Early Spider Orchids and Reptiles in Dorset

The orchid season has started; it is a bit like the first day of the football season, only better.   Football starts with that tiresome and pointless Charity Shield match, whereas the orchid season starts with a fanfare, with the first appearance of Early spider orchids in Dorset, in a wonderful location.  A European species, Early spider orchids are confined to a few spots on the south coast; it was curiously more widespread in Britain than it is now.  In a few spots near Worth Matravers such as Dancing Ledge there are hundreds.   I went there yesterday, on  a very warm, sunny day.   Perfect.

There were also a small number of Green-winged orchids.  

Besides the orchids, there were lots of other nice stuff.   A small group of wheatears in one of the arable field I crossed to get to the coast, several butterflies including Small tortoiseshell and Peacock.   Best though were the reptiles; I saw 2 Common lizards and this Wall Lizard pictured below (with identification help from a fellow orchid enthusiast - I was not aware it occurred in Britain), and the best sighting of an adder I have had, moving amongst the limestone rocks at St Aldhelm's Head.   Quite menacing and fortunately my wife missed this trip as I think she would have been terrified (a life-long ophidiophobe).

An excellent day, definitely worth the long journey and delays on the M3.

Upgrading the Protection for a Rare Orchid

Near to Kidlington, there is a lone lizard orchid by the roadside, discovered some years ago by Christopher Hoskin a stalwart of the Ashmolean Natural History Society, remarkably from just the leaf rosette (I definitely would not have recognised it in this way).  Quite how and why it is there is a mystery as the nearest location of any other plants is several miles away.

The road is not busy but sitting on the verge only around 1 metre from the carriageway there is a risk that a car might pull off and damage it.   The verge has been regularly cut, because it is near commercial buildings, and in past years there has been a stout cage over it with warning tape wrapped around the cage - not entirely enhancing the enjoyment of this amazing plant.

Not anymore.  There are now two stout 4 x 4 posts guarding the plant, presumably erected by Oxfordshire County Council ,who I think have responsibility. 

This plant is on Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981 and therefore has the maximum level of legal protection so quite how many people and organisations were involved in the erection of these posts, it's best not to speculate.   Nevertheless a good job done and I am a little happier this year in paying my council tax.

50 yards further on there was a bee orchid rosette and some muscari, probably M. armeniacum but I will check when they are in full flower that they are not M. neglectum.

Not far from there was a fungus, possibly false morel, but if not, I have no idea what it is.

First Leaves of Greater Butterfly Orchids at a Chilterns site.

I spent the day in the Chilterns yesterday taking a look at the Greater Butterfly orchid population that a landowner and I are monitoring there.

Leaves are appearing.   

We have two enclosures, North and South, separated by a track and fenced to keep out muntjac.  The Southern section is divided roughly in half, with one half designated as a study area.  There we counted  how many plants from last year were showing leaves.  Of the 56 plants from last year, I overlooked 8, leaving 48 of which 40 had leaves, rather higher than I expected.  4 plants had double leaves (which is a puzzle as they do not spread vegetatively) and there were 8 new plants, again fewer than I had expected. The population seems to be at an equilibrium, which is not surprising as it has been there for some years and has not been subjected to serious change. 

 Habitat management consists of bramble removal, but not every year.  We are though experimenting, and this year we removed bramble from the study section in January, but not the other half of the South enclosure.  There were only 5 new plants in that section compared to 101 plants last year, whereas in the North enclosure, where bramble was removed in January there were 30 compared to 186 plants last year.   On the face of it, bramble removal does seem beneficial, but it is probably simply a matter of being able to find plants more easily.   

The next visit will be in early May when buds should start appearing, but we don't expect flowers until early June, 7 weeks from now.   Then we will do a full survey of flowering and non-flowering plants, from which we can draw proper conclusions about population dynamics.

The orchids  seem to take longer to flower, shaded in the Chilterns, compared to those out in the open on Skye.   Buds around 24 v 18 days from first leaves, flowers 45  v 30 days from first leaves.  The landowner also noted that a few plants he has in a meadow always flower earlier than those in the woodland which we are studying.  

Yesterday light levels in the orchid enclosures were the same as in the open, but when the plants flower light levels are maybe 60% of those in the open, as leaf cover (mainly beech) intensifies. 

Repeat Visit to Whitehill Wood

We made a repeat visit to Whitehill Wood yesterday to see the Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem fully in flower; most were in bud 2 weeks ago at the time of the count.   We found 6 plants in flower, but with all the heavy rain over the last week (50mm at home) the Windrush was at a high level and at some point, probably last Saturday, it had flooded the path, covering the Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem and leaving them mud spattered.

They were even harder to see than usual, though it was much easier to find no-flowering plants, stark against the mud. 

It made it obvious just how little competition these plants tolerate, with virtually bare earth around them. Plants of Lesser Celandine, Dog's Mercury and a grass were scattered here and there but nothing else.

Another highlight was Toothwort, just beginning to emerge on the roots of hazel and buried debris.

We also found some nice otter prints.   Two weeks ago we saw spraint; maybe the real thing on the next visit (but in truth I doubt it.)

Overnight I ran the moth trap at home with 5 species caught.   All are common:

• Brindled Beauty
• Hebrew Character
• Clouded Drab
• March Moth
• Common Quaker

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• March Moth
• Hebrew Character
• Clouded Drab