Turk's Cap lily

I was hoping to be reporting from the lake, but the weather remained cloudy and strangely cool—it's been in the 50s in the early morning, and only up into the low 70s for a high—so I opted for another locale. My destination was the Henne preserve, and I had two things I wanted to check on there. The first was the progress of the Great Blue Heron nestlings, and when I scanned the three nests south of the boardwalk, I discovered that at least some of the "babies" had grown up. One nest was completely empty, and one contained just one heronlet. The third nest, however, still contained its complement of triplets. The other item on my agenda was seeing if there were any lilies blooming and trying to determine their species. Some of the almost six-foot-tall plants remained in bud, others were displaying gorgeous blossoms, with spotted, recurved-petals and long-protruding stamens and pistils. The shape and structure of the flowers and the whorls of leaves on the stem gave away their identity: definitely Turk's Cap Lilies—Lilium superbum, indeed.