Sorry I have taken so long to write anything, these past couple weeks have been crazy for me. Lots and lots going on to get ready for moving to University of Illinois down in Champaign and finishing up a lovely summer class.
Instead of make one unbelievably long blog about what I have seen and done the past couple weeks, I thought it would just be easier to split it up into a few.
I returned to the prairie area next to Midway Village and got many good photos. Unfortunately I didn't see the bluebird again, but it was still a very good walk around. There were many interesting plants and flowers along with some birds and insects.
I don't know my plants as well as I should yet, but I'm still learning. Some that I saw at the prairie I've never actually seen before and they had a very interesting look. This one in particular caught my attention.
It appears to be a member of the thistle family. The flower has the same basic structure, as does the rest of the plant. It is tall and has many spines present. However, it is not the common thistle that we are all familiar with.
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| Bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare) |
That is the thistle that people are more familiar with. It grows in fields and gets to be quite tall. The tallest I have ever seen was about 7 feet tall. These seem to be able to survive in a wide range of light conditions because I have seen them in full sun and in almost full shade before. A good, hardy species even if most people really do not like them because of their thorns. I like the coloration of the flowers when it blooms and I enjoy watching the many species of birds that flock to the seeds that come.
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| Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) |
Goldfinches are fun little birds that are very vocal during the spring and summer. They are very common and the males are very easy to spot because of their bright yellow coloration. They have a wide variety of calls that they make, but one that is a dead giveaway is a smaller questioning chirp. It really does sound like the little guy is asking a question of some sort, more than likely along the lines of "Where is a female for me?" There were four of them that were very busily plucking seeds from the thistles.
Another creature that was enjoying the thistles (though the flowers instead of the seeds), was an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly. A beautiful species of butterfly that can be seen in Illinois around prairies, this one was enjoying some nectar of a very sweet thistle. One thing I have noticed about swallowtails is that they seem to like floating over highways. Could this be because they like feeling the warm updraft of air that is coming from all the vehicles zooming by underneath? It seems a little dangerous to me, but I have seen so many floating over that I really can't help but think that they somehow enjoy it.
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| Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio glaucus) |
I got to see an unbelievably beautiful flower while walking about. It was a dark red and had a distinct star shape.
Not sure what it was, but it was amazing to see. Almost more amazing than the flowers was a little hummingbird that flew up to drink from some of these. Hummingbirds love red, so these flowers were little beacons for the birds. As I leaned down to take this photo, a hummingbird flew up to within a foot of me and just looked me over before taking a sip from a nearby flower. I tried to turn my camera so I could get a shot of him, but he took off before I could and cheekily drank from a couple flowers before taking off for good. It was a great experience.
Keep looking around everyone and enjoy the beauty of nature around you,
Bug
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