Two days, 9 species and one hybrid can't be a bad haul, can it?
About time I posted something this year...hope you don't consider this one overly long, but I've been lucky to have struck three sites this weekend where the 'headline' species are all in absolutely tip-top condition!
I spent yesterday morning at the Buckinghamshire Military orchid (1) site - they are just coming into their best condition now, stunning. I got talking to the chap there who was hand-pollinating them, and discovered that - even after having visited the site over the past three years - unbeknownst to me there were another two clearings with even more specimens about which I knew nothing! Many Twayblades (2), and about 8 Fly orchids (3) in the main meadow, in various stages of flowering. A few spindly White Helleborines in the woods, but they are a few days away from flowering, and two Butterflies (4) about to bloom too. Didn't look for the Bird's Nests apparently flowering in another section of the woods though.
On to see the Monkeys (5) in Oxon in the afternoon - a decent show with some nice specimens, and with the warden being there heard of his chats with Lang (who lived in nearby Streetley) and recalls Monkeys blooming in the outer field - which was ploughed during and after the war, and is still not fully 'recovered'. I did find one solitary Monkey there, outside the main site. The Monkey x Lady hybrids (6) are at their peak now, the one Lady (7) to show its face this year is rapidly going over. (I did visit the same site either side of the Easter holiday, and the first hybrids were in flower at the side of the permissive path by the 24th April this year - which struck me as extraordinarily early, and weeks before the restricted path was opened up). This weekend's trip even found one Common Spotted (8) with one flower in the spike already out - so I'm counting that too!
This evening I've just got back from the Sword-leaved Helleborine (9) site in Hants - they too are in absolutely peak condition. I think someone asked about them in an earlier post? They'll be on the way out in a week I'd say, as most spikes already have all the flowers out. Interestingly, this year the flowers seem to be opening up far more than is usual for this site.
There are also some Whites already in flower (10), much earlier than usual, and again several (staked) flies in a variety of bloom stages. There should again be a good crop of Bird's Nest (11) there this year (100s last year), but the first are only just starting to open up.
I think my next outings will be for Butterflies, Burnts and Man... I was impressed with the DB site in Kent for the latter last year, does anyone know what condition they are in at present, please? I'll try to post some pics of this weekend's haul and others from Dorset and Kent earlier this month in a later post if I can...
