cool

 

 

Moisture in the air helps life thrive in the cooler nights.

One of the most annoying things for a blog is trying to talk about something I've seen without a picture to show it. A couple of examples this week include a giant sphinx moth feeding on datura flowers in the evening and migratory shore birds hunting along the wet mud in the ditch.

The different birds all use different habitat to feed in the same area. Geese like short grass. Small birds like dense cover, like trees or tall gras, sandhill cranes prefer recently knocked over corn stalks.

Suddenly the ditch has baby frogs in it! Lots of them. The tadpoles co-ordinate their change into frogs with a dropping of the water table. I think this is likely to avoid predators rather than to avoid tadpole dessication.

That activity attracts many other visitors, which is why the frogs have to vamoose .Not having feet is a big advantage in mud. Small bullsnakes, like this 4 footer, need young frogs to eat until they develop enough hunting skills to tackle rattlesnakes and rodents.

Many small perch use perch hunting to dart out from small perches to grab insects that have newly emerged from the mud. Here is a phoebe.

this is a Wilson's warbler.