A trip to Cambridgeshire's flooded Hayley Wood in search of woodland Early Purple Orchids. Orchids Featured: Early Purple Orchid Wild British Orchids, Wild UK Orchids, Wild Orchids, Hayley Wood, Hayley Woods, Early Purple Orchid
Nice n muddy - I've lost count how many times I've had to wash my boots this spring. I popped over to Melrose farm meadows today and the green winged numbers were staggering so many thanks for making your video or I would not have known about the place 👍
That's a very special site. Seen many sites with 10x more Green Winged Orchids but the quality of those at Melrose Farm is exceptional as is the variety.
Such a brightly coloured delicate orchid. Crossing the stream was definitely worth it. So much luscious growth. I wish it would be like that here. We have had the driest summer I can remember and a few days ago had the first rain for months. Interestingly I went out not expecting to find anything so soon and was totally surprised to see the Hare orchids flowering. Almost unbelievable that they still grew in virtually oven dry soil. We have published a couple of Shorts of the Hare orchids last year. They are not as beautiful as these but they sure make up for it with their resilience. This is a beautiful video, it pays not to give up👍
The area where they have been previously reported looked to be under about 10 inches of water. Unless they move fast, I can see that amount of water doing serious damage to the wood. There are "maintenance work" signs up and the fenced off area was locked up so hopefully that maintenance is somehow targeted at drainage !
@@OrchidHunter this was the case when I went there too, very clay rich soil underfoot and completely flooded drainage ditches. Really I needed wellies on the day. It would be a great shame if the wood is permanently damaged, here’s hoping the maintenance work is on reducing the water.
