Martin's Sussex Birding Blog: Common Twayblade

Showing posts with label Common Twayblade. Show all posts

Friday, 14 June 2019

Lizard Orchid

Back to Kent again today with the target being the Lizard Orchid. Success on finding this one orchid and we would have returned home happy but in the end we had the Lizard plus nine other species - Lizard, Pyramidal, Common Spotted, Chalk Fragrant, Monkey, Musk, Common Twayblade, Greater Butterfly, Fly, and Late Spider.

Harrap reports the Lizard Orchid as being rare and very localised. As a statement for the country that may well be true but it does not apply to Sandwich Bay. We found them growing along the side of the road, on the golf course, at the back of the beach and in peoples front gardens. There were thousands of them.

Lizard Orchids - Himantoglossum hircinum

The Lizard Orchid is on the edge of its range in England and numbers have fluctuated over time, probably due to climate changes. By 1900 the Lizard was down to just four remaining sites and extinction in England was threatened. Even as late as the 1970s and 80s a twenty four hour guard was maintained at the largest site at Sandwich Bay to deter orchid collectors. Now it seems to be thriving and gradually expanding its territory.

Lizard Orchids - Himantoglossum hircinum

Lizard Orchid - Himantoglossum hircinum

Lizard Orchids - Himantoglossum hircinum

It is not the easiest of flowers to photograph as the greyish green flowers blend into the background of long grass in which it grows. Close up, however, there is some nice detail in the individual florets.

Florets Lizard Orchid

The bright colours of Pyramidal Orchids were a constant distraction whilst seeking out Lizards to photograph. In the end I couldn't resist taking a few pictures for the blog.

Pyramidal Orchid - Anacamptis pyramidalis

Next stop was Park Gate Down where we had seen a report of three spikes of Musk Orchids. It is a small insignificant orchid and finding it would be much harder than last years search, when we visited Noar Hill to see thousands of spikes carpeting the reserve.

Park Gate Down was a glorious sight. It had changed significantly from when we visited only a couple of weeks ago. Common Spotted and Chalk Fragrant orchids now covered the slopes in huge numbers.

Common Spotted Orchid - Dactylorhiza fuchsii

The plant below is a very pale version with limited and very faint pink markings but it probably falls within the normal range of colour variations for the Common Spotted Orchid.

Common Spotted Orchid - Dactylorhiza fuchsii

Chalk Fragrant - Gymnadenia conopsea

Although it is a fairly common find, it was nice to see a pure white specimen of the Chalk Fragrant.

Chalk Fragrant - Var. albiflora

Floret - Var. albiflora

Lots of Common Twayblades. Once you get to recognise the plant it seems to be everywhere.

Common Twayblade - Neottia ovata

Monkey orchids were still around but going over fast. I wanted to record it again but I had to photograph the side in shade and I have "healed" a few decaying arms and legs in photoshop!

The hard work was in finding the three spikes of Musk Orchid. We knew which field they were in but finding, what turned out to be two and a half, ten centimetre spikes, in a field of grass and wild flowers was never going to be easy. Newly emerged Twayblades in particular kept giving false indications of successes.

After about an hours of searching we stopped for lunch, starting to think that we would have to pay a return visit to Noar Hill to see them again. Fortunately Dave was on top of his game and by lining up anthills on a photograph he had seen and saying a few magic words he managed to find them. A great achievement, standing just six foot away and with Dave pointing at them I still struggled to pick them out.

Musk Orchid - Herminium monorchis

Other finds included a few Greater Butterfly Orchids, as below and a good number of Fly Orchids, which were well past their best and which I did not bother to photograph

Greater Butterfly Orchid

We had one final stop to make for the day. We had seen Late Spider Orchids earlier in the year, before they had flowered and I had been back to see them in bloom. Unfortunately Dave had been chasing butterflies in the Pyrenees at the time and had missed out on seeing them in flower. We thought he may have missed out on the chance for this year but the return visit found a couple still looking good and we were able to record them.

Late Spider Orchid - Ophrys fuciflora

Another great day Orchid hunting. It helps fill in those quiet periods in the bird spotting year and makes a change from butterflies and dragonflies.

Wednesday, 29 May 2019

White Helleborine

Having found my Late Spider Orchid and it still being only eight in the morning I had the opportunity to explore a bit more of Kent. My secondary target for the day was the White Helleborine, which would also be a life tick for me, and being only a few miles from Bonsai Bank I headed over there to begin my search. At least on this visit I would know the shortest route from the car park to the bank.

The Lady Orchids - Orchis purpurea were still putting on a good show although many were starting to go over and we have probably passed the peak flowering period.

No shortage of Lady Orchids

Lady Orchid

White dresses and straw bonnets were a great find but unfortunately I was just a few days too late and they were past their best.

Lady Orchid probably Var. albida - lacking anthocyanin pigments

Plenty of Common Twayblades - Neottia ovata around and a few Greater Butterfly Orchids - Platanthera chlorantha.

Common Twayblade

Greater Butterfly Orchid

Greater Butterfly Orchid Floret

After much searching I finally found the White Helleborines - Cephalanthera damasonium that I had been looking for. Perhaps a bit smaller than I had expected and tending to grow in areas of longer grass, they could be easily missed. However, having seen my first and knowing what to look for I was soon up to about a dozen plants.

White Helleborine

And there was still more to see on the bank. Common Spotted Orchids - Dactylothiza fuchsii were just coming into flower in a few of the more open locations.

Common Spotted Orchid

Bonsai Bank had delivered once again. I checked the time of my last photograph 09.22. I had driven a hundred miles from home, visited two sites, found and photographed six different orchids, including two life ticks and it wasn't even half past nine. A fantastic morning but what to do next. Lizard Orchids over at Sandwich Bay were a possibility but I was probably a couple of weeks too early. Heath Fritillary butterflies at Blean Wood seemed a better option and with the sky starting to darken I would have to get there quickly. See the next blog.

Thursday, 16 May 2019

Of Monkeys and Men

Another trip down into Kent in search of Orchids and it proved to be stunningly successful, although stopping just short of perfection. We had a plan, Man Orchids, Monkey Orchids, Late Spider Orchid and a few Flys. We left home at seven o'clock for what turned out to be a two and a half hour drive to our first site and we had all four in the bag by one o'clock - nearly! The nearly, being the Late Spider which we found but which was just three or four days short of flowering.

The first target was Man Orchid with our chosen site Darland Bank near Gillingham. It was our first visit to what proved to be a fantastic location but getting there, through the morning traffic, proved to be somewhat less than enjoyable. The journey taking us over an hour longer than planned.

We walked out on to the bank hoping to find a few specimens to photograph. Within a minute Dave had spotted the first flower. The numbers then rose quickly into the tens of, then hundreds of, and within half an hour to thousands of flowers. An unbelievable display but then, as we left, we were told by a local that we hadn't gone far enough to see the Man Orchid hotspot.

Man Orchid

Man Orchid Floret

As we left you couldn't help having a few concerns about the future of the site. It may be too steep for development purposes but it is surrounded by housing estates with more homes going up just below the bank. It's difficult to imagine this number of plants being wiped out but increasing use of the open ground for leisure purposes must be a worry.

We expected our second target, the Late Spider Orchid, to be the most challenging of the day. We had a general area in mind but it covered a few square miles. Detective work before we left home proved to be the key. A picture of a field found on a web search, a couple of hours of exploring miles of country lanes on Google Earth, in an attempt to match the configuration of bushes and trees and we had our location, or so we hoped.

It was perhaps the high point of the day when we walked into the field and found a few cages positioned to protect the orchids. It was quickly followed by a low point when we realised that none of them were in flower.

Late Spider Orchid - I assume.

Tiny specimen emerging - not caged yet.

I am assuming they are Late Spider Orchids but there is not enough detail here for me to be able to identify them. It looks like a return visit will be needed next week.

Final destination for the day was Park Gate Down. We had been here a week earlier and could see no sign of the Monkey Orchids. Today there were probably fifty or sixty showing in the first two fields.

The orchid is unusual in that the individual flowers open from the top, instead of the bottom as in most orchids. Whilst these flowers could only have been here for a week at most, there was already evidence of the tops of some of them starting to turn brown.