One of the night time sounds is a cricket but what critter is the other call coming from???

National Moth Week Exploring Nighttime Nature North Dakota’s ‘Moth Month’  has started! 
 
July is a busy month for Carl Barrentine and his fellow moth’ers in North Dakota, for them it’s not just a week – it’s Moth Month.  Check out what they planned for celebrating Moth Month on Carl’s website Dakota Naturalist.

Learn more about Moths
National Moth Week.org 
National Moth Week on Facebook
Mothing and Moth Watching on Facebook
 
 

For instructions regarding  materials and building the  tube nest box  click  on the link below -
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/Publications/Birdscope/Winter2009/chickadee_tube.html

I just put up this tube nest box yesterday and I will update this post later in season if the tube was used for nesting.

Call of the Wood Frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) 

Fun facts:  Wood frogs are well suited to a cold climate.   They spend winters  burrowed in the leaves that fell the previous fall.   They stop  breathing, their hearts stop beating, and ice crystals form  within  their hibernating bodies.  A special antifreeze they produce   keeps  liquids from freezing inside their cells and killing them. Their  fertilized eggs are not harmed by freezing either. Egg development  simply stops until the water warms again. The wood frog is the only  frog found north of the Arctic Circle. 

Another fun fact:  wood frog tadpoles can tell their brothers and sisters from other tadpoles.

Behavior of the  American Woodcock  - It spends  most of their time hidden in fields and on the forest floor, where they probe for earthworms. On spring nights, males perform very conspicuous displays, giving a buzzy peent call, then launching into the air. Their erratic display flight includes a distinctive, twittering flight sound and ends with a steep dive back to the ground.

Habitat of the American Woodcock - it nests in young, shrubby, deciduous forests, old fields, and mixed  forest-agricultural-urban areas across the eastern United States and southern Canada. They display in forest openings and old fields in the springtime, and  they often use clearings for roosting in the summer. On the western edge of their range, they may depend on moist, wooded riverside areas and wet meadows in  young woodlands. The American Woodcock spends the winter in similar habitats in southern part of breeding range, also moving into additional wintering habitat in Texas and on the southern edges of the Gulf States.

A new lifer by sound but have yet to see one.  Recorded the peent call on April 20, 2014 shortly after 9 pm yesterday evening.

I found this Cabbage White at local business clinging to an inside window.  There is still  snow on the ground so I decided to take it home and feed it. Hopefully it will survive long enough so it can be released outdoors if it ever warms up.

Identification: Upperside of wings white; forewing with black tip. Two submarginal black spots in female, one in male.  Underside of hindwing and forewing apex evenly yellow-green or gray-green.  Spring and fall short-day form is smaller, less yellow, with reduced black  areas.

Wing Span: 1 3/4 - 2 1/4 inches (4.5 - 5.8 cm).  

Life History: Males patrol for females. Females lay single eggs on undersides of host leaves.  Chrysalids hibernate.

 Flight: Two to three in northern part of range; 7-8 in the south. It is usually the first butterfly to emerge in spring.   

Adult Food: Flower nectar from a very wide array of plants including mustards, dandelion, red clover, asters, and mints. 

Hi New Jersey  Bird Watching Club,

 What a great link for making bird houses with unused material at home the NJ Bird Watching Club found on the web regarding creative ideas on converting unused or waste material into bird houses. 

I have many birdhouses on my property that attract House Wrens to Purple Martins.  Last fall we lost an old  cottonwood tree in the wind. I decided to reuse parts of the old tree to attract the woodpeckers into my backyard.  Below is an image of a smaller piece of  the dead tree that we placed near our fishponds. I am hoping this summer it will  get use as a nesting cavity by one of the woodpecker species.

When visiting the website I also found the ND  Watchable Wildlife Photo Contest listed under Events.  I took 1st place non-game category and Honorable Mention in the insect category in 2013.  My image is the Cooper's Hawk and the Spurge Hawk Moth.

I want to thank you guys for using my website as a birding  tool and also the link for creating bird houses with unused material!!!

Have fun building creative bird houses made from unused material and hope your bird club has  a successful nesting season with houses built and used by the birds!

 Good  birding and thanks for sharing making bird houses with unused material at home with me!!!
 Sharon