We spent this morning at the Eddy Discovery Center in western Washtenaw County, Michigan. We walked through the prairie trail then down to the bog.
It was nice finding both the male and female of Libellula cyanea, Spangled skimmer in the prairie.
This is the trail map for the main trails at the Discovery Center.
Finding a butterfly that I hadn’t seen in years was nice. This is a Mustard white (also called Veined white), Pieris oleracea.
This is the end of the board-walk in the bog. This place is packed with bog-loving species. Today we came looking for orchids. Anything else was a bonus.
Rose pogonia, Pogonia ophioglossoides was one of our targets. There were many in peak bloom. There were also a few Grass-pink that were well past their prime and we also found the leaves of Pink ladies-slippers.
The real treat was finding a single stem of Eastern prairie white fringed orchid, Platanthera leucophaea.
The hummocks in the bog, comprised mainly of sphagnum mosses were teeming with Round-leaf sundew. Pitcher plants were also in full bloom.
Along the boardwalk through the wet woods we also found numerous specimens of Club-spur orchids, Platanthera clavellata.
As we walked the trails Susan was often drawn into the woods chasing down moths. These are two that we haven’t identified yet.
This is one of several American ermine, Yponomeuta multipunctella that we found. They glow when they are sitting on the top of dark green leaves.
We tracked this final moth around several trees and through the leaf litter, waiting patiently each time it landed, until finally we both managed to get nice photos.
That’s all for today, more later…
Michael's Place 