In May of some years, I’ve traveled to Delaware Bay beaches in New Jersey and Delaware to experience the convergence of many thousands of spawning horseshoe crabs, nesting laughing gulls, and migrating shorebirds, including red knots, ruddy turnstones, dunlin, and semi-palmated sandpipers.

I visit the shallows of certain ponds and wetlands in, and bordering, woods in southeastern Pennsylvania a couple evenings every April.

Winter and early spring are the times of waterfowl (ducks, geese, and swans) in southeastern Pennsylvania.

One early afternoon in February a few years ago, I was working at my desk by a window that allowed views of our back lawn. At the time, beautiful snowflakes fell gently through still air from a gray sky.

In winter, over several years, I’ve seen wintering northern harriers, which are a kind of hawk, and short-eared owls hunting mice and small birds in marshes and tall-grass fields in southeastern Pennsylvania, including at Middle Creek Wildlife Area and Gettysburg National Park.

In winter, over several years, I’ve seen wintering northern harriers, which are a kind of hawk, and short-eared owls hunting mice and small birds in marshes and tall-grass fields in southeastern Pennsylvania, including at Middle Creek Wildlife Area and Gettysburg National Park.

Winter seems drab to many people in southeastern Pennsylvania. Gray skies and deciduous trees, brown fields, and cold, ice, and snow dampen human spirits. But bright colors in nature beautify winter landscapes and lift people’s emotions.

Winter seems drab to many people in southeastern Pennsylvania. Gray skies and deciduous trees, brown fields, and cold, ice, and snow dampen human spirits. But bright colors in nature beautify winter landscapes and lift people’s emotions.

Beside hunting, fishing, and gathering, Native Americans living in eastern forests had a unique, interesting, and ingenious way of growing crops in small fields in those shaded woods. Their only tools, before the coming of European settlers, were stone axes and sharp-pointed sticks.

The 4-foot-tall, 88-pound emperor penguins are the only birds on Earth that raise young on sea ice around the Antarctic Continent during the southern hemisphere’s winter, which is our summer.

July to the end of October is the time of insects in southeastern Pennsylvania because those invertebrates are cold-blooded and active only during warmer weather.

The various kinds of salamanders, worldwide, have different life cycles.

The various kinds of salamanders, worldwide, have different life cycles.

Two kinds of related oceangoing birds, Wilson’s petrels and Leach’s petrels, have several characteristics in common.

Two kinds of related oceangoing birds, Wilson’s petrels and Leach’s petrels, have several characteristics in common.

Blacknose dace and Johnny darters are slim, 2-inch fish that live in various-sized waterways in the eastern United States, including southeastern Pennsylvania.

Blacknose dace and Johnny darters are slim, 2-inch fish that live in various-sized waterways in the eastern United States, including southeastern Pennsylvania.

Up to six kinds of small birds nest or winter along flowing streams in North America.

Up to six kinds of small birds nest or winter along flowing streams in North America.

Early in April in southeastern Pennsylvania, many green shoots emerge from crunchy carpets of dead, fallen leaves on woodland floors and push toward the sunlight.