Sunday 18th April 2021

Quite a day all round.

It was a much warmer and wind-less day, so what better thing to do than scramble up and down cliffs looking for orchids. Early Spider Orchids.

I had been looking forward to the hunt, and had arranged to make a couple of members of my Faceache group as they had never seen these orchids.

Late Saturday night I got a message via Twitter from a friend saying it had looked high and low along the cliffs and found nothing but rosettes, and if I'm honestif I hadn't been going to meet the others I would have skipped the trip out. Doubly so as I laid in util seven, giving me just half an hour to get ready and drink my only coffee of the morning.

Jools dropped my off at the entrance to the NT's place, and I was the only one there. I looked a bit suspicious, standing around with a camera with long lens attached.

In ten minutes, Chris arrived, she was not on the list, but the more the merrier. And then just as we had given up, another Ian arrived.

We hunted for a bit, with the town and port laid out like a map below us, finding spikes and rosettes here and there, until Chris spotted something purple in the grazed turf......

Yes, an Early Spider, though it has been munched, or half munched by a slug or snail, it was open so counted.

We walked down the path, and saw no more, though a few more spikes and some near to popping.

Walking down the narrow track to the Cliff Road is where I held out most hope of seeing any more, but again we found rosettes, and rosettes of Pyramidal too, no more open spikes.

We reach the bottom, and I suggest we walk back up, or we can walk along the road to the bend as orchids can be seen all along here, but these will be much later.

A walk is nice, and the weather was very pleasant, seemed to the view, so we amble up, half-chasing female Brimstones along the cliff face until we came to the metal structures on the cliff edge.

We chat and happen to look down, Chris sees a spike, then I see another flash or purple. I look down, and sure enough there is another tiny ESO.

And nearby is two more, one with black markings on its sepals making the look even more like insect's antenna. We all take turns to snap the three tiny orchids, then go back to our cars.

Ian gives me a lift home, whch was jolly nice of him, and after walking back along the street, I am home and needing a rest and a brew.

Phew.

As I had missed breakfast, I was hungry, so begin to make lunch at half eleven, boiling cubed potatoes for chorizo hash.

Yummy.

I review my shots,a nd they are indeed good. The new lens is delivering.

We eat, and as a treat, I open a small bottle of tripel. I knew it was wrong, but a toast to celebrate the promotion, Queen Delia and Prince Micheal her husband, Daniel Farke and Stuart Webber. What a time to be a Norwich supporter.

After clearing up, I sit on the sofa and write as I watch the football, and so the afternoon slips by.

Inbetween games, I go out and see the local frog in the pond, I got to get my camera, and snap it. It hadn't moved. Probably full up with tadpoles.....

And then....

I have saved the best to last, though it doesn't look like much.

A few years ago we drove to Godmersham to try to see and snap a flock of hawfinches that roosted there for a few weeks. It was a dark and great day, we saw nothing, but the church was excellent.

What I didn't expect was to walk into the utility room at home, look out and see a Hawfinch on the ground feeder.

I looked at it, it looked at me and then it flew into next door's tree, at which point I grabbed the camera and took a few shots.

Too distant to be any good, but you can see the beak clearly.

On the ground, in the sunshine, it looked like a jay, although the size of a blackbird.

Stunning bird, and in our garden!

Cheese and crackers for supper, we listen to the radio and I take part in ~wildflowerhour, as I had dozens of shots to post.

And, once again, the weekend was over.

Time for bed.