Orchid season arrives
Jonathan: This morning, slogging up and down the length of the croft from sea level up the foot of Beinn Sgiathan with materials and tools for the new fences and gates, I stopped to enjoy the orchids appearing day by day, as orchid season arrives. We have 6.25 hectares and five of those are rough grazing with thousands and thousands and thousands of these, which are I think the Heath Spotted Orchid. I don’t think it’s a near-white form of the Common Marsh Orchid, because they come later, and then the Northern Marsh Orchid etc, and I’ll photo those when their times come. It’s these early orchids which are the most numerous though. The sheep love to eat them, so I ensure that each year, during orchid season, they are in a different field, so they don’t suffer any lasting damage (actually I think it does them good, as they have increased in numbers since we started keeping sheep).
A most beautiful wild orchid – I’ve never seen this one before. Glad you keep it away from those greedy sheep!