My particular reason for visiting Knocking Hoe last weekend was to see the rare Burnt-tip Orchid. This pocket of chalk grassland is home to various other orchid species. A passer by identified the one shown above as a Common Spotted Orchid coming into flower. Not so rare but no longer common due to habitat loss.

 NB I was somewhat critical of the way in which the colony of Burnt-tip Orchids is fenced off. I have since read that this small section of hillside is the only site in East Anglia and the East Midlands where the species survives. In that sense the wish to protect them is understandable.