Bee Orchids near Wrexham 30th June 2012

A visit to a local, village nature reserve of the tip-off of a colleague at work. This is a large field on a gentle slope where ponies are also kept. There are a small number of Bee Orchids, primarily under the shade of the hedges at the perimeter, where presumably they are a bit safer from horse grazing. Also growing, are some nice robust Common Spotteds.

Lancashire Coast 29th June 2012

A trip out to see a fossil, or rather submerged, forest on the beach at Hightown, north of Crosby in Merseyside, is an opportunity to revisit somewhere where I have seen Dune Helleborines over the years; in the pine woods between Formby and the dunes of the Lancashire coast. They were not very conspicuous next to the road that lead to the beach car park this year. But more were found in a similar position about 200 yards further into the trees. Its a bit early in the year for them to be flowering it seems so - mental note to return soon.

Llynclys Common and Ty Brith 12th June 2012

A return to this site with the intention of finding any orchids not seen in 2011 by being a week later in the year; and in particular looking for the Frog Orchid. The weather though had been quite wet and one of the paths up to the Common from the A495 was rather muddy and chewed up by horses as it is a bridleway. Overall the orchids found matched those of the previous year`s visit. We looked for the Frog Orchid in fields/meadows that the NBN database had recent 100 metre information on but nothing was seen. The Butterfly Orchids were still impressive, especially in the more shaded wooded areas, and it seems the Early Purples were flowering a bit later this year as they were more apparent. Basically it was Common Spotteds all the way, Early Purples on the way out, plenty of Common Twayblades, BUT no Frogs or Bees which are also promoted as flowering here. At Scabby Rock, near the road, the quarry had been fenced off since 2011, but a search along the track and in the bordering bushes there revealed some emerging flower heads that may have been Fragrant Orchids growing in the scrub at the entrance from the road. Definitely some Pyramidals with rather undersized inflorescences and P. bifolia growing within the woody bit between the track and the road.

   P. bifolia in the meadows                              A rather pale fuchsii                     Field rich in Common Spotteds
                             P. bifolia in the overgrown woods              A Pyramidal `runt`

A trip to a pair of preserved meadows not far away yielded many of both Common Spotted and Heath Spotted orchids, particularly in the lower field in the damper areas.
 

                                   ‘Funny Face D. fuchsii                         A view of the meadow
                                                       A robust Heath spotted