I think this post will exemplify the randomness that we here at Wahkeena experience on a weekly basis. No complaints, it makes life very interesting!

Orchids:
The long awaited time is here, the first of several orchids are in bloom. The Showy Orchis is in full bloom and can be seen along the Cassa Burro Trail. There are two spots to view the Pink Lady’s Slipper from the trail, and those flowers are in various stages of development. They range from tight green buds to flowers that haven’t quite gotten their color yet. Off trail, on the ridge top, there are PLS in full bloom – but they get quite a bit more sunlight up there. So, there should be plenty of opportunities for viewing the orchids.

Other flowers that are now in bloom are:
Pink Azalea
Mountain Azalea
Foam Flower
Canada Mayflower
Soloman’s Seal
Violet Wood Sorrel
Fire Pink
Dwarf Crested Iris
Mayapple

Rumors:
A lot of what we do here at the Nature Center for visitors is myth busting about animals. We often hear common but very false rumors, usually regarding bears and snakes. There other day though, we heard a new one. The rumor was that “they” were releasing cougars around the Toledo area to eat coyotes. First we asked, who is “they”. As with most rumors of this kind the “they” always remains a mystery. Anyway, after discussing the various reasons why this rumor didn’t make sense (wrong habitat, wrong food source, too many people around, etc.) we called a contact at ODNR Division of Wildlife. We confirmed that this rumor is 100% false.

Minks:
Over the past few years it seems as if every intern had the exciting event of seeing a mink. It has been frustrating for me because I want to see one too! Our intern this spring of course saw a mink. Then he saw it again! I felt doomed to never get to see one. Well, finally my luck changed. Tom and I were returning from an errand and our intern flags us down. “The mink is out!” he exclaims, and he had the good sense to have grabbed the camera. So, I finally got to see the mink, and it put on quite a show for us. It kept running back and forth across the driveway. We got quite close to it too, as you can see by the pictures.

Snapper John:
Our intern this spring is way into reptiles. He knows way more that you would ever want to know about snakes, lizards, and turtles. He seems to have a special place in his heart for Snapping Turtles. We have been seeing a couple of very large snappers in the big pond. One day, John and I see one and before I know what’s happening, John’s shoes and socks are on the trail and he’s wading into the pond to get the snapper! He was successful, as you can see, and the turtle was really quite large. The shell measured 15 inches by 16 inches and she weighed about 15 pounds!

Well, it doesn’t seem to matter too much, because there are more flowers in bloom to report.
Here they are:
Large-flowered Trillium
Wild Blue Phlox
Forget-me-nots
Greek Valerian
Spring Cress
Dog Violet
Dogwood
Crabapple (white and pink)
Sweet Woodruff
Swamp Buttercup
Northern White Violet
Creeping Phlox

Tom and I took a hike off trail the other day specifically to see if there were Black Vulture chicks yet. The hike turned into an adventure as things are wont to do here. We started off well enough, climbing up via “mouse motel” to the top of the ridge. I really like the ridge tops. It constantly amazes me the plants that can grow in the thin dry soil up there. Right away we saw a large area of white wash. We knew that an owl had probably been there. I poked around for pellets, but didn’t find any. A little further down the trail, further exploration by Tom revealed a very large population of Pink lady’s slipper! There were so many in bloom! We counted almost two dozen, plus many other plants that were not going to flower.

We continued along the ridge top looking for the crack to drop down in to look for those Black
Vulture chicks. Once we found it and made out approach, a large Black Vulture flew out of the crack and landed near by in a tree. A good sign! Tom dropped down first, and peered into the recess, “Eggs!,” he said. I gave him the camera, and came down too. There is no nest, just the eggs laid on the sandy soil. There was a foul odor back by the eggs, sure to get worse once those chicks hatch. We exited the crack, and walked along the cliff face a ways and sat down to see the adult vulture return. (Both the male and the female vulture incubates the eggs.) It returned, and we decided to check on the Great Horned Owl nest.

That was way easier said than done! Instead of making our way back to the ridge top and then dropping down again, we cut across – no, we pushed our way through the bottom, then up again to the cliff where the owl nest was. During this trek we got up close and personal with witch hazel, spice bush, jack-in-the-pulpit, wild ginger, ferns, poison ivy, jewlweed, greenbrier, multiflora rose, rubus, and unfortunately, lots and lots of garlic mustard.

Anyway, at the nest site it was clear that the owl babies were fledged and long gone. Left behind was nature’s version of a CSI episode! Bones, feathers, and fur were littered all along the ground, cliff and in the nest. We were able to identify feathers from a bluejay, crow, flicker, and brown thrasher.

By this time it was getting very hungry out, so we made for the nature center. Back up to the ridge top, down via “mouse motel”, and out to the trail along the old logging road which is now a mere deer trail. But, we were in for another surprise. A nice patch of four-leaved milkweed was growing right beside the trail. Although we have this species recorded for Wahkeena, we didn’t know it grew in this location.

One last surprise awaited us right by the spring. For whatever reason, I spied a nice Showy orchis, in bloom, right next to the trail. For those of you who have walked the Cassa Burro trail searching for this orchid, you know how hard it can be to find it. So many times have we tried to explain to visitors where to see a particular clump, and can’t take them personally because it’s too far away, and the whole time there has been one seconds away from the nature center!! Arrhhggg! 🙂

So ended that adventure for the day. The really cool thing is, stuff like this happens all the time in nature, you just have to slow down and watch for it!