Bee Orchids with no bees to love them

My son says there are Bee Orchids at Berry Head and that his colleague has seen them and given him exact directions to find them. I’d love to see them so we set off. It takes us an hour of searching and we have to ask in the Café, but eventually we find them and then – they are everywhere! It helps if you know what you’re looking for and then you can ‘get your eye in’. Now we know what colour they really look, and how big they are and which way they face and how high the flowers are we’re shouting ‘found one’ at frequent intervals.

I’ve brought my camera with a macro lens so I’m hoping it’s not too windy.

I move in a little closer:

And then closer still, hoping I can get the focus just right:

Lovely. What a cheerful little fellow this flower is. It’s tragic that the species of bee which pollinates the Bee Orchid doesn’t live in the UK. Bee Orchids are all alone with no-one to pollinate them.

Self-pollination it is, then.