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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

2015 UK Orchids (1 Viewer)

podargus said:
Saw a few Lesser Twayblade on Exmoor yesterday after a brief search - 1 nice flowering spike, 2 that had been nibbled off, and a number of rosettes.

I will be making (yet another....) attempt to find Lesser Butterfly Orchid on the Dorset heaths in the next couple of weeks, if anyone has any pointers they'd be appreciated!
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If you want to see Lesser Butterfly orchid go to Sylvias meadow near tavistock on Devon-Cornwall border -usually thousands there from now to end of June see here if you don't know it already http://www.cornwallwildlifetrust.or...es_1/Sylvias_Meadow_nature_reserve_callington
 
For GBOs in the West Midlands you probably cannot do better than Tasker's Meadow near Southam. Perhaps close to a thousand, some above knee height or more
 

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Early Marsh are looking good at Thursley (Surrey) today; including a couple of the pale ones. I'll leave the determination of leucantha, orchrantha, or ochroleuca to someone else ;)
 
East Kent

Late Spiders still looking good in East Kent at the weekend but a few starting to go over. Pyramidal and Fragrant Orchids out in good numbers. Monkey, Fly, Lady, and Butterfly Orchids also out, but Monkey and Lady well past their best.
 
drdavid said:
If you want to see Lesser Butterfly orchid go to Sylvias meadow near tavistock on Devon-Cornwall border -usually thousands there from now to end of June see here if you don't know it already http://www.cornwallwildlifetrust.or...es_1/Sylvias_Meadow_nature_reserve_callington
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Thanks David :t: I have had my heart set on finding them in my old home county for a while, but as I'm now based in Devon that may be a much more sensible option! If I don't have any luck in Dorset next weekend I'll go and check them out.
 
Just for info, there are still three places left on the Sutton Fen RSPB event this Friday.
It is an opportunity to have a look at the best example of fen in western Europe with more RDB flora species than you can believe! The fen orchids are very good this year as well as up to 60 Adders Tongue ferns on one fibrous tussock sedge, crested buckler ferns, pure white incarnata's, a possible Pugsleys and many other very rare species of sedge, grass and flowering plant. If the weather is favourable Norfolk Hawker and Swallowtail would be very likely alongside a whole host of invertebrates, of which many are also RDB.
Phone the Strumpshaw Fen office to book up 3 hours with the site manager who knows where all the species can be found with a small group of six people max
 
Martin Down

Burnt-tip Orchids just starting to go over, first Pyramidal Orchids flowering. Half a dozen Bee Orchids. Also Greater Butterfly and Fragrant.
 

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New Forest

A few images from the New Forest over the weekend. Heath Fragrant, Lesser Butterfly and a few Heath Spotted Orchids
 

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Bodhyfryd said:
I think it is likely to have been the same for many of us. It was certainly the first wild orchid which we saw in far off days in 1984. It was growing in decent numbers in the light woodland along the Trewoon-Chypons road, close to our then home in Mullion, SW Cornwall.

We subsequently saw it in various locations on the Lizard Peninsula, although my brief note of “ubiq” in my old copy of Fitter, Fitter and Blamey may have been overstating things a little. Sadly we have no photo to post of that first sighting, but it certainly began a love for wild orchids which has persisted to this day.

Thanks for sharing your recent experience - you will no doubt go on to discover many others.
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Indeed.... and now, when I open my eyes to these things.... along comes another!! :)

A Northern Marsh Orchid, I think...? Bizarrely, quite plentiful around a business park in North Tyneside!
 

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New Forest

Thanks to James Hunter for sharing some info about Pig Bush in the New Forest, I had a great day on Saturday. Hundreds of Lesser Butterflies and Heath Spotteds (the latter in a range of colours some deep purples and at least one pure white). Also lots of Early Marsh Orchids including around 20 or so var. ochrantha in the bog to the west of the car park.

If you go down to the bog on the 'main' path, go past the scrub beyond the 'bridge' and there's Osmunda on your right and Utricularia intermedia on your left!

If you go to Wilverley Plain looking for Bog orchids (we didn't find any yet) you may come across Pinguicula lusitanica instead.

All in all a great day in The Forest. There are lots of pics on my Flickr site:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/75145129@N02/

Simon
 
RSPB event

ben_lewis said:
Just for info, there are still three places left...
Phone the Strumpshaw Fen office to book up 3 hours with the site manager who knows where all the species can be found with a small group of six people max
Click to expand...

At Sunday's HOS event we were asked to be circumspect about posting too much detail of this site on the web (e.g., not to identify the specific location of orchid photos posted online). I asked about the Friday event, and why there was such a steep fee (which may be why half the six places are still open...), and - to quote, more or less - was told "We don't like to call it rent-a-ranger, but...". The prospect of having what amounts to a highly expert personal guide perhaps puts the charge in a different light -- if anyone's in two minds, i'd encourage them to bite the bullet. It really is a terrific site.
 
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dsskipper said:
Late Spiders still looking good in East Kent at the weekend but a few starting to go over. Pyramidal and Fragrant Orchids out in good numbers. Monkey, Fly, Lady, and Butterfly Orchids also out, but Monkey and Lady well past their best.
Click to expand...

Will be at Wye and Park Gate Down this weekend. Familiar with the latter though ha not visited this late in year, first visit to the former
Any hints on location of late spider in particular gratefully received by PM
Thanks
 
GDK said:
Hi Rich,

Given the circumstances described, I too would have recorded these plants as Common Spotted Orchids. As you say, it makes no sense for a handful of Heath Spotted Orchids to be present in a large population of Common Spots, in unsuitable habitat, and as marsh orchids are so variable it seems reasonable to assume that on occasion they can mirror the features of another closely related species. Also they do look quite robust.

Cheers,
Click to expand...

To complete the circle, by the same logic this is a Heath Spotted orchid - found it, the only one like it, growing in a meadow full of Heath Spotted.

Rich m
 

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rmielcarek said:
To complete the circle, by the same logic this is a Heath Spotted orchid - found it, the only one like it, growing in a meadow full of Heath Spotted.

Rich m
Click to expand...

Well it certainly doesnt look like one Ive ever seen - it looks like a Common Spot, but everything else being equal, I guess that I could put it down to variation, or leave it undetermined. Although I think Common Spotted is less fussy in its choices, so its not as easy this way round!

I have a meadow near me with Common Spots at one end, and Heath Spots at the other. Both populations seem quite separate though.

Cheers,
 
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Hundreds of Southern Marsh in flower today at Saltwells Nature Reserve, Brierley Hil, W. Mids.

Bee Orchids at Wrens Nest, Dudley, not quite out; a few more days to go there
 

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