The nice summer day had people enjoying outdoor activities, and even the critters seemed to enjoy the day. Around the water, dragonflies were darting around. The Calico Pennant Dragonfly has colorful markings. They begin their adult life with yellow coloring and as males matures, the color changes to red but the females keeps the yellow colors.
Calico Pennant Dragonfly
The trees this evening were filled with crying sounds. Baby orioles have left the nest and were hopping around in the branches waiting for their parents to bring them some food and most were not very patient or quiet. This young oriole is a bit fuzzy looking but most of the young birds looked about the size and coloring of the adult females already although only a few have come to the feeders as it is easier to let the parents bring the food to them.
Young Baltimore Oriole
While hiking to see the orchids, it was easy to overlook tiny flowers on the ground when there were larger blossoms nearby that stood out more. One such tiny native flower, with blossoms only about a fourth of an inch, was this Racemed Milkwort (also known as Purple Milkwort).
Racemed Milkwort
When I was mowing today, I watched the spot where a native orchid had bloomed for several years until last year and so far, no sign of it this year either. So it was a good thing my sister recently took me on an adventure down a sandy bank and through some soggy ground to the orchids near bogs in her area to photo them. What I thought might have been Dragon’s Mouth, could be Rose Pogonia or Snake-mouth Orchid instead. I guess either way, it had the word mouth in the name and is still a pretty flower.
Maybe a Snake-mouth Orchid
The summer may bring some hot days, but at least it allows some exploration without worrying about snow storms and below zero temperatures. And on those summer back country roads trips, you might catch a glimpse of a church steeple across the fields which require a slight detour to check the church out. And if you are lucky to be there when the church is open, you might find some older style and pretty altars inside, like from this Holy Rosary Catholic church built in 1901.
Altar in Holy Rosary
Another native orchid found in Wisconsin may not be observed very often since it is normally found in wet boggy (and buggy) conditions. The Dragon’s Mouth (or Swamp Pink) flowers offer little nectar even though they are sweetly scented and colorful. Bees quickly learn to avoid these flowers, so pollination is dependent on inexperienced and recently-emerged bumblebees.
Dragon’s Mouth Orchids
The Butterfly-weed plant (also called the Butterfly Milkweed) is a host plant for Monarch butterfly caterpillars. And at this stage of the metamorphosis of the Monarch, the larva are eating machines as the caterpillar continues to grow their pupa stage.
Monarch Caterpillar on Butterfly-weed
For some people, nature provided its own form of fireworks today with lightning and thunder, but others attended planned 4th of July celebrations with fireworks lighting up the evening sky.
The Fourth’s Fireworks
There has been fireworks lighting up the sky tonight, even though it isn’t the Fourth yet. There are wildflowers, like the hairy wild bergamot, which look like mini-fireworks near the ground. The unopened blooms of the Tuberous Grass-pink look like shooting rockets before they explode into a color display like the open blossoms. The Tuberous Grass-pink are native orchids to Wisconsin but with grass-like stems, they are not very noticeable unless they are blooming.
Tuberous Grass-pink
If you drive by cranberry marshes right now, you might spot stacks of honey bee hives near the cranberry beds. Bringing in honey bees and bumble bees help pollinate cranberry blossoms. Although this cranberry vine may have to rely on wild bees in the area as this vine is not in a managed cranberry bed but a wild cranberry native to the marshlands of central Wisconsin.
Wild Cranberry Blossoms
