Happy Boots and Purple Fringed Orchids in Allegan County!

On Monday July 17 2017, Marie and I took a trip to one of our favorite sites, Happy Boots!  A wet, muddy, jungle of a forest in the Allegan State Game Area.  It never disappoints! 
We saw 12 Purple Fringed Orchids blooming, I'm sure there were more than 12 but they are not always easy to find in this green tangle of a maze.  But they are so fun to find.
First here is a look at the place.

 Happy Boots

The plants you see here are Lizard's Tail (Saururus cernuus).  The Purple Fringed Orchid enjoys hiding among these Lizard tails.

 

And below are the Purple Fringed Orchids.

 Here are some other things I found interesting on this trip.

 

 Moth - Haploa clymene

 Wild Leek blooming, the leaves of this plant come up very early in spring but the leaves die away and now it blooms!  Just a stem coming right out of the dirt with the flower.

 Here at Sand Creek, there was a small bridge but it was replaced recently with this culvert. 

 Helleborine Orchid (Epipactis helleborine) a non-native but still quite pretty.

 There were many of these guys flying around.  Very friendly.

 This is one of Marie's and my favorite wildflowers, Heal All (Prunella vulgaris).  From above the plant, then straight on.  I think the flowers look like tiny orchids.

 

 And then we found Monkeyflower (Mimulus ringens)  Figwort family,  blooming.  It use to bloom near the bridge but that area was destroyed when the culvert was put in, luckily the plant found a new home.

 

 Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora)  This is a wildflower, not a mushroom or fungus.

 Spotted Touch-Me-Not, also called Jewelweed, (Impatiens capensis)

 

Another Purple Fringed Orchid, just hanging out in the woods.

 I spotted these little fungus on this tree, taking a closer look they are tiny mushrooms of some sort.

 
We saw a few butterflies, moths, and dragonflies - this one below just stopped fluttering for a second on this leaf.

 

 

 This was just another of our fun outings in the woods.  I have so many more great trips to tell you about, soon I hope.

Port Sheldon Natural Area - again

2012 01 09 Four days ago we explored (~4 hours) the northeast part of Port Sheldon Natural Area, we wanted to see more.  So that is where we went this time, to find all of the ponds and to go all the way east (~about 1 mile, one way) to 152nd Avenue.

 The sun was out as we drove southeast down U.S. 31.
We parked at the kiosk on the east side of 160th Avenue.

First pond we came to, we haven't been here before.

Same pond, we have come around to this slice of land that sticks out into the pond.

Still the first pond, now we have come almost all the way around it.  We came across many different kinds of moss, clubmoss, lichen, fungus.  Since there are no wildflowers blooming we give these things more attention.

This is just west of 152nd Ave., we turned around and headed mostly west, but roaming.  Red Pine has been removed from much of this property and we were along a field where some had been cut. We saw this fern and decided to try and identify it.                           

          

 OK let's see, it's green and fernlike...  But, oh no, Marie had her fern finder guidebook with and she was ready to use it.  First we had to learn a few terms, rachis, pinna, pinnule, stipe...she has already lost me but doesn't know it. 

We went page after page, who knew this little tiny field guide could have over 50 pages!  I was enjoying a snack, sitting on the ground in the pine needles, while Marie read on.  In the end she declared it some kind of a Wood Fern.  She's so scientific. 

 The view while I snacked.

This little bug came to see what we were up to with the fern.

 This is the second pond we came to, we did see this one last week.

 This is the third pond, it has a small island.

So this would be the fourth pond.  We saw lots of dried wildflowers near these ponds so we should come back here in late spring - early summer and check for flowers.
We made it back to the car, we had been out ~ 4 hours, now down the road about a 1/2 mile to the SW kiosk.

This time we crossed 160th Ave. walking east. We found dried Prunella Vulgaris.  Below is a photo of Prunella Vulgaris, known as  Selfheal or Heal-all from last summer.

 
We also saw some tall Balsam Fir, big rocks in a pile, old trash strewn around, a great White Pine, and the shiny dark green leaves of Goldthread.  We saw lots of Spicebush too.

                  Leaves of the Goldthread plant.

We kept along the bluff above Ten Hagen Creek.  We crossed some side creeks without falling in. 

Ten Hagen Creek

 It took us 1 hour to get to the eastern boundary of the property, that was about 1/2 mile.  We had to "bushwhack" at times, we don't really whack any bushes, but it was tough going through patches of berry canes.

 Deer hunting stand, hmm...

We turned back to the west following a two-track to 160th Ave., pines have been cut here too, then we walked north along the road to the car.  Whew.
More than five hours spent outside in the woods and water, fun day!