#30DaysWild day 8: A walk full of surprises

There is a very special piece of woodland that I visit quite regularly. It's a bit off the beaten track and not under the care of BBOWT, the National Trust or the Chiltern Society, but it's always full of amazing wildlife. It doesn't seem to matter how many times I walk there, there's always something new to surprise me.

Todays big surprise was a bird's-nest orchid flowering right next to the path on the top of the hill. I only found this one, and I've never seen them there before, but what a wonderful orchid and a lovely surprise!

I looked up from the orchid and realised a roe deer was watching me (probably wondering what I was doing crawling around on the ground!) It was quite a way from me, but seemed happy to watch me, watching it, before it disappeared into the undergrowth. My second surprise of the morning!

I followed the path across the hill top and back down the other side to a clearing in the trees. I found several common spotted orchids in flower along the side of the path.

A stunning bank of night-scented stock stretched across the clearing. Another beautiful surprise, I assume it had escaped from a garden, or maybe somebody had thrown the seed there. It was certainly thriving and was full of bees and butterflies.

 

I found several ichneumon wasps crawling around in some nearby hedge garlic and a wolf spider, carrying her egg sac, sat defiantly on a nettle.

Ichneumon wasp

Wolf spider carrying her egg sac

Finally I spent several minutes watching a female orange tip butterfly as she floated between the red campion flowers sipping nectar for her breakfast. Such a wonderful moment.