Heaven part 4

On Thursday my lovely orchid friends went on a trip to Noar Hill just over the county border in Hampshire. Sadly I couldn't join them as I was working, but I received an email from my friend Linda the following day telling me to go for a visit ASAP as it was truly spectacular!
Well....she wasn't wrong!
I went today with my lovely Son in law Arran, I have never been to Noar Hill before, and it was wonderful, chalk grassland at it's very best.
We saw so many Common spotted and Pyramidal orchids it was very difficult at times not to tread on them! we also saw a single Fly orchid and Common twayblades and Fragrant orchids no longer at their best, but hanging on.
But best of all, we also saw the two orchids this site is famed for, which we especially went to see....the Frog orchid (tiny and so hard to photograph) and this tiny beauty the diminutive but beautiful Musk orchid (Herminium monorchis ). Despite being a commonly occurring species of orchid , widespred across much of Europe, and northern Asia it's distribution in the UK is quite localised on short Chalk grassland.
It is tiny usually about 6cm tall and a beautiful pale yellow / green colour that blends well with the background, you really need to get an eye in just to see them!
When we left the Nature reserve, on the path out I managed to photograph a Marbled white and Dark green fritillary butterfly.
All in all an excellent 3 hours!