Thursday 30th April 2026

The orchid and butterfly season gets earlier every year.

Some people might deny global warming, but Mother Nature adapts to the warmer temperatures, and plants flower, butterflies and moths emerge when the temperature is right.

Orchids, at least the early season one, flower between two and three weeks earlier than when I started snapping them a decade and a half ago. Species like Fly Orchids were a May species, they now flower in the second week of April. Or start to.

I had seen that the nationally rare butterfly, The Duke of Burgundy, was on the wing, but once we arrived at Bonsai, I wasn't prepared for the numbers we saw in what was just still April.

I had arranged with Iain that he would tag along to see more orchid species.

Being a Thursday, we went to the gym at six, and we both on the bikes a couple of minutes later, doing our sessions. And then to Tesco to get supplies to cover the weekend, minimal amount, so I would use u the stuff in the fridge already.

Back home for half seven, we take turns for a shower, get dressed and have breakfast. So we were ready when Iain pulled up outside just after nine.

It was a pleasant drive up to the Hythe turning, then up Stone Street before turning off at Petham, where the timber-framed houses and cottages were draped with the flowering branches of wisterias.

Onwards, turning off, along a couple of six-foot-sixers to the parking spot on Pennypot Lane.

We had arrived.

From there it is a twenty minute amble to the gates of the reserve, before clambering down the worn steps into orchid and butterfly central.

Every year Bonsai is different, so one really doesn't know what to expect on ear year's first visit.

This year, numbers of Lady orchids are certainly down, though those that were there were more advanced than expected, with one spike already in full flower.

First of all we took time to wander round the bushes nearby, looking for the orange and black colours of basking Dukes, and were rewarded with about four of them, though we chased them until they settled on the grass, allowing us to quite close.

There were good numbers of Early purples, though some were already browning off. Pollenated and ovaries swelling with the seed of future generations.

We walk on and find many Lady Orchids in flower, many more putting up spikes, so that in two weeks there will be hundreds in flower. Although some of the banks leading up the the track than in previous years were carpeted by Ladies, were almost bare, with the densest numbers between the upper and lower paths, where work had been undertaken to think out the trees and shrubs.

At the far end I got shots of a couple of males on the ground, or slightly higher on small plants, so their fine underwing pattern could be seen.

We walk down and round to the lower path, looking for more orchids and anything else interesting.

We found three spikes of Fly, rosettes of Common Spotted, and a spike of White helleborine in flower. With plenty more to flower in the next week.

Back at the steps, we bump into a couple who were looking for Dukes, and were asking identification on several orchids they had seen. My area of expertese!

And with that, it was the long walk back to the car. Jools had gone ahead, so we plodded on, the day now at midday, and it now getting beyond warm.

On the way back we saw several butterflies: Brimstone, Large White, and a single fresh Comma. All good stuff.

We reach the car, so it was a simple task of reversing out and heading back to Stone Street before turning south back to the motorway and home.

At least traffic was light.

And once back, Iain leaves, and we go in for a brew and think about lunch.

I had done nearly 14,000 steps, more than enough I thought, so I sat on the patio enjoying the sun until it became hot again, so I sought shelter inside, and a beer.

Supper was garlic chicken, stir fry and noodles, which came together in twenty minutes, so I dished up and we ate to a recent Steve Lamacq show, something we had not listened to in nearly two years, since he no longer did his daily show. Good to hear new music again.

The full moon rose at dusk behind the house, hanging like a giant cheese above the horizon, while I listened to to Forest v Villa in their European semi-final on the wireless.