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It’s in your nature: More nature treats for us

Published August 20. 2022 08:15AM

It doesn’t matter the season of the year, or for that matter, where you travel in our local varied habitats. In the Times News coverage area I have found that nature offers so many things for our visual pleasure for free.

I take my camera along almost everywhere I travel. I’ve learned that on the forest floor or mixed in with the meadow grasses beautiful flowers abound. Of course they catch your eye first. But you and I can look closer and we can find a wide variety of insects or spiders in and around there too. A pond or stream bank may offer up more “eye catchers.”

By now you know I have a very biased opinion that birds can be the most beautiful, and many of you will agree. They sport a wide variety of plumages for us to enjoy. But as I’ve noted before, a male bird’s brilliant colors weren’t intended for us. He is doing his best to show off for a prospective mate, but I’ll accept being the unintended benefactor. Flowers’ varieties of petals and colors also weren’t intended for us either. They are advertising to attract pollinators. Many are very aromatic for attracting, too. So flowers add another fringe benefit for us.

I’ve selected a few photos that hopefully will remind you what we can find around us and give us another reason to not only preserve enough habitat for OUR future, BUT more important, for THOSE WHO INHERIT THIS EARTH when we are gone. Enjoy, enjoy. Remember, get out there and observe.

Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: A honey bee hive contains all but: A. Queen, B. soldier, C. worker, D. drone.

Last Week’s Trivia Answer: It may surprise you that even though blue jays may frequent your winter feeders, thousands of blue jays from regions north of us migrate through and into our region beginning late in September.

Contact Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com.

Last fall a blue-headed vireo paused just long enough for a photo opportunity. They are our earliest arriving vireo (mid-April), nest in our region, and can still be seen the first week of October. BARRY REED/SPECIAL TO THE TIMES NEWS
Small (about 3/4 inch across) deptford pink flowers dot a field in Franklin Township. I know when they normally bloom and actually mow carefully around them.
Blooming only for about two weeks in mid-May, mountain azaleas adorn a Penn Forest lane.
A great egret casts its reflection in a cove at Beltzville Lake this spring. Its nuptial plumage adds even more to its beauty. Those feathers almost caused their extinction when during the “Roaring '20s” egret feathers were the rave of women's fashion.
So many of our warbler species are beautiful birds. The blackburnian warbler, with its fiery throat and white wing bars, nests in predominantly coniferous parts of northern Carbon County.
Aside from its oversized bill, there are few waterfowl species that can top the male northern shoveler's plumage.
Probably not really appreciated until you photograph it, the skimmer dragonfly's color and intricate wing patterns deserve some accolades as a beauty in the insect world.
Living in the Times News area affords us the chance to enjoy Autumn's variety of leaf color. The sassafras, common here, adds wonderful colors to the fall forest scenery.
Just last week I found Joe-pye weed blooming everywhere along stream banks. The yellow tiger swallowtail butterfly enjoys its nectar.
I was able to sneak close to a female whitetail fawn in the weeds and flowers along Lizard Creek. I think a young fawn's spots and innocent look rank it high on the nature beauty list.
I flushed a green heron into some lower limbs and it posed for a good photo. They certainly rank high as one of nature's beauties.