First of the year

Another day, another orchid. 

I spent most of the day in the West Glen River, climbing down steep grass banks with masses of Common Nettle and standing in shallow water dominated by filamentous algae. I was recording 20m stretches of the watercourse to provide a baseline to measure the impacts of proposed biodiversity improvements at Boothby Wildland.

I spotted my first flowering Bee Orchid of the year in the grassland surrounding the base of the re-wilding project, and then found a few more along the adjacent road verge. They were much further ahead than the ones at Swaddywell, which were all in bud, but I suspect this is because the Swaddywell ones grow in damp, clayish soil.