Thursday evening

11 cows spotted, 3 in a herd by the "dead tree lake" and 8 by the Sandy Hill estate fence. All looked well.

Wednesday am

2 grazing amongst the trees in Long Bottom. Both looked OK.

Tusday AM

After much searching I eventually found them all in three groups of four stretching from one end of sandy hill all the way to near the entrance by the Texaco garage.  Hidden in the woods they were playing hide and seek I am sure.

All good and looking well.

This afternoon at Caesars Camp - no cattle visible, but there was a ground fire near the pond which was being attended by the Fire Brigade.

Gpt 2 herds either end of Sandy Hill.

Smaller herd of 3- 091, 056 and 082 very relaxed, 2 of which laying up. Not a hint of investigation as I parked up.


Same went for herd of 9, they're certainly not desperate for grub which is great. And dare I say it, the grass appears to be growing! Thus the 'am I bovered' reactions I've been getting perhaps?
No issues or concerns.

Friday am

One lone cow (105) checking out the grass next to the Horse Pond. Later, saw him striding across Long Bottom, in the direction of Hungry Hill.

At 4.30 PM at least 8 on Bricksbury Hill all looking well.

Almost all seen!

All seen (except 500081) in two groups: the first 2 were at the west end of Long Bottom and the other 9 were along the Sandy Hill track (R20) - all were happily grazing and looked okay.  No woodlark seen today but did see a few Dartford warbler.

10 found this evening

Found 6 by Burley road and another 4 in the woods behind the view point.

walked from A325 at Pavilion Road to top of Caesars Camp - no cattle spotted

8 spotted in two herds...gate by Beacon Hill Road and along the side of Sandy Hill estate.
Ran out of time finding the others.

Looker training completed yesterday at Velmead with Guy Mason, and two other volunteers. Very much enjoyed! Highland cattle much fun to work with, especially the black "bad boy" of the bunch! Caesar's Camp will be my usual route.

Ditto

Annoyingly they were easy to find this time unlike the afternoon when I promised my daughter cows.

All found and hay fed out

I found all 12 spread out in the Brooke area near Sandy Hill.  I checked them all, in particular their eyes and could not see any problems so suspect the weep you eye reported may have been prodded by a thorn or gorse.

I tried to get them to follow me to the hay feed out area but they're were very slow and reluctant.  In the end I gave up so went and delivered the hay knowing the cattle will find in their own time.

I hope to bring the other cattle back to site next week, either Thursday or Friday.

Elliott

The most beautiful afternoon!

The most beautiful afternoon for a walk. We entered the ranges though the gate on Sandy hill (Q22) and immediately came across all 12 cows grazing on the triangle of fresh grass beside the fence at R23. They were all together and were all relaxed and happy, their glossy coats shining in the afternoon sun. The cream coloured cow looked a little slimmer than the others but she always does!
Lots of people enjoying the sunshine, walking, running, cycling but no motor bikes, thankfully. Lots of wonderful birdsong but we didn't hear any skylarks I'm afraid.

All found!

Found a group of 5 at the western end of the Sandy Hill track grazing on grass (S17) then found 4 more in the heather and happily munching (Q12).  One of these (600075) seemed to have a little discharge from both eyes, but looked fine otherwise.  After a lovely long walk round I found the first group of 5 with 3 more now just down the slope from Sandy Hill track.

Saw a woodlark singing from a tree (had previously seen one in this area) SU 83192 49887.

Some found....

After a long search first thing eventually found 8 just as I ended my attempts.  They were around S17 (along with JoW and several soldiers in full combat gear) and seemed fine.   In hunting I noticed some cut wire - the top wire next to the locked gate onto the Odiham Road and more seriously around U6 (the bit that has been patched many times and goes onto the motorbike field).

3 hours searching and none found

None sighted...walked most of the perimeter too. Spoke to a training soldier who said he saw them yesterday near Bourley road.

No sightings at all

Biked over much of the site but didn't see any of the cattle at all near the main tracks......

More hay delivered

I delivered another bale of hay to pavilion hill this afternoon and there was not a cow in site.  I was surprised but pleased at the same time as there was still some left over from Wednesday which suggests they are still grazing elsewhere.
Elliott

Woodlarks and adders

Hello all,

Now spring is definately underway I would be really keen to receive any sightings of adders and locations of woodlarks singing.  Grind references would be ideal but a looker map grid reference would also still help us pin point there whereabouts.

JoW - are you able to give me any further info on your woodlarks locations from the other day?

Elliott

All seen

i visited today with a bale of hay as Jack is a bit concerned that some of them may lose a bit too much weight than we would like if left to their ow devices.  I delivered the hay to D29 which is known as Pavillion Hill.  I chose here as it I see away from most people so the hay will not be interfered with and also it is not actually part of the protected land.  In fact it is an area of capping which was spread over an area of landfill down there, so some hay seeds and nutrients are the least of its worries.

I found the 11 up near Sandy Hill and got them to follow me all the way down to the hay.  After 40 minutes of calling and shaking my bucket of cattle nuts we arrived for me to see that I now only had 10 with me.  I am sure the single one will find the others and therefore the hay soon.

I will deliver another bale on Friday and we will likely do the same next week.  It will be looked at on a week by week basis thereafter depending on the weather.

The fence the cattle were jumping over has nearly been repaired so next week I aim to bring the other animals back to site and we can start all over once more!

Elliott

Beautiful clear morning (after the rain)

9 spotted on the Caesars/Gelvert border this morning
1000112
1000056
1000105
2000057
3000107
4000087 (Looking a bit ragged and fly bothered, licking multiple areas)

5000081
5000095
6000082

11 (maybe!) found...

Found 3 (100091, 200092, 600095) along Sandy Hill track (S16) grazing happily and enjoying the salt-lick then found 8 more just down scarp slope from Ceasar's Camp fort (K21) but wasn't able to get tag numbers so no idea if I've counted any twice!  All seemed happy in the sunshine.  Also heard 3 lovely woodlark singing!

Long walk today

We had a long walk today around Caesars and Gelvert. A little to our surprise we found 9 grazing happily just off the path beside Sandy Hill. We didn't get the numbers but it was the cream coloured cow, the brown and white cow and 7 all black with no visible white markings.

Country File

Conservation grazing got a mention on Country File tonight. Errant cows get a warning beep followed by a small shock to keep them away from boundaries thanks to an electronic necklace.

Saturday afternoon

Came past the crime scene and all was very quiet - not a cow in sight and the fence intact ....... Only saw a small group of three near the horse pond.  

Laurel update

i have managed to line up some contractors to come in on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week to beef up (pun intended) the fence near to where the cherrywood laurel etc. Is growing.  Once this is completed we will bring back the cattle and carry on business as usual.  We will likely also just give the cattle a bit of extra hay to help them through .March which is the leanest and toughest month of the year.  I will keep you posted on locations etc of this.

Elliott

A wet walk this morning

A wet walk this morning. We walked around the central part of Caesars for over 2 hours and didn't see any cows. Not surprising, considering the recent posts. There was however, a very large army presence this morning. A huge group of soldiers on exercise with lots of cars , noise and shouting.
Thank you for responding to my friend, Guy, when she told me about the cow she had seen on the Farnborough road, I will let her know how things are resolved.

Thursday am

All quiet, this morning. The fence was still upright and there was no sight of the remaining cattle.

A laurel laurel laughs!

Firstly I would like to say thanks you to everyone that has tried to ring me or has blogged over the last couple of days about the escaped cattle, I can't phone you all personally to say thanks so i will do it here.

Thanks you.

So starting on Tuesday night i went out at about 18.30 to four cows out and a lot of fencing damaged or down, Guy was the kind enough to come and meet me with enough supplies whilst I waited and kept guard on them and kept them in the laurel and not on the road.  We patched up the fence with he help of a local who was kind enough to hold a torch which helped.

Yesterday we had another call out and went back to the same location, by Enterprise, to find more fence down and another load of cattle out.  We moved them into the site and shored up the fence with a  load of posts.  There is only so much any fence can take when a load of cattle are leaning on it to get to forage they want so we decided to move the offenders into the Gelvert Catchment area until there is more forage on Caesars (hopefully not ling now).

Anyway on our way we accumulated another group and moved them through to GCA with the original offenders, there was no splitting them at this point.

Though it was a bit mad and i think we have all the numbers of cattle that moved and will take these off this blog and add them to the GCA blog.

If you find that this does not correlate with what you find at all please advise.

Many thanks again

Ian

Cherry laurel and ivy issues

helo all,

As you will have no doubt seen and heard the cattle have managed to escape on both Tuesday night and Wednesday mornring.  It would appear as though they have developed a taste for the cherry laurel and ivy which is on the other side of the fence I need the woods opposite Enterpirse car hire garage.

They are pushing against the fence as they reach for the leaves and in doing so the posts are systematically snapping, so meaning the fence collapses in long stretches.

As the cattle have learned there is a new type of food on the other side of th fence we are concerned that they will continue to push on the fixed fence until all of the food is gone.  As a result we have had to lead the cattle out of Cesars and move them to the neighbouring site, Gelvert Catchment Area. This will hopefully buy us some time to properly repair and upgrade the fence, distract the cattle with a new site so hopefully they will forget about the cherry laurel hear and also buy us some more time for the grass to start to grow.  March is our toughest time of the year for grazing the heaths as it is right at the end of winter and we are desperate for some warm weather to get the grass growing.

I believe it was 17 cattle which were removed from site leaving 11 still on Caesars.

We will keep you posted as to progress on coming up with a longer term solution to this problem,

Elliott

22 on site in 4 herds
6 on other side of fence by enterprise...fence down near gate...cows not going the right way but further from road now

Escaped cows

At least 3 on the wrong side of the fence, amongst the trees opposite the enterprise garsge on the A325. Broken post near the entrance gate. Unable to contact anyone bu phone. 9:15 sm Wed.