OTR w/ Steve and Ken - Blooms, Birds and Butterflies

[finnbay]

Steve and I took a ride today scouting for our upcoming workshop. Was a great day! We found seven different orchids as well as a number of other interesting subjects. We were out for over 12 hours, so I'm posting this late and Steve will post in the morning.

First, some slippers:

Pinks:

Yellows:

And ram's head:

Butting ram's....head orchids:

[finnbay]

Rattlesnake plantain:

I think this is early coralroot:

And Steve's researching this one's identity:

We also found some spotted coralroot that hasn't matured yet. Hopefully within a week.

And some other interesting images:

Nodding trillium:

Swallowtail:

Starflower:

Bunchberry:

Buckbean:

A slough pumper:

And a fox that peaked at us through the brush:

[MuleShack]

The state flower and the state bird all in the same series

Nice variety out there.

[Dbl]

A very nice variety! Nice subdued lighting as well. I especially like the first rams head!

[reinhard1]

amazing what beauty there is up north. great pictures as always. good luck.

[Steve Foss]

Hey all. It was fun as it always is out with Ken. We're hosting a 3-day nature photography workshop around Ely and the North shore later this month, with the focus on wildflowers. So it was part fun and part scouting yesterday. And it was kinda hot!

American bittern

From left: Mourning cloak, tiger swallowtail and skipper getting nutrients off wolf scat

A pair of pinks

Pink ladyslipper triplets

Ram's head ladyslipper

Early coralroot reaches toward heaven

Ken at attention

Ram's head pair

Nodding trillium

Coming soon: Spotted coralroot

[Steve Foss]

And here are the rest of mine from yesterday.

Hooker's orchid

Northern flicker

Basal leaves of lesser rattlesnake plantain (a wild orchid) with last year's seed/flower stalk.

Tiger swallowtail on black spruce and Labrador tea

Cedar waxwings

Small yellow ladyslipper

American bittern

Fern the Explorer

Peek-a-boo fox

Buckbean

[finnbay]

Great shots, Steve! Anything new on the unidentified orchid?

[Steve Foss]

Ken, it's a dead ringer for Hooker's orchid, according to the Welby Smith guide. I labeled it as such.

While we did end up with 7 wild orchid species photographed yesterday, none was the showy ladyslipper, which is the Minnesota state flower. It'll be a few weeks before they are out in force.

Here's a showy for comparison:

[finnbay]

Thankyou!

[itchmesir]

Wow.. great set of photos guys! That Northern Flicker is by far my favorite though

[captainshane]

Great shots guys! I really like the Buckbean.

[Jim Almquist]

Between the two of you there are some really great shots. My favorites are the Buckbean and the fox shots. You two are very sneaky to catch a fox watching you two

[eyeguy 54]

great stuff guys, inspiring!