Indiana Dave and the quest for Derbyshire Orchids 6th June 2008.

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 minutes, the target here was Burnt tip Orchid.
Climbing over the fence to the entrance of the field I was hoping to find a few more orchids than last year, as there was only about fifteen flowering plants. Walking slowly over the field, I soon started to see small groups of Burnt tip Orchids, scanning through my binoculars I noticed that good numbers occurred towards to the top of the field.
At this point I started to take a few photos of this delicate small orchid.
Checking the rest of the field I counted at least 400 flowering plants, which was great to see, and a vast improvement on the previous year.
Walking back to the car pleased that I had seen the targets for the afternoon, I noted that the visibility was superb on this high point, as I could clearly seen Derby, Nottingham and in the distance Beacon Hill, near Loughborough which was at least forty miles away!!