A couple of weeks ago, an evening out in the countryside near us, reminded me of just how rich our grasslands can be.
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| A marbled white butterfly in the long grass |
This year seems to have been the best one that I can remember for flowers, perhaps because the dry spring reduced the vigour of the grasses.
Its quite hard to show the beauty of that I found in this quiet valley, but the photos are an attempt at recording it. There were bird's-foot trefoil, small scabious, bedstraw, self-heal, red and white clovers, oxeye daisy, etc. plus a number of different grasses. With the butterflies floating around in the warm evening air, it was quite idyllic.
This bee orchid was the best one around and was in the first group that I have seen this year.
There was also a good number of pyramidal orchids, including this large one being swamped by a bindweed.
I agree with you, the meadows up in the Yorkshire Dales have been a picture and the wild orchids up here in the north have had probably the best year since I started to observe them more than 10 years ago.
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