Early July brings out the best of nature’s colors

HOLDEN – In early July, when you come to the door at the Fields Pond Audubon Center, a bright yellow goldfinch may greet you. And you might gasp at the bright sky-blue of the male bluebird. He is presently seen around the edge of the parking lot, waiting for a beetle to crawl out from the grass. Then he pounces on the beetle and carries it to the female, who usually incubates the eggs. She is already working on a second brood in a nearby birdhouse.

Hummingbirds are now disputing ownership of several gardens and hummingbird feeders. If their colors catch the sunlight just right, they flash iridescent green and sometimes red, a beautiful sight. We have both males and females coming to the feeders and to the garden flowers. There must be a nest somewhere nearby, but they are hard to find. Hummingbird nests are the size of a walnut shell, attached by spider webs to a down-sloping branch. They are lined on the inside with cattail down – the plant, not the animal – and on the outside with lichen plants.

Colorful meadow wildflowers are blooming, too – daisies, black-eyed Susans, asters, spreading dogbane, milkweed and many more. These bring in many colorful butterflies, another aspect of July’s beauty. We’re looking forward to the center’s butterfly count July 8, and the public is invited to participate. Call the Audubon center at 989-2591 or e-mail fieldspond@maineaudubon.org for details. Hope for a bright sunny day; butterflies don’t fly in the rain.

Instead of killing and collecting butterflies, people now learn to identify them and photograph them, too. This is analogous to learning about songbirds – shooting them in Audubon’s time in the 1800s, observing them in the 1900s. The invention and popularizing of binoculars enabled that to happen. Christmas bird counts have been going on for more than 100 years, but butterfly counts are a relatively new phenomenon.

To learn more about the Field’s Pond Audubon Center, 216 Fields Pond Road, and its programs, call 989-2591.