All of the work over the past month from everyone involved with lambing live is starting to show with little lambs beginning to grow in size, some of the first lambs to be born this year are looking strong and still bouncing around the fields.
The lambs are gradually weaned onto the grass (even though they try to nibble on the grass early and struggle to digest it) they will see their mother feeding constantly on it because she has to keep up the demand of milk from her babies. Around six to eight weeks after birth the lamb’s own digestive system is developed enough to eat grass and then the lambs will move onto grass all the time when the supply of milk starts to withdraw. So within a month you will see lots of the lambs trying to eat the grasses alongside their mother.
Sheep have been the focus recently and it has been just as important to keep all of the other sheep (not mothers with lambs) in good condition for the summer months to come. Some of last year’s lambs are still at the reserve but are feeding in the fields of grass in different areas to where the lambing live event was held.
The Estate team have been adding a fence line that allows the sheep to be gathered up and funnelled into a section where they can easily be handled for movement to a new field, it also allows the sheep to be health checked and sorted into groups in the future. My picture below shows Ian and Peter, two of the team of volunteers that have been working today in the field whilst the sheep have been watching how we've got on.
A rise in the temperatures as spring goes forward is allowing all of the lush grasslands, hedgerows and wildflower habitats to burst out into the air and bring out the best of spring with greenery in abundance.
Some of the birds that have been sighted over the past couple of days include both the male and female Garganey – the duck that favours breeding sights in southern England in the past, maybe it’s about to start breeding more regularly in the north east?
The sedge warblers are about and singing from deep in the reeds, occasionally with the slight view of the male sliding down the reeds. The first early sightings of swift are in, five have been seen.Near the Phil Stead hide you can see the tree sparrows and they are collecting nest material currently.
The avocets are about on the reserve and at coupon marsh. Wheater sit on the fence posts around the reserve including the walk up to the Saltholme pools hide. The yellow wagtail appears around the hides, photographers will have the chance to get some good pictures at the moment with the contrasts between the fresh new grasses and the stand out yellow chest of the wagtails.
- Josh McGowan