About ten of us made the rather long trek down to Aston Clinton on a lovely sunny but cold evening. The Ragpits are a tiny reserve full of interesting butterflies and flowers but as it was a cold evening the butterflies were not in evidence. However the orchids were putting on a a lovely show especially the fragrant orchids which looked gorgeous in the evening sunlight. There were also common spotted, butterfly and pyramidal orchids and many twayblades in flower.
Amongst the other floral delights was squinancywort, fairy flax, yellowort and white milkweeds. The quacking grass also looked lovely in the low sunlight. A blackcap was singing and kites were flying overhead.
Just as we were leaving Jenny found an orchid which nobody could identify on site which looks a bit like a southern marsh orchid to me – any ideas? (It has now been identified at a cross between a Common Spotted and Southern Marsh orchids).
Julie Lane