Searching for heather

Today, Mr S decided we should go and look for the heather on the common, we know that heather grows on the common but it isn't that easy to find.

So we set off in totally the wrong direction and watched these brown hawker dragonflies laying their eggs in the brook.

then we headed into the centre of the common and came across an area of wild mint.

the mint proved a huge attraction for various insects, moths and butterflies.

Small coppers were flitting about all over the place

and we also saw a few fast moving common blue butterflies which didn't settle long in any one place so I spent quite a bit of time chasing after these before they landed long enough for me to catch up and try to photograph!

Moths were flying about all around us including these.I am not even going to try and identify these!

And there were grasshoppers jumping all over the place too. I think this is a meadow grasshopper, is it?

Cotton grass, eriophorum

eventually we came across a few small low lying clumps of heather calluna vulgaris, we didn't manage to find the erica sp. although it is also found on the common.

and more teasels