Orchids of Druridge Bay

To date these are the orchids I have photographed in the Druridge Bay area.
There's a pretty good selection considering the area is primarily a birding site and not many people
seem to be aware of some of these species. I'll not give exact locations of any of the species in my posts
but if anyone asks I'll consider any requests for help using private email.

Common Twayblade
Common Spotted
Marsh Fragrant
Bee
Lesser Butterfly
Northern Marsh
Early Purple

See pic attached of Lesser Butterfly. There were over 50 spikes of this stunning plant in 2007 -
the best ever haul for some years.

If you venture further afield in Northumberland there are many more species to be had and I'll be posting shots from other sites later on.

Hey ho away we go

Hello to everyone who may view this blog. This is my first dabble and I thought it was time to put this new fangled blogging lark to the test. I'm your average birder who doesn't do a great deal of twitching and Teesside to the South and the borders of Scotland is about as far as I go for a bird.

I don't keep a county list and my UK list is 20 or so shy of 400 which isn't bad going considering I've never done the Scillies or Shetland.

My most regular patch is Druridge Bay (Cresswell Pond, Druridge pools, Chevington, Newbiggen and the surrounding area).
My nature ambition is to see all Britain's birds, wild orchids and butterflies in my lifetime. I've done the birds all except Chough which is probably an embarrassing admission but I simply haven't driven to a Chough site and want to keep this for a special occasion. I've done half the orchids and have plans to tackle more of these stunning plants in 2008. The butterflies will be the hardest one but I've made modest inroads recently.

That's it for now. Happy birding everyone amd watch this blogspace.
Andy