July 16: Eagle Hill Institute, Bogs

Today we took field trips to Jonesport Heath and Harrington Heath, two sphagnum bogs that feature a couple of uncommon butterfly species: Crowberry Blue (host plant Black Crowberry Empitrum nigram) and Bog Copper (host plant Small Cranberry Vaccinium oxycoccos, not to be confused with Oxycodone).

Plebejus idas empetri

Lycaena epixanthe

I love bogs and the stunted, specialized plants that such an extreme habitat produces: insectivorous plants like sundew and pitcher plants, miniature spruce and tamarack, cotton grass, cranberries, crowberries, and cloudberries, and delicate, unexpected orchids like this Grass Pink:

Calopogon tuberosus

Bog in summer--

empty pitchers waiting to fill,

sparrow's July trill.

 

 

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