Sharpe Park

On April 14th we visited Sharpe Park on Fidalgo Island looking for Fairy Slippers.  Sharpe Park is on the coast and has wonderful views of the Straits of San Juan, a wonderful wetland area, great wildflowers, lots of Fairy Slippers, and some of the most beautiful Madrone trees that we've seen.  The day started sunny but soon turned overcast and we were somewhat disappointed with the views of the Straits.

The wetlands are near the start of the trails.

We photographed some Red-flowering Currant there (Ribes sanguineum),

though it was also blooming elsewhere.

The Giant Horsetails (Equisetum telmatiea) were magnificent.

The trails are through the most beautiful woodlands.

We found Western Fairy Slippers (Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis) all along the trail,

including one nearly white flower.

The Fawn Lilies (Erythronium oregonum) were at their peak

when we came near the more open coastal areas.

There's always a lot of moss and lichens in our northwest forests.

I believe this is Common Witch's Hair (Alectoria sarmentosa).

On the balds and the bluffs we photographed a number of wildflowers

including the Broad-leaved Stonecrop,

the Common Camas (Camassia quamash),

and the Sheep Sorrel (Rumex acetosella), a non-native, and the only one in bloom,

beside the Seaside Dandelion (Agoseris apargioides), a Dandelion-like native.

We took some pictures of the Straits but not as many as usual.

We also found a Rush on the bluffs,

which I believe to be the Many-flowered Wood-rush (Luzula multiflora).

The only fungus was the Red-banded Polypore (Fomitopsis pinicola).

Whidbey Island

My wife and I decided to take the afternoon off and about 1:00 headed for Whidbey Island and the Pacific Rim Campus of the Au Sable Institute near Coupeville. We wanted to see the rare Ozette Coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata var. ozettensis) which had been discovered there in 2002, the first location for this plant outside the Olympic Peninsula.

We stopped first at Deception Pass just before the bridge to take pictures of some of the wildflowers there. Some of those we photographed were:

Lanceleaf Stonecrop (Sedum spathulifolium)

Cluster Thistle (Cisium brevistylum)

Broad-leaved Arnica (Arnica latifolia)

Puget Sound Gumplant (Grindelia integrifolia)

Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

South of the town of Oak Harbor a farmer was cutting hay along the road and a number of eagles, both adult and immature, were foraging for rodents in the cut hay. We stopped there for quite a while for pictures. Though common at certain times of the year, the Bald Eagle is always worth stopping for. Some of the eagles were being harassed and chased by the blackbirds that were also foraging in the cut hay.

Arriving finally on the grounds of the Au Sable Institute, we started into the woods near an old barn and found a group of students from the Institute with two of their instructors. They had been examining a Barn Owl nest with several chicks and invited us to have a look.

In the woods we found what we were looking for, the Ozette Coralroot. The Western Coralroots, which had been in bloom a few weeks before were nearly finished, but the Ozettes were in full bloom.

In and along the edge of the woods we photographed several other wildflowers, the dainty sprays of the Smooth Alumroot (Heuchera glabra) and the Coast Tarweed (Madia sativa).

After stopping in Mount Vernon for our evening meal we arrived home thankful for a relaxing and enjoyable afternoon.

Notes
(1) There is a brief article that I've written about the Ozette Coralroot on the website of the American Orchid Society: www.aos.org/
(2) I almost certainly have misidentified some of the wildflowers. Anyone who knows better is asked to drop me a note correcting my mistakes.
(3) The picture of the Deception Pass bridge was taken by my daughter-in-law and the picture of the owl was taken by my wife.