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Early Marsh Orchid subspecies coccinea Fen Orchid Marsh Helleborine Musk Orchid Musk Orchid Travelling down to South Wales, my first stop of the day was the excellent reserve Kenfig NNR . This reserve is well known for its rare bird sightings, but it's also probably one of the best sites in the UK for orchids, as up to fifteen species of orchids are regularly recorded at this site. The target at this reserve was Fen Orchid. Getting up to date information from the visitor centre, I checked out the area in the dunes just east of the beach near Sker point. Orchids I noted in the area included good numbers of Common Twayblade , Southern Marsh Orchid , Common Spotted Orchid , Pyramidal Orchid , a very late Green winged Orchid , Early Marsh Orchid of the subspecies coccinea and huge numbers of Marsh Helleborines. After checking this area for over an hour, I finally found a single Fen Orchid in a group of Marsh Helleborines. The orchid looked like that the local population of rabbits had ...

Pyramidal Orchid. Pyramidal Orchid. Heath Spotted Orchid. Heath Fragrant Orchid. White variation of Common Spotted Orchid. 22nd June cont: Stonesby Quarry LRWT: 500+ Pyramidal Orchids. Herbert's Meadow, Ulvercroft LRWT: 50+ Heath Fragrant Orchids, 100+ Heath Spotted Orchids and 5 Common Spotted Orchids.

Common Fragrant Orchid Common Spotted x Southern Marsh Orchid Hybrid Southern Marsh Orchid Early Marsh Orchid Bee Orchid I went out on Sunday to check a few Orchid sites in Leicestershire and saw at least eight different species. Here is a brief list of what I saw and were: Merry's Meadow LRWT: Four Common Twayblade, 2 Common Fragrant Orchids( former Chalk Fragrant Orchid), and Heath Spotted Orchid (15+). Whilst at this site I also had 2 Crossbills flying over the reserve (probably part of main influx into this country from the continent?). A1 Pickworth By-pass: 200+ Southern Marsh Orchids and 1 Common Spotted/Southern Marsh Orchid Hybrid. A1 Pickworth By-pass Triangle: At least 1 Bee Orchid! Empingham North Meadows SSSI: 150+ Southern Marsh Orchids and 20+ Early Marsh Orchids.

BBC NEWS England Orchid thrives in Cumbria Looks like I'm not going to be a TV star then!

Following an email message from Adey Baker, I drove over to Huncote embankment (part of Croft Quarry) to photo the group of 10 Bee Orchids he had found earlier . I soon located the orchids just below the top of the embankment and took a number of photos of these lovely orchids. What is slightly unusual about these orchids is that there have never occurred here at this site before? One theory is that maybe the plants have been transported via the build up of the embankment a few years ago? As the surrounding Croft Quarry is the wrong rock type for flowering Bee Orchids!

Lady's Slipper Orchid -the rarest orchid in the UK ! Lady's Slipper Orchid again! Walk this way please! Long pink legged bird aka Black winged Stilt! As I had most of the week off from work and University I decided to travel up to Lancashire to look for the very rare and spell bounding Lady's Slipper Orchid, do some birding around Leighton Moss RSPB and on the way home check out the Black winged Stilts in Cheshire . Leaving Leicester just after 9.00am, I arrived at Leighton Moss RSPB reserve at Silverdale at around 11.30am. Walking away from the reserve and car park, I went straight to the Lady's Slipper site which was just around the corner from Leighton Moss. At this site, the orchid is guarded by Natural England staff to protect it from halfwits who have in past have tried dig up the plant! Talking to the warden, he showed me were the plant was and then left me to photo this mythical orchid. Whilst photographing the orchid,a BBC local news team asked if it was ok...

Burnt tip Orchid Fly Orchid Frog Orchid As I had the week off from University and work commitments, I made a quick trip to Derbyshire to check out a number of Orchid sites. Parking my car not far from the first site near Cromford I was soon climbing the steep hillside to get into the quarry. In the quarry bottom, I found straight the way a good number of Fly and Frog Orchids . Counting the Orchids there must have been thirty Frog Orchids in a small area of the quarry bottom and at least forty Fly Orchids in the surrounding area. As you would expect I took a good number of photos of these good looking Orchids. Although this trip was to look for Orchids, I did note that the quarry had three singing Redstarts, which would have been fantastic for my home county of Leicestershire! Moving up to the higher section of the quarry I found another twenty Fly Orchids, five Frog Orchids and a couple of Common Twayblades. Driving up the hill from the last site, I reached the next site within minut...

Nice shot of a female Scarce Chaser by John! Meeting with John, after he had finished work we drove over to Woodwalton Fen NNR in Cambridgeshire, to see if we could find any Scarce Chasers . Parking by the entrance, we were soon checking out the ditches and found a male Scarce Chaser almost straight away. Although the Dragonfly was too distant to photo it was good to see the Chaser so quickly. Checking out other parts of the reserve, we saw a couple of Hairy Dragonflies on the wing, and a small group of Roe Deer feeding in the fenland. Moving back to the ditch next to the entrance, we soon picked up at least six female Scarce Chasers sitting in the vegetation opposite the ditch. At this point John and myself took a number of photos of the Chasers. Other Dragonflies seen in the same area included Four spotted Chaser, Hairy Dragonfly and numerous Damseflies. As we were the leaving the reserve, we noticed a Barn Owl slowly quartering the nearby farmland, before moving onto the Nene Was...

Little Tern sitting in the harbour at Morston Quay Can you see me? crap shot of the Trumpeter Finch! The target of the day was the Trumpeter Finch which had been on Blakeney Point, Norfolk for the previous few days. Leaving Leicester at around 4.45am in Dave Mack's car, we drove as quickly as possible with the help of Jane at TomTom to get to Morston for the boat crossing to Blakeney point at around 6.45am. Although we missed the boat by five minutes when we arrived at Morston quay, Bishop boats were excellent in there service as there did come back for us and ferried us over to the point at no extra cost. Reaching the point it only took myself and Dave Mack another ten minutes to walk to sea watching hide and excellent views of the Trumpeter Finch feeding on the shingle. Result!! Watching the finch for the next half an hour, I took a few record shots of the bird,and then we took a slow walk back to the dropping point. At this point, Dave noted that one of the birders was none ot...

Great Butterfly Orchid Another Greater Butterfly Orchid, and another Greater Butterfly Orchid! Following a quick check at Wanlip Meadows LWT in the morning,I noted that the Garganeys were still on the scrape. Moving on to Cloud Wood LWT, near Coalville I went to look for some orchids, but in particularly to check to see if any Greater Butterfly Orchids were in flower. Walking through the wood, I spotted a few Common Spotted Orchids coming into flower along the rides. Moving further round the wood, I soon spotted a few Greater Butterfly Orchids just off the path. Treading careful, I counted at least sixty flowering orchids and as you can imagine I took quite a few photos of this elegant flower. Looking around the surrounding area, I also found at least five Common Twayblade and good numbers of Early Purple Orchid , of which the majority had gone over by now. Whilst photographing the orchids, I received a text message from Jim Graham to let me know that he had just seen five Corn Bunt...