Majestic bald eagles and handsome great horned owls have much in common, though they are in different bird families.

Majestic bald eagles and handsome great horned owls have much in common, though they are in different bird families.

There is no greater, more thrilling, or more inspiring natural happening in the Lower 48 than 600,000 northbound sandhill cranes gathering each evening for a few weeks on the Platte River in south-central Nebraska.

There is no greater, more thrilling, or more inspiring natural happening in the Lower 48 than 600,000 northbound sandhill cranes gathering each evening for a few weeks on the Platte River in south-central Nebraska.

Though not closely related, woodchucks and muskrats are adaptable rodents that have traits in common. Both species are native to much of North America, including southeastern Pennsylvania.

When snow melts in fields, meadows, and roadsides in southeastern Pennsylvania, several winding, inch-wide trails through matted grass are exposed, revealing the presence of meadow voles, a kind of mouse.

Pitch pines and table mountain pines are scrubby, picturesque trees that mostly inhabit poor, thin soil on dry, rocky ridges and slopes along the Appalachian Mountains.

Crabeater and Weddell seals live abundantly in the southern oceans. Both species are incredibly admirable for being well adapted to living around Antarctica, a tough environment to call home.

Several species of krill, which are crustaceans related to shrimp, crayfish, and crabs, are abundant in all oceans on Earth.

About the size of a carpenter bee, a mysterious, 1.5-inch creature hovers like a hummingbird before flowers during the day and pokes its long proboscis into each bloom to sip nectar.

One afternoon, late in July, several years ago, I was driving on a country road in southern Lebanon County. Suddenly, a group of a dozen dove-sized birds flew swiftly and low across the road, close in front of me.

In April, every so many years, I have seen wavering lines and V-shaped flocks, one after another, of low-flying brown pelicans migrating north along the Atlantic Ocean shores and beaches of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.

Summer weather has arrived, and many people vacation along the Atlantic Coast, where numerous kinds of semi-aquatic creatures live, including related ghost crabs and fiddler crabs.

Summer weather has arrived, and many people vacation along the Atlantic Coast, where numerous kinds of semi-aquatic creatures live, including related ghost crabs and fiddler crabs.

Tulip trees and sweet gum trees are attractive, native species that dominate much of the Southern Coastal Plain of extreme southeastern Pennsylvania to Georgia.

Tulip trees and sweet gum trees are attractive, native species that dominate much of the Southern Coastal Plain of extreme southeastern Pennsylvania to Georgia.

I have enjoyed seeing several eastern coyotes at Lake Onalaska off the Mississippi River in Wisconsin, at Rowe Sanctuary along the Platte River in Nebraska, at deer feeders in Maine and Iowa, and at other places through live cameras and our home computer screens.

John Burroughs, farmer and famous naturalist in the 19^th century, wrote, “Next week, or the week after, it may be time to begin plowing, and other sober work about the farm, but this week we will picnic among the maples, and our campfire shall be an incense to spring.”

Dunlin, sanderlings, ruddy turnstones, and purple sandpipers are small shorebirds that nest on the Arctic tundra. However, many individuals of each kind winter along the Atlantic Ocean coasts of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and farther south.

Dunlin, sanderlings, ruddy turnstones, and purple sandpipers are small shorebirds that nest on the Arctic tundra. However, many individuals of each kind winter along the Atlantic Ocean coasts of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and farther south.