Our recording team have been out doing the annual recording of 12 fixed quadrats on Thurstaston Common. This is a long-running programme of monitoring the heathland for the National Trust, started by Andrew Brockbank over 20 years ago.
So that is why Hilary, Tay and Mathilde are deep in heather and western gorse - photographed by the fourth member of this year's team, June.
Finding the pegs which mark each quadrat is half the job, especially when the heather is tall like this. A combination of GPS, measurements from landmarks, a metal detector - and good old-fashioned searching.
The data help assess how well the management programme is going, comparing quadrats inside and outside the grazing paddocks. So if you happen to see a metal bar sticking a few inches up from the ground when walking on Thurstaston Common - please leave it alone, it marks a permanent quadrat.
