First Northern Marsh Orchid

Last year we reported the first flowering of a Golspie northern marsh orchid on 26th May - see post here - so this year's first, found today, is a day later. It's the same one, growing beside the exit road from the Dunrobin Castle visitors' car park, so northern marsh orchids are both reliable and punctual.

As with last year, we carried out a thorough search for other northern marsh orchids around this one - there are usually around twenty scattered along the grass verge - but didn't find any. One wonders why this individual is programmed to flower before any of its neighbours.

We wouldn't have found it had we not, having walked to the castle with the wind on our backs, decided to return through the rather calmer woods. In the blustery conditions there was little to see along the shore - a few oystercatchers, seven cormorants, and sundry crows and gulls - of which only the gulls seemed to be enjoying the conditions.