With the help of our brilliant team of volunteers, we’re always busy on the reserve throughout the year; whether it’s working in the reedbed, tackling willow scrub, fixing fences, checking water levels or undertaking various wildlife surveys to name just a small proportion of what we do!
However, there is often little mention of another group that also works hard to help keep our habitats just right – our four legged friends!
Lincoln Reds by Katherine Puttick
Here at Lakenheath, thanks to local farmer Granger, we have a mixture of animals grazing on the reserve and it’s this diversity that provides us with the variation in habitat that we are aiming for. So how do we decide what animals to use where?
To put things in a general perspective cattle are selective (you could say fussy!) grazers and will leave a varied vegetation structure, a nice mixture of long and short grass. This is great for birds like snipe which like to nest in grassy tussocks with lower surrounding vegetation.
We have cattle grazing on almost all our drier grassland throughout the year to help control vegetation levels, including along the riverbank public footpath. If you walked along there earlier this year you probably bumped into a few of them as they did have a habit of standing on the path!
Hereford cow on the riverbank by Tim James
Sheep are a little less selective about what they eat and will graze vegetation down to very short, uniform heights; perfect for nesting lapwing. They also play an important part in battling ragwort – a job that takes up a lot of our time during the summer months. We have to remove ragwort due to its poisonous properties for livestock, especially if it’s in an area where we take a hay crop. However, sheep will eat ragwort in its very early stages preventing it getting to the point where it can flower and set seed – every little helps!
Spot the sheep by Katherine Puttick
Down at the far end of the reserve in Botany Bay we have a mixture of animals, the ground is a lot wetter in the grazing marsh so we need livestock that can cope with wet underfoot (or should that be under-hoof?!) conditions. So, bring on the highland cattle – these hardy beasts can not only cope with the muddy ground but any extremes that the weather may throw at them, they will also eat some of the coarser vegetation that other species will avoid.
Botany Bay highlands by Katherine Puttick
But my favourite of all the animals grazing on the reserve have to be the Dartmoor ponies, who are currently residing in Botany Bay along with the cattle. They too will eat some of the coarser vegetation and being very hardy, are able to cope in all weathers and don’t seem to mind wandering around in the mud either.
Botany Bay ponies by Katherine Puttick
Our grazing animals do an amazing job on the reserve, controlling vegetation that otherwise has the potential to cost us a lot of time and money to deal with - green conservation at it’s best! So next time you -visit us, make sure to look out for the rest of the Lakenheath team; our four legged friends!