Thursday 24th May 2018

For the past five years, Jools and myself, along with my friend, Mark, have been searching the downs above Dover for a species of orchid that was last seen in 2013. To be honest, I think I had given up in ever seeing the orchid there, so much so a few years ago, Jools and I went to Sussex and a down above Brighton to see a large colony of Burnt Tips there, so low did we rate the chances of seeing them back home.

Last year, Mark and I spent a morning scouring where the orchid was last seen, looking at every flash of red and white we could see, doubly difficult as a common plant, Milkwort, can look very similar, or seems to after hours of searching. No luck that year either.

I run a group dedicated to Kentish Orchids on Faceache, and so I thought it would be really good to have a group meeting and orchid search up there; I mooted the idea and it turned out that some could not make weekends and others could only make weekends, so I arrange one meet for Thursday and another on Saturday. Not in my wildest dreams did I think we would actually find the orchid.

All during the week, the forecast for Thursday was grim, with steady rain expected all day, but as the day drew nearer, it got better and so I did not cancel, although I was tempted.

At half eight I dragged myself away from the computer and drove to Temple Ewell, and went to the car park, where there was no one waiting. Oh well. As there was another smaller car park down next to the road, I went there, and was met by a guy in a car, he wound the window down and I showed him the orchid book I was carrying, and he smiled and gave me the thumbs up.

As we were preparing to set off, another car pulled up and Terry jumped out as asked if he was too late. As we introduced ourselves, turned out that both Danny and Terry has seen the Burnt Tip up on the downs here before, so I had gone from being the leader to the follower.

From the car park it is a long hard climb for half an hour, for me, to the top of the down. But we took regular breaks as my lungs threatened to explode, and we started to see dozens of butterflies; COmmon Blues, Adonis Blues, Brown Arguses, Small Heaths and so on. And on top of that, both keen botanists, and Terry a birder too, so they showed me common and rare plants as we climbed, and Terry tried to teach me the difference between a Willow Warbler's call and that of a Chaffinch.

We reached the top of the down and Terry thought he had seen his Burnt Tip down the fence line, so we search both sides, but only succeed in finding another new colony of Early Spiders, much darker than the ones on the coast.

We walk back to the path and along before dropping down and Terry thinks that this is where he saw the orchids last time. We find yet more Early Spiders here too. This is also where I was told the orchid was last found, so from now on we were in Danny's hands. He took us on to another part of the down, and we began to search.

I was now sure it was a fool's errand, but we had seen and photographed much, and as we always say, a walk is never wasted.

We had slit up, and Danny gives a shout, I walk over to join him and Terry, and they are saying, here it is!

And just sitting there, three or four inches tall is a single spike, clearly a Burnt Tip, and to make the moment perfect, the sun chose that moment to come out.

Perfect.

And with that we were happy, but checked on the way back too, incase another had emerged, but we found none.

News had reached me of an unusual Fly Orchid, I had rough instructions, so it seemed right to go to look. Danny said he wanted come come along, so we drove in convoy to the site, parked in a grassy bank outside and went in.

Thing is, one badger trail looks pretty much like any other badger trail, so we went round and round in circles, having seen many, many Fly Orchids, and impressive ones, but on the green one we were hunting.

After an hour it became clear we had run out of locations, so we binned it for the day. Donny however was quizzing me about Lesser Butterfly and the white Lady.

Rather than try to explain sites he had never been to, I took him myself, and for the 4th time this week found myself climbing the bridleway, huffing and puffing. And I wish I could say I was doing better than at the start of the season, but no.

He sees the single Lesser Butterfly, snaps it from all angles, of course, so then we could walk on to see the Lady in the beech wood.

Stillness hung over the wood, and in the shadows no orchid could be seen, at least from a distance. We go in, and soon he sees the spikes, the number and variation. I plough on looking for the two white Lady, calling Donny over when I had done so.

I suspect I would still be there had his phone battery died and so he was unable to take any more shots.

We had just found the third and final white lady, and to be honest, I was pooped. So I went home for a brew and a rest, but mostly to review the shots and post them online.

Most people were thrilled, others wanted to know where they are. I did the proper thing and reported them to the county recorders, two were happy, the third not so, as he knew and was hoping it be undiscovered, other than by him, so it could set seed.

So I delete the shots of Twitter, but it makes me feel a little angry that for the best of reasons this discovery was going to be kept secret.

I cook dinner, and a friend is on the phone; he is on the down, looking at grass, can I talk him in closer to the orchid. He should be sleeping after a shift at work, but is out orchiding instead. He finds them and posts a shot of he and his partner, both grinning. Spreading happiness is what we try to do.