Around SE Kent in late May and early June there are loads of orchids to be seen. Between our searches for Beavers and woodland walks at Blean we visited Park Gate Down and Yockletts Bank. At Yocklett's Bank we walked through the woodland, expectant of finding a good show of Lady Orchids, whether we missed the key area or whether there had been an early bloom that we had missed we are not sure but sadly we didn't find any. Neither did we find any evidence of blooms that had gone over, although we did find plenty of long finished Common Twayblade. Redemption from our flawed hunting prowess came when Steve found a couple of tall and beautiful Fly Orchids alongside the path. Although more frequent, and widely distributed than Lady Orchid, these were the species I was most keen to see, plenty of time was spent at ground level drinking in this subtle and fantastic plant.
At Park Gate Down we had a similar experience, the chalk grass land flanking the steep valley side was full of orchid spikes, hundreds upon hundreds, of predominantly Chalk Fragrant and Common Spotted (some with lovely, almost white blooms) and a sprinkle of Pyramidal Orchids. We found what looked like a few Man Orchids that had gone over but to our surprise what we didn't find were any Monkey Orchids remaining, they must have flowered early and fast following the very hot second half of May, or maybe our eyesight just let us down. We searched hard but it's always good to have a reason to return.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for reading and commenting on Ely10 Birding.