Thursday 6 September 2012

Feeding Party

When cattle have been on site they've spent a lot of time in the area around the first gate onto the moor south of Cowsick and alongside the sheep grazed enclosure. They’ve been off the moor now since the middle of August though nobody has said why. I have several theories, one of which is that the Natural England Officer was visiting the site two weeks later and might have seen the effects of the cows on the paths.( She would then have found it harder to dismiss my comments.)


Before the cows were brought on deer had been regular visitors to this part of the site. Afterwards they were rarely seen. The same happened last year. Is this causation, correlation or coincidence? Deer have tended to be seen more when cattle have been removed. Last autumn was a little different in that the hinds were occupying the eastern woods and slopes and stags from the west needed to get to them, so a party of one dominant stag and several hinds became established for a time during the rut also attracting other interested stags from time to time.




Now with the cows being off a party of hinds and their young have been happily enjoying some of the more wooded parts of Blacka Hill not very far from a favourite crop and crap zone for cattle. Would they be there if the cows were back? Maybe now they've established the habit. Anyway we may find out soon.

There's not much better to be seen than this. You might think that people working for conservation organisations would put a premium on scenes of natural wildlife such as this. But it forms absolutely no part of their agenda.




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