Thursday, May 28, 2015

Rattlesnakes, Devils, and Rams, Oh My!

The seniors are finishing up their Capstone Projects and getting ready for the Capstone Fair on June 1. I look forward to seeing the results of their efforts and the answers to their Essential Questions. I hope they've managed to meet their goals and solve any problems they encountered along the way. Maybe they've also found a few rattlesnakes in the process. 

Last weekend, while working on my own on-going project of finding and photographing native orchids, I walked into a deep, dark bog where I met the Devil and a Serpent...

I visited the Bemidji area and stopped in at the [X] Bog SNA. There weren't any mosquitoes, so that made it a very pleasant experience. Armed with my GPS app and backup battery, I felt I could safely explore a bit more of the bog than I usually do, and while I still haven't seen more than a fraction of its 108 acres, I did go just a bit farther into those woods, which are so "lovely, dark and deep" (a lot of us have Robert Frost on the brain these days). 
You can see the path, right? It's not exactly a yellow-brick road...

In doing so, I discovered that the best way to make progress through the thick vegetation is not to step on the big raised mounds of sphagnum moss, but rather to follow the many  narrow deer paths that meander through the area. Although those paths are wet, they're not as soft and squishy as I thought they might be. The deer have discovered where the stable ground is... 
Yep, I know I'm on the right path.

Following the little trails of breadcrumbs, I mean, deer pellets, I was able to move more easily through the tangle of vegetation, exploring all the sights as I went. 


Along the way, I encountered an orchid I've never seen before, the Lesser Rattlesnake Plantain. It wasn't blooming yet, but I hope I can get back again to see it when it is--if it blooms at all, that is. This orchid plant can grow for several years before it blooms. I forgot to mark its location with my GPS app, but someone else had already marked it by tying a red bandana in a tree branch above the plant (it is not legal to mark plants, but I have seen other similarly marked plants in the bog). The Rattlesnake Plantain has really beautiful evergeen foliage. In my quest to take photos of Lady Slippers, I keep coming across other native orchids that I didn't intend to search for--that's one of the great, unexpected benefits of this project
Rattlesnake Plantain--I think it gets its name from the snakeskin-like pattern of the leaves...


Looks like a Stemless Slipper.
I saw lots of Lady Slippers sprouting up in the bog, among them what I hope is a Stemless Slipper. Another goal of mine is  to see one of these outside of a State Park. I can see them at Lake Bemidji State Park, on their Bog-Walk Trail, but I'd like to find some in a more truly wild location.


Mostly, though, what I take pictures of in the [X] Bog are the carnivorous Pitcher Plants. They are big, plentiful, and very beautiful. I have to work hard not to step on them because they're everywhere.
I love the colors!
Note the bug trapped inside this carnivorous plant.
They grow in a circular pattern.
From the [X] Bog, I went on to Lake Bemidji State Park, to check on the progress of the Stemless Slippers growing there. I was pleased to see lots of buds. Those slippers will probably start blooming this weekend. 
Budding Stemless Slipper in the State Park.
Finally, late in the afternoon, I was able to meet one of my long-term goals. I've been searching, unsuccessfully, for the Ram's Head Lady Slipper (Cypripedium arietinum) for a while now, looking for traces of the plant even in the off-seasson. I've been combing through references to them on the internet, hoping to find specific location data, but the information I've found could only get me within a few miles of some likely spots. 

It finally occurred to me to ask a Duluth botanist, Josh Horky, for more info. Sometimes, to meet your goal, you have to ask for help. He generously gave me a great tip. Josh "dropped a pin" on a Google Map for me, and I used the Google Maps app to direct me to the spot. It wasn't the large colony I had been looking for earlier--I still haven't located that exact spot--but it was a large enough group for me to get a good sense of what this threatened species looks like. 

The Ram's Head is a very tiny Lady Slipper. 
I didn't see them immediately, because they are so very small. You can read a description that tells you the flower is only about an inch in size, but when you actually see how miniscule they are, you get a better sense of their scale. Most of the flowers were the size of my fingernail. I finally saw a group of about thirty plants, and although it was very breezy and the Ram's Head's were not quite fully open, I was able to photograph some of them.
Ram's Head plant, with bud just starting to open. You can tell from this photo how hard
it would be to see these flowers from standing-height.
I had to use my close-up lens to get most of these shots. It was a challenge to get the iPhone to focus on such a tiny flower. Most of the photos I took were no good, and I had to delete them. Taking lots of bad shots is necessary, if you're ever going to take any good ones.

I was pretty excited to see these Slippers. I'd been telling myself all day that I should expect to be disappointed again. Earlier this year, I was wondering if I'd ever be able to find them, having failed several times over the last couple years to locate even one. 
The Ram's Head, just beginning to open up. Look at all the hairs on its chin!
This colony was situated in a really interesting place on the edge of a small lake; it was dark and wet, with lots of moss and some big, old cedar trees--very boggy. If you were just driving by, you'd never know that a colony of rare orchids grew there...

Ram's Head with dorsal sepal just beginning to rise.
There were lots of other Slippers, Yellows and Showys, sprouting up in the same area, and I saw lots of seedpods from last year's Slipper crop. Clearly, this is a really great little spot for Lady Slippers. I can't wait to get back to it and take more photos when the Ram's Heads are fully open. (This slipper is supposed to resemble a ram's head, but I'm not quite seeing the resemblance yet...maybe when it's open, I'll see it.)
Showy Slipper seedpods, almost four feet off the ground!
While I was looking for the Ram's Heads, I also came across a fairly large patch of what might be Devil's Urn fungus, a mushroom I've only ever seen once before, in Jay Cooke, and that was at a later stage in its development. They were growing around, and partially up, the base of a big cedar tree. I want to take more photos of these unusual mushrooms, too. 
Devil's Urn?
I find a lot of fungi while searching for Lady Slippers and other wildflowers. I've come to appreciate their beauty, and in the autumn, when all the flowers are gone, taking photos of mushrooms consoles me for the loss of the flowers.

I didn't see a single tick the whole day, but then on Monday, I got into my car and immediately found a tick. All throughout Lady Slipper season, now, I'll be wondering how many ticks are lying in wait for me in my car. 

But that's part of the deal. If I want to get photos of these plants, I have to put up with the bugs. As I've said before, when you're doing what you really love, you don't mind dealing with delays, false leads, or a few bugs. In the end, it's all worth it, especially when you meet the sweetest Rattlesnake and the cutest little Devils in the process.
Ram's Head bud just poking out from the leaves.





Friday, May 22, 2015

Spring Wildflower Report: Mid-Season Edition

I've been visiting Jay Cooke State Park pretty much each weekend since the end of April, and we're fully into spring wildflower season now. Species after species buds, blossoms, and fades in rolling waves of color and beauty across the landscape of May. 


Wild Ginger is still blooming.
Jay Cooke State Park
And, of course, the Trilliums are blooming, although the rain we've had knocked down a lot of them.
From Munger Trail
The Trout Lily (white and yellow) has finally bloomed. They're one of my favorite wildflowers.
I love how the petals curl backwards.
See the bug on the stem?
Now, the bug is on the petals.
The flower is named after the mottled pattern on the leaves, which looks like the skin of a trout.
I've been seeing Jack-in-the-Pulpit all over the Park, lately.


For the first time, I saw Dutchman's Breeches this year. Both the flowers and foliage are lovely.
As often happens when I'm photographing wildflowers, I encountered a Flower Crab Spider. 
Bellwort is everywhere.
And I often find fungi, like this puffball.
Love that lichen, too!

This weekend, I'll be in the Park and on the Trail again. I'll also head up to Bemidji and get into the [X] bog. I'm hoping to see some Stemless Slippers, and I'll hunt, once again, for the Ram's Head Slippers. 

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Life, Death, and Irony: Campus Clean-up Day

Today during Advisory, the Upper School students cleaned up trash on the campus. It was a beautiful day, so it was a very pleasant experience. Somebody found a tire; someone else found an old hurdle. My group encountered a few items of interest. I took a few pictures, thinking they would make a nice photo-essay.

Life
Death
Irony
I pointed out the irony, just in case you might've missed it.

Friday, May 8, 2015

A Letter to the Class of 2019

Dear Class of 2019,

The day was overcast, and we'd had rain the night before.
Four years from now, when you take my class, you might forget that I accompanied you on your Geocaching Adventure at Gooseberry Falls in the spring of 2015, so I thought I'd write you a letter about my memories of the day. If this blog still exists when you're seniors, perhaps we can re-read it together then.

Today was a lot of fun, and I want to thank Mr Diener for inviting me to come along. 

I drove up to Gooseberry Falls State Park on my own, so when you all got off the buses, I have to admit I was shocked at how tall you all are. I thought 8th graders would be shorter. Of course, I'm pretty short, so almost anyone seems tall to me. Four years from now, you'll be even taller--I only hope I won't be shorter then than I am now.

Mr Lockhart standing guard at a dangerous spot.
As soon as Mr Diener, Mr Lockhart, and Ms Powell got you sorted into groups and outfitted with the famous (and apparently ancient) 8th grade clipboards, GPS units (borrowed, I believe, from several State Parks), and extra batteries, you and your parent-chaperones scattered all over the park to begin a kind of scavenger hunt. My understanding is that you had to visit the spots in the park indicated by coordinates in the GPS units, find the caches hidden (by Mr Diener and Mr Lockhart) at each location, and answer multi-disciplinary questions. 
Yet another shot of the Falls.
My task was to roam throughout the park and pretend to be able to offer assistance or extra batteries as needed. Along the way, I took many photos...Of course, I started with the famous Falls. Although my iPhone doesn't take great distance-shots, I gave it a try. 

Occasionally, above the roar of the Falls, I could hear your voices in the distance...But I have to admit, I was a bit more focused on trying to find interesting plant-life.

Who can you see through the trees?
There weren't many wildflowers to photograph, but I saw a few buds here and there. 
Canada Mayflower, I think.
One clump of Marsh Marigolds was blooming, but I couldn't get close enough for a photo. 

Whenever I caught sight of a group of you, I tried to snap a photo. Mr Diener warned me you'd be moving fast. Every now and then, a couple of you would stop and let me get a shot.
They seemed to be having fun.

I thought that I would see all the caches on my wanderings, but I only encountered one. Either I didn't hit the right spots, or most were well-hidden. 

One of the caches.
Apparently, one group found a cache from last year's trip--it had been sitting there, hidden in the park, for a whole year. I'll let Mr Diener and Mr Lockhart explain that...
Witches' Butter: are those bugs there on the left? I want
those to be some kind of weird insect.

Since there weren't any wildflowers to photograph, I turned my attention to fungi and lichen; I found a nice little bit of Witches' Butter. I come across this fungus fairly frequently. 

Whenever I'm at Gooseberry, I always think of lichen, because down by the lakeshore, there are some beautiful patches of bright orange and yellow lichens...

On my way there, I caught sight of another group of students. (I think they were taking a short-cut through the woods.) 
Mr Short-cut.

The old CCC Pumphouse is covered in lichen.
For some reason, these patches of lichen on the old stonework above remind me of paintings by MondrianClose to the shoreline, there's also a line of short stone pillars, connected by big chains, and the stones are covered with lichen.
I always like to visit this spot.

Down by the lake, some of us ate lunch in the picnic shelter. Ms Powell was there with a boy who wasn't feeling well. We had a fire in the fireplace, and Ms Powell lamented our lack of marshmallows. I thought about a patch of fungus I had seen earlier, and how it looked a bit like molten marshmallow. I wasn't sure if it would taste good roasted, so I didn't mention it. 
I think this looks a bit like roasted marshmallow, dripping down the side of a tree.
A group of you joined us in the shelter and your conversation, which proceeded at a very rapid pace, and which jumped--with no apparent reason--from topic to topic, was quite amusing. 

One young lady thought that clementines are suspicious and unnatural food items because their skins are so strangely loose; a moment later, she was discoursing on the pleasures of foods that consist mainly of "salt and crunch." Then, she was talking about the time some relative (was it her grandmother?) had made her drink a stick of melted butter when she was sick. (Wait, did Clementine-Girl tell that story, or was it someone else? I can't remember.) 
If they're carrying clipboards, then they're with us.
Then a boy walked in and declared his shoes and socks were wet because he walked through a large puddle. He proceeded to take them off and set them to dry before the fire. At some point, another boy explained that if you sprinkle Borax on a fire, the flames turn green (this, I believe, is true). We wanted to test it out, but we didn't have any Borax on hand. 

Sock-Boy talked rapidly about a number of subjects while walking bare-footed on the cold stone floor of the shelter, leaving wet foot-prints behind him. At one point, he twirled his still-wet socks through the air, treating us to a less-than-pleasant-smelling breeze, about which we all complained; then, he slapped them fiercely against the stone walls to force more moisture out of them.

At one point, a well-spoken young man asked me how many times I had come on this trip, and I confessed that this was my first such adventure. (I marvelled at his courage. Most students under the age of about 16 are afraid to address me because I'm so scary.) 
Another group--note the GPS unit and the clipboard.
Not long after this, Mr Diener started collecting all the clipboards and GPS units. One student asked Mr Diener if he would be "tabulating the results" tonight. I was impressed by this young man's use of such a wonderful verb. I now think of him as "Mr Vocabulary."
Mr Vocabulary on the move.
Before we left, Mr Diener showed me the wildflower card from the Park's own cache that one of the groups had found. This year, the theme for the State Park Geocaching program is "Call of the Wildflowers." It features the Blue Butterwort, a carnivorous flower that catches insects with its sticky leaves. I hope to see this flower someday. 
The collectible card from the Park cache.
Mr Diener




















I enjoyed the day a great deal, and I'm glad I got to spend some time with you. I look forward to meeting you again (and putting your real names to your faces) when you're older (and even taller). Good luck with the start of your high-school career next year. 

Sincerely,

Dr Nygaard

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Spring Wildflower Report: Early Edition

Pitcher Plants in the [X] Bog
Back in April, I visited the [X] Bog, to get a sense of what it looks like early in the spring. The mossy floor of the bog was coming back to life, and I happened upon some pitcher plants. 

While I was there, I tested out my GPS app and my external battery. I actually wandered far enough into the bog to really need the GPS:  at one point, I felt a bit lost. But the app worked, and it got me headed in the right direction. I'm looking forward to getting back into the bog during Memorial Day weekend.
It's easy to get lost when you're walking
through miles of this!





Now that it's May, the spring wildflowers are starting to appear. Below is a sampling of what I've seen so far...Most of the photos were taken at Jay Cooke State Park.


Bloodroot as it's just sprouting up




It's been a great week for Bloodroot. I've found lots of it, and I feel lucky to have gotten so many shots--the flowers only bloom for a few days. 
Bloodroot flower almost fully open












I've really enjoyed seeing this flower through all the stages of its short life. It's one of the first significant flowers to come up through all the dead vegetation left over from the fall.

Bloodroot colony past its peak
Bloodroot colony in bloom
Hepatica is another early flower, and Jay Cooke State Park is carpeted with clusters of them. They're small and a bit hard to see against all the dead leaves, especially in strong sunlight, but if you get close, they're really beautiful.
Hepatica, one of the earliest flowers
More Hepatica...
Macro-lens shot of Hepatica

And then there's Wild Ginger, which is also plentiful at Jay Cooke. Its flower is at ground level, and unless you're looking for it, you might never notice it. Each year, I try to get a better, closer view of the inside of the flower.
Wild Ginger
Macro-lens shot of Wild Ginger flower
The Marsh Marigolds were just at the beginning stages of flowering. Mostly, I saw buds. I love the shape and colors of the leaves, though.
Marsh Marigold buds
Marsh Marigold
The Spring Beauties were also in full bloom at Jay Cooke. It's easy, from a distance, to mistake them for Hepatica, but the leaves are very different.
Spring Beauties
Below is Sessile Bellwort, a lovely little flower I also see along the Munger Trail. I find it very difficult to get good photos of it because it's so small and it hangs downward.

Sessile Bellwort
I only saw one Trout Lily in bloom, but I saw thousands of leaves in the Park. I'm hoping to see many more of these flowers this weekend.
Trout Lily--they've just barely begun to bloom. You can see a bit of distortion on the edges of this shot from the macro lens.
Earlier in the spring, I kept encountering a mushroom called Scarlet Cup. I'd never seen it until this spring. They seem to be everywhere at Jay Cooke.
Scarlet Cup
Scarlet Cups
I won't be on campus tomorrow. I'm helping to chaperone the 8th-grade Geocaching Adventure at Gooseberry Falls State Park. (Thanks to Mr Diener for asking me to come along!) I'm hoping to take more such photos there...After the rain we've had recently, I expect the Park will be quite lush with greenery and fully alive with beauty. 

The older I get, the more I appreciate the beauty of spring. It feeds my soul. When I was younger, spring seemed like an annoying inconvenience, a painfully-long prelude to summer. Now, spring moves far too fast for me. I want to slow it down so I can measure and appreciate each green inch of new life coming up out of the earth, pushing through all the dead leftovers of autumn. I hope all of you, too, can get out this weekend and enjoy the spring.