Orchid bonanza

I walked bloody miles today, but managed a nice haul of orchids for my efforts. First, I completed a circuit of the Teversal Trails to check some recent spraying work and to assess the success of the last tranche of scrub clearance completed here. Whilst the site is looking pretty good, keeping on top of the scrub is a never ending task; the amount of ash regeneration in places is scary! 

As usual, I counted the Frog Orchids; after finding two nice strong plants very quickly, locating any more was a real struggle - they are very easy to overlook! This year's count was 6 flower spikes (plus 4 non-flowering plants). Counts in previous years were 6 in 2012, 10 in 2011, 15 in 2010, 17 in 2009, 15 in 2008 and 5 in 2007. So not the lowest ever, but still fairly disappointing.

Frog orchids

After another long walk out along the disused railway line from Vicar Water (and having finished work for the day) I then decided to have a look at a site at Bevercotes Pit Wood that Rob Johnson at the NBGRC put me onto earlier in the week; Dave Wood and Mark Woods had surveyed this site recently and had found literally thousands of orchids, including some goodies, so I had to go and see for myself! 

This was the site of the county's first Siberian Stonechat back in 2009, and I'd forgotten quite how far the walk was. However, it was more than worth it, despite the rain, as there were indeed thousands of orchids. Maybe 10,000, maybe even more? As far as a I could tell, the majority were Southern Marsh Orchids, but failed to find the Northern Marsh Orchids that are present (rather stupidly I'd forgotten my may and the email with the all important grid refs in it...).

Swarms of Southern Marsh Orchids

There were also a few Common Spotted Orchids, and what I took to be D. x grandis hybrids (i.e. SM x CS). Better still were a swarm of 130 Early Marsh Orchids, instantly recognisable by their delicate salmon-pink colouration, and a single Greater Butterly Orchid - and a very fine specimen at that. As far as I'm aware the nearest GBOs are in Gamston Wood and the adjacent verges, not a million miles away, but nevertheless an impressive local colonisation. 

Early Marsh Orchids

Greater Butterfly Orchid

(NB the camera I was using today, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ7, has an excellent macro, but hasn't reproduced the true colours of the marsh orchids very well. I tried messing round in photoshop with the colours, but decide to leave things as they were).