Space Aliens Found

I have come to conclusion that for the searching naturalist:

% success = [ d/(36 x c) + (0.9 x g) ]%


where:
d = number of days per year out in the field
g = quality of gen (0=non-existent or crap, 100=top quality gen)
c = dependent on which country you are in. For UK use approx 1. For Sweden use approx. c= 100. This is because Sweden is one huge wildlife habitat with only a few bits that are crap. The inverse is, sadly, true of the UK.

Normally, this means you can find what you are after in the UK much more easily, whereas in Sweden you can search for days and the forests seem deathly quiet.

But even in the UK, where the likely areas of habitat are relatively small, it seems for orchids at least, you still need good gen. After a couple of days of trying to find some bee orchids at likely looking places, I gave up and managed to get hold of some good solid gen. Many thanks to Graham for the supply of this.

Bee orchid. 8 spikes at the first site.

I managed to miss the showers and they looked good against the dark sky

is it just me, or does it actually look like that space alien 'Stitch' from disney's "Lilo and Stitch"? I just can't make a bee out at all.

also southern marsh orchid at same site

and common broomrape. I think it was parasitic on the clover

Nearby was the pale St. John's wort. Check out those black-dotted sepals.

At another coversands site, I couldn't find the bee orchids, but I was impressed and flummoxed by this. I guess it is some kind of sedge but couldn't find it in any of my references.

At a third site, there was 2 bee orchid spikes, several southern marsh orchids and these common spotted orchids.