3-4 PM at least 14 in area of dense gorse some 500 yards west of the Water Tower and another group of at least 3 about 200 yards due north of same tower. All grazing.  Quiet but dull afternoon.

Friday am

At least 8 in the undergrowth, next to the Horse Pond. All the ones I could see looked OK.

This one looks like he fancies duck for breakfast

 

All 26 seen.

We saw all 26 this afternoon, spread in several groups. 10 of them up at Caesars Camp, the others spread out along the central path and a few along the path beside Sandy Hill. Quiet on the ranges today, though there are a few small bonfires burning around the diggers removing gorse.

Thursday am

12+ scattered amongst the vegetation in the boggy bit of Long Bottom, some of them well hidden. Grazing quietly in the sunshine break through the fog.

Lucky Monday

Driving in from Beacon Hill I found a group of 7, some laid up and some grazing amongst the nice area of calluna dominated heath. 

Carrying on through the site a group of 11 were at the top of the ridge past sandy hill near to the 5 bar gate grazing the mown fire break verges.

Dropping off the ridge down to the pond and hanging a right to head towards the open sandy area near to the queens pavilion I found the rest all laid up in the wet Molina dominated wet grassland.

 Then headed to the Gelvert catchment area where my luck continued.






  
  

Found the other 10...

I managed to the find the ten that had eluded me on Tuesday. A few of them were up on Sandy Hill behind the houses and the remainder, along with quite a few more, were to the east of the horse pond. All of them were really spread out today but happily grazing away.

All looking good with no problems to report.

Tuesday am

6 happily grazing on the cleared area, just to the east of the Horse Pond. They do seem scattered at the moment, over the weekend I came across a couple of single cows, in both cases they were making a lot of noise.

Monday 18/10/16

Spent a couple of hours searching for the cattle yesterday afternoon and ended up with a total of 17 for my efforts.

I found 2 initially down in 29G and despite searching in the nearby woods/scrub I couldn't find any others. I then stumbled across seven lounging around in 29D. Further searching revealed 8 right over the other side near the tumuli in 3R.

I ran out of time after that, however, I will be back on Thursday to do another search. All cattle that I did find were looking well.

Thursday am

Spotted a few around Sunny Hill. Before I could get near them, my path was blocked and the cows scattered by a helicopter coming in to land.

Tuesday am

Only 2 seen at the side of the Horse Pond. 70 was having fun with an army truck, held it up for about 5 minutes, before moving off the track.

Missing 5 on Caesars

The 5 I couldn't find are ear tags 100056, 63, 64, 92, and 91. There is an extra one on Caesars at the moment- No. 44 which is an escapee from Gelvert. So there are currently 27 cattle on Caesars. All cows I did see are looking well.

Sunday am

No cattle sightings, just a mushroom picker with a large bag of spoils. I refrained from saying anything, as he was carrying a knife that was too large to be legal in a public place.

Cattle are Back on

Hello all,

The cattle passed their TB test with flying colours so were all released back onto site yesterday afternoon.  26 Have been returned to site and this number will likely increase as we enter the winter months to ensure the gorse and heather gets a good graze this winter.

As a result please may I ask that you start once more with your lookering duties and blogging as before?

You will also likely have noticed the works taking place on site clearing scrub over the past few weeks.  A third set of contractors is due to arrive in a fortnight with big plant machinery so please respect taped off areas and no need to check cattle that have decided they want to stand next to an excavator as it works!

Many thanks

Elliott