FlowersAmong the many and more beautiful of our common wild
flowers that grow beside the Tweed are the marsh marigold, or
kingcup, loosestrife, purple and yellow, ragged robin and
devil's-bit scabious. The beautiful and rare include seven
orchids: the purple dactylorrhiza - illutrated here, northern
marsh and twayblade (in damp meadows and woods}; lesser
twayblade (on heather moors); heath spotted (on acid soil);
bird's nest (in beechwoods). From June to August one might, with
less than amazing luck, see the duck (but not the drake - the
drake has absconded) leading a flotilla of up to twelve
ducklings buffeting themselves like mad against the current; a
memorable- sight. Buzzards can be relied on to appear, usually
at a great height, mewing. Short-eared owl, peregrine falcon,
sparrow-hawk and kestrel are also often seen. And from autumn to
spring great flocks of geese, pink-footed and greylag, fly from
and back to the frozen north, spread against the sky in
arrowhead or zig-zag order and calling to each othe