Last week I went out by Oakland Camp to check on the condition of the Mountain Ladyslippers. In the area where I'm accustomed to seeing maybe a dozen plants just a few feet from the pavement, I saw only this one. Maybe more have broken ground by now. I hope to go out there again some afternoon this week. Maybe there will be some buds. I can hardly wait for their annual appearance. This time I hope to be patient enough to get some photos of bugs inside the bulbous petal.
I took about 20 photos to get this one. With no telephoto or tripod, I aimed at the dozens of blues fluttering around damp spots on the gravel by Spanish Creek. The many splotches of blue moving around are beautiful. But within a fraction of a second after landing, they fold their wings over their backs and disappear. They disappear because the undersides of the wings are speckled grey and brown and are perfectly camouflaged with the gravel. Occasionally I can spot a landed one in one of the photos, but usually not. I got lucky just once. Click on the photo for a closer view.
The Western Dog Violets are starting to bloom on the FRC campus. Two of the yellow species have been blooming for a while, and this is the only local species that is actually violet in color. There's also a whte species.
The second photo (above) shows how the leaves of this species are quite different from those of the Fan Violet I posted a while back. The leaf in the lower right quadrant is that of the violet.
Click on these for closer views. I love looking straight into the blossoms. Colorful patterns and often interesting insects and spiders may be found. One has to be motivated to get down and look because violet are pretty small and usually hidden amongst other plants, especially grasses.
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