Saturday, June 2, 2012

Yankee Springs Recreation Area and Ronald H. Warner Sanctuary

May 21 2012 We drove ~65 miles southwest to Barry County Michigan to Yankee Springs Recreation Area, Long Lake trail.


From "Stormhorn" blog, http://stormhorn.com/  we knew to find Small Yellow Lady's Slipper orchid on this trail and hearing there was a quarter-mile stretch of boardwalk through part of the swamp that surrounds Long Lake, oh, sounds fun!  Thanks again to Stormhorn.


We have been to Yankee Springs in the past, the Devil's Soupbowl, Graves Hill Overlook, The Pines.  So many neat places.  We even camped at Deep Lake years ago, but how I never knew about this Long Lake trail, I don't know.


So this is what we saw...


Small Yellow Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum)  Orchid

 






We walked about a mile and a half to a meadow with some old foundations. 
Here is the meadow...


                            Cow Vetch


  Yellow Goat's Beard (Tragopogon pratensis) Aster family  with fly.


The next few pictures are of a American Copper Butterfly, I'm pretty sure. 
He seemed as interested in me as I was in him.







After the Long Lake trail we drove through Gun Lake State Park, and stopped at the Long Lake access site.

Now it was after 2 pm I wanted to run over to Ronald H. Warner Sanctuary (Michigan Audubon) to check on a Puttyroot orchid there.  We had seen the leaf of this orchid last fall.  So off we go traveling a few miles east to Warner.  We didn't find Puttyroot.






We did find a field with pansy.  Another late day, but wonderful even though it was cloudy all day.


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7 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 2, 2012 at 10:16 AM

    Oh, man! I will have to look at this blog entry over and over to enoy it to the fullest! You keep besting your own photos. Thanks for all your work. It's not easy getting down there with each flower. M :)

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  2. AnonymousJune 2, 2012 at 4:10 PM

    Great pictures! How lucky you are to have seen a yellow lady's slipper. They are rarer than hen's teeth around here. I don't know how many times I've taken pictures of cinnamon fern, only to find that the spore bearing fronds are lost in the background. I think your showy yellow goat's beard might be the western species because of the long bracts. That one is Tragopogon dubius. Great post-I'm envious of that lady's slipper!

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  3. New Hampshire GardenerJune 2, 2012 at 4:12 PM

    Oops-I didn't mean to be annonymous.

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  4. Plants Amaze MeJune 2, 2012 at 4:36 PM

    Anonymous (Marie)
    I had that post almost ready to go when the computer started acting up. Mike to the rescue, I think he can fix anything.
    Thank you for your glowing comment, it means so much to me.
    And thanks for all the fun trips!
    Your much younger sister, :)
    Chris

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  5. Plants Amaze MeJune 2, 2012 at 4:50 PM

    Anonymous (New Hampshire Gardener),
    I read your first anonymous comment and said to myself,
    I wonder who that is?
    Then I read it was you. I laughed.

    Our computer has been having problems so I have been using the touchpad, which is much harder to type on, and doesn't always connect well. So I often send duplicate comments to blogs. :)

    The Small Yellow Lady's Slipper was a great find all thanks to Bob at http://stormhorn.com/

    As for the showy yellow goat's beard, I noticed the difference last year, I even included in a post last year.
    Check out http://plantsamazeme.blogspot.com/2011/06/more-ottawa-county-places.html

    Thanks for stopping by I was just looking at your trip through the garden.
    :)

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  6. New Hampshire GardenerJune 2, 2012 at 6:07 PM

    I like that post from last year too! I was just splitting hairs about the goat's beard-the scientific name for the showy yellow is Tragopogon pratensis, and the Western Fistulous Goat's Beard is Tragopogon dubius. The only reason I noticed at all is because I just found one for the first time and spent quite awhile trying to ID it! I like Bob the storm chaser's site. Thanks for the link.
    Oh-I keep meaning to tell you and everybody else to just call me Allen-it's so much easier to type!

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  7. Plants Amaze MeJune 2, 2012 at 6:33 PM

    Thanks, Allen, glad you liked that post and yes Bob, the storm chaser, has a wonderful blog, between the music, nature, and storm chasing.

    I guess we are into summer with the Goat's Beard blooming and I saw Chicory (Chichorium intybus) blooming today!
    Chris
    (Chris is easier than Plants Amaze Me too) :)

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