Woodlarks!

Dear All,

At the start of February we will be starting to analyse how the cattle move around the site. This data is helpful in a number of ways. We are currently undertaking a survey that looks at populations of nesting Woodlarks with in grazed areas. For some time there has been a debate as to whether cattle grazing on a site has a positive or detrimental effect on ground nesting birds. As parts of this research we are recording the movements of our cattle in relation to nesting sights.
In addition this data will help us to get a better idea of how the cattle are grazing, their favourite spots and what areas they prefer at certain time during the year.

To help us do this I have a favour to ask. When reporting a sighting of the cattle, please could you use the looker maps to record the grid number that you saw the cattle in. I know that some times the cattle are spread around the site, and in this instance please put all the locations that you saw the cattle. When you write the report, pop the grid number in the title box of the blog. This will make collecting the data much easier for us and ensure accurate results for our surveys.

Your help with this is greatly appreciated and you will be assisting with a survey that will answer some really important questions. If you have any queries please feel free to let me know.

Many thanks
Lucy