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A killdeer bird sits on its nest with four eggs at a campground near Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., in this 2011 photo. The killdeer often lays its eggs in gravel like this so they can be camouflaged.
With the spring turkey season underway, I’m sure you have seen hunters dressed from head to toe in camouflage clothing and footwear. This art of concealment is nothing new. Animals have been using camouflage since time began and, for some animals, their only means of protection is to be indistinguishable with the background.
Background-matching is perhaps the most common camouflage tactic. In background-matching, a species conceals itself by resembling the surroundings, in coloration, form and movement. In its simplest form, animals, such as deer and squirrels, resemble the earth tones of their surroundings.
During the middle of April we experienced spring-like weather when the temperature rose into the 70s. This warm spell put nature ahead of her normal schedule, c
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Starlings fly by the sun in Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, Sunday, July 19, 2020. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
I’ve recently noticed that the starlings have returned and are sporting their breeding plumage. During the winter months, the starling’s plumage is heavily speckled, with either white or tan spots, and the bill is black. During the spring, the lighter tips of the feathers wear away, leaving the plumage a glossy black, and the male’s beak becomes yellow. On April 5, I wrote in my diary that I saw the starlings carrying nesting material.
Starlings cause many problems for farmers and grainaries. Farmers find it impossible to keep the large flocks of starlings from entering their open-end barns. The starlings seem to know when the farmer feeds the cattle and they show up at feeding time.
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Diary entry for March 29, 2021: “Drove to Farmer’s Valley and stopped several times, hoping to hear wood frogs.”
Although the temperatures have been low at night, our days are sunny, and I thought perhaps the wood frogs might have begun their mating rituals.
The wood frog’s breeding season is in early spring, even before that of the well-known spring peepers. Often, the wood frog’s breeding season begins while patches of snow are still on the ground and the water’s edge is still frozen. The wood frog migrates to water to breed. Most of these water breeding sites are low areas in the woods that have filled with water from the spring runoff.
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