a dog's life in the Tamar valley, Cornwall, PL17

I have been looking for this little green butterfly (the green hairstreak) for the last five years, and at last today in Greenscombe wood...

 a greater butterfly orchid a tattered heath fritillary a violet ground beetle

Although winter and spring have been exceptionally mild and frost-free some plants have been quite slow to appear.  At long last the orch...

at long last, a photo of a butterfly (a very tattered heath fritillary) on a butterfly orchid, it is a meadow icon. I am not sure why bu...

the first early purple orchid of the year in amongst the fading daffodils at the entrance to Duchy College.

five species of orchid, marsh orchid (above), both types of butterfly orchid (just emerging), heath spotted orchid (below) and early purple...

and a bee orchid (ophrys apifera)

we are back from our holidays in the Charente region of France. As always the French country side was bursting with rare and wonderful sight...

marsh orchid (top) just coming into flower, and heath spotted orchid below. Sorry Carletta, we were 10 days too early. I like these photos b...

nearby and for the first time on Kit Hill, we found some orchids. They look like southern marsh orchids (having no spots on the leaves and t...

the lesser butterfly orchid, iridescent in the morning sun. There were also some greater butterfly orchids in the meadow but they are not ye...

heath spotted orchid in a field full of yellow rattle. The sky really was an amazing vivid blue (see top left corner). One of four species o...

the large skipper, a primitive moth like butterfly, sitting on some seed pods of yellow rattle. There were marsh and butterfly orchids (use...

we went looking for bird's nest orchids in the beech woods but we could only find heath spotted orchids in the meadows. One day we will ...

early purple orchid growing in the hedgerow on the way into our village (duckpond to the left at the bottom of the road)

this picture shows a group of lesser butterfly orchids. The greater butterfly orchid is found nearer to the edge of the wood.

the butterfly orchids have reappeared, lesser at the top, and greater butterfly orchid below. In fact close up the flowers are quite differe...

while the boss was getting excited about this southern marsh orchid, IN A FIELD NEAR YOU! The green sepals pointing up are supposed to look ...

another attractive orchid at Beals Mill. I am not sure what this one is, it looks like an early purple orchid but the horn is very long. It ...

see this in a field near you! Lots of these lovely orchids, probably crosses between common spotted and heath spotted.