Orchids 2012

June 28, 2012 • Leave a Comment

An album of my photographs of...

Orchids 2012

N.B. Some sections from earlier posts have been pasted here to bring all the orchid stuff together. Future orchid sightings will be mentioned in blog postings but photos will only appear here.

1. Cultivated hardy outdoor orchids

Established clump of common spotted orchids growing in our garden in shade.

23.06.12

We also have a large established clump of a dactylorhiza cultivar which is quite impressive:

The white glare on the flowers is rainwater. 23.06.12

2. Wild british orchids

Greatham Creek, Cleveland 14.06.12

The first orchids I found this year were near Greathem Creek. See also posting for June 14th 2012

Northern Marsh Orchid Northern Marsh Orchid Some plants are unspotted as in photo 1. Others have fine spots. However I believe from the flower colour and location that these are Northern Marsh Orchids. All photos 14.06.12.

RSPB Bempton Cliffs 18.06.12

A few days later I went to RSPB Bempton Cliffs near Flamborough specifically to look for northern marsh orchids as the warden had mentioned on their recent sightings page that the orchids were in flower. I asked where and was very pleasantly surprised by the trouble people went to. Not only did I see the northern marsh orchids, but also a very tall bee orchid, a couple of common spotted and lots and lots of northern marsh orchids. If you want to see you have to ask nicely...

Bee Orchid

Bee Orchid: Bempton

Common Spotted Orchids

Common Spotted Orchid Common Spotted Orchid

Northern Marsh Orchids

Northern Marsh Orchid Northern Marsh Orchid Northern Marsh Orchid

All photos June 18th 2012.

National Wetlands Centre WWT, Llanelli 25.06.12

Southern Marsh Orchids

Llanelli SMO Llanelli SMO

Llanelli SMO These were tall plants with stout stems. I was thrilled to see them when I had been disappointed by the non-appearance of the gull-billed tern. But more of that in the normal birding blog!

Slimbridge WWT, 27.06.12

More southern marsh orchids showing the stout stems again and colour range. Flowers just starting to fade.

Slimbridge SMO Slimbridge SMO

Slimbridge SMO

Bempton Cliffs RSPB 30th June 2012

Went back really to try for Alpine Swift [see posting for 30.06.12] but couldn't avoid photographing the orchids again.

Common Spotted Orchids

CSO Flam CSO Flam

CSO Flam Northern Marsh Orchid

NMO Flam

East Chevington NWT 7th July 2012

Quite a lot of Common Spotted Orchids were seen along the footpath to the north pool and by the car park area. Apparently butterfly orchids have been seen at this site so will have to target them next year perhaps!

Common Spotted Orchid. East Chevington Common Spotted Orchid. East Chevington

Hauxley NWT 7th July 2012

Near the reception building Northern Marsh Orchids and Common Spotted Orchids were seen in a wonderful pair of wild flower meadows.

Common Spotted Orchid. High Hauxley Common Spotted Orchid. High Hauxley Pity I wasn't a bit more careful with the gardening! Northern Marsh Orchid below.

Northern Marsh Orchid. High Hauxley

Bishop Middleham Quarry DWT 7th July 2012

Heath Spotted Orchid Dactylorhiza maculata v leucantha - as far as I can tell. Heath Spotted is very closely related to Common Spotted, often overlooked and they all can hybridize. The plants are unaware that mankind has compartmentalised them into a set of species. Not to mention the lumpers [who are trying to sensibly limit the nimber of species] and the splitters [who want see more species so try, obviously to split slightly differing plants in to separate species...]

Nonetheless, a lovely plant.

Common Spotted BMQ

A small Common Spotted Orchid.

Common Spotted BMQ A few photos of Dark Red Helleborine - very rare and running late: they were fully open a week earlier last year. The plant for which Bishop Middleham is most famous.

Dark Red Helleborine BMQ Dark Red Helleborine BMQ Next, Common or Chalk Fragrant Orchid.

Common or Chalk Fragrant Orchid BMQ Common or Chalk Fragrant Orchid BMQ

Also not full open yet.

Common or Chalk Fragrant Orchid BMQ Well, more or less open. Below is a particularly smart Pyramidal Orchid.

Pyramidal Orchid BMQ I've included the next photo as it shows two species growing very closely together.

Fragrant Orchid on the left, Northern Marsh on the right.

This is probably Heath Spotted Orchid.

Heath Spotted Orchid BMQ And this could be Heath or Common Spotted - or a hybrid, although hybrids are, apparently, often very robust and stout stemmed. the more I look the more I think Common Spotted!

Common Spotted BMQ It took us a long time but eventually we began to find some bee orchids.

Bee Orchid BMQ Bee Orchid BMQ

Our only failure was to find Common Twayblade - here's one from Bishop Middleham 2011.

Wharram Quarry NWT 12th July 2012

The orchids were wonderful this year, presumably thanks to the amount of rainfall this spring. It is amazing what the declaration of a national drought can achieve in an orchid field!

I would estimate I saw about 60 bee orchids, up to 400 or more pyramidal orchids and thousands of common spotted. There follows a selection of photos which need little commentary. Some show just how many orchids there were in some places. For butterfly photos etc. from the same visit see the blog posting for 11-12.07.12.

Common spotted orchids

Common Spotted / Heath SpottedOrchid WQ Common Spotted. WQ Common Spotted Orchid WQ

Note the lonely pyramidal orchid towards the top right of the picture. This photo was taken quite near the entrance to the reserve. The pyramidals tend to be towards the south end of the quarry.

Bee orchidsBee Orchid WQ

Bee Orchid WQ Bee Orchid WQ

Bee Orchid WQ Pyramidal Orchids

Pyramidal Orchid WQ

Pyramidal Orchid WQ

Wykeham Forest Raptor Watchpoint 12 July 2012

My final call that day was at the raptor watchpoint; I saw a buzzard, a lizard and a ringlet butterfly. I was surprised to find common spotted orchids alongside the dark path through the conifers leading to the viewpoint.

If these are not as sharp as some photos I was struggling for light, shooting at 1/25th of a second.

Cod Beck reservoir, near Osmotherley Wednesday 18th July 2012

A spread of common spotted orchids at the head [north end] of the reservoir . Quite a number of spikes were either very pale or white. Site was very wet. Could not get nearer!

Unst August 2012

The highlight of my trip to Unst was the hour or so spent at the Keen of Hamar hunting for frog orchid. By some miracle we did find it.

However there were other orchids about. Heath spotted orchids were found beside the road to Muness on our first asfternoon on Unst. That was an unexpected bonus.

Heath Spotted Orchid Heath Spotted Orchid The best was of course the frog orchid, coeloglossum viride. Approximately one and a half inches tall we almost missed it. Several views below.