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2014 UK Orchids (3 Viewers)
- Thread starter LizandDave
- Start date
Hi All,
There is a nice selection of orchids showing at Badbury Rings in Dorset.
I visited on Saturday and found the following:
Greater Butterfly (Lots, a really good year)
Bee Orchids (full flower and in bud) - Quite a few in flower, and lots of spikes in bud
Common Spotted - Everywhere
Common Twayblade - Loads on the south and southeast part of the rings, but scattered widely across the site
a few Fragrant Orchids in flower, but loads of spikes still in bud
a few Pyramidal Orchids in bud, but I didn't find any in flower
No sign of frog orchids yet, I was about 1 month too early I think.
Also visited Wilverley Plain in the New Forest on Friday, and there are quite a few Lesser Butterfly Orchids in full flower there, with a few Southern Marsh in flower next to Avon Water opposite the Osmonds Bushes Car park.
Can anyone PM me with a location for Heath Fragrant Orchid in the New Forest please, I've searched for these at Holmsley several times without any luck, but would like to photograph them this year if possible.
There is a nice selection of orchids showing at Badbury Rings in Dorset.
I visited on Saturday and found the following:
Greater Butterfly (Lots, a really good year)
Bee Orchids (full flower and in bud) - Quite a few in flower, and lots of spikes in bud
Common Spotted - Everywhere
Common Twayblade - Loads on the south and southeast part of the rings, but scattered widely across the site
a few Fragrant Orchids in flower, but loads of spikes still in bud
a few Pyramidal Orchids in bud, but I didn't find any in flower
No sign of frog orchids yet, I was about 1 month too early I think.
Also visited Wilverley Plain in the New Forest on Friday, and there are quite a few Lesser Butterfly Orchids in full flower there, with a few Southern Marsh in flower next to Avon Water opposite the Osmonds Bushes Car park.
Can anyone PM me with a location for Heath Fragrant Orchid in the New Forest please, I've searched for these at Holmsley several times without any luck, but would like to photograph them this year if possible.
Travelling back - south Midlands
Having chosen a site somewhat randomly in Warks to break my trip back south, I was delighted to discover it must be the Warks. Man orchid site - along with masses of Common Spotted, Greater Butterfly and the odd Bee (well two, one still entirely in bud). Later I added two new varieties to my list, this in the south Midlands: in addition to Ophrys apifera, there were a few var. belgarum and one superb var. trollii ('Wasp' orchid). However, my search for var. bicolour at a third site proved entirely fruitless...
Having chosen a site somewhat randomly in Warks to break my trip back south, I was delighted to discover it must be the Warks. Man orchid site - along with masses of Common Spotted, Greater Butterfly and the odd Bee (well two, one still entirely in bud). Later I added two new varieties to my list, this in the south Midlands: in addition to Ophrys apifera, there were a few var. belgarum and one superb var. trollii ('Wasp' orchid). However, my search for var. bicolour at a third site proved entirely fruitless...
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Ghostly Vision
Well-known member
Hi Derby118
Was the Wasp site the one in Oxon on the meadow at the edge of the town/village near a sports field?
There are five vars in the meadow in a good year, but all of the flowering plants were dug up about three years ago, so if they have reappeared it is great news.
As a result of previous experience, please do not pass on the site!!
Was the Wasp site the one in Oxon on the meadow at the edge of the town/village near a sports field?
There are five vars in the meadow in a good year, but all of the flowering plants were dug up about three years ago, so if they have reappeared it is great news.
As a result of previous experience, please do not pass on the site!!
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Unfortunately, it's all too easy to find that site in Google as I did inadvertantly earlier this year.
Incidentally was this a var Flavescens?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/53613503@N08/14185805682/
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Ghostly Vision
Well-known member
No, Simon - the sepals are pale green or if pink, almost white, on flavescens.
Sean
Unfortunate that the site is easily found, but I guess one needs to have some idea to start with to do the search accurately enough?
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rmielcarek
Well-known member
Our local Wasp orchids look like a cross between var trollii and var belgarum - maybe trolliarum?
Rich M
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Ghostly Vision
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leptochila
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Benjamin Ofield
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luke
A Welsh birder in Dorset!
Atrofuscus/fulvasusca Bee Orchids now out at RSPB Radipole Lake in Weymouth. One is out properly and is a completely plain brown one and another plant (just about to flower) which appears to be all brown but with a silvery bit near the middle of the flower. Sorry, don't know proper names of parts of the flowers.... Call into the visitor centre for details on locations.
WHIMBREL
A lifelong Naturalist...
Don't know the proper names of parts of flowers... :eek!: what on earth has happened to you since you've gone over the border...you'll just have to come home and learn them young man :-O
Hope your okay :t:
Very pleased to hear that the plants are continuing to flower, and that you were able to see them, James. I can only echo your advice to "watch your step in this area". I am sure that we all recognise (but there is no harm at all in our being occasionally reminded) that it is all too easy to reduce a very small and sensitive population by 25% or more - not to mention the plants which may still be coming or might have come next year. The ratio of visitors to plants is in some cases very high! We personally witnessed the danger very acutely last year at Kenfig.
Martin
Yes, we went the day before and were (pleasantly) surprised to see the numbers of Bees, although I thought they looked perhaps generally less impressive than some of those on the Wrexham Industrial Estate site.
Alas, no sign of Rhodochilas - although like last year (and compared with 2012 when they did flower), I thought the particular area, looked worryingly rank. (But perhaps someone can reassure me on that one with regard to the preferences of CSO!)
Yes, the Common Twayblades are present in vast numbers, and (especially in the wooded areas) are sometimes pretty large specimens.
Lots of plants in the Dune and Phyllanthes "areas". It will be interesting to see when, and in what numbers, they flower.
PS Couldn't see any signs of YBN in the usual areas yet - but am probably too early?
Martin
Visited the Outer Hebrides last week... and in my opinion it even surpasses The Burren in excellence!
I was perhaps a wee bit early, but managed to track down Hebridean marsh, Lapland marsh, the diminutive late-flowering early purple and the first florets of 'Hebridean spotted' orchids.
The wildlife is tremendous too, with golden eagles, short-eared owls, corncrakes, divers, otters, plenty of cuckoos, common and grey seals, red-necked phalarope and the great yellow bumble bee, to name but a few.
There are stunning white sand beaches with turquoise water and the clarity of the air on a sunny day brings out incredibly vivid colours all around.
As you can tell, I enjoyed it a lot!
I was perhaps a wee bit early, but managed to track down Hebridean marsh, Lapland marsh, the diminutive late-flowering early purple and the first florets of 'Hebridean spotted' orchids.
The wildlife is tremendous too, with golden eagles, short-eared owls, corncrakes, divers, otters, plenty of cuckoos, common and grey seals, red-necked phalarope and the great yellow bumble bee, to name but a few.
There are stunning white sand beaches with turquoise water and the clarity of the air on a sunny day brings out incredibly vivid colours all around.
As you can tell, I enjoyed it a lot!
luke
A Welsh birder in Dorset!
Don't know the proper names of parts of flowers... :eek!: what on earth has happened to you since you've gone over the border...you'll just have to come home and learn them young man :-O
Hope your okay :t:
I know, things have gone down hill! Hope your well mate! Will be visiting in a month or so, so will make sure we meet up.
Back to the orchids. Will try to get a few pics this morning if I get chance.
rmielcarek
Well-known member
Bee orchid variation
Amazing how variable the lip patterning is on Bee orchids, forgetting the various named varieties - here's just a couple I've found locally in the last week or so.
The plant on the left was just a couple of feet away from the Wasp in post 429 - looks sort of belgarum like but it has those big hairy 'arms'.
The one on the left was amongst a dozen normal looking plants.
Rich M
Amazing how variable the lip patterning is on Bee orchids, forgetting the various named varieties - here's just a couple I've found locally in the last week or so.
The plant on the left was just a couple of feet away from the Wasp in post 429 - looks sort of belgarum like but it has those big hairy 'arms'.
The one on the left was amongst a dozen normal looking plants.
Rich M
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