FLYING FLOCK

Please excuse the time differences, as I am writing these notes in January! The flock has increased in size quite considerably as the result of a good lambing last spring. The ewes came to me at Keith Hills until they had lambed and then went to either the Laurennie field at Bankhead or Blebo Craigs to make it easy to keep an eye on them while they were small.

Last year Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) changed the way prescriptions are set for the care of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). This meant we were able to do some summer grazing in an attempt to reduce the vigour of the more dominant grasses. We took the opportunity to graze part of Lielowan from late May until the end of July. It did of course mean there were not many wild flowers, but I have never seen the salad burnet so abundant.

We also grazed the North and Central sections of Fleecefaulds from mid-July, once the lambs were big enough. On the few sunny days, the sight of hundreds of peacock butterflies was quite amazing; but where have all the small tortoiseshells gone? I saw very few.

We put the Hebrideans along with some Shetlands on the Moss at Bankhead in April, just as the birch started to come into leaf, and they were there until early August. They certainly stripped large areas of the birch seedlings and it appears that most have been killed, but we will have to wait till spring to find out exactly how successful we have been.

At the end of July we started putting the sheep onto Kilminning and many of them were still there at end January. They have done a good job at clearing the really rubbishy dead grass and we hope that this will improve the site considerably. What an amazing amount of buried litter they have uncovered: I have picked up bags full.

We are lambing again this spring. The Hebrideans are being bred pure and we have very kindly been lent a fine tup by Mr and Mrs Johnston, members living near Biggar. The Shetlands are going to have Cheviot X lambs which are more commercial than pure ones.

Laura and I would like to thank very much all the volunteers who have helped us with the checking.

Tim Brain