Blue & Gold: Birds of midsummer

As July gives way to August, the morning chorus diminishes in the grasslands and woodlands of northeastern Illinois. The prairies take on an increasingly golden hue. This is the prairie pothole at nearby Nelson Lake preserve in Batavia:

Common Yellowthroats are still tending to nests and singing, usually out of sight in the high vegetation:





The songs of orioles and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks no longer ring through the treetops. Many bird species are busy with the affairs of raising families. Energy must be conserved and diverted into replacement of feathers during the post-breeding molt.

Indigo Buntings continue to sing from treetop perches:







 
 
 We visited Lippold Park, also in Batavia. This is the small marsh and pond, with the pavilion and fenced treetop walk in the background. (Mary Lou just received a phone call):



The prairie at Lippold is protected and well-managed. It was alive with wildflowers:





American Goldfinches are very late breeders and are only beginning to gather flower down for their nests. I waited patiently for one to alight among the flowers, but instead they moved among the low shrubs:









Two years ago in late August I did catch one singing among the flowers at this same location:



The plumage of an adult female American Goldfinch is more subdued:

 

Bells and whistles... go together like a goldfinch and thistles. Common as they are on the prairie, I never tire of seeing, hearing and photographing goldfinches around and above me. 

August through September is their peak season, as the thistle begins to go to seed, providing them both food and shelter. Other birds have nearly finished their breeding and are hiding away to molt, but the goldfinches are eating the seeds and gathering the down of the thistles for their nests. 

 At Lippold park on August 25, 2011, a female goldfinch was harvesting down for her nest:

 

This male was collecting thistle down at Nelson Lake back in 2011:



One of the few bird species to feed their young no insects, they engorge the thistle seeds and nourish their young with a protein-rich "milk" that is secreted from their stomach linings. A fledgling goldfinch appears bigger than its mother as it begs to be fed:

 

One of my favorite goldfinch captures is this one, reflected in the creek at Lippold Park:



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