Field Guide

Greenside darters spawn this month in rocky Ozark streams. Males shine emerald green. Females stick eggs to wispy green strands of algae and aquatic mosses.

Male American woodcocks display at dusk in dazzlingly high, twittery flights. They zoom to the ground, then call in repeated raspy beeps, or “peents.”

Male boreal chorus frogs call with metallic, clicking “crrreeeeeks” that last about a second. It sounds like running a fingernail over the teeth of a pocket comb.

Windswept broom moss invites your touch with its glossy, soft, furlike leaves that curve the same way, as if swept by a breeze. It’s an easy moss ID for beginners.