30 Days Wild | Day 15 - orchid mayhem, then time to relax!

For Day 15 of 30 Days Wild, I was looking forward to relaxing a bit. I thought things would calm down after my oceanography exam last week but what with various things piling up while I was doing revision, and more things cropping up subsequently, I hadn't really had any chance to chill out. So I'd planned to set some time aside to sit out in the garden and read on Day 15.

Before that though, while I was walking to work in the morning, I was on the lookout for the orchid I'd found last week. Not only did I see it, but I discovered a further two orchids nearby which must have started flowering over the weekend! I'm fairly certain now that the first one I found was a Southern Marsh-orchid, and of the two I found yesterday, one was a Southern Marsh and the other a Common Spotted.

Today's new discoveries - had to hoist myself up a steep bank via a tree branch to get closer photos!

Last week's Southern Marsh-orchid (Dactylorhiza praetermissa) is now in full flower.

Newly-discovered Southern Marsh-orchid (Dactylorhiza praetermissa).

Newly-discovered Common Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii).

I came across the Orchid Observers project via Twitter yesterday so am going to submit my sightings to that too.

Once I'd got home, I was ready for some chill-out time. But what to read? I've a large stack of books awaiting attention, seeing as I rarely have any time for reading things that aren't Open University textbooks. In the end I went for browsing my brand new copy of the BTO Collins Guide to British Birds. This arrived a couple of weeks ago and is excellent, it uses bang up-to-date distribution data from the Bird Atlas, has amazing and carefully-chosen photographs, and includes loads of super-handy identification tips. My favourite features are the calendar wheels, which show the likelihood of the species being seen in the UK month-by-month, and the 'default species' section - a set of common species from each main group, once familiar with these they can be used as a yardstick by which to identify other less common species.

Mmmmm.

After half an hour enjoying this in the garden, with House Sparrows chirruping in the bushes and House Martins fluttering overhead, I was feeling much calmer and ready to crack on with the rest of my evening!