Orchids coming through at last

I was fretting about the number of Common Spotted Orchids on our site this year as not only did there seem very few about but with a plague of rabbits and slugs some of the few that did appear were getting damaged. Up until the rain arrived on Tuesday I had counted only 15 in total (cf last year there 32). After a couple of days off searching due to heavy rain I took a walk around this morning and found 12 newly blooming orchids to take this year's total up to 27. With a bit of luck we might equal or surpass last year at this rate but even 27 seems respectable in the circumstances. The total, including both fields, has gone as follows: 2011 - 14 orchids 2012 - 11 orchids 2013 - 32 orchids 2014 (so far) - 27 orchids It will be interesting to see whether my fastidious management (including this year putting up cages to keep the rabbits at bay) helps to increase that total significantly over the years. The picture above is three of the new ones found today.