Dorset Walks

Friday May 30th Brackett's Coppice

© Bob Ford/Nature Portfolio
© Bob Ford/Nature Portfolio	We came here to see orchids and were lucky right from the start when we found a huge colony of Spotted Orchids close to the reserve entrance. Although I referred to them as Common Spotted they were actually the slightly rarer Heath Spotted, at least the one I photographed was. A darker orchid found here was probably a small Southern Marsh Orchid.

The next field contained some very attractive patches of Meadow Thistles (pictured right) and one patch of Ragged Robin. A good range of grasses were seen in these fields as well, they are listed below.

© Bob Ford/Nature Portfolio

© Bob Ford/Nature Portfolio

After scrambling through a wet wood we came out onto higher ground and after walking through one more field came to a heathy area featured in the photo at the top of this page. Here we found large numbers of beautiful Greater Butterfly Orchids, see photo on left. There were a few birds here as well, including a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers which posed nicely on a dead tree for us.

We returned to the car pleased to be dry (at least above our knees!) in what had been a very wet week in this part of Dorset. As a huge rain cloud travelled overhead the light was just right to appreciate the colour of the abundant Meadow Buttercups in the first field.

© Bob Ford/Nature Portfolio