Download PDF - Nature in Cambridgeshire

at its best in the sunshine, with the fresh green foliage on the trees. Admittedlythe bluebells were nearly over, and the oxlips completely so, butthere were many other flowers to admire. Perhaps the Yellow Archangel,whichis surprisingly common here, was themost strikingwildflower, buttheBugles were very fine and there were plenty of Early Purple Orchids about.The main party was under the leadership of Mr William Palmer, whoknows the wood extremely well. They followed the main Nature Trailwhich has been laid out to show the chief characteristics of the site to advantage,but the leader had much other information to give them about thebotany of the wood and such matters as the effect of coppicing.A smaller party, whose main interest centred round birds, went off withMr A. E. Vine, who was able to show them something of the bird population.Inevitably in a wood this had largely to be done by listening to birdsong. Amongst the many birds heard, the blackcaps, willow-warblers andchiff-chaffs seemed particularly prominent. The party also obtained a goodview of a pair of marsh tits. And just when one member had remarked onthe scarcity of cuckoos generally, one started up and continued calling formost of the afternoon.Although the tracks of the local herd of deer were very noticeable inmany parts of the wood, no one obtained a sight of them. But as the totalarea of the reserve is some 120 acres, it is not difficult to hide in it.Saturday, 28 June, Annual Orchid Count at Thriplow MeadowsThere was an excellent turn-out of some 25 members on a fine andsunny morning for this annual operation. The count was organised byMr R. Williams and Mr Speak of the local management committee. Therewas a splendid display of orchids, and it will be seen that the results stillreflect the trends shown in recent years. It is satisfactory to note a completerecovery from the low totals counted in 1965 and 1966. The results areshown below:1967 1968 1969Strip I (grazed by horses) 607 1174 1538Strip I1 (cut) 124 370 269Strip 111 (untouched 'control') 66 245 637Strip IV (grazed by cows) 1252 1108 1241It should be pointed out that the original experiment is no longer beingcarried out.The local committee opened the Reserve to the general public from noonuntil 6 p.m. They had signposted a walk through all three meadows and theosier wood. All the meadows showed large numbers of orchids, and visitorswere particularly struck by the fantastic number of Twayblade plants in theosier wood.15