Way outside my comfort zone

It was last Friday, down at The Belle Vue Tavern, where Gazza and I had arranged our rendezvous to talk about all things Tench and flatlands, that I bumped into a certain Mr. Solly. Franny and I have known each other for the best part of thirty years and he is, undoubtedly, the finest all-round naturalist I've ever met. So it turned out that the, now three way, conversation revolved around not only fishing but birds, moths, butterflies, climate change, politics and bloody flowers! 

Now I make no secrets about my thoughts on looking at flowers. They exist just to stop my shoes getting dirty. Obviously, since the original lockdown, I have become more involved in the gardening aspect and now spend some considerable effort ensuring that my garden contains blooms which are attractive to moths, yet if I were asked to name the plants involved, would be hard pushed once past Nicotiana, Red Valerian and Buddleia. So I have to state that when Francis spoke of some Bee Orchids being present nearby, I wasn't overly excited. However, as this site is not too far away from my grandson's school, I made the effort to take a look, yesterday afternoon, before I  picked Harry up. I allowed myself a forty minute window to peruse the area and was staggered by the number of plants I saw. In excess of one hundred Bee Orchids, although the vast majority were well past their prime. 

Pyramidal Orchids

Common Spotted Orchid

It didn't stop there as I continued to wander around the area finding decent numbers of Pyramidal Orchids to be present. The best discovery, from a personal perspective, was that of a very smart looking Common Spotted Orchid. This being the first one I'd ever, knowingly, seen. I also discovered another orchid which I haven't id'd, It could quite easily be another Common Spotted, although the flower patternation is not consistent with the original specimen.

Quite a heavily cropped image to show the flower paternation. 

I did get back down to Black Dyke, yesterday evening, for a short session into dark. Two bites, both from Carp, resulted in one small scamp being landed and the other one throwing the hook by diving into a Lily Pad. One more outing this week, although my thoughts are already turning towards the other drain way out on the marsh.