On the 6th June some stunning flowers at Staunton Harold – Ragged Robin; Southern Marsh-orchid; Common Spotted Orchid; Bush Vetch, Lesser Stitchwort and Common Vetch. Bird wise in recent days been very quiet. A Red Kite flew over the reservoir on 11th June and there was an obvious westerly movement of Common Swift with 40 in 10 minutes. By the 15th June there were hundreds of Southern Marsh Orchids in flower, a really impressive sight.
Spent the last couple of mornings photographing a few of the common flowers around the local meadows and one not so common orchid at a site near to where I live. I’ve been using my Canon 100-400m lens with my new Canon R5 mirrorless camera. This combination allows me to obtain my photographs without having to get close up to the flowers and causing unnecessary disturbance. This is especially important when photographing orchids, as if one is not careful, they can so easily get trodden on and trampled. Not good..
Last year (May 2019) I discovered a tiny flower head of an orchid that had naturally established itself in my front lawn. It didn’t take me long to identify it as a Common Spotted Orchid. By mid June it was in flower. I put up a small group of sticks and string around the plant to give it at least some protection and too my surprise it flowered successfully and seemed quite at home. Amazingly, the plant has grown again this year and it is even better, so I’ve been keeping it well watered and even breaking up eggshell and […]