Digging in to the call and sights of summer outdoors

On hot days I see American robins and other birds panting with open bills, while in the shade. Birds have no sweat glands so panting is their way to get rid of excess body heat.

Osprey young are quite large but remain in their nests. Great blue heron young are in and out of their nests, moving around in trees while they flap their wings, but can't fly yet. Bird song decreases dramatically after July 4. For most species, the nesting season is over so there is no need for singing to attract a mate or defend territory. However, American goldfinches are late to nest as they depend on thistle seeds as food for themselves and their young, and the thistle down to line their nests. Canada thistle and other thistles have just begun producing ripe seeds and the downy carriers. Ruby-throated hummingbirds continue coming to the sugar water in feeders close to 30 minutes after sunset.

Annual cicadas call their sound of summer. Only the males sing. The sound is a loud, high-pitched buzzing from up in trees and it intensifies with warmth. Young raccoons are out and about with their mothers. The surface water temperatures of some Minnesota lakes lately have hit 80 degrees or even a few degrees more. Fireweed has just started blooming in northern Minnesota, where blueberry picking could be good in spots.

Now is the time to visit a prairie. Google "MN prairies" for locations. A prairie is defined as a North American natural grassland, composed of a mixture of perennial grasses and forbs. Many of the forbs are showy, blooming wildflowers like butterfly-milkweed, oxeye, purple coneflower, black-eyed Susan, gray-headed coneflower, and monarda, all blooming beautifully now because they are deep-rooted and resilient in dry conditions. Most prairie plants are long-lived perennials, living for decades and even centuries.

Before European settlement on the Plains of the Midwest and West, prairie grasses and wildflowers stretched as far as people could see. Hundreds of thousands of square miles in the United States are known today as farmland but were at one time the prairie. It was home to bison, antelope, pollinating insects, and many more organisms. More than one-third of Minnesota (in the south and west) was covered with prairie vegetation.

About 2 % of Minnesota's remnant prairie remains. It was through the initiative of individuals and conservation groups that remnant prairies still exist. They are the remaining link to a world that lived 10,000 years ago. In addition to their aesthetic appeal, prairies are a gene pool for plants and animals that may serve us. Although most of the prairie is gone, its accumulated productivity continues to supply food for many hungry people of the United States and world.

Jim Gilbert has taught and worked as a naturalist for 50 years.