All a buzz in the downs.

I have finally finished my university course and so now the job search has begun! Hopefully being out of university will give me the opportunity to work more on my photography skills and enjoy myself more in the countryside!

Growing up in the Downs has meant that I have always been surrounded by wild flowers and especially Orchids, this year though has brought with it a particularly spectacular haul of flowers including Orchids. This year on the meadow next to the house the Orchids found have included: Butterfly Orchids, Tweyblades, Pyramidal Orchids, Bee Orchids, Common Spotted, Early Purples and Fragrant Orchids. This of course has given plenty of opportunities for photography as can be seen below.

This is a Bee Orchid, a Bee Orchid is designed to too look like a female Bee so that a male Bee will come and try and breed with the Bee and will in the process get pollen on it. Sadly though the Bee the Orchid is designed to attract does not occur in this country and so all Bee Orchids in this country are self pollinating.

This is a Marbled White Butterfly which in my opinion is one of the prettiest butterflies occurring in the UK. They are lovely medium sized flighty butterflies.

This is an Ivy Broomrape. There are altogether other 200 types of different Broomrapes and I believe that Ivy Broomrape is by far the prettiest of all these species. Broomrapes are a parasitic species and as such do not need to produce chlorophyll hence their interesting colouration.

This is a close up of the blooms of a Butterfly Orchid. Although they are called a Butterfly Orchid they are actually pollinated by Elephant Hawk Moths at night. The Butterfly Orchid is also night scented and if you are up on the hill among these at night then you will be able to smell the aroma of cloves coming from the Orchids.

This is a Pyramidal Orchid which is the plant in which Darwin was first able to identify the pollination process for Orchids. It was Darwin's favorite out of all of his many discoveries.

This picture is of a Marsh Fritillary Butterfly which is an uncommon butterfly which likes damp marshy sites or south facing calcareous slopes like the site where this one was found. This Marsh Fritillary also happens to be sat on a Bee Orchid making it extra special, it is a shame though that it was not on a Butterfly Orchid.

This is a Fragrant Orchid which holds a wonderful smell.

This is probably the most common of all the Orchids found in the UK. The Common Spotted comes in many different colours including this near white specimen through to a deep purple or a mauve coloured specimen.

I was recently given the privilege of visiting Highgrove for a conference on Wild Flower Meadows and the Coronation  Meadows Project which was set up on the Queens diamond jubilee by Prince Charles and Plantlife with the help of organisations such as the Wildlife Trusts and the Rare Breed Survival Trust. The objective of the project is to have a Coronation Meadow in every county or vice-county which would then be used to try and create new wildflower meadows in other parts of the county. A highlight of the evening was a tour around the gardens and the Royal Meadow which was a wonderful privilege to see and showed just how diverse a meadow could be... we still have them beat on Orchid numbers though!

This is only a very small patch of the Pyramidal Orchids we have on the site.

Here is a small patch of Bee Orchids.

... and what a beautiful location for it all to be in.