Troutbirder II

Troutbirder II
Click on Mark Twain to jump to Troutbirders book review blog

Sunday, June 9, 2019

Spring Prairie flowers in Bluff Country

On Saturday Mrs. T's nephew Ray Junior came down from the cities to visit her at memory care  in Rochester. Later that afternoon because he had indicated an interest in Prairie wildflowers I took him South for a ride along the Iowa Minnesota border. It was a very special place. We saw some rare and very rare wildflowers. This year the flowers were relatively late because of the two long and too cold spring weather this year. The first pictures are some scenes from my point-and-shoot camera and the second batch is from my photography mentor Mr. Science who quite simply is a world class photographer and Prairie expert. I hope you enjoy.
Among the prairie wildflower connoisseurs native orchids  are often the top prize to photograph. In this case two cars and six people were cautiously checking the ditches   for a  very rare orchid specimen  in Minnesota and Iowa. It was the white lady slipper as luck would have it Barb's nephew Ray, a complete novice, spotted them. The other group, keeping an eye on us and looking for the same thing, quickly caught up. These orchids are protected by law but there is a certain secretiveness involved here  as occasional  lawbreakers are known to exist. These are people who dig orchids up and usually kill them off as they are very difficult to transplant successfully
. Thus some become endangered or even extinct.

White lady slippers and the somewhat larger and less rare yellow lady slippers
 
From the same area taken by Mr. Science (Gary)
 
Prairie Phlox
 
Prairie smoke
 
 
White lady slippers
 
Shooting stars
 
Cream Indigo
 
The following pictures were taken several years earlier of Baron and a very large patch of shooting stars. If you compared to the first pictures taken this year you'll note that the area is much more wide open  meaning there on lots of shrubs and little trees sprouting up all over. This is because the local conservation agency had not deliberately burned this area to defeat the shrubs and allow the wildflowers to thrive in nature this process would have been continued by lightning storms. For the photographer it's also much more difficult as you have to scrounge through the thickets to find the wildflowers.
Baron among the shooting stars. My big guy  fondly remembered
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

22 comments:

  1. Great shots! I've never seen a white lady slipper.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love those amazing flowers... never seen any of them before so thanks for sharing. White lady slippers and prairie smoke are fabulous.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love these pictures, and I have rarely seen a yellow lady slipper, but never a white one. Thank you for sharing. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very cool! I'm glad that Gary took the "professional" shots with a dark background so we could fully appreciate the details of the flowers. What a treat this morning!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nothing like wild flowers. It's too bad that there's so little native habitat left. Thanks for doing your part to protect some of the native habitat.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your wildflowers are stunning! The White Lady Slippers were extra special. Nice to see a picture of Baron from years gone by.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lovely. We have all of them here in the mountains except the cream indigo. (Cream indigo seems an oxymoron given the colors cream and indigo)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ours are pink and white. I say 'ours' but we have to drive about an hour to see them. I missed them last year, but maybe this year. Maybe.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I was going to add that they must be late. In most years I would be reading about their progress already, but there's nary a peep so far this year.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yeah for finding White Slippers! We are about a week or ten days behind you. Yeah for a nephews visit too! :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. What amazing shots of the wild flowers and I so enjoyed a brief visit with Baron again. What a dog.

    ReplyDelete
  12. What an exciting day for wild flowers. I’ve never seen the Prairie Smoke in the wild. Or a field of shooting stars that big!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Good job on the lady slippers. So many wildflowers have moved to endangered.

    ReplyDelete
  14. It is a remarkable display of wildflowers and it is very encouraging to know that at least some of this habitat remains.

    ReplyDelete
  15. These are all so beautiful. My favorite is the prairie smoke.

    ReplyDelete
  16. What beautiful orchids-I love to see them grow naturally. Sad that some people can't follow simple rules!! Baron was a gorgeous boy.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Un saludo desde Almerƭa EspaƱa

    ReplyDelete
  18. It must be thrilling to be able to see such wildflowers in a bit of prairie. The flowers are certainly beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Dear Troutbirder, thank you for sharing these wildflower photographs and also the photo of Baron. I count on you to show me the natural beauty of Minnesota where Iived for nearly 40 years. Isn't it wonderful to take to the road and discover beauty! Peace.

    ReplyDelete
  20. It's always interesting to see the flowers that we don't have in our area. The white lady slippers are lovely. It was so nice that your nephew Ray could come down to visit Mrs. T.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I am again not seeing Minnesota spring flowers. We lived our summers near Grand Rapids but that was a long time ago. I guess I need to get myself organized and see the Neal Smith park where there is a lot of prairie and buffalos. You have some nice shots. I hope you get to see the pink lady slippers later on.

    ReplyDelete