Hartslock

Sadly, the poor weather during April & May has led to most of the rare orchids going to seed early. All Lady orchids were in seed 1 week ago, the hybrids are nearly all over now (just one plant with a few decent florettes) and there are just a handful of Monkey orchids in flower - and looking very pale.

For this reason I’ve decided to close the slope down and declare an end to the flowering season. The lower gate will be locked and the marker tapes will be removed to allow the orchids to seed and for the slope to recover from all the trampling. For those of you still desperate to get a photo of a Monkey orchid, the top gate will be left open but please stay on the paths (where the remaining orchids are visible) and resist walking over the slope because you won’t find much and you’ll probably just tred on seeding orchids.

Here are a few photos taken this morning on my walk round:

I popped up to the reserve in the afternoon today to look for new orchids and to see if I could help out any visitors. I found 1 more new Monkey orchid near the top of the slope - bringing their total to 448 plants, of which 136 have been spotted flowering or trying to flower. The number of flowering plants is likely to be much lower than the real number because it is very hard to count them all.

The most surprising thing was to find that all of the Lady orchids had gone over and even a few of the hybrids had gone to seed. Most hybrids are doing fine but I think the rest will start to go over in the next week - especially if there isn’t significant rain soon. Most of the Monkey orchids are flowering OK but a significant proportion of them have wilted and died - either due to being eaten by small animals or having aborted due to drought.

It seems quite clear to me that we just haven’t had enough rain during April & May and the small showers kept the orchids alive for a while but in the absence of some serious downpours the plants are starting to fail as the tubers decide to abort flowering to save the plant itself.

The drought has also contributed to the large worn patch of ground around the hybrids (see below).

Today 22 members of the London Natural History Society (LNHS) visited Hartslock for the orchids and all other wildlife. We had glorious, hot, sunny  weather all day and it seemed as if everything came out to be photographed.

Monkey, Lady & the hybrids are all flowering very well at the moment and will probably continue to flower for another 2-3 weeks more.

I personally saw Grizzled & Dingy Skippers, Green Hairstreaks (everywhere), Small Heath, Orange Tip, Brimstone, Large White, Peacock & Common Blue.  Club-tailed dragonfly, Banded & Beautiful Demoiselles were also on the wing.

Went up to the site today for a walk round - plenty to see, even though the wind was still a bit chilly. The hybrids and the Lady orchids are flowering very well, with a few still in bud. The Monkey orchids are all still in bud with onloy a handful looking like they might open some buds in the coming days - the rest (maybe 200 plants) should flower in 1-2 weeks, depending on the weather.

Lots of butterflies and other insects on the wing too - Orange Tip, Green-veined White, Brimstone, Peacock, Comma, Small Tortoishell, Dingy Skipper, Grizzled Skipper, Small Heath, Green Hairstreak, Common Blue, Small Copper, Pyrausta nigrita, Pyrausta purpuralis, Common Swift moth, Burnet Companion moth, Osmia bicolor (a solitary bee), Gomphus vulgatissimus (Club-tailed Dragonfly), Tachina ursina (a parasite fly), Dioctria rufipes (Common Red-legged robber fly).

Pretty good for birds too with Hobby, Red Kite & Buzzard all seen and Chiffchaffs in every hedge.

Just popped up to the reserve, after a 2 week holiday abroad, to check the flowering situation. Looks like the recent rain has kept everything alive but the cold has really delayed the flowering by about 2-3 weeks (depending on species).

Lady orchids are in flower and the hybrids are just starting to flower, with quite a few still in tight bud. All Monkey orchids are in very tight bud with only a few showing buds at all, so they are a week or two away from flowering.

Here are a few photos to show what is about:

The first part of the mapping, where we try to locate all previously recorded rare orchids, has finished - many thanks to Becca and all the other helpers!

The big news has been the massive increase in the number of hybrid Lady x Monkey plants - partly a real increase and partly due to some under-recording last year. This year we have mapped 299, 66 of which are in bud, but all in roughly the same area as they have always been. Only a few have been found in the woodland edge outside the orchid enclosure and a few possibly Lady orchid seedlings have come up in the path.

This increase in hybrids has not been at the expense of the monkey orchids though, as we have already recorded 418 of those. Last year’s record was 427 and we usually find another 10-20 new plants through May as they pop up and flower.

Today I went up to the reserve with Becca, a good friend of mine and one of the on-site wardens from years gone by. We concentrated on square A1, where most of the Lady orchids & Lady x Monkey hybrids are located.

It was pretty obvious from just a glance that we have many more hybrids this year - possibly due to a genuine increase in numbers and also because we probably didn’t map-in all the tiny plants that came up last year. Sure enough, we found lots of small plants and seedlings dotted all over the same area where the hybrids have always been found but they don’t seem to be expanding their range much, though a few plants have been found over the boundary fence in the edge of the woodland.

The day was really warm and very Spring-like, with Buzzards & Red kites overhead and butterflies like Peacock, Brimstone (including 1 female ovipositing), Orange-Tip, Small Tortoishell, Comma, Holly Blue & a potential Dingy Skipper. I say ‘potential’ because I saw a Burnet Companion moth a few minutes later and it could have been that. We were also treated to good views of a Weasel playing in the hedge next to where we were mapping.

We closed the day on 22 Lady orchids (3 will flower) & 289 hybrids - over 100 more than last year (of which at least 66 will flower). The total number of all rare orchids this year is over 700 - a new record by about 150 plants, mainly due to the hybrids.

My birthday today and it’s Easter Sunday so I was determined to get out of the house and enjoy the Spring weather.

The sun is just starting to get warm but today the clouds kept scudding across and the wind was a bit ‘more January than April’! That said, when I got out of the wind it was pretty warm and there were even a few bumblebees and a lone Peacock butterfly fluttering around. Hairy Violets seem to be starting and the orchids are getting easier to spot in the flattened grass.

I was determined not to map orchids but I couldn’t help just having a quick look as I came back. I found a few and took some photos of a few typical plants.