Eyes Down

It's a few weeks since I last visited West Bexington, and the first thing that hit me this afternoon was how much everything has grown. Lush greenery everywhere, and stacks of flowers. Some of the meadows looked absolutely fantastic...

Looks amazing enough from head height, but...

...even better at ground level

Heaving with insects, including my first Meadow Browns and Large Skippers of the year, and a striking fly which my new 'Brock' field guide helped me to identify as Noon Fly...

Noon Fly (Mesembrina meridiana)

Large Skipper

By the time I reached this meadow I had already enjoyed a nice surprise. Scanning from a gateway in the vain hope of a bird or two, I was distracted by a distant but familar flower spike, a Bee Orchid. Looking around I spied a few more. Nice. I don't recall seeing Bee Orchids at West Bex before, but then I've never looked. So that's what I ended up doing this afternoon. Looking for orchids. And flipping heck! They're everywhere!

One of several Bee Orchids I discovered in the meadow pictured in the first two photos.

This Pyramidal Orchid was in the same meadow.

Heading over into East Bexington territory is like entering a different world. Acres and acres of intensively farmed arable. Walking down to the sea, the contrast is striking. Very, very few insects, and basically nothing at all in the crops...

East Bexington farmland

There are maize fields too, similarly lifeless. In the months to come, these fields will hopefully prove attractive to various birds, but for the moment they feel pretty dead. However, there is a bit more to East Bexington than this. Between the beach and the crops lies a broad uncultivated strip of land maybe 30-odd metres across. Apart from an occasional autumn stomp about to see if I can kick up any interesting birds, I've never paid it much attention. So imagine my surprise when I spotted this from the roadside...

Oof! Look at that Bee Orchid. Literally knee high!

Suddenly I was paying attention. The more I looked, the more I saw. In one spot I counted almost 80 Bee Orchid spikes, then a few more here, a few more there...

I got quite good at spotting them. At least 9 Bee Orchid spikes in this photo

Although I didn't count them all, for certain I saw more than a hundred Bee Orchids at East Bex, plus 5 Pyramidal Orchids. I wonder what else is lurking there, invisible to a botanical dunce like me.

Not all the local orchids need searching for. At West Bex there's a patch of Pyramidals that almost takes your eye out. Right next to a path, they are impossible to miss...

A lovely, pale pink Pyramidal Orchid...

...and a couple of regular-coloured whoppers.

I was simply amazed how many orchids I spotted today, in loads of places I'd never noticed them before. I can see the attraction of botanising, and for once regretted my ignorance. In fact I am almost tempted to do something about it. Trouble is, I know it won't be long before birds are all-consuming again, and whatever I might have learned, plant-wise, will soon slip from my memory. Mind you, I could start with something modest, like umbellifers perhaps? I found myself looking at all the white-flowered things that were presumably Wild Carrot or Cow Parsley or Giant Hogweed or whatever, and noticing different leaf shapes and so forth. And that some were really diminutive, and quite obviously not the same as those ones over there...

How hard can it be?

Umbellifers. My summer challenge?

Obviously I didn't see any birds. Too busy looking down.

Okay. One bird.