late 1600s, the earliest trans-Atlantic human migrants to settle the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed began the process of eliminating many of our largest native fish species.  They started by extirpating nature’s steward of lowland streams and wetlands, the North American Beaver.  The beaver’s meticulously maintained dams and fisheries-friendly ponds were promptly replaced by man-made impoundments designed to permanently divert water for powering lumber and grain mills.  Behind these structures, silt deposits accumulated as the forests were clear cut and the land subjected to highly erosive farming methods.  Mill dams would eventually be located on nearly every mile of suitable low-gradient stream in the basin.  Populations of native coldwater fishes including Brook Trout were quickly lost or left isolated in scattered headwaters.

With their navigation of creeks blocked by nearly impenetrable mill dams, seasonally migratory freshwater and anadromous fish were denied access to their traditional spawning waters.  The latter then had their populations seriously depleted, and in some cases extirpated, following construction of hydroelectric dams on the lower Susquehanna during the first half of the twentieth century.  The loss these latter species, including the herrings, Striped Bass, and sturgeons, all of which attain great size only because of their ability to make a sea run to access the year-round food energy available in the Atlantic, constitute a tremendous reduction in the numbers, variety, and mass of fish occurring in the river and its tributaries.

Add to these events the various sources of pollution entering the lower Susquehanna’s waterways during the intervening years including acid mine drainage, agricultural nutrients and sediments, stormwater runoff, untreated domestic and industrial sewage, illegal dumping, pesticides, etc., and one can easily understand how the watershed’s native fishery was lost as a commercial, food, and recreational resource.

Presently, the effort to restore populations of self-sustaining anadromous fishes to the lower Susquehanna is stalled due to the presence of introduced invasive species, particularly Northern Snakeheads, in the river’s waters below Conowingo Dam.  Lifts that carry migrating fishes over the lower river’s hydroelectric dams during the spring run are shut down to avoid extending the range of the hoards of non-native snakeheads to waters upstream of their present location.  Any translocation of anadromous fish must now be completed by manually separating desired species from among the invaders and loading them into a tank truck for transport to waters upstream of the dams.  But Northern Snakeheads are currently so prevalent at Conowingo that they are overwhelming the lift used for collecting and sorting fish as well.

Any slight hope that had existed for a return of harvestable stocks of American Shad or other sea-run native species to the Susquehanna and its tributaries seems to be fading.  And widespread improvements to water quality that would promote reestablishment of sustained populations of native coldwater fishes like Brook Trout are strictly a long-range goal.

Recreational anglers, however, still remain in the game—but their reward is a bit of a booby prize.  To compensate fisherman for the loss of their quarry on the river and in streams, and to promote an interest in the fishing pastime and conserving waterways, the stocking of various species of “game fish” has been a continuous undertaking, particular since the middle decades of the twentieth century.  Some of these introductions are planned, others, like the release of Northern Snakeheads, are unsanctioned and outright illegal.  The one thing most introductions have in common is that they consist of hardy, aggressive, predatory fishes that are non-native species (or native transplants from watersheds such as the Mississippi).  Their presence, especially in large concentrations and particularly during the time immediately following introduction, can have a deleterious impact on native stream inhabitants.  Some introduced fish, the Flathead Catfish for example, are upon discovery deemed invasive species; others, like the Smallmouth Bass, escape such a label not because they lack negative impacts on stream communities and ecosystems, but because they have been present for extended periods of time and have thus been accepted as part of the local fishing culture.

Rainbow Trout

Rainbow Trout
Hatchery-raised Rainbow Trout stocked by the hundreds in a lower Susquehanna valley creek for angling.  The Rainbow Trout is native to the streams and rivers of the Pacific coast of North America.  An anadromous form is known as the “Steelhead”.  These sea-run trout with access to marine food sources during their growth years attain more than twice the size of freshwater forms and acquire oversized hooked jaws before ascending waterways to spawn.

The creation of recreational fisheries comprised of introduced species has certainly helped maintain an interest in the fishing hobby and in the conservation of waterways.  It has even been a driving force for spectacular restorations of streams that otherwise would have languished in an impaired condition with little in the way of diversity of species—native or non-native.  As anglers, we are especially indebted to those who’ve devoted their time, energies, and, in some cases, a lot of money to projects that specifically seek to reestablish native waterways within the challenging landscape of the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed.  With an eye on the future, perhaps now is a good time to join them and focus our passion for freshwater angling on steering fisheries management more toward the native ecosystems approach.  Quality instead of quantity.

In that spirit, here are three items we can add to our tackle boxes this season to be better fisheries conservationists, instead of our own worst enemies.

Lead-free Weights
Lead-free Weights-  Replace the lead in your tackle box with tungsten or other lead-free alternatives to eliminate the potential impact this poisonous metal can have on you and wildlife like waterfowl and Bald Eagles.  Make a special effort to rid your inventory of small pieces of shot that can easily be ingested by animals as they feed. 
Realistic Lures
Realistic Lures-  Add sport to your fishing by using artificial lures.  Today’s selections include very realistic versions of native fishes, crayfish, frogs, and other aquatic creatures.  Use these life-like imitations and you won’t need to harvest native minnows and other wildlife from populations that are already being subjected to negative impacts from stocked legions of predatory “game fish”.  You’ll also eliminate the risk of introducing non-native bait species into your favorite fishing waters!
Trash Bag
Trash Bag-  Always bring a trash bag and carry out your litter.  Be especially vigilant about monofilament fishing line.
Fisherman's Trash
Fishermen are their own worst enemies, so you’ll need to pick up after the other guy too.  Show the landowners and land managers who are our hosts a little consideration.

Best of luck this fishing season.  We hope your time outdoors will motivate you to get involved with efforts to keep your local waterways clean.  You might even be inspired to assist with projects that are planned or currently underway in the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed to restore stream segments, wetlands, and floodplains.  Many of these projects are grassroots efforts and they’d love to have your participation.  Your local county conservation district can steer you towards an active restoration group near you.  Give them a ring.

Rainbow Trout and "Golden Rainbow Trout"
Hatchery-raised Rainbow Trout and a “Golden Rainbow Trout” stocked for anglers in a restored segment of a stream in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania.  The “Golden Rainbow Trout”, also known as the “Banana Trout”, is a Rainbow Trout color variant developed through multi-generational selective breeding of offspring produced by crossing a typical male with a yellow-mottled female mutant discovered in a hatchery in West Virginia in 1955.  Today, “Golden Rainbow Trout” breed true, golden males crossed with golden females yielding golden young.  The less colorful “Palomino Rainbow Trout” is produced by crossing a “Golden Rainbow Trout” with a typical Rainbow Trout.

Wildlife in the Burn Zone

During Saturday’s Prescribed Fire Demonstration at the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, we noticed just how fast some species of wildlife return to areas subjected to burns administered to maintain grassland habitat and reduce the risk of high-intensity blazes.

Back Fire Ignition during prescribed burn demonstration.
Pennsylvania Game Commission crews ignite a back fire to contain a prescribed burn along its downwind/upslope perimeter during a demonstration at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area on Saturday.
Prescribed Fire Demonstration
Visitors observe a fire planned to maintain this section of the refuge as warm-season grassland.  A species with roots several feet deep, the light-colored vegetation is Indiangrass, a plant adapted to thrive following periodic episodes of wildfire.  Prescribed fire can be used to replace naturally occurring infernos with much safer controlled burns that eliminate successional and invasive plants to promote the establishment of Indiangrass and other native warm-season species including Big Bluestem, Little Bluestem, Switchgrass, and a variety of wildflowers as well.
Prescribed Fire Demonstration
Even as the fire reached its brief peak of intensity, we noticed birds already attracted to the site…
Tree Swallow
Dozens of recently arrived Tree Swallows swept in to patrol for flying insects as the burn was in progress.
Tree Swallow
One even stopped by to have a look inside the kestrel nest box as fire approached the dry stand of goldenrod on the slope behind.
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawks and other raptors, including nocturnal owls, are frequently the first visitors attracted to the scene of a prescribed burn or wildfire.  In grassland and successional habitats, they come looking for any vulnerable voles or mice that may be moving about looking for cover.

Eastern Meadowlarks

Eastern Meadowlarks

Eastern Meadowlarks
These three Eastern Meadowlarks spent the morning in the grassland areas adjacent to the prescribed fire site, mostly where a burn had been conducted one week prior.  During the demonstration, one even perched and sang from the oak trees in the museum/visitor’s center parking lot.

Following the Prescribed Fire Demonstration, we decided to pay a visit to some of the parcels where burns had been administered one week earlier on the north side of Middle Creek’s main impoundment.  We found a surprising amount of activity.

White-crowned and White-throated Sparrows
Apparently feeding upon slightly heat-treated seeds, sparrows were found by the dozens. White-crowned (left), White-throated (right), Song, and Savannah Sparrows were identified.
Downy Woodpecker
This Downy Woodpecker was finding something to its liking among the scorched leaves, stems, and twigs.
American Robins seem to find areas with lightly burnt vegetation and ash-dusted soil advantageous for finding invertebrates following a fire.
Mixed Flock of Blackbirds
We found this flock of Red-winged Blackbirds, Browned-headed Cowbirds, and a few European Starlings feeding throughout a grassland field cleared of early-successional growth by a prescribed fire administered one week ago.
Mixed Flock of Blackbirds
They seemed to favor gleaning seeds from among the lightly burned areas of the plot.
Eastern Meadowlark
Nearby, in an island of unburned grass in the same field, we found yet another Eastern Meadowlark, our fourth of the day.  High-intensity agriculture, particularly early hay mowing and pesticide treatments, have mostly eliminated this and other grassland species from modern farms.  Management practices like prescribed fire and delayed mowing (no spinning blades until at least early August) can maintain ideal grassland habitat for stunningly colorful blackbirds including nesting Eastern Meadowlarks, Bobolinks, and many other species as well.
American Kestrel at Nest Box
A male American Kestrel at a nest box located among Middle Creek’s warm-season and cool-season grassland habitats, the former maintained by prescribed fire, the latter by delayed mowing.

Early-spring Maples: Clouds of Color Across the Forest Canopy

By late winter, sunshine and warming temperatures awaken the sleeping maples of the lower Susquehanna basin and the sap begins to flow.  The new growing season is evident by the first days of spring when their swelling buds and flowers paint the drab gray canopy of deciduous woodlands with an overlying coat of red, orange, and maroon.

Red Maples in Early Spring
Red Maples, renowned for their vibrant autumn foliage, are just as conspicuous in the early spring landscape.
Eastern Gray Squirrel Feeding on Red Maple Buds
For birds and mammals like this Eastern Gray Squirrel, the buds and flowers of maples mean relief from the diminished natural food supplies that helped them survive winter’s worst.  The season of abundance has arrived and these animals instantly recognize this source of sweet, fresh energy, just in time for the breeding season.  The flowers of maples, which later in the spring yield those familiar helicopter-like seeds, are an important early season source of energy for many species of bees and other pollinators.

Mark Your Calendar: Prescribed Fire Demonstration at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area

With relative humidity readings regularly dipping below 50%, the sunny days of March and early April are often some of the driest of the year.  During recent weeks, these measurements have plunged to as low as 20%, levels not often observed in our region.  As we’ve seen throughout the lower Susquehanna valley, windy weather and this extraordinarily dry air conspire to create optimal conditions for fast-spreading and often dangerous wildland fires.

On the brighter side, dry weather also provides the opportunity for foresters and other land managers to administer prescribed fire.  These controlled burns are thoroughly planned to reduce accumulations of wildfire fuels and invigorate understory growth in forests.  Their use also provides a number of effective methods for creating and maintaining wildlife habitats in non-forested areas.

Prescribed Fire in Grassland
Prescribed burns are currently underway on many state, federal, and privately-owned lands throughout the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed.

This Saturday, March 22, 2025, crews from the Pennsylvania Game Commission will be hosting a Prescribed Fire Demonstration at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in Lancaster/Lebanon Counties.  The event begins at 10:00 AM in the refuge’s museum/visitor’s center parking area.  A controlled burn to “reset” a parcel with early successional growth back to grassland will follow a presentation on prescribed fire uses, planning, safety, and implementation.

Prescribed Burn of Grassland
Prescribed fire treatment being used to prevent succession and maintain a warm-season grassland.
Prescribed Fire in Wetland
Prescribed fire being administered to eliminate successional woody growth from a sedge-rush wetland.
Prescribed Fire in Successional Growth
Pennsylvania Game Commission crews maintain a fire line along an area being burned to control invasive successional growth.
Eastern Cottontail
To best prevent succession, a given area should be burned every three to five years, thus only one fifth to one third of an entire habitat need be subjected to treatment each year.  To flee this year’s prescribed burn, this Eastern Cottontail simply hops across the fire break into an adjacent plot that will be unaffected in 2025.
Ring-necked Pheasants Post-burn
Hen and cockbird Ring-necked Pheasants feeding in a pre-plowed fire break furrow along the northern edge of a prescribed fire plot burned during a south wind.  These birds entered and fed in the area less than an hour after the flames subsided.
Prescribed Fire on Grassland
To provide refuge for evacuating animals, a completed prescribed burn leaves plenty of adjacent grassland acreage untouched.  Within weeks, the fire area will be lush green and again hosting many species of wildlife for the breeding season.  The scorch-free areas will each get a prescribed fire treatment sometime during the coming two to four years, the time period preceding this parcel’s next burn.

Don’t forget: Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area museum/visitor’s center parking lot on Saturday, March 22, 2025, at 10:00 AM.  See you there!

They Go Together Like Corned Beef and Cabbage

Red-winged Blackbird
Find a stand of Common Cattails in a marsh, a stormwater basin, or along a pond edge right now and you’re almost certain to find a male Red-winged Blackbird …
Red-winged Blackbird
…singing and displaying to defend a territory and attract a partner.  Upon their arrival and selection of a mate, the brown-streaked females will weave well-hidden nests among the stems and leaves of these essential water-purifying wetland plants.

Bald Eagles in March

Second-year Bald Eagle
Having survived its first winter of life, this second-year (Basic I) Bald Eagle nears its first birthday beginning the long process of molt that could culminate in it attaining definitive adult plumage in about four years.  Soon, the area of the belly will become bright white and will remain that way for almost two full years.  Though showing signs of wear, the flight feathers in the wings and tail have yet to be replaced, but by the time autumn arrives, the mix of new and slightly longer juvenile feathers will give the wings a conspicuously messy appearance.
Third-year Bald Eagle
In March, a third-year (Basic II) Bald Eagle with a mix of new and retained juvenile wing feathers has a noticeably sloppy appearance.  By fall, nearly all of the juvenile feathers will be replaced and the bird will look much more presentable.  The head will show a conspicuous two-toned “osprey-face”.
Third-year Bald Eagle
Even a fleeting glimpse in poor light reveals the white belly and jagged trailing edges of the wings on this third-year Bald Eagle as it nears its second birthday.
Almost an adult, a Bald Eagle in the early months of its fifth and sometimes its sixth year still has dark-edged tail feathers and a thin dark line through the eye.  Many birds at this age are sexually mature.
Adult Bald Eagle
An Bald Eagle set for life in adult definitive plumage.

Photo of the Day

Northern Green-striped Grasshopper
Late winter is hardly the time of year one would expect to find a grasshopper bouncing around a rocky woodland clearing.  But earlier this week during our visit to Rothrock State Forest in Huntingdon County, we photographed this Northern Green-striped Grasshopper (Chortophaga viridifasciata viridifasciata) nymph among the talus atop Tussey Mountain.  Unlike the majority of other grasshopper species in the Susquehanna basin which overwinter as eggs, the Northern Green-striped hatches in late summer and progresses through all but the final one or two of its five developmental instars before passing the colder months in a sheltered location among fallen leaves, dried grasses, and decaying plant matter.  Often the earliest of our grasshoppers to emerge, the Northern Green-striped nymph soon completes its final molts and reaches adulthood just in time for the warm days of late spring and early summer.  Two color forms are common, brown and green, both possessing reddish-brown abdominal segments.  Fuchsia-colored erythristic individuals are rare.

Spring Golden Eagle Migration

It appears that spring has at last arrived.  It’s time to have a look around!

Common Grackle
Diurnal flights of northbound blackbirds including Common Grackles have been overspreading the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed since late February.
American Robins
And thawed soils are providing opportunities for nocturnal migrants like American Robins to search for earthworms and other invertebrates during their daytime layovers.
Canada Geese
Now that there is open water between here and the Great Lakes, flocks of waterfowl like these migratory Canada Geese are flying day and night on an excursion that will ultimately take them to their nesting grounds in the wilderness areas of Canada and Alaska.

Of the bird species that pass southbound through the lower Susquehanna valley during autumn, we can generally observe many of the surviving individuals as they return north during the spring.  But there are numerous exceptions.  One of them is Golden Eagles.

While the strong northwest winds of late autumn create ideal lift for migrating Golden Eagles along our linear ridges, they also tend to enhance the birds’ tendencies to “ridge hop” their way south, thus pushing many of them southeast from the main corridor of the eastern population’s route through the central Appalachian Mountains.  Here in the lower Susquehanna region, we observe these vagabonds at our numerous hawk watches which happen to be located along the outer periphery of the birds’ primary flight path.  It appears that a greater percentage of these wayward eagles tend to be younger, less-experienced birds than those seen passing hawk-counting stations in the central Appalachians.  Lucky for us, we get to see more of the showy juvenile and immature Golden Eagles—at least during the fall season.

In the spring, southerly breezes and the urge to “ridge hop” in a northerly direction tend to concentrate Canada-bound migrating Golden Eagles along the northernmost ridges in their Appalachian flyway.  To see them, we took a short drive up the Juniata River valley to the 90,000 acres of Rothrock State Forest and Tussey Mountain Hawk Watch.  During our visit there earlier this week, gusty winds from the southwest brought us an opportunity to see the elusive northbound flights of some of the members of eastern North America’s population of Golden Eagles.

Jo Hays Vista, Rothrock State Forest
Tussey Mountain Hawk Watch is located along State Route 26 atop Tussey Mountain, just south of State College, Pennsylvania.  Visitors can find ample parking at the Jo Hays Vista along the west side of the road on the crest of the ridge .
State College, Pennsylvania
Looking north from Jo Hays Vista to State College and the main campus of Penn State University.  Bald Eagle Mountain is in the background and behind it lies Allegheny Front and Plateau.
Mid State Trail
From the Jo Hays Vista parking area, follow the Mid State Trail (orange blazes) south along the ridgetop for about a half mile to the Tussey Mountain Hawk Watch lookout.
Tussey Mountain Hawk Watch lookout
The lookout at Tussey Mountain Hawk Watch is located within a utility right-of-way with talus slopes flanking the ridgetop clearing.
Tussey Mountain Hawk Watch
An interpretive sign shows a statistical graphic describing the seasonal abundance of Golden Eagle sightings at the site.  The peak time: late February through early April.
Observers at Tussey Mountain Hawk Watch
Tussey Mountain is the only hawk-watching station in the lower Susquehanna region staffed by an official counter to collect data during the spring migration season.  You can view the daily counts at hawkcount.org.  You can contribute to them by visiting the hawk watch to help scan the skies.
Golden Eagles
By late morning, a small flight of Golden Eagles had commenced.  Most of the birds seen at Tussey Mountain are adult or near-adult birds with dark wing linings and slightly paler flight feathers.  It’s a two-toned appearance similar to that of a Turkey Vulture and there is little if any variation in the length of the flight feathers.  These birds are three years of age or older, are or soon will be sexually mature, and often travel in pairs separated by a minute or two of flight time.
This Golden Eagle caught our attention with its longer central tail feathers and some longer secondary feathers in the wings that create a wavy appearance.  As they get older, immature eagles should become more skilled as fliers, so each new set of flight feathers is usually shorter than those they’re replacing.  Based upon the characters contributing to its ragged appearance, this bird is probably in the early months of its fourth or fifth calendar year of life.
Common Raven
Common Ravens are forever vigilant around our regional hawk watches.  They can sometimes help us find otherwise hard-to-spot migratory raptors in the bright, sunny skies.
Common Raven and Golden Eagle
Ravens really like to harass younger birds like this second or third-year Golden Eagle.
Bald Eagle
Older, more stoic raptors like this adult Bald Eagle spend less time contending with the antics of the persistent ravens.
Third-year Immature Golden Eagle
One of the final sightings of the day was this magnificent Golden Eagle.  Look closely and you can see evidence of some molt completed last year in the outer tail feathers and the innermost primaries in the wings.  On top, there were tawny bars on the wing coverts.  This bird is probably just beginning its third calendar year of life and will start replacing many more flight feathers later this spring.

For more information on the region’s hawk watches and the birds you’ll see there, be certain to click the “Hawkwatchers Helper: Identifying Bald Eagles and other Diurnal Raptors” tab at the top of this page.  And for a more detailed look at how to determine the age of Golden Eagles, particularly during the autumn migration, click the “Golden Eagle Aging Chart” tab at the top of this page.

Winter Survival: Generalists and Specialists

We’ve seen worse, but this winter has been particularly tough for birds and mammals in the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed.  Due to the dry conditions of late summer and fall in 2024, the wild food crop of seeds, nuts, berries, and other fare has been less than average.  The cold temperatures make insects hard to come by.  Let’s have a look at how some of our local generalist and specialist species are faring this winter.

House Sparrows and a House Finch
House Sparrows (bottom) and House Finches (top) are generalists.  To survive and thrive, they are adapted to a variety of habitats and types of food.  House Sparrows live almost anywhere man-made structures are found.  They are true omnivores and will eat almost anything, especially if they see something else try to eat it first.  The House Sparrow’s close association with humans has allowed it to become the most widespread and successful living avian dinosaur.  On a cold night, they’ll take shelter either within dense vegetation alongside a building or within the structure itself.  Though not nearly as cosmopolitan, the House Finch has successfully colonized much of the eastern United States after escaping from captivity as a cage bird in New York during the middle of the twentieth century.  Upon being trans-located here from the arid southwest, they adapted to suburbs and farmlands consuming primarily a granivore diet of seeds supplemented with seasonally available berries.  They quickly became accustomed to offerings at bird-feeding stations as well.  To survive the harsh winters in the northern sections of their range, eastern populations of House Finches are developing a pattern of migration.  These movements are most evident in late fall when dozens or sometimes hundreds can be seen heading south over regional hawk-counting stations.
Northern Flicker feeding on Poison Ivy
Though they require dead trees for nesting and as places to find the grubs and adult insects upon which they primarily feed, woodpeckers including the Northern Flicker are generalists, seldom passing by a supply of fruits like these Poison Ivy berries as a source of winter food.  Flickers regularly visit suburban areas where they’ll drop by at bird-feeding stations for suet.  During the warmer months, they are the woodpecker most frequently seen on the ground where swarms of ants garner their full attention.
Pileated Woodpecker
The Pileated Woodpecker is seldom found outside of mature forests where it digs relentlessly to remove grubs and other infestations from dead wood.  But it is not a true specialist…
Pileated Woodpecker eating Poison Ivy
…it too finds a supply of Poison Ivy berries to be indispensable during a cold winter day.
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
The Ruby-crowned Kinglet is a generalist, feeding mostly on insects, but also consuming small seeds and some berries, including those of Poison Ivy.  It nests well to our north in tall spruces and other evergreens.  During migration and in winter, the Ruby-crowned Kinglet may be found in deciduous trees, brush, and tall grass in habitats ranging from forests to parks and suburbia.  This male is displaying its seldom-seen red crown.
Golden-crowned Kingle
The Golden-crowned Kinglet, seen here on a Poison Ivy vine, is more of a specialist than the Ruby-crowned species, though the two will often occur in mixed groups during the winter.  The Golden-crowned Kinglet nests in Spruce-Fir forests and in conifers within mixed woodlands.  Even during migration, and particularly in winter, these birds are seldom found far from a stand of large evergreens within which they find shelter for the night.
Hermit Thrush
The Hermit Thrush’s generalist lifestyle allows it to survive cold season weather in the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed.   During summer, it breeds in coniferous and mixed woods from the northern parts of our valley north into Canada and feeds primarily on worms, insects, and other arthropods.  During migration and in winter, the Hermit Thrush becomes a regular visitor to deciduous forests, woody parks and suburbs, particularly where a supply of wild berries is available to supplement its diet.
American Robin
Iconic as it pulls earthworms from lawns during the warmer months, the generalist American Robin is fully dependent upon a crop of berries to survive winter conditions in the lower Susquehanna valley.  The drought afflicted wild food crop of 2024 has led to fewer robins spending the season here and has delayed the northward push of migrating birds until the ground thaws and the earthworms make the ground rumble once again.
Eastern Bluebirds
It’s insects for the nestlings during spring and summer, then berries through the winter for the cheerful Eastern Bluebirds, another generalist species.
American Crow
American Crows are an excellent example of a generalist species.  They’ll go anywhere to find food and they’ll eat almost anything.  Like the House Sparrow and several other generalists, they adapt very well to human activity and actually thrive on it.  Garbage anyone?
White-tailed Deity
Another career generalist is the widely worshiped White-tailed Deity, a species adapted to nearly all man-made landscapes with adequate vegetation upon which to browse. Pushed to the limit during severe weather, some individuals will consume carrion and even resort to cannibalism.
Great Blue Heron
You might think the Great Blue Heron is a specialist.  Nope, it’s an accomplished generalist.  Great blues will live, feed, and breed on almost any body of fresh or brackish water.  And their diet includes almost anything that swims.  In winter, you’ll even see them in fields hunting mice and voles.
Red-shouldered Hawk
The Red-shouldered Hawk is a generalist with a diet ranging from amphibians and reptiles to small rodents and large insects.  Mostly regarded as a species of bottomlands, they’ll frequent woodland edges, roadsides, and suburbia during the winter months.
American Tree Sparrow
During its periodic winter visits to the region, the American Tree Sparrow feeds on seeds among the grasses and forbs of semi-open country with scattered short shrubs and trees.  A generalist species, it will show up at backyard bird-feeding stations, particularly during periods of inclement weather.  In summer, the American Tree Sparrow nests in tundra with growths of stunted willows and spruce and their diet includes insects as a source of protein for themselves and their young.
White-crowned Sparrow
The White-crowned Sparrow has similar winter habitat preferences to the tree sparrows…
White-crowned Sparrows
…it becomes adaptable and something of a generalist when searching for food during bad winter storms.
Savannah Sparrow
The Savannah Sparrow is an omnivore favoring insects in summer and seeds in winter.  Though very closely tied to its grassland habitat year-round, snow cover can push these birds to enter woodier environs to consume fruits like these rose hips.
Short-eared Owl
Dusk and dawn during the short days of winter are the prime hunting times of a mammal specialist, the Short-eared Owl.  Its presence in the lower Susquehanna valley is dependent on two dominant factors: extensive grassland habitat and an adequate population of the owl’s favored food, the Meadow Vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus).  The Short-eared Owl’s requirements as a specialist species make finding a suitable place to live difficult.  Unlike the generalist birds and mammals that often adapt to the widespread man-made disturbances in the region, populations of specialists frequently become fragmented, reduced in abundance, and subject to extirpation.
Meadow Vole
The Meadow Vole is a generalist rodent that can be abundant in grasslands, early successional growth, fallow fields, marshlands, and, of course, meadows.  They are primarily herbivores, but will occasionally consume insects and other arthropods.  Usually nocturnal, some individuals venture out along their surface runways during daylight hours becoming vulnerable to diurnal raptors including kestrels, harriers, and buteos.
Short-eared Owl patrolling a grassland for Meadow Voles
A Short-eared Owl in near darkness patrolling a grassland for Meadow Voles.
Eastern Coyote
The eastward expansion of the Coyote (Canis latrans), a species of western North America’s grasslands and scrublands, and its progressive mixing with the Wolf (Canis lupus) in these eastern extensions of its range, has produced an expanding population of very adaptable generalists we call Eastern Coyotes (Canis latrans var.).  These omnivorous canines colonized the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed during the last four decades to replace extirpated wolves as the top-tier natural predator in the region.  Their primary diet includes Meadow Voles in grasslands and other small mammals along woodland edges and in successional habitats.  Seasonally, they consume the berries of numerous wild plants.  Slightly larger than their western ancestors, Eastern Coyotes with the admixture of Wolf genetics can subdue small ungulates.  Like other apex predators, they are attracted to vulnerable prey and thus play a crucial role in culling the weak and diseased among their potential quarry species to assure the health and potential of populations of these species as long-term sources of food energy.  The benefit to the prey species is however largely diluted in populous areas of the northeast; most venison consumed by Eastern Coyotes here is in the form of road kill.  During periods of extended snow cover when small rodents and other foods become inaccessible, Eastern Coyotes, particularly young individuals, will wander into new areas seeking sustenance.  Sometimes they venture into cities and suburbs where they explore the neighborhoods in search of garbage and pet foods placed outside the home.  (Video clip courtesy of Tyler and Grace Good. Click image to view.)

Wildlife certainly has a tough time making it through the winter in the lower Susquehanna valley.  Establishing and/or protecting habitat that includes plenty of year-round cover and sources of food and water can really give generalist species a better chance of survival.  But remember, the goal isn’t to create unnatural concentrations of wildlife, it is instead to return the landscape surrounding us into more of a natural state.  That’s why we try to use native plants as much as possible.  And that’s why we try to attract not only a certain bird, mammal, or other creature, but we try to promote the development of a naturally functioning ecosystem with a food web, a diversity of pollinating plants, pollinating insects, and so on.  Through this experience, we stand a better chance of understanding what it takes to graduate to the bigger job at hand—protecting, enhancing, and restoring habitats needed by specialist species.  These are efforts worthy of the great resources that are sometimes needed to make them a success.  It takes a mindset that goes beyond a focus upon the welfare of each individual animal to instead achieve the discipline to concentrate long-term on the projects and processes necessary to promote the health of the ecosystems within which specialist species live and breed.  It sounds easier than it is—the majority of us frequently become distracted.

Eastern Gray Squirrel
Being an individual from a population of a very successful generalist species is no guarantee of survival.  This Eastern Gray Squirrel fell from a tall tree when the limbs became ice covered during a storm earlier this month.  Just a freak accident?  Maybe, but mistakes like this are often fatal in the natural world.  This squirrel’s passing may seem brutal, but it provides a better opportunity for other squirrels and animals that share its food and cover requirements to make it through the winter.  And those survivors that didn’t suffer such a fatal mistake or, more importantly, don’t possess a vulnerability that may have contributed to such a mishap will have a chance to pass those traits on to a new generation.  This squirrel as an individual is gone, its species lives on, and may be stronger for its passing.
Prescribed Burn of a Grassland
Pennsylvania Game Commission crews maintain a grassland ecosystem for Short-eared Owls and other specialists using prescribed fire to prevent succession beyond its earliest stages.  Among the additional specialist species benefiting from this management tool are Monarchs and other butterflies whose host plants survive early-season fire, but not competition with woody vines, shrubs, trees, and invasive herbaceous growth.

On the wider scale, it’s of great importance to identify and protect the existing and potential future habitats necessary for the survival of specialist species.  And we’re not saying that solely for their benefit.  These protection measures should probably include setting aside areas on higher ground that may become the beach intertidal zone or tidal marsh when the existing ones become inundated.  And it may mean finally getting out of the wetlands, floodplains, and gullies to let them be the rain-absorbing, storm-buffering, water purifiers they spent millennia becoming.  And it may mean it’s time to give up on building stick structures on tinderbox lands, especially hillsides and rocky outcrops with shallow, eroding soils that dry to dust every few years.  We need to think ahead and stop living for the view.  If you want to enjoy the view from these places, go visit and take plenty of pictures, or a video, that’s always nice—then live somewhere else.  Each of these areas includes ecosystems that meet the narrow habitat requirements of many of our specialist species, and we’re building like fools in them.  Then we feign victimhood and solicit pity when the calamity strikes: fires, floods, landslides, and washouts—again and again.  Wouldn’t it be a whole lot smarter to build somewhere else?  It may seem like a lot to do for some specialist animals, but it’s not.  Because, you see, we should and can live somewhere else—they can’t.

The Allegheny Woodrat (Neotoma magister), a threatened species in Pennsylvania and a critically imperiled species in Maryland, is a habitat specialist requiring the forested rocky slopes, talus-flanked ridgetops, and caves of the Ridge and Valley Province for its nest sites and survival.  Isolated populations survived within similar environs in the lower Susquehanna River valley’s Piedmont Province and on South Mountain through at least the first half of the twentieth century, but have since been extirpated.  Human encroachment that fragments their habitat and promotes exposure to parasite-hosting mammals including the Raccoon (Procyon lotor), carrier of the Raccoon Roundworm (Baylisascarius procyonis), could prove fatal to remaining populations of this native mammal.  (National Park Service image by Rick Olsen)
American Oystercatcher
The American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus) is a specialist species that uses its highly adapted bill to feed on marine invertebrates including mollusks, few of which are actually oysters.  Reliant upon tidal ecosystems for its survival, many of the seashore animals that make up this wader’s diet are themselves specialist species.  Oystercatchers spend nearly their entire lives in tidal marshes or within the intertidal zone on beaches.  They also frequent rocky jetties, particularly during high tide.  This individual was photographed near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay in Northhampton County, Virginia, a location that, when the waters of the Atlantic started rising over 10,000 years ago, was the lower Susquehanna valley about 60 miles from the river’s mouth at present-day Norfolk Canyon along the edge of the continental shelf.  Get the drift?

Groundhog Stew

 

Woodchuck

Our procrastinating groundhog

Susquehanna Stew

Is out to have a look around

Eight days overdue

 

Woodchuck

Nibbling on some morsels

Basking in the sun

Almost three months since his last meal

Gee, that must be fun

 

Woodchuck

But eating dried-up grasses

Might not do the trick

He might start feeling woozy

Or even getting sick

 

Woodchuck

All this nonstop grazing

Stew’s just like a cow

He needs to find a way to stop

And end this binge right now

 

Woodchuck

So when he saw his shadow

He knew just what to do

Time to head down under

‘Til wintertime is through

 

Woodchuck

This crazy superstition

Sure did take its toll

The situation’s urgent

He’s headed for his hole

 

Woodchuck

But Stew’s no fan of digging

Or all that woodchuck hype

This marmot has no burrow

 His home’s a broken pipe

 

Woodchuck

So if you want to see him

In springtime when it rains

Keep an eye on the clover field

Outside the flooding drains

 

Always a great time Stew.  See you in the spring.  And remember, it’s never a good idea to be late for dinner, so stay away from the carrots, celery, potatoes, and onions—someone may get the wrong idea!

An Early Winter Interlude

Hermit Thrush
After decades of heavy manual labor, it’s time for your editor to go under the knife and have his guts put back where they belong.  We hope you won’t mind if we take a little break while he behaves like this Hermit Thrush and becomes a bit of a recluse for a while.  We’ll be back soon.

Photo of the Day

Pileated Woodpecker
To get what it needs to survive, this Pileated Woodpecker gets a symbolic start to 2025 by beginning at the bottom and working its way toward the top.

Photo of the Day

Green Frog
2025 begins as the fourth consecutive New Year’s Day with the Green Frogs out and about in the water garden at susquehannawildlife.net headquarters.  As colder weather arrives during the next 48 hours, these native amphibians will retreat to the bottom of the ponds and become motionless.  The breathing of atmospheric air through their lungs will cease and they will instead exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide by diffusion through their skin.  During this time, the pond must not freeze all the way to the bottom and dissolved oxygen levels in the water beneath the ice must remain sufficient to support the hibernating frogs and other life.

A Final Look at the Bald Eagles of 2024

As it turns out, 2024 was a big year for Bald Eagles—being officially named the national bird and all.  You may be surprised to learn that the ringing in of a new year brings with it a new age class designation for all non-adult eagles.  Sound confusing?  No need to worry.  We were fortunate enough to get pictures of about half of the Bald Eagles we happened to see in the lower Susquehanna valley earlier today, so we thought it only proper to share with you both the images and an explanation.

Adult Bald Eagle
An adult Bald Eagle in definitive plumage, a bird probably in at least its sixth year of life and at least five years old.  Tomorrow, New Year’s Day 2025, will be the first day of at least its seventh year of life.
A hatch-year/juvenile Bald Eagle beginning to show the abundance of white it will possess in the wing linings and on the belly during its second and third years.  Under the age classification system we’ve adopted here, non-adult eagles will be advanced to the next in the series of sequential age categories beginning tomorrow, New Year’s Day.  This first-year bird, born sometime during 2024, will thereafter be designated as a second-year/Basic I Bald Eagle for the duration of 2025.
Second-year Bald Eagle
A second-year/basic I immature Bald Eagle showing lots of white below and a jagged appearance to the trailing edge of the wings.  This untidy look is caused by retention of some of the longer juvenile secondaries among flight feathers that were dropped and replaced by shorter ones earlier this year during the bird’s first molt.
Second-year Bald Eagle
Another second-year/basic I immature Bald Eagle with numerous juvenile secondaries projecting beyond the rear edge of the wings.  Beginning tomorrow, this and other second-year birds, all born sometime during 2023, will be known as third-year/basic II immature Bald Eagles.
Second-year Bald Eagle
We’re getting the inquisitive eyeball from this second-year/basic I immature Bald Eagle.
Fourth-year Bald Eagle
A fourth-year/basic III immature Bald Eagle on the eve of becoming a fifth-year/basic IV immature bird.  By the end of 2025, this eagle may very well be indiscernible from older adult Bald Eagles in definitive plumage.
Bald Eagle and Red-shouldered Hawk
A fourth-year/basic III immature Bald Eagle and an adult Red-shouldered Hawk doing a New Year’s Eve tango.

That’s a wrap, and that’s it for 2024.  Have a Happy New Year!  See you in 2025.

Photo of the Day

Red-eared Slider
Introduced species often exhibit greater vigor than the plants and animals that are indigenous to an ecosystem.  Today, we found this Red-eared Slider, a native of the lower Mississippi River basin, basking in the intermittent sunshine on the edge of a Susquehanna valley pond still partially covered with ice from the deep freeze earlier this month.  These turtles do not hibernate but instead brumate, remaining motionless on the bottom of the pond or under adjacent embankments.  During brumation, they eat nothing, but will come to the surface to bask on warm winter days.  This ability to be a “light sleeper” gives the invasive Red-eared Slider an advantage over the native turtles in our ponds, lakes, and rivers.  When spring finally does arrive, they’ll be the first to emerge and begin feeding, gaining the vitality they’ll need to start mating and depositing eggs before the local species.  Red-eared Sliders were released into the waters of the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed as unwanted pets and are now freely reproducing.  Their growing numbers are displacing some of our native species including several of our uncommon and rare turtles.

Three Diminutive Geese at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area

In addition to the Canada Geese and Snow Geese currently visiting Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, three smaller geese of interest were seen there this afternoon.

Canada Geese and Snow Geese
The Big Geese-  The three Snow Geese and some of the one thousand or more Canada Geese presently calling the lake at Middle Creek home.  Again today, flocks of hundreds of Snow Geese circled the lake, but did not decide to stay.
Ross's Goose
Small Goose #1-  First reported several days ago, this Ross’s Goose continues to be seen in the company of Canada Geese.
Cackling Goose
Small Goose #2-  Just 100 feet to the right of the Ross’s Goose, we spotted this dark little Cackling Goose, another rarity.  It is probably a Richardson’s Cackling Goose (Branta hutchinsii hutchinsii), a subspecies that nests in the arctic tundra of north-central Canada.
Cackling Goose
Small Goose #3-  And to its right was another Cackling Goose, this one a bit paler, particularly on the breast (hatch-year bird?).  Note its small size and stubby bill compared to the nearby Canada Geese.
Cackling Goose
The gray, scalloped appearance of the back and the paler breast is apparent on this second Cackling Goose.
Cackling Goose
The Cackling Goose was only recently recognized as a species distinct from the Canada Goose (2004).  The status and distribution of each goose’s various subspecies remains a topic of discussion and debate.
Compare the bill size and shape, Canada Goose vs. Cackling Goose.
Compare the bill size and shape, Canada Goose to the left and Cackling Goose to the right.
Cackling Goose
A final look at one of two Cackling Goose seen today from Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area’s Willow Point.

There you have it, the three little geese—a Ross’s and two Cackling.  They’re among North America’s smallest of the geese species and seldom are they seen so close together.

White Friday: Snow-colored Waterfowl Glowing in the Winter Sun

Our outing at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area was today highlighted by teasing views of glistening white geese and swans—the tundra breeders that by February will create a sensation attracting thousands of birders, photographers, and other visitors to the refuge.

Snow Geese
At noisy flock of at least five hundred high-flying Snow Geese arrived at Middle Creek just after noontime.
Snow Geese
A spiraling descent ensued.
Snow Geese
Snow Geese coming down while carefully examining the small patch of open water on Middle Creek’s main lake.
"Blue Geese" and Snow Geese
Several of the “Blue Goose” color morphs were easily discernible among the hundreds of typical white birds.
Snow Geese
Streaming in on final approach to the lake…
Snow Geese
…and making a low pass above thrilled spectators at the Willow Point overlook.
Snow Geese
Then, after gliding just a hundred feet above the Canada Geese, Tundra Swans, and other waterfowl gathered around the small pool of open water on the lake…
Snow Geese
…the entire flock gained altitude and soon departed in the easterly direction from whence it came, not yet ready to settle in at Middle Creek for a respite before heading north later this winter.
Tundra Swans
A short while later, some of the fifty or more Tundra Swans that have been visiting Middle Creek throughout the week started to stir,…
Tundra Swans
…taking a few laps around the center of the lake before again settling down along the edges of the ice.
Tundra Swans
Two adult and two immature Tundra Swans as seen from Willow Point.
Ross's Goose
Since the big flock of Snow Geese decided not to stay, the Ross’s Goose remains easy to locate among the hundreds of Canada Geese on the lake’s ice and on the mudflats on the north side of Willow Point.
Ross's Goose
The Ross’s Goose in the company of a distant group of Canada Geese…
Ross's Goose
…and with an American Black Duck of similar size.  Just today, several dozen observers had the opportunity to get a look at this rarity.  With a little luck, it’ll stick around so others have a chance to see it too.

A Ross’s Goose the Easy Way

The Ross’s Goose (Anser rossii) is a rare but regular transient in the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed.  This species nests in the arctic tundra of northernmost central Canada and winters in the valleys of California and in parts of Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas, primarily near the northwestern rim of the Gulf of Mexico.  A population also spends the colder months in western Texas, New Mexico, and an adjacent portion of north-central Mexico.  The Ross’s Goose looks like a tiny version of a Snow Goose and is most often detected among flocks of these latter birds during their late winter visits to our area.  Finding a single Ross’s Goose among thousands of Snow Geese can oft times be an insurmountable challenge, so it’s nice when one decides to drop by in a crowd within which it is much more discernible.

Snow Geese and Canada Geese
A couple of Snow Geese along with Canada Geese and other waterfowl seen this afternoon from the Willow Point overlook at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area.
Ross's Goose with Canada Geese
A petite little Ross’s Goose seen late this afternoon among several hundred Canada Geese north of Willow Point.
Ross's Goose and Canada Geese
The Ross’s Goose was last seen walking across the ice to the distant northern shoreline of the lake where it and the Canada Geese were later flushed skyward by several Bald Eagles.

In case you were wondering—yes, despite the ice on Middle Creek’s lake, the Sandhill Cranes are still being seen in the vicinity of Willow Point.

Sandhill Cranes
Sandhill Cranes returning from a short foray into the grasslands north of the lake at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area.
Sandhill Cranes
On approach to the flats north of Willow Point.
Sandhill Cranes
Coming in for a landing.
Sandhill Cranes
Touchdown!

Photo of the Day

Red-bellied Woodpecker
You may be on the verge of satisfying your appetite with chestnuts from an open fire, but this Red-bellied Woodpecker is just as pleased to retrieve a Shagbark Hickory nut from a hiding place among the tree’s cracks and crevices where it was stashed away earlier in the fall.