Eleven Orchids

 

Valentines Day or what it actually should be called, Single Awareness Day. Cynical as I am, today it was all about flowers and I was all ready for the Annual Orchid Count... leave taken, cellphone and camera batteries were all charged, water bottles filled, sunblock, cap and a bandana for the neck, all my stuff was packed and ready when the clock hit 8 this morning. Last year it was drizzling and still I got sun burnt but today looked like it is going to be a scorcher before we even set out and it was.

 
I am not sure how many there were but about 20 counters set out into the Protea forested veld to look for the Albertina Sisulu Orchid. All in a row we search with keen eyes hoping to be the first to find this rare critically endangered orchid and it wasn't long before we found them.
 

 

Not often do we see one of the pollinators, a butterfly, not sure what type but a butterfly none the less.

 

Because it was so hot we didn't see as many animals as we did last year, this year I saw a fleeting glimpse of a duiker, a scrub hare, francolins, guinefowls, and quite a few insects. Nice to see the insects as there is a growing concern that insects are dying out by the millions. There was this one that looked like a dragonfly and battled to fly. I left the count line to try and get a good photo of it. After following it for a couple of metres I managed to get this photo (above) of an antlion.

 

Sadly we only managed to find 11 Albertina Silulu Orchids today. Another 2 were counted in the refuge area last week by a group from Wits University. Although we had good rains the previous month we don't know much about these beautiful and rare ground orchids. They only flower for a few weeks of the year, and it seems that they don't flower every year.