Tuesday 3rd March - Sheep off-site!

Hi team!

All 37 sheep have been taken off site today to head back to our farm for some summer grazing. This will hopefully allow the wildflowers at Broughton a good chance to grow and become a great nectar source for all of the wonderful invertebrates that we have on the site. Thanks to the volunteer work party today that helped us round the sheep up rather successfully! Photos below of our sheep, all in the corral, being treated with Clik, a preventative treatment to stop flystrike. 

Thank you for all of your efforts over this winter and for your brilliant reports.

I appreciate lots of you have lots of summer commitments but if people would like to continue walking the site and posting updates on this blog - that would be greatly appreciated. I appreciate this may not be as regular as your current checks, nor would it need to be - but having people reporting incidents, barbecues, fallen trees or broken infrastructure over the summer months would be very useful to us as reserves staff. Happy to have a chat with anyone that might be interested!

Thanks again,

Andy

Monday 2nd March

 Found all 37 sheep and all look fit and healthy :-

- 6 WFW and 2 Shetlands near the NE gate.

- 9 WFW on the western Slope.

- 5 WFW and 15 Shetlands at the bottom of the western slope near/in the bushes.

Water troughs are full, Sheep nuts close to empty.

All gates and fences are fine.

No dogs or walkers seen in  the Compartment.

Sunday 1st March

 Full headcount of sheep this morning, all on the furthest side of the middle section. Water tank is brim full but there is only a small amount of food left, we used just a handful to get them all out of the bushes!

Pippa     pp. David & Gaynor Simpson

Wednesday 25th of February

All 37 sheep found (sorry when I originally published this I didn't provide the total). 

Misty morning with Kites flying and, surprisingly as it's 20 past 9, tawny owl calling; I thought it was only me who was running late this morning. 

Western side of the down has five wfw and one Shetland.

Central section of down has 16 Shetland, and 15 wfw. Well that was easier than usual.

Water troughs and gates all ok, no walkers, dogs or, sadly, fox, seen.

Staff Update - Friday 27th

Hi all,

Just to confirm for our weekend crew - there should be 37 sheep. 

Looks like we haven't had a full count since the beginning of the week so please try to make sure you find them all if you can. 

Thanks!

Andy

Friday 27 February

 20 pretty clean spritely looking WFW conveniently situated in Central near Eastern gate & along bottom fence. 16 Shetlands nearby too. I stopped looking at 36 convincing myself that was currently the magic number. Didn't see anyone else, no issues. Both species are beginning to moult.

Monday 23rd February

 Found all 37 Sheep fit and healthy up towards Plum Pudding (very easy to find this week).

All gates and fences are fine, all gates have Livestock grazing signs.

Water troughs are full. Sheep Nuts are empty, possibly enough for when the sheep leave site.

I also saw a Fox just under 20m ahead of me walking down the Clarendon Way, lots of commotion 

from the birds just before and after seeing it.

No dogs or walkers seen on nature reserve.