Guest blog by Laura Smith, Portmore Lough warden
At this time of year breeding wader birds, mostly lapwings, have finished nesting in the wet meadows and Portmore’s resident herd of konik ponies have moved on to pastures new – the fen.
‘Konik’ is the Polish word for pony and they are a hardy breed, withstanding all sorts of inclement weather and acting as ‘living lawnmowers’ to munch the ground into the perfect condition for ground-nesting birds.
The fen is the long strip of wetland habitat that lies between the reedbed and the wet grassland. It makes up an important part of the Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) at Portmore Lough.
The restoration of the fen began a few years ago when the land cleared of willow and alder scrub that had overgrown this important habitat. The fen needs to be grazed each year to keep the habitat in good shape - that’s where the ponies come in.
Konik ponies are particularly well adapted for grazing on wetlands, and they like to browse the vegetation, eating lots of different types of plant.
The combination of grazing and trampling the vegetation prevents the fen from becoming rank and overgrown, and encourages a wide variety of different plant species to grow more vigorously.
The fen was well grazed by the ponies last year and as a result, the number of flowering herbaceous plants has really increased this year. The fen is awash with the purples and yellows of loosestrife, blue forget-me-not and the yellow heads of nodding-bur marigold bob in the breeze.
The koniks were moved onto the fen in July and the team here at Portmore kept a careful eye on them. Ponies can become overweight and suffer health problems in the summer months because the vegetation is particularly lush and nutritious. We use a temporary fence across the fen and they graze the area in sections so that we can control how much rich vegetation they have access to and keep an eye on their weight.
This means that every couple of weeks, the team have to move the temporary fence to allow the ponies to graze a new area. The koniks are generally even-tempered animals and are usually easy to work with and move to new ground. There are a few personalities that stand out from the group, and these are firm favourites with staff and volunteers.
By the end of September, the fen will be well grazed down and the ponies will be grazing alongside the boardwalk to the hide before moving back onto their usual territory in the breeding wader meadows, ready for winter grazing of lapwing habitat in preparation for next spring.