Holme Dunes Orchids & a Bonus

Orchids in the Dunes and a Bonus


Holmes Dunes is a reserve nestled away on the north Norfolk coast, boasting many different habitats including sand dune, shingle beach, mud flats and marshland.  It's crammed with all sorts of wildlife not least the natterjack toad, marsh harriers, an array of wading birds, and insects galore.

Amongst the abundant insects are the common blue butterfly, dark green fritillary and Roesal's bush cricket.

But the most abundant and easily spotted of all nature on the reserve has to be the wildflowers in the dunes and scrapes.

The pyramidal orchid was there in abundance today, with great deep colours:


Pyramidal Orchid - Olympus E-5 Body, Sigma 105mm Macro, 1/200s, f/5.6, iso 125


For me though, the standout orchid to see was the bee orchid - a mimic of the wild flower world that attracts male bees to it to mate and ultimately pollinate the plant.  We don't have the species of bee required for this in the UK, so our bee orchids are self pollinated.  What an awesome plant!

The following image was created using the magnificent but old Olympus E5 - once the flagship of the Olympus DSLR world - and boasting a meagre 12mp on the 2x crop sensor....it is still a fine camera for macro photography, and will be mine until it ceases to work.

I used my go-to macro settings on this (as anyone on my workshops will by now, know by heart) 1/125s - f/11 - iso125 and the Sigma 105mm f.2.8 macro lens handheld and fill-in flash to lift the shadows:

Bee Orchid - NWT Holme Dunes


Bonus!


The bonus of the day was this fab Roe Deer, making its way along the paths and sticking to them!!


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