I Love The Smell of Goats in The Morning!

BUT.... Only if it's emanating from one of these!

The Lizard Orchid, as well as looking bizarre it is said to smell of billy goat.

I thought I was going to have to travel to Newmarket in Cambridgeshire to see one of these, but very early this morning I made the hour long journey to a secret location in Somerset where at least fifty of these were growing (probably many more). I thought that the supposed goat aroma had been a bit exaggerated because they did smell vaguely of goat but only if you got real close and sniffed.... I was VERYwrong. When the sun came out and gently warmed them they didn't half hum, and yes, exactly like a billy goat! Perhaps the smell attracts horse flies!?

A couple of close-ups of the flowers, which are said to resemble a lizard, hence the name. The extremely long central lobe of the lip looks like the tail and the shorter side lobes the rear legs. There doesn't appear to be a front half of the lizard though!

Late morning Bun and I popped over to a site on Woodbury Common hoping to see Silver-studded Blue butterflies (which neither of us had seen before). We weren't to be disappointed either, for the site in question was festooned with them, little blue gems glistening in the sun as they perched on the ling flowers and gorse.

Male

Female. The females have a habit of rubbing their fore wings rhythmically over their hind wings, probably to aid the release of pheromones, but making photos difficult!

Underside of female showing 'silver studs'

A couple of little gems.

A couple more.

There were also plenty of these. Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Also a few of these- a gorgeous male Green Hairstreak,

Bun spotted this Common Lizard basking in a sunny patch deep within the undergrowth.
Not the best photo, coz some of its head's missing but I like the way you can tell that it's 'clocked me'!

This yellow moth was one to look up when I got home. And I did.
It's a male Clouded Buff

Also today I took Rex for a wander round at The Yacht Club, and was surprised to see this unusual construction taking shape.

Oh no! I've always thought the Axe logo (see gable end of building) was a little sinister. Now they appear to be building a scaffold! When will the beheadings commence!? And perhaps more importantly how will the finished structure affect the seawatching!!?

Just to add a snippet of bird related info, four nice speckly juvenile Stonechats were on Axe Cliff on Thursday and they looked just like this: