Orchid year - Part 4 mid wales

October 14, 2024 • 1 Comment

Having not gone on a planned trip to Scotland due to a few factors I planned a couple of day trips and one of these was into mid wales with Adrian for 2 things first up was to check a known site called Vicarage Meadows which is the last place in Wales for Small white Orchids and then a stop in the Elan Valley to have a look for breeding Common Sandpipers. It was an about a 2 hour trip into the heart of Wales and a beautiful location we parked up to be greeted by a Kingfisher feeding young under a nearby bridge was a Dipper nest box with chicks. The surrounding woods were alive with birds. Pied Flycatcher, Redstart, Tree Pipit, Wood Warbler and a Cuckoo were heard or seen nearby. We took the short walk into the meadow and the hunt began. A Barn Owl flew from a small white building and we could hear chicks calling inside. It was the closest I had been to a Barn Owl and it just stared at me before disappearing into the woods.

The first field was full of orchids and upon closer inspection we saw a new orchid for us both the Heath spotted Orchid, there was also a few Heath Fragrant amongst them but these were just beginning to flower. The Heath-spotted looks fantastic and there was a good array of colours.

Heath Spotted-orchid, Vicarge Meadows, June 2024

We careful walked around the hill slide checking for the star species but no such luck. We hoped for more luck in the 2nd field but after much searching we drew a blank. They are found here in such small numbers and they are not called small for nothing so we may have just missed them. Hopefully they are still hanging on here, but you do have to wonder if they will for much longer. They have already disappeared from most of England. The afternoon was spent in the Elan Valley watching a pair of Common Sandpipers. We had hope to locate a nest but nothing found today. A very late low crows nest which we could look down into was a nice end to the trip.

Keywords: crow nest, elan Valley, heath fragrant orchid, heath spotted orchid, orchid, orchids, small white orchid, vicarage meadows

Comments

Leslie(non-registered)

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