I had to drive Bug Mad Girl to a Brownie thing in Aston Clinton, so decided to pop into Aston Clinton Ragpits on my way home. It was totally breathtaking! The slopes were covered in Chalk Fragrant and Common Spotted orchids that seemed to be glowing in the evening sunshine. Graceful Greater Butterfly Orchids stood tall amongst the other orchids and the dainty Pyramidal Orchids were just beginning to open. It's hard to describe just how many orchids are there and how amazing they look, but I am soooo glad I popped in there.
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| Greater Butterfly Orchid |
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| Chalk Fragrant Orchids (and Twayblade) |
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| Chalk Fragrant Orchid |
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| Pyramidal Orchid (and an ant) |
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| Common Spotted Orchid |
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| Greater Butterfly, Common Spotted, Chalk Fragrant and Twayblades |
There were lots of Twayblade in amongst the other orchids and a few White Helleborines were still in flower in the shade (although they're just about finished now).
I had a go at taking a video, to try and show how lovely the orchids are at the moment (I'm not particularly good at videos, as you'll see!)
It was a little bit sad to see how many orchids had been trampled. In places it looked like people had been lying in the grass, squashing lots of orchids, just to get their great photo. That's just wrong! It's easy enough to take photos without stomping all over the orchids if you're careful.
While I was there I also saw my first Marbled White and Large Skipper of the year, as well as three Slowworms and a Roman Snail.
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| Marbled White on a Chalk Fragrant Orchid |
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| Roman Snail |
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| Slowworm |
What an amazingly beautiful place!
OK, so we were there earlier today, and spotted 2 slow worms, 1 Roman snail, but missed out completely on Marbled White and Skippers -- even though we were expecting them! It is magical though isn't it!
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It's a brilliant place, isn't it. Love your photos, especially the slowworm!
DeleteSo many orchids! Beautiful photos as always. Love the marbled white. Don't have too many of those in Norfolk sadly. Off to a top secret location to wade amongst the reedbeds tomorrow to see the fen orchids. Fingers crossed!!
ReplyDeleteGood luck! On a bit of a mission myself this morning, but more on that later if it works out!!
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