Spring Time!!

Hello!

BUGS
Today my mom showed me these creepy bugs that we have never seen before. They are called wheel bugs which is a type of assasin bug. The bugs are good for your garden so don't kill them if you have them in your garden. In this picture they are hatching out of the nest that sort of resimbles a bee hive.

TOADS AND FROGS
During the middle of April the usual toads and frogs were back to lay more eggs in our ponds. Only 5% or less of the hundreds and hundreds of tadpoles survive, thanks to snakes, birds, the sun,(they can dry up on rocks with little water), peole, etc...
The sound (above) is the sound of a toads mating call. The sound is very very loud and sort of sounds like a telephone ringing.

BIRDS
Last week there was a 3 hour bird hike at the community Leatherwood Park. About 20 people were there in all. The guide J Pat Valentik had a lot of knowledge about birds. We saw turkey tracks and saw one kind of migritory bird (birds just passing through to get somewhere else)the Kentucky warblur. The Kentucky Warblur is yellow with black Elvis looking sideburns. Mr. J Pat had a small hand held computer ipod kind of thing. He had some bird calls recorded on it, and if you heard a bird sound that you had never heard before the computer thing would record the sound and identify the bird making the sound! We also saw piliated woodpeckers and a great blue heron and a Northern Parula, a small bird only 4 1/2 inches tall, but it makes a very loud sound for such a small bird. Saturday morning my mom and I sat by the window for 1 hour and identifyed 26 different birds! Some we had never seen before such as the Red Breasted Grosbeak and we even saw a female painted bunting! The Indigo Buntings are here this spring, we have two pairs at our feeder and they come back for more food every day!

Mr. J Pat has a science blog too.... www.natureofeureka.blogspot.com