The heathers finally bloomed extensively. The bright violet colors of bell heathers and ling heathers were so eye-catching.

In the summer, there was not much conservation work. Summer is the season of flowering and thus in summer, the volunteers spent most of their time on recording the types, the numbers and the location of the rare plants for monitoring their growth. The major rare plant they are working to protect is the marsh gentian, a rare plant of wet heathland that has declined markedly this century. Before summer came and from April, they made wire cages to cover the new leaves of the plant for protecting them from treading by the rabbits and other animals.

Early August, the plant finally flowered. Their delicate blue flowers did not come easily.

Then in mid August, their flowering has almost finished and volunteers removed the weeds surrrouding them and hoped their seeds could be dispersed and there would be more flowers next year.

I never like snakes, especially the poisonous ones. However, the volunteers of Buxton Heath are fans of insects and reptiles such as adders (the only poisonous snake native to Britain and are protected animals in Britain, see the left picture below) and slow worms (legless lizards and are protected animals in Britain, see the middle picture below).

April - May is their mating season when they come out from hibernation. The volunteers recorded and monitored the number of adders and slow worms during that period. They also created some basking places for these animals - tin sheets (see the right picture above). Whenever they found them, they were always excited while I usually just glanced at them and walked away.  

Last week, I have done something I could not believe myself - I cut off the gorses along the bank, just for those adders and slow worms! The reason is that they are cold-blooded but we human beings are warm-blooded (full of love). They hibernate from September to March and they need basking (sun bath) for keeping their bodies warm. They are living along the bank in Buxton Heath. If we do not cut off the gorses, they may grow so densely to block the sunshine reaching them. Anyway, I have done something good for them and for their offsprings even though I do not have a heart for them (the left and the middle pictures below show the gorses bushes before and after my cutting respectively).