Nature Journal

May 15



The question often comes up...where to hike or walk or bike...and a similar answer usually comes in response, especially in early spring, bird season...why not along the Brices Prairie trail above the back waters of Black River, where, at any given moment, the visual landscape could fill Bluejay, Cardinal, Geese, Crane, Heron, Eagle.  The brightest little star, so often seen along the Midway banks of the naturally occurring (sometimes burned) prairie, where the brush and grasses have grown at just the right height and offer just the right, ready to peck and eat, seedbeds for little dashing American Goldfinch.

Goldfinch, male and female

Like any little superstar, these little ones shine beyond any course thicket that they may peck and hide behind, flitting about the sedge grass and swampy basswoods, seeking their seeds, flashing across the gravel trail like streaks so fast that the binoculars have a difficult time apprehending. Even as the surrounding bushes are still seeking full foliage, the Goldfinch, shining by the noon spring sunshine, is an invitation, we tend to hope, to the season to come.