June 1st, 2014

I was pretty excited to see my first ever Calypso orchids on the Bruce Peninsula this weekend.  This is kind of a bucket list/holy grail species for a lot of naturalists – it is quite rare and grows in only a very few places on the Peninsula.  Most are on Flowerpot Island, but there are a few mainland locations as well. I was guided to a few individual plants during the  Bruce Peninsula Orchid Festival this past weekend, and we discovered another 4 or 5 plants at another spot along the trail.  It’s the third Festival I’ve gone to, and in addition, I was invited to do a slideshow/talk on the opening night this year http://orchidfest.ca/feature-presentation.html  The presentation was in the theatre at the BP National Park Visitor Centre – it was the largest screen my photos have ever been shown on, and beamed through a giant cinematic projector.  Pretty humbling!!

From photos I’ve seen, the Calypso looks like a pretty large flower, but in fact it is quite tiny – 5 cm or less – so you really have to look carefully for them.  They are also easily disturbed, and many plants on Flowerpot have been wiped out by careless hikers and photographers.  So I was thrilled to be shown these spectacular flowers.  I went back twice over the weekend to photograph them – you’re never sure what you’re going to end up with – but once home and on the computer there were a few that were at least “representative” of the species.  The Ram’s Head Lady’s Slippers – an endangered species in Ontario – were also in flower this weekend, so I took a few photos of them as well.  One sand dune that held 20 to 30 Ram’s Heads was completely wiped out by wind this winter, which is unfortunately the nature of dunes.  The Yellow Lady’s Slipper which grow like weeds everywhere on the Peninsula were not yet in flower – we saw only one plant in bloom the entire weekend.  They will pop out next week, and the Showy Lady’s Slippers will start flowering mid to late June.