About a 90 minute drive from home, is the Purdon Conservation Area.
In the 1930's Joe Purdon discovered a small cluster of showy lady slippers. In 1984 the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority (MVCA) purchased the property with the help of the Nature Conservancy of Canada. The MVCA maintains the colony by following an active management plan consisting of some tree clearing to allow more light to the fen, water level management through the beaver pond (also known as Purdon Lake), and hand pollination.
Today it is home to over 16,000 blooms. A 1.7km boardwalk takes visitors through the blooms (and other flowers etc). I took a lot of photos, but I won't be sharing anywhere near 16,000😊
While we had the place to ourselves very early, by 10am a bus arrived full of visitors, the parking lot was overflowing. It is a very popular spot. We left after having enjoyed three and half hours.
The lady slippers are in the middle of a fen/bog, but many are right up against the boardwalk.
Sunlight, direct and backlit make for quite different views
A close-up
As they age, they become quite pale
A white-bog orchid
Pitcher plant blossoms. The first one had dropped all four of its petals.
Twin flower, bog wintergreen, tufted loosestrife, green-keeled cottongrass (2x)
Long-jawed orb weaver spider
A wood frog was checking out the boardwalk before all the visitors came. Seeing one in the open like this was a rare occurrence. Normally they are well camouflaged on the forest floor.
Royal fern, water horsetail, moss, creeping snowberry
Turkey tail fungus, goblet waxcap mushrooms, shaggy mane (?) mushroom (2x)
Water droplets
After leaving Purdon we stopped at the Baird Trail in Middleville. Across the road, in full broad daylight, was a white-tailed deer munching on a hayfield. As you will see in the video (clips from a 2 minute video) with me 10-15 metres away, she stood her ground.
Some red-blue checkered beetles were on daisy blossoms. I don't recall having seen them before.
