Dr.Boletus
Well-known member

May, for all the pain and suffering it caused me with exams, was finally the time when I saw a wild lady's slipper orchid, tucked away in a woodland in the Yorkshire Dales. And, as if just for me, one of the orchids I found had a flower which was still in bud. Whilst a flowering lady's slipper is spectacular, one still in bud looks more elegant and graceful. That all said, my phone was destroyed in a bike accident that day, and to top it off train cancellation was rampant due to a derailment...


Exams over I, as my tradition dictated, paid a visit to the rarest UK orchid (and probably the rarest plant in the UK) in Suffolk- the unusual and exotic-looking Greek plowshare orchid, Serapias bergonii. This year, there was just one, the second a victim to the slugs which had so very nearly devastated the lady slippers I visited.

Platinum orchids had blown up on a nearby Breckland swamp. More commonly called the ochroleuca orchid, or sometimes the ice-cream orchid, this is one of the rarest and most endangered orchids in the UK. The entire population was less than 50 plants last year. This year, at this site alone, I counted 38 of them. And that is just the flowering plants. What I also did was find a potentially record-breaking lizard orchid on the outskirts of Cambridge. I measured it at 1.1m tall when it was still not fully in flower.


This June, 9 days were spent in Alicante province near the sea, where I managed to find a European roller nest in one of the palm plantations they had been hanging around for years- this nest has been occupied since at least 2022, when I first saw them in the area. As a result, I obtained amazing views of the bird hanging around the nest.

European rollers, or, as I call them, azurewings, have been rapidly expanding in the area, and this year I found a lot of them in highly unexpected places, such as a pair almost on the outskirts of a city, nearly 20km away from the closest 2023 nest site known to me. Bee-eaters also turned up in unexpected places, as did little owls. But what was entirely unexpected was seeing two adult stone-curlews, with 2 chicks, in the middle of a field right off a road!




The wetland birds, for which this region is most famous, are a different story. For the second year running, a little bittern pair seems to have nested directly in front of a hide within Clot de Galvany and provided stunning views if visited at the right time, whilst the night heron roost nearby is also going strong, with two birds regularly dispersing to perch in front of hides in the area.


There is always at least one pair of purple herons hanging around the far end of the reserve, but the squacco heron population has crashed. Once an abundant bird which was all over the place in 2021, this year I saw only three birds around the reserve, only one of which was perching. What I also saw was a young great spotted cuckoo throw a tantrum before being fed by its magpie 'parents'.



After returning to the UK, I decided to continue with bitterns by visiting Lakenheath Fen, which is one of the, if not the, best sites for seeing the great bittern, in my experience a much harder bird to see than the little bittern unless caught flying out in the open. For the next 5 hours, I sat in a hide and watched things fly past. The air was full of dragonflies and a very surprising lack of hobbies (just 3 seen today). Bitterns were flying around the area, but none perched in front of the hide.

At one point, I decided to go for a walk past a large reedbed. My expectation proved correct when a bittern flew directly towards me along that reedbed, and I took the best flight photos of this bird I have ever taken. There were also some cuckoos still calling around the reserve, and three cranes were seen from the train past the reserve.


For the rest of the summer, I plan to:
1) Visit a few pretty waterfalls in the Lake District
2) Visit the wild, self-sustaining population of great bustards at Salisbury Plain
3) See the red kites at Gigrin Farm
4) Visit the 5 sites I was given for bog orchid in the Elan Valley near Rhayader
5) Find the Devil's bolete
6) See golden eagles in Spain in September
7) Hopefully experience a severe thunderstorm with large hail during the afternoon. Optical effects in these conditions can cause the hail shaft to appear a hellish green.


Exams over I, as my tradition dictated, paid a visit to the rarest UK orchid (and probably the rarest plant in the UK) in Suffolk- the unusual and exotic-looking Greek plowshare orchid, Serapias bergonii. This year, there was just one, the second a victim to the slugs which had so very nearly devastated the lady slippers I visited.

Platinum orchids had blown up on a nearby Breckland swamp. More commonly called the ochroleuca orchid, or sometimes the ice-cream orchid, this is one of the rarest and most endangered orchids in the UK. The entire population was less than 50 plants last year. This year, at this site alone, I counted 38 of them. And that is just the flowering plants. What I also did was find a potentially record-breaking lizard orchid on the outskirts of Cambridge. I measured it at 1.1m tall when it was still not fully in flower.


This June, 9 days were spent in Alicante province near the sea, where I managed to find a European roller nest in one of the palm plantations they had been hanging around for years- this nest has been occupied since at least 2022, when I first saw them in the area. As a result, I obtained amazing views of the bird hanging around the nest.

European rollers, or, as I call them, azurewings, have been rapidly expanding in the area, and this year I found a lot of them in highly unexpected places, such as a pair almost on the outskirts of a city, nearly 20km away from the closest 2023 nest site known to me. Bee-eaters also turned up in unexpected places, as did little owls. But what was entirely unexpected was seeing two adult stone-curlews, with 2 chicks, in the middle of a field right off a road!




The wetland birds, for which this region is most famous, are a different story. For the second year running, a little bittern pair seems to have nested directly in front of a hide within Clot de Galvany and provided stunning views if visited at the right time, whilst the night heron roost nearby is also going strong, with two birds regularly dispersing to perch in front of hides in the area.


There is always at least one pair of purple herons hanging around the far end of the reserve, but the squacco heron population has crashed. Once an abundant bird which was all over the place in 2021, this year I saw only three birds around the reserve, only one of which was perching. What I also saw was a young great spotted cuckoo throw a tantrum before being fed by its magpie 'parents'.



After returning to the UK, I decided to continue with bitterns by visiting Lakenheath Fen, which is one of the, if not the, best sites for seeing the great bittern, in my experience a much harder bird to see than the little bittern unless caught flying out in the open. For the next 5 hours, I sat in a hide and watched things fly past. The air was full of dragonflies and a very surprising lack of hobbies (just 3 seen today). Bitterns were flying around the area, but none perched in front of the hide.

At one point, I decided to go for a walk past a large reedbed. My expectation proved correct when a bittern flew directly towards me along that reedbed, and I took the best flight photos of this bird I have ever taken. There were also some cuckoos still calling around the reserve, and three cranes were seen from the train past the reserve.


For the rest of the summer, I plan to:
1) Visit a few pretty waterfalls in the Lake District
2) Visit the wild, self-sustaining population of great bustards at Salisbury Plain
3) See the red kites at Gigrin Farm
4) Visit the 5 sites I was given for bog orchid in the Elan Valley near Rhayader
5) Find the Devil's bolete
6) See golden eagles in Spain in September
7) Hopefully experience a severe thunderstorm with large hail during the afternoon. Optical effects in these conditions can cause the hail shaft to appear a hellish green.