Meadow thistle

Just back from 9 hours walking the commons with the ranger to select 36 locations for fixed point photography. The aim is to take photographs from the same fixed points at quarterly intervals which, over time, will demonstrate whether the grazing programme is meeting the aim of helping to restore the heathland habitat. One of the species we stumbled across was the meadow thistle which is locally scarce, I'm told its only found at five sites in Sussex and is likely to disappear here if the heathland habitat isn't maintained.