Trout Lily, Laudholm Farm, Wells ME

I went for a walk at Laudholm Farm (Wells National Estuarine Research Center) yesterday, more for the form of the thing than with any real hope of photo ops…but I was pleasantly surprised. Both the Skunk Cabbage and Trout Lily were in bloom along the boardwalk through the maple swamp, I caught a Garter Snake crossing under, and got good shots of an early Blue Jay. The Eastern Towhees were also tuning up. There were drying vernal pools with masses of frog eggs, some clouds came up over the farm buildings, interesting winter weathered reeds. a Kestrel hunting the farm fields…lots, really, to look at and enjoy. Glad I went.

The Trout Lily is one of the earliest blooming forest flowers in Maine…kind of the Crocus of the woods…budding out shortly after the last of the snow leaves the ground. Many years I miss it altogether, because it has passed by the time I start paying attention. I remember finding beds of the distinctive green and brown leaves one year, and watching them for a month waiting for the bloom, when, in fact, they had bloomed weeks before I first noticed them. Generally I find them when I am not expecting anything to be blooming…like this year.

They “nod” on their stems…generally the flower faces the forest floor when fully open, presenting its backside to the sun, but I did find one more or less horizontal and near enough to the boardwalk so that by getting down on my side I could frame it from slightly below and catch the full effect of the flower. Thank you, Nikon, for the articulated LCD on the P900. 🙂 The flower is about 1.5 inches across.

Nikon P900 in Close Up Mode and 105mm equivalent field of view. 1/800th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.