Midsummer days in Illinois have often reached higher temperatures than those back home in south Florida, but the humidity is not quite as uncomfortable.
We sought out the shade in nearby Fabyan Preserve, Geneva, Illinois. I so enjoyed this sun-dappled spot in the Japanese Garden, a photo of which I rendered as an oil painting:
Nelson Lake in Batavia, Illinois reflects the blue sky as a Caspian Tern flies over:
Mary Lou appears lost in a sea of wildflowers in the Nelson Lake prairie preserve:
A Red-winged Blackbird calls from a post:
A diminutive Sage Wren is back-lit by the bright sun as it sings cheerfully:
The Sage Wren often closes his eyes while singing, as if truly enjoying the sound of his voice:
Common Yellowthroats sing "witchity-witchity..."
A common summer inhabitant of the grasslands of the central US, the Dickcissel is uncommonly beautiful. Its song is a cheerful iteration of its name, repeated from the tops of shrubs and fence posts. Their abundance in the prairies near our second home in northeastern Illinois may vary from one season to another.
Dickcissels spend the winter in southern Mexico south into northern South America, where they can be agricultural pests, feasting on seed crops and inviting measures to eradicate them. They tend to arrive north later in Spring than many other neotropical migrants, sometimes not appearing in numbers until rather late in May. During breeding season their diet shifts from grain to predominately insects.
I've processed over 200 photos of Dickcissels and have hundreds more RAW images which I am reluctant to discard. Just this past week I re-visited this summer's collection and found an out-take which is now one of my favorites. Taken on July 2, it depicts a male Dickcissel perched above his mate, who is carrying a grasshopper for her fledglings, hidden in the high grass:
Another in the overlooked series, I passed over the following one because the bright sun cast annoying shadows on the subjects:
More recent photos from our walks at Nelson Lake:
This is one of the first photos I took with my new mirrorless digital camera (Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mk II), fully zoomed to 300 mm:
Dickcissels and prairie flowers make a nice combination:
Bee Balm and Black-eyed Susan:
Purple Coneflower:
The female Dickcissel is smaller and more softly colored:
By mid-July they usually have completed nesting and may begin departing to their wintering grounds as early as mid-August.
Dickcissels often wander erratically during migration and also may suddenly shift breeding locations. Some trickle through Florida and reach their wintering grounds by way of Cuba. Small flocks sometimes show up in south Florida during the winter months.
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Early in June, a tropical storm system worked its way across the Florida peninsula, bringing buckets of rain plus thunder and a few tornadoes. One morning our walk was aborted even before we reached the entrance of our birding patch. During a break in the precipitation, we drove to nearby Chapel Trail preserve but the rains came again and "spoiled" my photo of a Loggerhead Shrike along the boardwalk: The next day, keeping a wary eye on the radar, we ventured out early into our local wetlands for a bit of exercise. Clouds hung low over the gravel road and lake. That blue dot is Mary Lou, already far ahead of me (click for enlarged view): This Common Gallinule may be breeding here, the first one I have seen here over ten years of observations: A Northern Cardinal's song brightened the morning: Mary Lou had completed the three-mile round trip before I reached the rookery at the far end of the road. I was anxious to learn whether any of the herons had nested successfully during our absence. It was gratifying to find fledglings of both Green Herons and Yellow-crowned Night-Herons. Skies were very dark when I took these photos-- A pair of night-herons: There was a third adult, plus this newly fledged juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-Heron: It was too dark to get a decent photo of a pair of Green Herons which were working to renovate their nest. It held 3 eggs when I photographed it on April 26, just before we left for Illinois:
Another pair of Green Herons at the opposite end of the rookery were watching over one of their progeny. I decreased exposure compensation to brighten the photo of this adult but it still looked gloomy: It started drizzling just as I took a final photo of the juvenile Green Heron. It still had natal down on its head: The next two days we had to be content with watching the wading birds from our back patio windows. A Snowy Egret found a school of tiny fish along the shore at the edge of our lawn: Strike! Success!
A White Ibis reflected in the lake as it foraged along a neighbor's fence.
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One benefit of living on a lake in south Florida is that the shoreline serves as the stage for some wonderful performances. Here, the lake is calm as storm clouds gain strength in the northwest behind our home:
Tricolored Heron at Green Cay preserve, Boynton Beach, Florida:
Although they are slender, stand over 2 feet tall (60-70 cm) and have a three foot (91 cm) wingspan, Tricolored Herons weigh less than a pound (334-415 gm).
Warning: "Objects in your binoculars are much smaller than they look." This truism comes home to anyone who has picked up a window-killed warbler or released a banded chickadee. Birds are like puff-balls of feathers and fluff, skin and bones.
The warning changes to "Objects may not fit in your viewfinder" if you add the very long legs and the skinny snake-like neck of a Tricolored Heron.
Back yard view:
John James Audubon's herons stand out magnificently in his "Birds of America" double elephant folio. Since Audubon's bird paintings were all life-size, he contorted the images of herons in order to fit them within the dimensions of the portfolio's pages, which measured about 3 by 2 feet (0.9 by 0.6 meters) .
Here is his rendition of the "Louisiana Heron," now known as Tricolored Heron, from Biodiversity Heritage Library (FLICKR Creative Commons, some rights reserved)
Many of my heron photos were taken at close range in our Florida back yard. The subjects were often only about 50-60 feet away. Since I use a prime telephoto lens they commonly do not fit into the frame even if I back up against the back wall of our home. Unless the heron assumes an Audubon-like posture, my choice is to cut off either its legs or head!
A preening heron does fit the camera's frame:
An immature Tricolored Heron crouches for the kill:
Audubon usually painted from freshly collected specimens, often posturing them with wires. He introduced action and excitement into many of his works. Sometimes his herons seemed surrealistically expressive.
An immature Tricolored Heron sought (without success) to be fed by its parent, chasing it across the lake and to the near shore:
The contortions of the energetic young bird reminded me of the way the great painter arranged his subjects:
An immature Tricolored Heron is reflected in a flooded prairie:
A graceful landing:
Tricolored Heron feeding habits VIDEO: (If it does not display CLICK HERE)
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