Another interesting day at Caesars Camp

This morning Alex and Elliot managed to return another stray cow to Caesars Camp. It was one of the Hereford crosses that is predominantly white with some black on it. The herd of 4 that have stuck together were seen at lunch time in Q4 (in the 'Whales Tail' near the corral). I spent much of the day at Caesars Camp trying to locate the individual cow so I could encourage it back to the main herd, so it wouldn't leave Caesars Camp whilst searching for them.

We got a call at lunch time from someone saying that they had a black cow in their garden! It was secure in the garden and wasn't a problem getting it into a trailer. It has now gone back to the grazier's farm to join the other 2 that were rescued from a different garden yesterday.

So to clarify... There are 5 cows on site. 4 in a herd and the white and black cow that was put back in this morning, and is on its own. I'll be on hand over the weekend so give me a call if needed on; 07770918372

Missing cow/cows update

After traipsing through much of the woods and most of the gardens (with consent, may I add) of Ewshot we decided to call it a day searching for the missing cow. As it stands there are deffinately 4 cows on Caesars Camp and almost certainely another individual (Black and White) on its own on the site. Hopefully they will regroup with time.

The 2 cows that were rescued from someone's garden have not been put back on site today, and have gone back to the grazier's farm for the time being.

The search will continue tomorrow, hopefully someone will have spotted it by then. We'll let you know of any changes to cattle numbers on Caesars Camp

Help find the missing cow!

The good news is that four of the cows are definitely inside caesar's camp fence. However, some of the cows have been sighted in Ewshot.

Alex, Mike, Elliott and Rob have managed to round up two cows into the trailer.

That leaves two missing cows. We think one is on site and one off site. Elliott is searching inside the fence and Alex is searching outside the fence.

We have checked the perimeter and gates and everything is stockproof. Apparently the army were training last night with blank rounds being fired. It is likely this spooked the cows and they either jumped the fence or got over the cattle grid. They will get used to the noises but we desperatley need them back inside the fence so they are safe from cars on the road, before dark at 5:30pm!!

You can help us by checking inside the fence to see if they are inside the fenceline.

Please can you call or text us with the squares you have searched.

Alex 07789 096330
Elliott 07833 387319
Mike 07770 918372
Rachel at the office 01256 381190 mob after 4:15pm 07786 678604

Our mobile phone batteries may run out, if you do find a cow, stay nearby and call through our numbers until someone answers.


Good luck!!
Rachel

snowy caesars camp

Wednesday 16.00. my first time up at Caesars since July, and what a shock cold and snow on the ground. i read the blog before leaving home and i thought the cattle would not have gone far from the gate, wrong, i cycled through the woods and over to the farnham road area, but eventually found them not far from Caesars camp at block 22-23, m-n. they were curious of me at first but soon resumed eating grass, all 8 were together and they looked fine. managed to get home before dark.

As Elliott's post says, the cattle have arrived back onto Caesar's Camp in a bit of a 'winter wonderland'.

All 8 were seen again at about 1pm in square S6. I finally got the tracking device to work, so the Grazing Project team should have less problem finding them. I'm afraid the bit of kit is expensive, so I can't give them out to every looker - much as I would love to!

Here are a couple of photos to make sure that you are checking the right animals! Thanks to Steve Blacker for coming along and taking the photos.

Cattle out onto Caesars Camp

Hello everyone,



Well, despite mother nature’s best efforts to delay our re-introduction of the cattle onto Caesars Camp I can now confirm that 8 cattle (all Hereford/Aberdeen Angus Crosses 5 black and three red) have been re-introduced onto the site, via the entrance at Beacon Hill Road.



Those eagle-eyed observers of you will notice that one of these cattle has a collar attached to it. This is in fact a radio collar which continually transmits a signal which will allow us to locate them with our receiver. This will really help us to monitor their movements when they are first put back onto the site. We as a project team will be checking the cows everyday, at least once, so rest assured if you cannot find this initially smaller herd that for the next fortnight at least we will have seen them.



All the best with your lookering and give me a call/text/email/blog if you need anything. Please remember to let us know how your lookering went,



Elliott

Lead poisoning

Hello all.
Thanks for reading the blog. We are fairly confident that all of the lead contamination has been removed from Caesar's Camp however we cannot be certain.
We are therefore taking a few cautionary measures to reduce the risk of further poisoning:

• we are only putting a very small number (4 or 5) of cattle out
• we will keep a very close eye on them - members of the team and the farmer will be checking them every day. We are using a radio tracker to locate them more quickly.
• we will report anything suspicious quickly to the farmer.

It would be great if you could help us out with this. Please keep to your rota (and any spare time you may have!) and keep a note of where you see them. If you see any strange behaviour, or any of the symptoms listed below please REPORT IT IMMEDIATELY. Thank you for your help.

Initial signs include depression, loss of appetite or occasionally diarrhoea. The central nervous system may be affected and cause cattle to grind their teeth, bob their head, or twitch their eyes or ears. Some animals may circle, press their head or body against objects, or become uncoordinated and stagger. Muscle tremors, excitement, mania, blindness or convulsions may also be seen.

Thanks Alex

Cattle back onto site this Wednesday 28th October

Hello everyone,

As promised I can now confirm that the cattle will be re-introduced this Wednesday on Caesars Camp. The time and number is still unconfirmed but it will probably be 5 cows, around midday. As soon as I know they are on I will email you all the exact details of what has been put back onto the site.

Therefore could I ask you to re-start your lookering duties as of this time. To help us with the close monitoring of the initial herd we would really appreciate it if you contacted us (by phone/text/email or blog) once you had done your lookering and let us know what you found or did not find and whereabouts you looked. This will help us keep an extra keen eye on their movements should anything else happen.

Just a quick re-cap on the grazing project team as it has changed a little bit recently:

Alex Cruickshank - Grazing Project Manager - 07789 096 330
Elliott Fairs - Grazing Project Officer - 07833 387319
Rachel Remnant - 07786 678604
(NEW!) Mike Morton - Assistant Grazing Project Officer - 07770 918372

Should you have any problems please call one of these numbers and please leave a message. Somebody is always on call over the weekend and although it may not be the person who you ring and leave a message with, that person will definitely forward the message immediately to the person who is on call, so that action can be taken to rectify the problem.

Having spoken to a number of you since the cattle have been off site I gather the level of motorbike activity has since increased so may I remind you that it is illegal for unauthorised motorbikes to be using the site and the only way we can resolve this problem is by reporting it to the Military Police on 02392 722707. Only by reporting it will sufficient resources be allocated to the Aldershot section of the Military Police to deal with the problem. This is exactly what we did last time and we made real headway with the problem so much so that we went for over a month without the fence being cut which is what we aim for again this time. However we can only do this with your help so please feel free to pass these details onto other site users who you may know who are not one of our official 'lookers'.

Once again, thank you all for your patience and understanding in what has been a particularly stressful and upsetting time with the lead situation. We hope that this situation is now behind us and we can get back to making the site better for wildlife and putting the missing piece of the jigsaw (the cows) back onto the site. We can only do this with all of your co-operation and help so a huge thank you in advance and I look forward to seeing you out on site again and hearing your lookering stories.

Elliott

Cattle Coming back - Hooooorah!

Hello all,

As you should have seen by now in your emails we have been given the all clear by the MoD to re-introduce cattle back onto Caesars Camp.

The grazier is happy to do this and the plan is to introduce a small number (5 or 6)of cows and monitor them closely.

Before we can do this we need to check the entire fence and make good any repairs so will be doing this hopefully on Monday 27th October. We will also be putting up new signs to say the site is grazed with our contact details etc on.

Hopefully by now you will have confirmed to me that you are happy to continue lookering and that you are able to do the same times and days as before. If not can you email me or ring me and let me know.

I will keep you all up to date on exactly when the cattle go so until then have a little re-cap of your lookering notes and watch this space.

Elliott