American kestrels, red-tailed hawks, belted kingfishers, and great blue herons are common, easily spotted predatory birds here in southeastern Pennsylvania, as elsewhere.

American kestrels, red-tailed hawks, belted kingfishers, and great blue herons are common, easily spotted predatory birds here in southeastern Pennsylvania, as elsewhere.

Several kinds of adaptable, wintering birds — including horned larks, Canada geese, mallard ducks, rock pigeons, mourning doves, American crows, red-tailed hawks, American kestrels, and screech owls — feed in fields harvested to the ground in southeastern Pennsylvania, but they rest and digest their food elsewhere.

Risking death, several kinds of common wildlife in southeastern Pennsylvania, as elsewhere, are adaptable enough to get food off country roads through the year. Some of the more common foods on rural roads include earthworms, dead animals, spilled grain, and road apples.

Wintering flocks of horned larks, house sparrows, starlings, rock pigeons, mourning doves, and other species of birds are adapted to eating grass, weed seeds, and bits of corn in extensive fields in southeastern Pennsylvania during winter.

Sweet gum and Bradford pear trees are planted on lawns and along streets in southeastern Pennsylvania, as elsewhere, for their attractive shapes, summer shade, colored leaves, and multitudes of white flowers on the pear trees in April.

Common, everyday house sparrows are abundant in cities, towns, and farmyards the year around in southeastern Pennsylvania and across most of the United States and other countries around the world.

Pitch, scrub, and table mountain pines are relatively small, picturesque kinds of pine trees adapted and native to the dry, poor, worn-out, or rocky soils of southeastern Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the eastern part of the United States.

Pitch, scrub, and table mountain pines are relatively small, picturesque kinds of pine trees adapted and native to the dry, poor, worn-out, or rocky soils of southeastern Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the eastern part of the United States.

Mostly I hear them calling from pond shallows in spring and early summer. If I look closely, I can see males sitting in inch-deep water with bulging throats while trilling or pairs floating while spawning in the pond.

Mostly I hear them calling from pond shallows in spring and early summer. If I look closely, I can see males sitting in inch-deep water with bulging throats while trilling or pairs floating while spawning in the pond.

Flowering plants originally from Europe dominate many country roadsides in southeastern Pennsylvania farmland, as elsewhere in North America.

Flowering plants originally from Europe dominate many country roadsides in southeastern Pennsylvania farmland, as elsewhere in North America.

Johnny darters, black-nosed dace, and banded killifish live in clear, flowing brooks and streams in southeastern Pennsylvania, as elsewhere in the eastern United States.

Johnny darters, black-nosed dace, and banded killifish live in clear, flowing brooks and streams in southeastern Pennsylvania, as elsewhere in the eastern United States.

Rough-winged swallows are plain little birds that are big in being adaptable enough to use a variety of niches, both natural and human-made, for nesting.

Rough-winged swallows are plain little birds that are big in being adaptable enough to use a variety of niches, both natural and human-made, for nesting.

Several kinds of native, woodland wildflowers bloom in many woods in April in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Several kinds of native, woodland wildflowers bloom in many woods in April in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Though from different bird families, eastern bluebirds and eastern phoebes have much in common, besides their first name.