MIDSUMMER brings some of the finest wild orchids. Most of them are commonest in chalk country. Pyramidal orchid has a cone-shaped flowerhead, pure purple in colour, and often grows in large colonies. It can be found by roadsides, and will sometimes spring up again where it has not been seen for years. Unfortunately, it has a rather unattractive smell. Fragrant orchid, on the other hand, has wispy, bright pink flowers that smell agreeably of vanilla. It is found in wetter places.
Two orchids that are less familiar, but are nevertheless not rare, are bee orchid and butterfly orchid. The flowers of bee orchid have a large purple-brown lower lip with a red base, which looks like the back half of a bee. This may attract bees to pollinate them. Butterfly orchids are like wavy white crosses, with just a few flowers spaced out at the top of the delicate stem.
A few black kites have been seen in the skies. These are probably birds that were coming up to southern Europe from Africa and overshot the mark. They are large, dark raptors. Like the red kites now breeding in parts of Britain, they have a forked tail, but the fork is much more shallow.
DJM