28 TH Be SAUD Usb OcNgt es UO eioel are lero 
‘What is so rare as a day in June? 
EARY SUMMER eID AES 
IN THE INDIANA DUNES 
by Emma B. Pitcher 
This birder’s early June day starts while it’s still dark 
with the hooting of the Barred Owl. There seems to be 
two of them—one calls in a much higher register, but his 
cadence is still that of a Barred Owl. The Whippoorwill’s 
compulsive chant launches the full dawn chorus. How I 
love to lie in bed and listen to ten or fifteen of my friends 
check in one by one. Birding at tts best! The Whippoor- 
will is really taunting me I think. Last evening he was 
calling when it was barely light enough to tell bush from 
air. I tracked him until I was very, very close, but he 
slipped away through the thicket without my either 
seeing or hearing him move—then called again from 20 
yards away! 
As the dawn chorus dies down, the Cardinal comes 
in for sunflower seeds—always our first and our last 
visitor. By 5:30 I’m ready to go. With my arm stretched 
out in front of me to gather the night's new cobwebs, 
I check the old field next to us to see if the Bob-white I 
hear is visible. No, not today. The Field Sparrow trills 
from bare sumac twigs among the fading lupines and the 
budded Ox-eye Daisies. The dew-bespangled Golden 
Gromwell makes lovely spashes of color here and there 
and a few tiny Evening Primroses turn their golden cups 
to the morning light. These dwarf primroses seem far 
removed from their eight-foot-tall cousins who will grace 
the swamp edges in late summer. 
Last year’s beautifully symmetrical seed stalks still 
stand there. In shady places the Lupines are still in flower 
—a stunning contrast to Puccoon and bracken. Lavender 
and yellow are a familiar Dunes combination. Later on, 
it will be Wild Bergamot and St. John’s-wort, Blazing 
Star (Liatris) and the Goldenrods, Lobelia and Calliop- 
sis, Ironweed and Hawkweed, and Vervain and Sneeze- 
