On one of the hottest days of the year so far, a group of intrepid explorers (or LWT peat team members) were advancing on Winmarleigh Moss SSSI to undertake a survey of large heath butterflies – a rare little butterfly that is a peatland specialist and once common across our region.

Before even opening the gate onto site, we stopped to watch a glorious brown hare lolloping across a nearby field, taking it’s time in the sunshine. Just the first of the wildlife wonders that were in store...

As we entered the nature reserve the wonderful panorama opened up in front of us. The huge blue sky was speckled with hazy smears of cloud, and the ground below us radiated in different shades of green and burnt umber, with the nodding heads of cotton grass looking like a gentle sprinkling of snow.

Surveying for large heath butterflies is a weekly job in early summer, allowing us to monitor the population for signs of growth or change. Set points are marked across the bog and transects are walked between these, counting the number of butterflies that are seen in each section.

What sounds like a relaxing summer stroll is rarely that however. Peatlands are hard to walk, with deep pools, uneven ground, thick vegetation and boggy terrain. Traversing a peatland should only be attempted by the professionals, as unless you know where you are walking there is danger both to yourself and to the sensitive plants and animals that you may come across.

But, as we are the professionals, off we went – and how were we rewarded.

In the space of little more than an hour we counted over 20 large heath butterflies, two engaged in a courtship display, showing that their population is doing really well. The heather and cotton grass were also alive with latticed heath moths, small skipper and red admiral butterflies, and lots of flighty white micro moths that disappeared too fast for us to identify them.

If we turned our gaze upwards, we were rewarded with a buzzard gracefully soaring in the warm air, a kestrel hovering for prey, and meadow pipits singing their high piping call.

However, walking across a bog requires your eyes to mainly be on the ground – but this is rarely a hardship. Even in the midst of some seriously hot dry weather patches of sphagnum moss squelched as we met them. Radiant in jewel tones, sphagnum moss brings so much colour to our peatlands. Ranging from lime green to deep emerald tones the green mosses such as sphagnum palustre and sphagnum cuspidatum provide the backdrop to the real showstoppers. Sphagnum pulcrum shines like nuggets of gold just waiting to be discovered. Sphagnum medium is a deep ruby red, and sphagnum subnitens brings flashes of orange and umber.

And criss-crossing the sphagnum were strands of bright scarlet bog cranberries. The berries themselves were just starting to ripen into little red baubles, strung together on red stalks of green and orange tipped leaves.

But an even brighter burst of red was brought by the round-leaved sundews. These tiny plants with their bright red leaves tipped with droplets of sticky ‘dew’ seem to pop up whenever you least expect them. Laying quietly in wait for an inset to become trapped on that dew before the leaves curl up to devour them.

And we can’t forget the dragonflies and damselflies. Breeding pairs of four-spotted chaser dragonflies flitted around the bog pools, and a group of three azure damselflies were spotted. And then the real treat came with an enormous emperor dragonfly, it’s shimmering green thorax and turquoise tail glittering in the sunshine.

So, for anyone that thinks bog and boring, maybe it’s time to think again.