Illinois Nature Notes for July
Find out which plants and wildlife you can spot this month!
Aphrodite and regal fritillary butterflies are in abundance, and early migratory shorebirds like sage wrens are beginning to be found in abundance at the Indian Boundary Prairies, along with mid-summer prairie plants such as phlox, quinine and prairie coreopsis.
The Cache River Wetlands are in full bloom with water cannas and ironweed, sumac berries ripen and add a touch of mahogany red to the spectrum of color, and bald eagle chicks leave their nests.
Yellow indigo, tall coreopsis, purple prairie clover, wild bergamot and wild quinine bloom at the Kankakee Sands Preserve.
Early shorebird migration is beginning at Emiquon with broods of ruddy ducks.
Nocturnal calls of American bitterns can be heard from the overlook along the LaGrange Locks Road at Spunky Bottoms, while American lotus is in full bloom.
The globally rare wet, mesic and dry dolomite prairies at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie are in full bloom with a variety of grasses and forbs, including blue-joint grass, prairie cord grass, swamp milkweed, leafy prairie clover and hairy false mallow.
Hues of purple brighten up the Mackinaw River with blooms of butterfly milkweed, purple prairie clover and tall pale purple coneflowers.
The grooved yellow flax flower blooms at Nachusa Grasslands.
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