Anchor Bottom

Unfortunately I could not make the SDOS outing to Anchor Bottom on Saturday, a shame as I really wanted to have a guided tour. Anyway, today I made the trip on my own, specifically to record the Green-winged Orchid, Anacamptis morio. I started at the Beeding Hill car park and worked my way west along the south facing slope of the valley. I knew the orchids could be found on the north facing slope, but I just wanted to investigate the whole area. On the south slope I managed one specimen  which was considerably smaller than those occupying the opposite side of the valley. From the back of Dacre Gardens to the start of the gorse, I found hundreds if not thousands of specimens, some of which I recorded. I also found two plants of the white form and several pink specimens.

South facing specimen

 

The small herd of cows occupying the valley have provided a large supply of fresh cow pats, ideal for butterflies but none were present due to the strong south westerly wind. However the Dung Flies were happy to pose for the camera.

Dung Fly - Scathophaga stercoraria

It was hard to find a violet that wasn't full of holes!