Lake Padden and Padden Ridge

Lake Padden is in a popular recreation area south of Bellingham and in the Chuckanut Mountains.  The lake itself is of little interest to me, since the area around it is little more than a city park, but to the southwest of the lake, between it and Interstate 5, there is a wooded ridge whose trails I hiked the afternoon of May 24th.

I found several native orchids, the Western Spotted Coralroot and the Striped Coralroot, and found a few Western Fairy Slippers as well, one of which I photographed.  The ridge was one of the best sites I've found for Striped Coralroots.  I found some yellowish plants there but not the yellow-stemmed form I hoped to find.

There were not a lot of wildflowers blooming beside the orchids.  I photographed three, a very pale Pacific Bleeding Heart, the Pacific Waterleaf, and the Leafy Mitrewort.  I also found one Fly Agaric mushroom and some that I believe to be White Chanterelles, but I am not very good at identifying mushrooms and stand to be corrected.

Autumn Afternoon Ambles

Often, if the weather is decent, my wife and I go for a walk late in the afternoon.  We almost always take our cameras along and take pictures of anything that catches our fancy.  These walks were especially nice with the autumn colors still on the trees, the beautiful sunsets and the flowers still blooming.  Now, of course, the colors are gone as are the flowers.