Friday 29 January 2010

Under Pressure


This must be a hard time for those animals that spend their lives wholly outdoors in tough conditions. Having survived one of the longest wintry spells of recent years they had a brief respite over the last fortnight. Yet there's much of the winter still to come and recent cold nights must have been hard to take.

If the lone stag seen this morning was the same as that seen yesterday, from this view he looked leaner. Animals on their own in slightly unfamiliar circumstances always raise concerns. Are they disorientated or under stress? This stag was in no hurry to move on. A badger yesterday afternoon was another surprising sight. There are many badgers and sets around Blacka but it's only rare you see one out in broad daylight. The picture just shows his back as he made off.

One sad sight yesterday was a dead ram in the sheep pasture. Only a few days ago we had seen him lying down sheltered by a low wall.
At the time there seemed something unusual about him. But then when seen previously he had always been semi-detached from the main herd. From the first appearnace a large ram on this exposed site had not seemed appropriate.

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