ORCHID SPECTACLE

Made the annual visit on Wednesday 7th to admire the spectacle of the green-winged orchids in a back garden off Victoria Esplanade in West Mersea, with the kind permission of the owner. It is a wonderful sight to see hundreds of wild orchids sprouting up on the back lawn, right at the peak of flowering.

Andy Field above, and his wife Shirley, came along too with their smart new camera and we both clicked away from all directions, savouring the sight. These wild orchids are the remnants of a much larger population of orchids that used to grow alongside the Esplanade. Up until 1984 there was a small plot of a quarter of an acre, now occupied by flats, that was reckoned to hold 15,000 green-winged orchids as well as lots of common spotted orchids and adders-tongue fern.

For once the camera was turned on me, so just to prove I do get out and about, here's one for the album. There are one or two other photos of these orchids taken on the last visit posted on this blog for 5th May last year.

After visiting the orchid garden in the evening, the very sunny day ended with another typical sunset at the Hard at West Mersea. A pair of common terns flew up one of the channels.

Earlier in the day at the country park, a male marsh harrier was seen flying past the car park and then ten minutes later flying low over the middle of the park. Whitethroats, lesser whitethroat and nightingales have been the main songsters of interest in the park during the day.


The moth trap was checked on Wednesday morning where 30 moths of 12 species were found, including this swallow prominent moth, pictured above. This is quite a common moth and several more should be caught in the next few weeks.


The most colourful moth in the trap were a couple of brimstones and is often one of the first moths to fly around at dusk. Other moths noted were Chinese character, hebrew character, brindled pug, common carpet, powdered quaker and red chestnut.