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.

May 27th Secret Location

Man Orchid

The man orchid is perhaps the rarest of Norfolk's orchids and one that I have been anticipating the most since creating my list. So when I heard that they were now in bloom and that they don't stay in flower for more than a couple of days, I had to go see them as soon as possible. In Norfolk, there is only one site to see them and as they are so rare, I can not tell you where I went today to see them in order to protect them from collectors.

Just like the military orchid that I saw yesterday, the man orchid is another one of those orchids that you have to use your imagination to see the figures that give the species its name. As with the military orchid, the sepals form a hood or the man's 'head' or 'hat', while the lip forms the man's 'body', 'arms' and 'legs'. The flowers are yellow and sometimes have a red edge to them and can form a tall spike of up to 50 'little men' attached to it.








The weather was not always on our side as my dad and I went searching for my latest target. It was raining on and off while we were at this one and only site, but when we eventually found one, even the rain couldn't dampen my excitement. We ended up finding maybe about ten of them. They varied in sizes and were already starting to pass wilt away. However, we did manage to find one that was really spectacular and in perfect condition with a large spike covered in around 40 to 50 flowers. When I found this amazing specimen, I didn't care less that it was raining or not. Two extremely rare orchids in two days. It has been a great bank holiday weekend.

May 26th Mildenhall and Lackford Lakes

My orchid hunt has taken me across the Norfolk border into Suffolk for a chance to add a bit of a bonus species to my list. My friend David joined me to visit a small reserve near Mildenhall for an open day event to see the very rare military orchid. This my only day to see it as it lies behind a fenced off area in a couple of chalk pits. I couldn't resist the opportunity.

Military Orchid

The military orchid is so called because the flowers are suppose to resemble soldiers in regalia uniform ready for parade. You may need a bit of an active imagination to see it but the sepals form the 'helmet', the lip forms the 'body' complete with 'arms' and 'legs', while the spots are the 'buttons' or 'medals'. If you don't see the resemblance, don't worry, you can still agree with me that this is a very beautiful orchid. I took over an hour and a half to admire the 30+ on display in these two small pits.








It is amazing to think that they were believed to be extinct in the UK in 1929. Military orchids became a bit of a British botanical Holy Grail until a small colony of them were discovered in Buckinghamshire in 1947. That site was kept a guarded secret and was not made accessible to the public until the 1980's. Meanwhile, in 1954, this Suffolk colony were discovered. In both sites, the numbers have been reasonably steady to this day. So I am extremely privileged to have the opportunity to see them today. I also saw plenty of common twayblades in the pits, too, but I will not tick them off just yet. I want to find them in Norfolk before I can do that.

Damselflies

Once we were done admiring the military orchids, David took me for a walk at Lackford Lakes. I've only visited this place once back in February 2016, when I saw a female long-tailed duck. Today, there wasn't exactly anything that was THAT surprising. However, I did see a couple of cuckoos (including a female producing a bubbling call as it flew by as we walked out of the visitor centre), some hobbies, a green woodpecker, tufted ducks and little grebes both with a large brood of chicks/ducklings, common terns, four-spotted chasers, red-eyed damselflies, a few sticks protruding from the water covered in freshly emerged damselflies of various species and we heard short bursts of a nightingale. Not a bad visit to Suffolk!

Sawfly (Tenthredo mesomela)

May 22nd Strumpshaw Fen

Don't you just hate it when you have to wake up early to catch a train the next day only to have your sleep disrupted from noises outside? Well last night, I was kept awake by a tawny owl hooting from a tree just outside my bedroom. Now, I'm not complaining as it got me excited. I don't hear one this close from my flat that often, so of course I jumped out of bed and opened the window in attempt to see it. I couldn't. It was just too dark to spot it. Once the hooting became silent as if to signal that the owl had gone, I tried my best to get back to sleep, but my mind was just full of thought thanks to that owl. By the time my alarm went off, I was unsure if I had slept or not.

Common Lizard

It was another glorious day at Strumpshaw Fen. There was one real disappointment though. No twayblades. I was hoping to tick this orchid off my list today, but it seems that I must wait another week until I can hopefully do that. No matter, there was plenty of other things to look for. Swallowtails were top of everyone's wish list this morning. They had been seen yesterday, but sadly, they weren't showing up for me today. What I did see, however, were some bearded tits from Fen Hide, a kingfisher from Reception Hide and several hobbies from both hides respectfully. I also saw a lizard and spooked a couple of Chinese water deer.

Grey Heron with an Eel

A heron provided some drama outside the Reception Hide as it took a few minutes wrestling with an eel while also trying to discard a piece of muddy weed from its bill at the same time. It was eventually successful, gulping it down in one go!

Despite not seeing a swallowtail, I did see plenty of other great insect species. From hairy dragonflies to blue-tailed and azure damselflies and from red mason bees to ruby-tailed wasps. Butterflies were also well represented with orange-tips, holly blues, small whites, green-veined whites, peacocks and brimstones.

My shift ended earlier than usual because my family arrived for a visit. So I joined my mum, 2 brothers, my sister-in-law and little Ava for a short walk to Fen Hide and back. Ava was a little more excited than the last time she came for a walk here and was full of energy. As she ran around the place, it was difficult to spot the wildlife before she more than likely scared them off. Never mind. At least she was enjoying herself as she played with the vegetation and attempted to understand how binoculars worked in her own little way. I'll make a naturalist out of her one day one step at a time.

May 17th Secret Location

Bird's-nest Orchids

My third orchid on my list was going to be one of the trickiest ones to find. It is also one of the strangest. The bird's-nest orchid has the appearance of something dead and wilted. With brown flowers and no leaves, it is easily overlooked and blends so well with the leaf litter that you could trample on them without even knowing that they were there.

They grow in woodlands with mature beech trees in which the orchid have a complex relationship with. As this orchid has no leaves, it is unable to photosynthesis. The trees, on the other hand, do and it exchanges the sugars that it produces through photosynthesis down into the roots where it trades with a fungus for the vital nutrients and minerals that the tree needs deep underground. The orchid taps into this fungus and steals what it needs without anything in return through its bird nest-shaped roots, for which it gets its name. The bird's-nest orchid is a thief!

There aren't that many places in Norfolk to see them unlike in other parts of England. So I went to one place I've been to many times before as a kid but never knew the orchids existed until a few years ago. And though it is a very public place, I was told not to reveal where this site and the orchids whereabouts are to prevent illegal orchid collectors. I was given directions by the staff to where to look, but after walking around the trees, my parents and I just couldn't find them. We went back to ask a warden to show them to us. Returning to the same spot, he found some immediately! How on earth did anyone find them in the first place beats me as they were so small and blended in with the surrounding leaf litter that there was no way I would have found them without an expert on hand. We found a couple more on our own, but every single one of these plants were still in bud, just days away from flowering! It would have been nice if one was in bloom so that I could smell the honey-like scent it apparently produces, but I was still happy and ticked Bird's-nest orchid from my list anyway.

May 15th Strumpshaw Fen

I was like walking in a daydream this morning. Soaking up the warm sunshine and the sound of birdsong as I made my way around the reserve before my shift began. There was a sense of laziness, a sense that the natural atmosphere around me was 'chilling out'. I was so relaxed from the beauty of it all that I hadn't realised that everything was mostly being heard than seen. The birds were eluding me, but I knew that they were there. A grasshopper warbler was reeling somewhere out of sight, but I could hear it from inside the Fen Hide. I was able to see many of the other warbler species (whitethroats, chiffchaffs, blackcaps, willow warblers and sedge warblers), but they refused to stay in my line of sight longer than half a minute, and in some cases, half a second.

Bluebells

This week, a few exciting things have been showing up at Strumpshaw while I was away. A ring ouzel had been spotted for a couple of days in the pasture fields. Sadly, it had disappeared for the last two days before today, but I wanted to check if it had returned this morning anyway. I walked along the river to the Pumphouse and scanned the fields. Nothing. It was clear that it was completely long gone. Completing my circuit through the woods, the sight of the bluebell display made the ring ousel-less walk a little better. It may not be as impressive as the one I saw at Foxley Wood the other weekend, but it was good enough for me at that moment.

Brimstones

In other news, the first swallowtail had emerged yesterday, a day early to the usual emergence date. It meant that swallowtail fever had now officially begun. I was hoping that I would see one from around Reception Hide, but I wasn't so lucky this time. You'd have to go to the Lackford Run to have a chance to see it. At least there were plenty of other butterfly species to enjoy. During my early walk, I managed to spot my first small copper of the year as well as plenty of hairy dragonflies. In the flower bed, red mason bees were checking out the stump with holes drilled into it, while orange-tips, green-veined whites and holly blues fluttered over the flowers. I especially couldn't tear my eyes away from the mating antics of a pair of brimstones as a female was trying to entice an interested male to mate with her, though he kept ruining the moment to chase the other butterflies away.




At the Reception Hide, despite not seeing a swallowtail, I was pleased in seeing several hobbies high in the blue sky amongst the many swifts up there with them. I was also busy writing up the sightings board when a kingfisher made an appearance so brief that it disappeared before I had a chance to see it. I also saw today; marsh harriers, reed buntings, a great crested grebe, great spotted woodpeckers, a brief glimpse of a distant bearded tit, swallows, mallard with ducklings, a couple of muntjac deer and a Chinese water deer.

May 9th New Buckenham Common

This morning, I was more than ready to find my second orchid species of the year. There's no better place to do that than at New Buckenham Common. It is not a place that I'm really familiar with, but thankfully Dad knew the way. So here we were in search for the green-winged orchid. Apparently, New Buckenham has the largest display of this orchid in Norfolk. I was told to expect hundreds of them. I couldn't wait!

Green-winged Orchids at New Buckenham Common

After parking the car and walking onto the common, however, I could not find a single one. But then, a little further up the field, we finally discovered one. And then another one. And another one. It only seemed to be a small patch, there they were. This turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg as just beyond a gate into the next field, we found more patches of green-winged orchids here and there. And then we met a member of staff with a strimmer in her hands (don't worry, she wasn't going to mow the orchids down) who told us that there were even more at the far end of the reserve. She wasn't wrong! There were thousands of them! Each a different size and colour, from purple to pale pink. But what I really wanted to see was a white one (a rare variation). I looked everywhere, but every time I thought I had found one just kept turning out to be cuckoo flowers!

Green-winged Orchid

Green-winged orchids are dainty looking things with fewer and much larger flowers than that of the early purple orchid. Their sepals form a hood which are marked with green or bronze coloured lines that, if you peer under the hood, appear like wings, hence the name. This is another 'trickster' species that advertise to a bee to pollenate it for a reward of nectar only for the bee to discover that it had been fooled. There is no reward!
















Though we were completely surrounded by these orchids, it is hard to believe that this is one of the fastest declining species in the UK. Once it was common and widespread, but now it has disappeared from at least 50% of its former range in the last 70+ years thanks to a change of agriculture. Today, green-winged orchids are listed as Near Threatened. I just hope this breathtaking display of purple and pink from this site continues for many years to come for future generations to see for themselves.













While I was mainly here for the orchids, I did also manage to hear two species of bird that are also declining fast. Corn bunting and turtle doves were singing somewhere in the bushes, but I was unable to see them as I had left my binoculars at home. But hearing their purring and jangly songs were enough for me. An extra bonus for a successful day of orchid hunting!