Gary T's Birding Blog: Wednesday 23rd July 2014

After telling a friend about the rare Broad-leaved Helleborine, he asked if i could show him it, so we met after i finished work, and went to see if the flowers were out or not. They were, and here are some pix to prove it......

Broad-leaved Helleborine (var. monotropoides)

Violet Helleborine

After that success, we looked for another new Orchid, for both of us, Violet Helleborine. I had been told where a few plants were, and then got told of some more by another friend. So, thought we would try the second friends sites first. Glad we did, as it didn't take too long to find one plant, sadly it only had the one flower open, and it was the very bottom one........just means i need another trip. After that we found another plant, but this was totally in the shade, and so had no flowers open at all, but we did find a few more 'ordinary' Broad-leaved Helleborines, and some which look like variant purpurea types too.

Broad-leaved Helleborine

Broad-leaved Helleborine (var. purpurea)

Silver-washed Fritillary

After the Orchids, we went to find some Butterflies. Mainly trying to find the valesina form of Silver-washed Fritillary. This form is a all dark form of the female, it never happens in the male of the species. I saw my first one at Bentley Wood, Wiltshire, and can remember thinking "What the hell is that?" We saw plenty of Silver-washed Fritillaries, and a couple of White Admirals, and then suddenly a dark Fritillary flew passed, and it was a valerian, now just to see where it lands, and get some photos if possible!