Members Only Outing to White Lake Fen with Michael Runtz – Sunday 29 July 2025

2025 06 29 White Lake Fen MFNC field trip

After a postponement from the previous day due to heat, humidity, twelve hearty souls followed Michael as he blindly (oh, er- I mean boldly) guided us through the cedar swamp on the way into the White Lake Fen. Since his last visit there four years ago, many trees have grown and some have fallen which made the trek in challenging. His excuse for taking a circuitous route was to look for orchids in the swamp. (Sure it was 😉 – We believed you Michael.)

Good news- We all came out alive. With our tall boots on and not standing to close to each other on the floating mat of the fen for fear of tipping each other over, Michael guided us in by the sound of the edge-loving Swamp Sparrow song. We saw many wonderful orchids, plants and insects that are special to the fen. Nui spotted the first Bogbean moth caterpillar. We saw a few more afterwards and also the actual Bogbean Orchid. Michael is due to go back to photograph the of Platanthera aquilonis – the Northern Green Orchid (originally ID’d as Blunt Leaved Orchid) as it was an unusually large patch. And of course, our club symbol the Showy Ladyslipper was in bloom as well.