June seems to be the month when the most growing takes place, both in plants and birds. The winter wheat has turned yellow and been harvested, the corn sprouted and is knee-high, or more, and the birds that hatched in April and May are rapidly growing to full size. The two young Wood Ducks, above, are a good example. A month ago, they were fuzzy chicks. Now they are full-sized and starting to get their adult colors. For more astonishing examples, see Wood Ducks.

This bird is a mystery to us. It is a little larger than a Blue Jay and has a much longer tail. Don't try to look it up in your Peterson; it's in China. We saw this and a few other birds while visiting China during June. See Chinese Birds for more birds we saw in China.

Here are two birds that most of us don't see very often. A male Bluebird rests on the feeder while a male Baltimore Oriole helps himself to some grape jelly and orange slices. See Field Birds for a variety of birds.

Junior looks down from a Maple Tree as he begins his night of hunting. He and his mate, Penelope, have been frequent visitors during June. However, we are now sure that they have no young Barred Owls to raise this year. Junior's hooting seems more subdued this year, probably because he has no youngsters to call. See Barred Owl Family History for the full story of this family of Barred Owls.

This White-tailed Deer appeared under our apple tree in the middle of the day. She was eating apples that had fallen and has actually done a pretty good job of cleaning them up, something we used to have to do. See Non-Birds for more pictures of other wildlife.

Mick Hardy has been watching and photographing a family of Bluebirds near his home in northern Madison County. Here, the daddy bird keeps watch over his flock. See Bluebirds for pictures of the babies.

Screen Savers

This month, Birds of Madison County brings you two high resolution pictures. Clicking on one of the images below will cause the corresponding high resolution image to be downloaded to your browser. You may save this image by dragging it to your desktop or using the "SAVE" command on the File menu. These images are large and may require a little time to download, depending on the speed of your Internet connect. The size of the picture in pixels and of the file in bytes is given for each picture.

AOL Users should use Internet Explorer instead of AOL's browser to download these images.

These images are suitable for use as a screen saver or desktop. They may also be printed in large sizes for personal use only.

Chinese Bird in Courtyard

A caged Chinese Bird sings from a handmade wooden cage in the courtyard of a traditional Chinese home, or Hutong.

2400 X 1600 pixels; 440K Bytes.

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Wood Duck Siblings

Seven Wood Ducks, all from the same hatch, explore the Killbuck Wetlands.

2000 X 1333 pixels; 552K Bytes.

Award Winning Web Site

We hope you enjoy the pictures. Your comments are welcome and may be sent to us at this address:

Tom and Jean Harbron

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Birds of Madison County thanks the Midwest Antique Fruit Jar & Bottle Club and Dick Cole for providing the hosting web site.

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