May 29th Strumpshaw Fen

With the success of finding the military and man orchids earlier this week, I was hoping to discover a few more at Strumpshaw today. As I knew the best spots on the reserve for orchids, it wasn't hard for me to locate them. In fact, the chicken wire cages made things even easier for the common twayblades. This is one of the commonest species in the UK and one that's often overlooked mainly because it is green and blends in with the vegetation.

Common Twayblade

Common Twayblades have two oval or egg-shaped leaves, a tall stem and several greenish yellow flowers that look like two blades crossing each other or a pair of scissors. To me though, they look like tiny green men. In the middle of each flower is a groove that has a little bit of sweet substance that lures the pollinator to the top of the flower. Here, lies a special tongue-like mechanism called the rostellum. When the insect touches it, the rostellum explodes the pollinia (orchid pollen) in a blob of sticky liquid that dries in seconds. This explosive release startles the insect and causes it to fly away, to another twayblade to pollenate it. It maybe green and easily overlooked, but its an orchid you should pay closer attention to next time you see some shady undergrowth.

Another great place to see orchids at Strumpshaw is the meadow trail. I went for a quick scan around. The meadow fields aren't a pallet of colour just at this moment in time. A few red bartsia are peeking out of the grass, but not much in the form of an orchid. However, I did manage to spot just two pink spikes of a member from the marsh orchid family. This family of orchids are scientifically known as the genus Dactylorhiza. Dactyl meaning finger-like and Rhiza meaning roots. This is a notoriously confusing group of orchids, which not only look very similar but also loves to hybridise with one another, too. I'm expecting a lot of headaches working out which member of this family I'm looking at throughout this summer.

Early Marsh Orchid

After a quick study on the two candy pink orchids in the meadow, I came to the conclusion that these are early marsh orchids. Once I had finished taking photos and making the video about them, I went back to the office where I spent some time trying to convince Strumpshaw warden Ben that these were indeed early marsh orchids. He told me that they don't grow at the reserve anymore. However, after comparing my photos with southern orchid photos online and me pointing out the differences, he soon changed his mind. You see, early marsh orchids have plenty of flowers, each appearing rather narrow in shape with upright sepals that look like bunny ears. My orchids seemed to be matching the description. I just hope I'm correct about it though.

Scarce Chaser

Away from orchids, it was a bit of a quiet day wildlife wise today. I still haven't seen a swallowtail yet despite the fact that we are in the peak of their season and that they have been seen from the nectar garden in recent days. I guess it wasn't quite warm enough for them today? At least there were a few other insects on the garden's plants, including a scarce chaser dragonfly perching on a sweet rocket flowerhead. I also saw a bittern fly out from reeds by the far left channel, making its way towards the river before plunging back down into the reeds again.