Presently in the valleys of the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed, you’re sure to see a gorgeous nightmare, showy stands of flowering Callery Pear (Pyrus calleryana). Invasive groves like this one quickly dominate successional habitat and often create monocultures, often excluding native pioneer trees like Eastern Red Cedar and several species of deciduous hardwood. The void beneath the pear trees in this photograph shows how deer browsing can intensify the damage, preventing other plant species from becoming established in the understory. In autumn, crimson foliage again makes these non-native trees a standout in the landscape. The red leaves attract birds including American Robins and Cedar Waxwings to the abundant berries, but European Starlings usually get to them first. Planted specimens of ornamental Callery Pears began producing fertile seeds when multiple varieties became available in addition to the self-sterile “Bradford Pears” that were planted widely during the last decades of the twentieth century. Cross-pollination between varieties produces the fertile seeds that are distributed by starlings and other birds as they digest the fruit.
During the late nineteenth century, Great Egrets were nearly exterminated by hunters who shot adult birds, often at their nest sites, to collect the ornate plumes that adorn their heads and backs during breeding season. Parentless young were left to die in the nests while the showy feathers of the adults were sold to clothiers as decorations for expensive hats. In Pennsylvania, the Great Egret nests at just a few locations and is listed as an endangered species.
In the urban landscape, massive old trees like this Eastern Sycamore not only provide shade and beauty, but they can also be essential nesting sites for birds like these Yellow-crowned Night Herons, a species listed as endangered in Pennsylvania. This pair is part of a small colony located in the stylish midtown section of the state’s capital city, Harrisburg.
The American Bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus) is a member of the Ardeidae, the heron and egret family. It is a stealthy migrant, making its flights under cover of darkness, then resting and feeding in dense stands of Common Cattails and other marsh plants during the day. It avoids detection by raising its bill skyward to create a profile and color scheme that blends well with the contours of the vegetation. In Pennsylvania, loss of wetland habitat used for nesting has led to the American Bittern being listed as an endangered species.
American Wigeons, sometimes called Baldpates because of the white foreheads and caps on the drake birds, are migrating through the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed right now. These dabbling ducks feed mostly upon vegetative matter in the shallow waters of wetlands and ponds. They’ll cross the border into Canada to nest.
Winter Wrens will soon be gone for the year. For now, they can still be found creeping around like a tiny mouse among fallen timber in moist forests and in dense thickets of brush. To sustain themselves through the coldest months of the year, they pick invertebrates from among the wood and bark along the undersides of decaying logs, where the process of decomposition creates enough warmth to keep their prey alive in all but the most severe of weather conditions. Along the Susquehanna near Conewago Falls, look for them among the stonework of the abandoned Pennsylvania Canal. Listen too for their uniquely mystic song, a long jumble of fluted and chattering notes that softly floats through quiet woodlands, sometimes raising the question: Is that a bird?
The Red-necked Grebe (Podiceps grisegena) is a rare but regular spring migrant in the Susquehanna valley. After wintering along the coast, they journey to breeding locations on inland ponds in Canada and Alaska. For the past several days, this one has been feeding on minnows along the river’s west shore just downstream of the mouth of the Conodoguinet Creek near Wormleysburg, Pennsylvania.
Steady winds from southerly directions are presently propelling migratory ducks into and through the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed. Of the more than one dozen species that regularly occur, Northern Pintails (female in the center) are typically here and gone in a flash, so you’ll need to promptly check local wetlands or keep an eye on the sky if you want to catch a glimpse of them.
Cedar Waxwings are currently roaming the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed in search of ripe berries to satisfy their appetites. If you want them to visit your garden, you need fruit-bearing shrubs, trees, and vines. There’s a great selection available from your County Conservation District’s annual tree sale. Preorders are due soon, so check out their website or give them a call today. Then you’ll be ready for the flight of the waxwings!
Swamp Sparrows can be found year-round in the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed. They seldom occur far from water, this one spending its time in a dense stand of Common Cattails (Typha latifolia).
Weedy patches and successional growth are important feeding and shelter habitat for wintering birds including the Field Sparrow. So, forget about the mowing, whacking, and pesticide application from now on and you just may see this and other species of native animals near your place.
A bit on the mild side for the final days of December, wouldn’t you say? This Green Frog living in the pond at the susquehannawildlife.net headquarters certainly thinks so.
Our largest sparrow, the Fox Sparrow, is an uncommon but regular late-autumn and early-spring migrant in the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed. Where there is dense cover among thickets, a few may remain through the winter.
Right now, White-throated Sparrows are arriving for the winter throughout the lower Susquehanna valley. They are common inhabitants of brushy fields and woodlot edges. “White-throats” are a bit fussy about spending time in suburban gardens, not liking things overly “tidy”. They are often seen feeding upon weed seeds near or on the ground and can be attracted to white millet and cracked corn scattered atop a short stump or flat boulder. Listen for the male’s song, typically heard beginning in the spring ahead of and during migration back to the breeding grounds, a whistled “old-sam-peabody-peabody-peabody” that they sometimes can’t resist practicing on a sunny winter day.
It’s that time again in Pennsylvania, the gasoline and gunpowder gang’s second-biggest holiday of the year. Pious worshippers of the White-tailed Deity don brightly colored sacred ceremonial garb and depart on a pilgrimage to find the sovereign target of their passion. For the faithful, the sacrifice ritual is accompanied by great emotion. There can be sweating, trembling, and even hallucinations before the act commences and a tremendous sense of euphoria is savored, despite the heresy of it all. Needless to say, you don’t want to be downrange when the trigger is pulled. So, unless you’re cloaked in similar celebratory dress and glowing like the sun in a dark room, you had better stay out of the woods and fields for a while.
During the coldest months of the year, Great Blue Herons linger on the lower Susquehanna, its tributaries, and on local ponds and lakes until ice forces them to move south. Now is the time to watch for them hunting mice and other small mammals in grassy meadows and fields to supplement their diet before heading out.
It’s Gallo the Wild Turkey reminding you how delicious, nutritious, and filling macaroni and cheese can be as your center of the plate selection this holiday. And if macaroni and cheese isn’t filling enough for you, there’s always filling. But, remember, food safety experts remind us to never cook filling inside a bird. So why invite a turkey to dinner? Just eat more mac and cheese…and filling. Gobble it up.
The Wilson’s Snipe (Gallinago delicata), also known as the Common Snipe, is a regular late-fall and early-spring migrant that sometimes visits spring seeps, wet meadows, vegetated brooks, and man-made stormwater basins during stopovers in the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed. The long bill is used to probe moist soils for prey consisting of worms and other invertebrates. Snipe sometimes linger into the winter, provided soft unfrozen ground is available for foraging. And yes, the snipe is a real bird, not just folklore invented by the mischievous adolescents you knew when you were a kid. Remember how they tried to lure you into a “snipe hunt” so they could abandon you in a dark forest? Remember how nobody ever fell for their nonsense, but they kept trying? Sad, isn’t it?
The White-breasted Nuthatch is a familiar woodpecker-like songbird of deciduous forests, parks, and wooded suburbs. It frequently descends the trunks of trees head first while searching the bark for insects. Nuthatches visit feeding stations stocked with cracked corn, sunflower seeds, suet, or peanuts.
Nothing like a flock of nomadic Cedar Waxwings to brighten an otherwise gray and dismal November day. To satisfy their appetites, waxwings are constantly on the move searching for berries. In late summer, their assemblage disperses and mated pairs settle down to nest and raise young. During the breeding cycle, the waxwing’s diet transitions to mostly flying insects, a protein-rich prey that they readily seize by darting from a perch like a flycatcher. After the young are fledged, flocks form once again and begin roaming widely in search of a suitable supply of fruits to fuel their wanderings.
Eastern Bluebirds are found year-round in semi-open country and in suburbs throughout the lower Susquehanna River basin. Their numbers swell during both the spring and fall migrations each year. With autumn movements presently drawing to a close, some small flocks are beginning to settle in for winter, particularly where tree, shrub, and vine berries remain in abundance and where nest boxes or natural cavities offer roosting shelter.
A Pileated Woodpecker devours the dark blue berries of a Black Gum (Nyssa sylvatica). The Black Gum, also known as the Black Tupelo, Sour Gum, and Pepperidge, sports crimson leaves in the fall to attract birds to its fruit, thus assuring distribution of its seeds. In 2021, the fruit is so abundant that it has outlasted the foliage, much to the delight of resident and migrating birds.
