Today I went to help move some Highland cattle from the South Levels with Andy, Ian and Ricky. Ian’s pretty skilled with herding ponies and livestock à la quad bike, and it didn’t take long for the cattle to be driven down the public footpath towards Eastbridge and into a corral (a small enclosure for holding livestock), of course checking that there were no unfortunate walkers in the way first! The cows are pretty docile, but it’s their pointy horns that put you off getting too close! Once in the corral, Andy gave them all a blue-tongue injection before we moved them by trailer to Meadow Marsh. Yesterday I was also fortunate enough to be involved with moving some of the Konik Polski ponies from the North Warren reserve back to Minsmere. These animals are docile and friendly too, but particularly stubborn! It took quite a lot of effort to get them into the livestock trailer, but thankfully not much at all to get them out again.
This afternoon I’ve been regrettably stuck in the office learning about mapping software and writing emails, newsletters and blogs. I suppose I can’t be out of the office all the time! There have been reports of a number of common cranes flying north over the reserve- up to seven I’ve heard mentioned- with one reportedly landing on the Minsmere Levels, but later flying off. Other sightings across the reserve have included:
Across the reserve we are busy getting ready for our Spring Celebration this coming weekend (24- 25 April). We will be setting up a marquee for the optics team (binoculars, scopes etc) tomorrow afternoon, and a believe the Waveney Bird Club have already been in today to set up their ‘ringing rides’ for bird ringing demonstrations over the weekend. Over the weekend staff and volunteers will be scattered across the reserve to show people the wildlife we have at Minsmere. We hope to be able to show you some of the key species we have in the areas we know they’ll be! Come and find us to find out about the species and the management work that goes into keeping Minsmere great for wildlife.