Birds and Flowers of Summer in Iowa - Photos by Bob Kelly

Recently while driving on the gravel roads, I noticed lots of Western Meadowlarks, spaced about  a quarter mile apart for several miles.  All of them were perching on electric lines, and they were singing beautifully.  This pleased me because a couple of years ago their numbers were very few, due to a wet spring which caused many eggs not to hatch.  Their song can be found here:

Song of Meadowlark:     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvAUgFb1cLY
                                       http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/western_meadowlark/sounds

The Killdeer stands guard near nests or chicks, and often will make loud noises and make motions like they have a broken wing, in an effort to lure predators away from the nest.  This Killdeer was feeding in the same marsh where the Trumpeter Swans were photographed earlier.  The song of the Killdeer can be heard here:

Song of Killdeer:               http://www.birdjam.com/birdsong.php?id=18

There is a profusion of summer wildflowers in the countryside.  This vertical image shows three varieties, the Orange Butterfly Weed, the purple blossoms are Prairie Blazing Stars, and the yellow flowers are called Grey Headed Coneflowers.  The color contrast with this grouping was impressive!

This photo shows more of the yellow colored blooms of the Grey Headed Coneflower, along with purple blooms from the Wild Bergamot plants.

The Purple Cone Flowers are hard to miss, and the stately.  white blooms of Queen Annes Lace add an elegant contrast.

This road ditch in front of a farm house was a colorful mixture of Hollyhocks with Orange Butterfly Weed and Wild Bergamot in the background.  The wife of the farmer who lived there told me this was her way to have less road ditch to mow!  It is a beautiful solution indeed!