Saturday 21st March

Lovely sunny day to enjoy the down and met one or two people. All looking good, robins singing, red kite hunting & the violets all peeping through. 

Pippa 

Sunday 15th March

We made a circuit of the Down this morning. Not a piece of rubbish anywhere. Half a dozen dog walking groups. Nothing unruly. Large poo lying by the path on the way to Plum Pudding. Further on, past the dip, the remains of a bonfire, with corn cob husks. There's the usual remains of a bonfire on Plum Pudding too.

Pippa   pp. David & Vicki Reynolds

Saturday 7th March

 Jim & Mary Whelton & Gwen McConnachie had a very enjoyable walk on the down - were impressed with the clearance that the working party have achieved. They heard a skylark

Pippa

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