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It’s in your nature: Some more of nature’s beauty

Published August 29. 2020 06:24AM
by Barry Reed

We all judge the beauty in things by how we view or appreciate it. Some see beauty in a restored vintage car or a steam locomotive chugging through the Lehigh Gorge.

Others see an oil painting or watercolor as their beauty to be appreciated. I too appreciate these things, but my favorite “beauties” are what nature has to offer.

I, and I bet many others, get a rush when a scarlet tanager or Baltimore oriole lands on a tree 15 feet away from us. But don’t overlook some less obvious beauty.

Sometimes you have to think small. In the spring, take a stroll along a stream and kneel down next to an 8-inch-high trout lily and look at it closely, and the honeybee emerging from it as well. They are both beautiful in my eyes and not very costly to enjoy.

The beauty in nature was not really intended for our purposes, but there are so many things to simply look at, appreciate and enjoy.

Spring offered us bird arrivals and new buds and blooms. Summer brings in some more blooming flowers and some beautiful insects. Now, with autumn about a month away I’ll find myself in my second favorite season.

On one of my birding treks or driving to and from them, I take note of the subtle changes beginning in our foliage. By mid-October the forests and hillsides will be ablaze as the leaves lose their chlorophyll and the other once-hidden pigments now take top billing. Beautiful, you bet.

I’m no longer a great fan of winter, but that first snowfall delicately coating the pine needles or frosting the withering goldenrods is nothing to sneeze at either. Snow does offer a great backdrop as a red fox or a deer slips through the forest as I try to ease through.

I guess every season in the Times News gives us beauty opportunities; so enjoy.

I hope you can appreciate a few photos of what I consider the “beauties of nature.”

Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: In order to re-establish _____, 190 of these were released in Pennsylvania between 1990-1994. A. elk, B. muskrats, C. fishers, D. bobcats, E. Allegheny wood rats.

Last Week’s Trivia Answer: Easy to identify, sedges have triangular stems.

Contact Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com.

It is hard to top the beauty of a male indigo bunting perched 20 feet from you on a late May morning. BARRY REED/SPECIAL TO THE TIMES NEWS
Above: A misty May morning reveals a pair of wood ducks on an East Penn Township pond.
Right: Our state flower, the mountain laurel, brightens the forests from mid-May to June. But maybe the real beauty is in the flowers themselves.
Blooming about the same time as the mountain laurel, soak in the beauty of the mountain azalea. These Penn Forest flowers have an elongated pistil and stamens which get pollinated after bees are drawn to the beautiful petals.
I've learned to look “low” for beauty, too. These delicate deptford pink flowers, (about ½ inch across) appear in our meadows early July.
Talking with some of my friends, I realize that every adult bald eagle still evokes a little gasp from them, just like it does for me.
A male eastern bluebird in its fresh spring plumage still rivals the bunting's beauty.
I see beauty in the transparent wings, compound eyes, and details of a widow skimmer dragonfly.
A male swamp sparrow raises its head feathers Mohawk-like to respond to my imitation of another male's song.
Above: March offers beauty in most male ducks' plumages. This hooded merganser graces a cove at Beltzville Lake.
It's soon time to forget this summer's oppressive heat and look forward to October's show in our region. Penn Forest Reservoir provided this “canvas backdrop.”
Some of October's beautiful foliage is provided by the sassafras.