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

Another good find while birding by vehicle yesterday was the Golden Eagle located 5 miles west  from where I live.

A Cool Fact - The Rough-legged Hawk, the Ferruginous Hawk, and the   Golden Eagle are the only
American hawks to have legs feathered all the way to   the toes.

A nice surprise to find this  Robin during the 17th Annual Great Backyard Bird Count!

Please visit the official website at www.birdcount.org  for more information and be sure to check out the  latest  educational and promotional resources.

The Great Backyard Bird Count is a joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the National Audubon Society, and Bird Studies Canada. It is made possible in part by sponsor Wild Birds Unlimited.

The 17th annual GBBC will be held Friday, February 14, through Monday, February 17, 2014.   

Please visit the official website at www.birdcount.org  for more information and be sure to check out the  latest  educational and promotional resources.

The Great Backyard Bird Count is a joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the National Audubon Society, and Bird Studies Canada. It is made possible in part by sponsor Wild Birds Unlimited.

Get ready to count chickadees! The annual Great Backyard Bird Count starts in 10 days.

 Learn about the Great Backyard Bird Count.

 Anyone  anywhere can participate. All you have to do is count birds for at least 15 minutes on one or more days of the count and then enter your sightings at www.BirdCount.org. The information that you and other counters provide will help scientists track the health of bird populations at a scale that would not otherwise be possible.

“People who care about birds can change the world,” says Audubon chief scientist Gary Langham. “Technology has made it possible for people everywhere to unite around a shared love of birds and a commitment to protecting them.”

Data from participants in North America will help define the magnitude of this year’s dramatic irruption of Snowy Owls.  Birdwatchers will also help determine whether Eurasian Collared-Dove, an invasive species, has expanded its range again, how well American Crow is faring after being hit hard by the West Nile virus, and whether more insect-eating species are showing up in new areas, possibly because of changing climate.

 See photos of Snowy Owls that were part of this winter’s invasion.

Last year’s Great Backyard Bird Count shattered records after going global for the first time, thanks to integration with eBird.  Participants reported their bird sightings from all seven continents, including 111 countries and independent territories. More than 34.5 million birds and 3,610 species were recorded — nearly one-third of the world’s total bird species documented in just four days.

 Last year’s record-setting count was one of our 42 most important stories of 2013.

 Read a summary of the 2013 count.

The Great Backyard Bird Count is a joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the National Audubon Society, and Bird Studies Canada. It is made possible in part by sponsor Wild Birds Unlimited.

These birds forage on grasslands and mudflats, picking up food by sight, sometimes by probing. They
mainly eat arthropods and other invertebrates. The male has a courtship display which involves puffing up his breast, which has a fat sac in the breeding season to enhance his performance.

Another bird species absent this winter in North Dakota. 

Cool Fact from website (All About Birds; Cornell Lab of Ornithology) - Nearly 675,000 Pine Siskins were banded between 1960 and 2011.