Daily walks

One of our new habits under the restrictions is a daily morning walk. Many days it’s along the nearby prairie remnant. I posted some images of the Blackbirds a couple months ago. Now the prairie grasses are tall and the yellow, purple and red flowers are in abundance. I don’t bring the camera on these walks, but need to take a visit there with my camera to capture some of the summer flavor. However, I’ve brought the camera on a couple other nearby walks. Not in the prairie but under the oak savannah are bottlebrush grass and their wonderful shape.

Bottlebrush grass

Bottlebrush grass

Also providing wonderful shapes looking like huge ferns are sumac.

Sumac

Sumac

Among the many yellow flowers now blooming are the gray headed coneflowers.

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And while there’s plenty of birds flying through the grasses and flowers, a battle might be going on overheaded.

Blackbirds chasing redtailed hawk

Blackbirds chasing redtailed hawk

A highlight of the midsummer prairie is the purple coneflower.

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As the flower fades, the seeds are ready for the finches.

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Hope your weekend cookouts are as enjoyable to you as these first coneflower seeds are for this goldfinch.

Goldfinch and purple coneflower

Goldfinch and purple coneflower