16th - 21st June.....More Orchids & Poppies.

16th.  Once the rain had stopped this afternoon I checked the grave yard at The Lee Church for Orchids, finding 76 Common Spotted Orchids growing between the graves, seeing them in flower you can appreciate why this spot has a BBOWT conservation award. At another site in the village 106 Common Spotted Orchids were in flower, along with a Painted Lady battling with the windy conditions. I don't usually feed the birds during the summer, but after all the rain last week have been doing at bit of supplementary feeding, which has attracted a juvenile Coal Tit. A pair of House Martins calling low over our house this evening is an encouraging sign.
18th. Marsh Tit & Great Spotted Woodpecker put in an appearance at the feeder, along with plenty of young Blue & Great Tits, they've had a good breeding season.
19th. Pleased to find three broken House Martin's eggs below the nest on the neighbouring house, how the birds escaped my watchful eyes I'm not quite sure, as they've not been obvious during the day, possibly with one bird incubating the other has been leaving early in the morning hawking insects over the nearest areas of water, returning in the evening, when I'm writing this stuff.

21st. Stopped briefly to check the Grass Verge Nature Reserve at the Shardeloes roundabout, as I happened to be passing, where a Buzzard sat surveying the scene.

Estimate at least a couple of Hundred Pyramidal Orchids in flower on the verge, last year counted over seven hundred.
Kestrel swooped very low through the garden. Where a recently fledged brood of Robins are constantly calling. A pair of Dunnocks feeding chicks in the nest in a neighbours Laurel hedge.
The Poppy field on the road out of Chesham towards Great Missenden is looking more impressive than ever this year, guess it's the continually spreading of the seeds from the previous summers, it's a dangerous place to stop, but that hasn't put folks off, as seems to be turning into a local tourist attraction, also a couple of fields looking fine near the Firecrest pub out towards Wendover.
Don.