Our lovely Highland cows have been playing hide and seek with our wardens and volunteers - you can see from Mike's photo they blend in pretty well with the bracken out on the heath!
Six of the herd are currently munching their way through the birch, bramble and grasses out on the heath which helps give the heather a bit of a helping hand. It's tricky for the more diminutive heather plants to become established amongst the fast growing birch, bracken and bramble. Whilst the cattle won't eat the bracken (nothing much does!) they do a pretty good job of barging their way through it, squashing the stems and slowly helping us to get the upper hand (that is wishful thinking perhaps - it is a constant battle).
The rest of the herd are still out on the South Brooks, although with all of this rain they will be starting to get soggy hooves... perhaps they'll be moving up to higher ground sometime soon. Enjoying the rising water levels are elegant pintail and a noisy, squabbling 'pantheon' of black-tailed godwits.