Sunday, 23 June 2013

Bird's-nest Orchid - Shacklow Wood

I went out as usual shortly after first light and returned a couple of hours later, thoroughly wet. Updated my moth records for the year; 91 species for the garden, looking at Simon's twitter feed it looks like he has recorded well over 100 species https://twitter.com/ddbirder. My shortfall is down to effort I think as Simon only lives about a mile away.
Thinking about what to do for the rest of the day birds, butterflies and dragonflies were out due to the weather. I had noted that Bird's-nest Orchid occurred locally so checking the Derbyshire Flora Website it gave Shacklow Wood just north of Ashford-in-the-Water as a location. I've just bought the Canon 5D III so this would be an ideal opportunity to test its performance in low light, if I could find the orchids.
When I arrived there were a couple of PlantLife volunteers who kindly directed me to a location for Toothwort, a rare and strange saprophytic plant very similar in habitat requirements to the orchid so it perhaps wasn't too surprising that the orchid was also present at the same location when I got there - and a new species for me. 
The Plantlife 'Discover Deep Dale Nature Reserve' gives directions to both the orchid and Toothwort although it looks like the Toothwort is just about finished flowering now.


Bird's-nest Orchid

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