Whatcom Falls Park

The last day of May was a Thursday, a less busy day for both of us, and so my wife and I went to run some errands in Bellingham and went on to one of the parks there.  Whatcom Falls Park is nearly 250 acres and is on the east side of Bellingham, near Whatcom Lake.  It follows the meanderings of Whatcom Creek and includes several falls, one which drops about fifteen feet and which can be viewed from a beautiful old arched stone bridge just below the falls.

We decided to go there since the day was overcast and there was some threat of rain.  It never did rain, but the lack of sunshine made a good day for photographing the falls.  Finished with main falls, we hiked some of the trails and found the Western Spotted Coralroot blooming on the hills above the falls, and also took pictures of an old railroad trestle in the park, as well as the creek.  Had a very pleasant walk, though we did get a bit muddy photographing the orchids.

Finished we headed for a local Bellingham micro-brewery, Boundary Bay, and had a delicious supper there of tapanadas followed by beef stew (my wife) and a pesto salmon sandwich (myself) accompanied by an excellent glass of local bitter.

Near Plain, Washington

 After leaving Derby Canyon early in the morning on the 10th of June, we went on to the town of Plain, north of Leavenworth.  We visited a site outside the town looking for the rare Clustered Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium fasciculatum), also known as the Brownie Lady's Slipper.

We quickly found a lot of the Western Spotted Coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis) in the woods.  They seem to be very abundant this year and this site was no exception.  We searched everywhere for the Lady's Slipper, however, and in the end only found four plants.

We spent quite some time photographing them, not an easy task on the steep slopes where they grow and also took a few other pictures of the area and the wildflowers there before going on to our final hiking destination, Chiwaukum Creek, west of Leavenworth.

We had also been to the area about a month earlier and took a few pictures then as well, especially of the Oregon Anemones (Anemone oregana) in bloom.  At that time we found some of the native orchids growing in the woods but not yet blooming.

Derby Canyon Revisted

On our way home from Spokane and Medical Lake on the 10th of June we left early in the morning to give ourselves a bit of time for some sightseeing and hiking.  Our first stop was Derby Canyon, a favorite place of ours.  We went to see the Brownie Peony in bloom, but we were too late - it was already finished.

We did climb the ridge to see what other wildflowers were in bloom and found, as expected the Western Spotted Coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis) and the Lyall's Mariposa Lily (Calochortus lyallii), along with a number of other interesting wildflowers.

Western Spotted Coralroot

Lyall's Mariposa Lily

Tall Silvercrown

Shrubby Penstemon

After an hour or so exploring we were leaving and saw the Mountain Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium montanum) growing on the bank right along the road.  There were only six plants, but they were all in flower, two smaller plants right at the roadside that looked like seedlings, and four larger plants with two flowers each.

We went back to where we had parked the car and walked back up the road to take pictures, a little difficult in the low light (the sun was just coming up), and with the plants growing on a rather steep bank.  We spent another hour or so taking pictures of this elegant orchid.

Au Sable Institute and Cornet Bay

I had been working long hours and Edward had been job hunting and we were both weary of it all and decided to take Friday morning (June 3) off and do a bit of hiking.  It turned into a beautiful sunny day as we drove to Whidbey Island to visit two of our favorite spots there.

We went first to the Pacific Rim Campus of the Au Sable Institute just south of Coupeville and took a walk through their woods looking for orchids in bloom.  This is one of the few known locations of the Ozette Coralroot, a rare variety of the Spotted Coralroot found only in Washington State.

Walking through the woods we found a few Fairy Slippers still in bloom and many plants of the Western Spotted Coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis), some of them in large clumps.  We found both the brown stemmed and the red-stemmed forms of the plant.

We also found a few that seemed to be intermediate between the Western Spotted and the Ozette, but perhaps they only represent more of the variation within this species.  In any case, I had never seen so many of them in one location and never so many in this location.  They were everywhere.

We found the Ozette Coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata var. ozettensis), too, but not as many as previous years.  Nor were they in bloom, but have several weeks to go before they bloom.  We've seen them in full bloom in early June, but this year everything is late due to a long spell of cold rainy weather.

Finished at Au Sable, we went back to the north end of Whidbey Island and the area of Deception Pass State Park.  We visited the part of the park that borders the south side of Cornet Bay and hiked the area around Hoypus Hill, looking for the Western Coralroot (C. mertensiana).

We found them in their usual haunts but they, too, were just beginning to bloom.  We took some pictures, but will have to go back when they are at their peak.  They are also very late this year as a result of the weather.  It was obvious though that both the purple and yellow-stemmed varieties were present.

We managed to get pictures also a small blue butterfly and of a Fox Sparrow, but there was little else to photograph and toward the end of the morning we were lost a bit on the winding trails and were trying to find our way rather than thinking about pictures.

Washington Park

I made two more trips to Washington Park recently.  I had to be in Mount Vernon, Washington, on Tuesday evening, May 24th, and went first for a couple of hours to see if the Fairy Slippers were still blooming and if the Coralroots had opened.  I was not disappointed either by the weather or the flowers.

I found both, a few Fairy Slippers still at their prime and numerous Coralroots at the peak of their blooming.  These leafless, saprophytic orchids always fascinate me, not only for their lack of chlorophyll but for their unpredictability.  One never knows quite where they will spring up and how many there will be.

 

The Chocolate Lilies (Fritillaria affinis) were also in bloom and though relatively common were a delight to see once again.  The Madrone trees were also putting out new growth and flowers, the flowers white and the new growth a soft green and pink, neither of which I had seen before.

One the second trip on May 27, I went with my wife and son and we not only saw the Coralroots and the Chocolate Lilies, but were privileged to watch a number of eagles both immature and adult in the trees and in the air near the south end of the park.  The Fairy Slippers, however, were gone.

For the rest we enjoyed the scenery, the boats, the thunderheads building in the east, and the glorious sunshine of which we have seen far too little this spring.  We took several hours walking the two miles around the park and then headed home for a bit of supper and a quiet evening.