Orchid hunting

I became consumed by the desire to see an orchid I have not seen on Nantucket.  David Policansky posted a picture of a White-fringed orchid, Platanthera blephariglottis, on Facebook. It was in a "special, secret" place that you can only get to by walking over glass and through poison ivy.  I'm in!

I wheedled Kelly Omand, botanist of the Nantucket Conservation Foundation,  to take me there.  I cannot reveal the spot,  but it did involve deer paths,  poison ivy and broken glass.

What a triumph!  The thrill of the new!  I love it.  

I walked into the Sconset Post Office afterward and saw Susan Lacouture Bacle.  I showed here the picture,  all proud and puffed up.  "Oh,"  she said,  "I used to see them at the XXX YYY."  

I am still loving it!

Bog club moss, lycopodiella,
with drum head  milkwort

  

Wood Lily Time

Lilium philadelphium

Elsa was not the only storm to hit Nantucket.  Our three sons, their wives and three grandchildren 5 and under visited for a week.  Fantastic fun,  but limited #NantucketWild.  

I hiked Squam Farm and Squam Swamp on Monday, July 19,  and was treated to my first wood lilies of the year, an Eastern Wood-Pewee singing,  and the "early bird"  Great Crested Flycatcher catching a worm.

 

Tropical Storm Elsa: A Walk in the Woods

       

Indian Pipes, Monotropa uniflora

            Squam Swamp is a wonderful wood, deep and wet and filled with ferns.  It seems primal, likely to host fairies in its  mossy stumps. Today’s walk during Tropical Storm Elsa gave hints of the late summer and fall to come.  The first red leaves were on the path along with swamp azalea blooms,  and  the mushrooms seemed more late summer than high summer.  But there were still some late daisies in sunny spots.

I was seeking Indian Pipes , monotropa uniflora, which I’ve seen here in July in the past.  I found it between posts 12 and 14. It is also  called Ghost Pipes.

The mushrooms made it seem more like fall:  from  golden chanterelles to the deadly amanita ( eastern North American Destroying Angel.)The eastern platterfull mushroom (megacollybia rodmanii) and jellied coral fungus rounded out the shrooms.

Golden Chantarelles

Cantarellus cibarius

Deadly Amanita

Amanita Bisporigera, Destroying Angel

Megacollybia rodmanii
Eastern American Platterful Mushroom

Milestone Bog

 

July 8:  One whole section of Milestone bog is hosting hundreds of swamp candles,  lysimachia terristris.  Take the main path and turn left into the bog at the stand of pines.  Magnificent to see huge stands of flowers in the bogs, both Milestone and  Windswept,  as they move away from cranberry production.

The early flowers of "sickle-leaved aster," pityopsis falcata, are along the paths,  but the meadowsweet, spirea tomentosa,  is yet to flower.  The stands of aletris, colicroot,  are still visible in the meadows.

Sickle-leaved golden aster,
pityopsis falcata

Meadowsweet, spirea tomentosa

Chowing Down

 The common yellowthroats are The UMASS Field Station were having a feast when we visited on July 5.  There was also a bonus of  3 greater yellowlegs and a spotted sandpiper.

Mama and babies

 

  

 Piping plover mama banded 9VE does the broken win trick at Smith's Point on July 6 to divert me from seeing her chicks.

Berries

 

The promise of spring is that the blossoms will mature into fruit.  The low-bush blueberries are now here,  and the high-bush blueberries are on their way.  The bearberries, bayberries and beach plums are growing.  Summer is looking like a promise fulfilled.

High bush blueberries

Low bush blueberries

Low bush blueberries

Bayberries

Bearberries

Beach Plums

Fox grapes

Beach plums