A good day trip into Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire this last weekend. Good weather, good company and good Butterflies … plus a few Orchids thrown in. Thanks to Tony for the subsequent identification of the Duke of Burgundy aberration.
Dingy Skipper
Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy form Leucodes
Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy
Greater Butterfly Orchid
Grizzled Skipper
Small Blue
Twyblade
Greater Butterfly Orchid
Among the orchids we saw in Lancashire were these two beauties. Twyblade and Fly Orchid. The latter took some finding but keen eager eyes sought them out.
On our photographing orchid day the other week I failed to find Birds Nest Orchid. It has to be said they aren’t showy bright flowered jobs. They are nondescript and difficult to find under trees amid similar coloured leaf litter. I felt sure it was the late spring had perhaps delayed them and it wasn’t my inability to find them that was at fault.
However, I thought I’d go back to the site about a week or so later to see if I could conjure some up. I couldn’t, but I did find a few spikes of Twyblade; another very unassuming orchid. The flowers are supposed to look like little men. I think they are a dead ringer for tiny ‘jesters’. What do you think?
Letter From Norfolk 