ORCHID OVERLOAD

One of the Mersea's best botanical secrets is the annual spectacle of hundreds of green-winged orchids - all hiding away in the back garden of a very lucky lady who lives in Victoria Esplanade.
The orchids are at their peak at the moment although this season has probably speeded them up with the very dry April. The "green wings" refer to the green veins on the pale petals on the sides of the "hooded" part of the flower.

I have had the pleasure of seeing the garden twice before and each visit still takes your breath away at seeing such a stunning sight. No-one else on Mersea has this treat of having their own naturally occuring carpet of wild orchids just feet from their back-door. None of the surrounding gardens have any orchids as their soil has been tampered with, and many houses are sitting on newer plots.

My wife Nolly is chatting to the owner (just out of shot), as we all stood admiring the annual flower show. The bulk of the orchids to see are in this picture and may not look many - until you start to count and my guess was around 500 flowering spikes.

This compact clump stretching for about two feet had about 70 spikes on show. Incredible.

This patch of orchids is the last remnant of green-winged orchids still flourishing in this area. Up until nearly twenty-five years ago a small quarter hectare size of grassy wasteland about 100 metres away, contained 15,000 orchids which tragically were cleared to make way for housing.
Having seen the orchids in the garden, we headed to Willoughby car park to look for orchids there as some have been seen in the past. After about ten minutes of pacing back and forwards, the distinctive leaves of the common spotted orchid were found (Green winged orchids leaves are plain and without spots). This one pictured above had really broad and big leaves, making it easier to spot amongst the long grass. Only the leaves were on show but the flowers should be out in about two or three weeks time.
Elsewhere on Willoughby, there was the eyecatching display on one side of these very agricultural weeds that look like oil-seed rape. In fact the white flowers belong to wild radish and the yellow flowers are black mustard.

The most interesting bird here was the smooth purring sound of the first turtle dove to have returned back from Africa. Unfortunately I shall have to wait another day to actually see one. Also some mistle thrushes sounded anxious s if they had young nearby they were feeding and a pair of goldfinches was a good record for a nearby garden.

Elsewhere in West Mersea, the screeching calls of five swifts wheeling high above the village may have been due to a sparrowhawk soaring beside them.