Some folks will see great beauty in a restored 1955 Chevy. I know whenever I visit a car show, the classic cars do make me appreciate them and those who painstakingly restore them.
Others will find classic artwork or sculptures to be their thing. We enjoy listening to the Allentown Symphony Orchestra, and I consider the beautiful music performed to near perfection to be musical beauty.
And as history has shown, beauty in actresses and actors has lured people of all sorts to enjoy a big screen movie or a show or special on television.
I do appreciate and enjoy all of the above, but my nature roots still find some, what I believe to be, true wonders of nature.
I have put together a number of “Nature’s Beauties,” most from in and around the Times News region, from the past year or so. See if you concur that the photos I selected show just a tiny part of the beauty of nature right here in our backyards.
Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: The ______ is/are found in the Times News coverage area. A. fish crow; B. American crow; C. Northern raven; D. none of these; E. all of these.
Last Week’s Trivia Answer: I know of no wild bird species that lay more than one egg a day. Note, though, that some birds, especially raptors, may begin incubation as soon as the first egg is laid, while a turkey, robin or bluebird will begin incubation after completing the clutch. Birds with bigger clutches, like a turkey, need to hope that the nest is not located by predators for 10 or 12 days during egg laying, and then for the lengthy time she sits on the nest.
Email Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com
There are many beautiful warblers. One that eluded my camera lens for a few years was the blue-winged warbler. They do breed in successional forest edges in our region.
In waterfowl there are many beautiful male birds. For me, it’s a toss-up between the male hooded merganser, seen here, or the male wood duck. Both are in this region.
A picture of a flock of snow geese circling to glide into a grain field is great, but this winter if you have a chance go find an area where they are feeding and watch thousands of geese descending into their food source.
Thinking smaller, look for red efts moving about a morning after a rainstorm. This frail looking amphibian is something I search for each summer to enjoy its dainty beauty.
There are a number of mammals that show off their beauty as well. I found this young red fox pup resting in the sun at the edge of the den.
I found this doe feeding at the crest of a hill with the waning afternoon sun highlighting her. I think the white-tailed deer is beautiful and superiorly adapted for such a wide variety of habitat and weather conditions.
Tree swallows are our first swallow species to return each spring. Insect eaters, they can encounter problems finding enough to eat on some below-freezing April mornings. The open water of Beltzville Lake gives them an opportunity to catch hardy insects emerging from the surface. However, until the water warms up, hundreds of swallows may alight on shoreline trees to bunch up and soak up the sun’s rays.
My spring birding isn’t nearly complete until I get to see the beautiful male scarlet tanagers arrive and begin singing to claim their woodland territories.
I think autumn provides beauty in many ways, from animals at their fittest to the gradual transformation of leaves as they lose their chlorophyll. The Rockies may have their golden aspen trees, but the Northeast has a wide variety of leaf color that makes for picturesque walks on cool October days.
One of my favorite fall leaves is that of the sassafras tree, autumn beauty at its best. In six or seven weeks, we’ll again get to enjoy all those fall colors.
Certain insects, especially butterflies, can rival the beauty of birds. Here a tiger swallowtail butterfly feeds on Joe Pye weed.
The great spangled fritillary butterfly certainly shows off its beauty while alighting on milkweed blossoms, beauties in their own right as well.
If you can get a close look at a dragonfly’s wings and compound eyes, like this widow skipper dragonfly, you’ll see beauty in something that’s often overlooked.
If seen in the best light conditions, the male indigo bunting is also on the top of my list as one of our most beautiful songbirds. Look for them now, because they’ll soon start changing into the more drab non-breeding plumage.