Among the last of the dragonflies to still be flying during late November is the Autumn Meadowhawk (Sympetrum vicinum). Earlier today, we photographed this specimen as it basked in warm sunshine at Wildwood Lake in Harrisburg. Elsewhere in the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed, look for Autumn Meadowhawks near lakes and ponds located within or near woodlands and forest.
Peak numbers of Fox Sparrows are now moving through the lower Susquehanna valley on their way south. Nearly as large as our Catharus thrushes, these native songbirds are among the last of our regularly occurring autumn migrants. In tangled dense thickets along the edges of fields and woodlots, small numbers may linger into winter eating berries and the seeds of herbaceous plants.
Back for an afternoon visit on a limb above the pond, our surprise guest seems to find our dining experience irresistible. During recent winters, the Green Frogs in the headquarters habitat have continued to be active through at least New Year’s Day. If it appears we’re going to have a Red-shouldered Hawk lingering that long, perhaps we’ll be motivated to clean our windows so we might get an even better look.
Earlier this morning, we photographed this adult Red-shouldered Hawk as it took a break from its southbound journey to eye up the Green Frogs in the susquehannawildlife.net headquarters pond. Hunger must surely outweigh timidity because this bird persisted in its hunt despite the activity of a crew of contractors noisily grinding up asphalt in the street just 40 feet away!
During these last mild evenings of fall, the trilling call of the Narrow-winged Tree Cricket (Oecanthus niveus) can still be heard among the withering growth of thickets, fields, and forest edges. As the temperatures plummet, the pulsating rate of this insect’s song slows proportionally. Below about 40 degrees Fahrenheit, there is silence.
Invasive populations of Red-eared Sliders (right) continue to grow and threaten numbers of native freshwater testudines including the Painted Turtles seen here to the left. Introduced primarily as unwanted pets, sliders are now freely reproducing throughout much of the lower Susquehanna watershed. Their ability to feed aggressively and grow to sizes significantly larger than those of our most-imperiled wetland species including the Spotted Turtle (Clemmys guttata), Wood Turtle, and endangered Bog Turtle make Red-eared Sliders a menace rivaling habitat loss and illegal collecting.
Small numbers of Rusty Blackbirds are currently moving south through the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed. Look for individuals and small flocks feeding in damp woods and along lake and river shorelines. These uncommon birds nest far to our north in wet coniferous and mixed forests as well as willow thickets, often in muskeg or beaver pond-created habitat. Rusty Blackbirds spend the colder months in the wooded swamps of the southeastern and south-central United States. Loss of habitat has reduced their numbers dramatically, as has their misfortune to occasionally join flocks of foraging Red-winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles on the wintering grounds where all of these species fall victim to avicide poisons placed on feedlots to eradicate European Starlings.
These juvenile Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are among the last big southbound push of Neotropical migrants we’ll see moving through the lower Susquehanna valley in coming days. Be certain to get outside and have a look.
Having emerged from the soil overnight, this pale-colored teneral (soft-bodied) Eastern Scissor Grinder has shed its exuvia (left) and is currently pumping blood throughout its extremities to expand its size and unfurl its wings. During the remainder of the morning, the wings and exoskeleton will darken in color and harden in preparation for flight. As an adult, this cicada then has just weeks to complete its courtship and breeding cycle before facing inevitable doom. To see images and listen to sound clips of this and other annual species, visit our cicada page by clicking the “Cicadas” tab at the top of this page.
The gasoline and gunpowder gang’s biggest holiday of the year is once again upon us. This Independence Day weekend, don’t let the celebration turn to tragedy. Keep a garden hose or fire extinguisher at the ready to dowse any hot embers or other potential troublemakers. Fill a bucket with water for use as a trash receptacle for your hot sparkler rods and other pyrotechnic waste. Have non-combustible lids or covers handy to smother any flare ups while you’re grilling. Don’t forget, they’ll be plenty of testosterone and adrenaline circulating to keep the festivities exciting, so skip the alcohol and energy drinks if you’re driving or lighting off fireworks. Things don’t need to be any more explosive. And remember, the anthem’s lyrics say, “…the rockets red glare, bombs bursting in air…”, not burning your neighbor’s garage down, so maintain a safe distance with your grills, camp fires, and July 4th displays, won’t you please? Have an exciting weekend!
We came across this photo from a dive we did back in 1999 and thought it timely. Here a large non-native Common Carp churns up a cloud of nutrient-charged sediment as it roots its way through a bed of American Eelgrass and Water Stargrass in the Susquehanna below Conewago Falls. (Vintage 35 mm image)
One of dozens of Cedar Waxwings seen descending upon ripe juneberries in a mini grove consisting of either Smooth Shadbush (Amelanchier laevis) or the allied and very similar-looking hybrid juneberry Amelanchier x lamarkii. Smooth Shadbush can be grown as a shrub or small tree and is also known as Smooth Serviceberry, Allegheny Serviceberry, or Smooth Juneberry. The hybrid Amelanchier x lamarkii is believed to be a naturally occurring cross between Smooth Shadbush (A. laevis) and either Canadian Serviceberry (A. canadensis) or Downy Serviceberry (A. arborea). Juneberries/serviceberries/shadbushes, including a number of man-made cultivars, produce white flowers in early spring and can be obtained through numerous suppliers for inclusion in conservation projects, home gardens, or for use as street trees. Believe it or not, the very productive planting seen here was located in a parking lot island at a busy Walmart store.
When it comes to sitting down and watching an episode of Hollywood Squares or indulging in a game of Tic-Tac-Toe, those of us here at susquehannawildlife.net are quick to play right along. But when it comes to mixing it up with a Tick-Backed Doe or a Tick-Backed Buck like this one, you can count us out. Upon finding this button buck infested with engorged Deer Ticks and heading our way on a grassy trail, we decided to turn around and limit our walk to the gravel roadway where there was less of a chance of picking up any hitchhikers from the vegetation where this guy has been spending his time.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Freezing water to the north of the lower Susquehanna valley is currently pressuring migratory waterfowl including these Hooded Mergansers to come south. As local ponds and lakes also become coated with ice, open water on the river offers many benthic feeders their only opportunity to forage.
Sandhill Cranes sometimes stray east from their primary autumn migration routes that take them from marshland breeding grounds in the western Great Lakes and central Canada to wintering areas in and near Florida. These birds, 4 of 19 seen at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area over the weekend, may have been blown into the lower Susquehanna valley last week by the strong northwest winds that brought sub-freezing temperatures to the eastern states and lake-effect snows to counties bordering Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Migrating Sandhill Cranes can fly at altitudes that make them imperceptible to us on the ground, and can easily get redirected by atmospheric jets with speeds of 60 miles per hour or more. Then again, limited numbers of Sandhill Cranes have, in recent years, been expanding their nesting range east into bogs and other wetlands at scattered locations in northern Pennsylvania, New York, New England, and eastern Canada. Ice and snow cover could have prompted some of these birds to finally move south to pay us a visit. Incidentally, a separate flock of 38 Sandhill Cranes were seen over the weekend just south of the Susquehanna watershed on backwaters of upper Chesapeake Bay at Gunpowder Falls State Park in Harford County, Maryland. These cranes have been present since at least November 25th and may, like birds in previous years, spend the winter.
The arrival of arctic air and sub-freezing temperatures reminds us that winter is soon here. But for this Bald Eagle, preparations for spring are already underway. Pairs nesting in the lower Susquehanna valley have begun courtship and many females will be incubating eggs in January. By March, parents will be bringing food to hungry nestlings. The timing of the Bald Eagle’s breeding cycle provides the best chances for an adequate supply of provisions for their young. Their peak demand for food coincides with the arrival of thousands of migrating waterfowl and other birds and with the migration of suckers and other fish on local streams. From these massive legions of migrants, adult eagles cull the weak and vulnerable, or scavenge the carcasses of those that have already perished. Bald Eagles in Florida and elsewhere in the south have a nesting schedule with similar benefits; their young are hatching now to fed by parents taking advantage of the immense numbers of waterfowl and other birds presently arriving to spend the winter there.
Late this afternoon, this rainbow accompanied passage of a brief rain shower over the Stony Creek Valley and Saint Anthony’s Wilderness near Rausch’s Gap in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania.
There’s now a sense of urgency because for the Eastern Chipmunk, the opportunities to gather and store nuts, seeds, and acorns are slipping away. The time has arrived for retreat to its burrow where, because it stores no body fat for winter, this member of the squirrel family (Sciuridae) relies upon its cache of provisions for snacking between periods of extended slumber during the coldest months of the year.
During the summer, the Lesser Angle-winged Katydid has little difficulty hiding among the lush green foliage of hardwood trees. Oft times, the only sign of its presence is its call, a series of short rapid rattles, “ttt—-tttt—-ttt”, issued with a second or two of silence between each rattle. The call is often part of the nocturnal chorus it shares with other species of katydids on warm evenings. Frost and freeze usually bring these annual breeding rituals to end. But during our current resurgence of warm autumn weather, we found this hardy survivor in a forest clearing where it has little hope of escaping notice among bare trees and earth-tone fallen leaves. As the afternoon temperature soared into the upper seventies, it further revealed its presence by striking up its tell-tale mating call, “ttt—-tttt—-ttt.”
