Highgate Common 3rd August 2011

Today was very hot (for me that is) and as I don't like the heat I decided to hold off a bit and go for an evening stroll when the temperatures had subsided somewhat. This proved to be a stroke of genius as the evening light over Highgate was just right for some landscape shots. The sky looked lovely too.

We did even more bracken bashing on Tuesday and we found three types of heather in one area. I was hoping to get some photos of the heather this evening but all the cross leaved heath (Erica tetralix) was in shade - not so good for photography.

I did manage to get some photos of the Bell Heather (Erica cinerea) before the sun dropped too low.

Erica cinerea

Erica cinerea

It is quite easy to tell the difference from Bell Heather and Common Heather as the flowers are enclosed in a "bell like" structure on Bell Heather, whilst Common Heather has an open flower. Cross leaved heath has a similar flower structure to the Bell Heather, but the single leaves form a cross shaped grouping of four on the stem. In Bell heather the leaves are in tight clusters, or whorls, of three.

Other sightings of note were a Green Woodpecker, a party of Linnets, a low flying Common Buzzard, a few Tree Pipits flitting around and some Gatekeeper and Small Heath butterflies.

Enjoy the landscape shots below... or don't... it's up to you ;-)