5 Black cows

Bumped into (almost literally!) a black cow, whilst gathering early blackberries this afternoon. I don't know which of us was more surprised! It was part of a group of five moving contentedly along the path below Sandy hill. We didn't see any others in spite of walking for a couple of hours.
The blackberries are now jam!

Saturday am

A number of small groups spread out along the south side of Long Bottom. With the bracken the height it is, the whole herd could have been hiding there and not be seen.

So its official. 4 left on Gelvert, 30 on caesar's. It only took 3 hours..

Thanks to Alan and Jo's numbers from last Wednesday I managed to at last find them all. I didn't find every one of them this round mind, but between Wednesdays data and todays its a full house!

Caesar's lot were in 4 herds today, which included 1 herd of 3 down in the wetter areas near the covered reservoir. A larger herd up Sandy Hill, and the other 2 herds between the sandy area (Old pavilion end) and scrub near the middle.

The below gate left wide open (thankyou Jill) was not like this when we were touring around last Wednesday. The problem here is that there is zero gate furniture on the slamming post so it must have been a chain and padlock job, clearly a contractor has forgot to put it back! Got onto MOD warden Steve Plaine (while S Ashwood is on hols). he will email them to ensure this doesn't happen again. I have roped up and red and white taped it for the time being. I can't put a lock on it anyway, not MOD.

I will blog this on Gelvert too but I had a shock at first as I saw them on the opposite side of the fence to the fishing hut! Oh nooooo.. Thankfully its actually open to the rest of Gelvert back there and not a breech in a fence.

So thanks to Jill, this gate was indeed left wide open!!

The 'Ohhhh noooo' moment as I saw them through the fishing hut fence!

Captured!

16 seen

13 by the coral and 3 down near the small pond

15 Only Found

Found 3 at Q8 080,091, & 112. Then another 12 spread out in O12/13 P12/13 area, 038, 039,043, 056, 067, 075, 090, 105, 106, 114, 593 & 940 all semed a bit skitish this morning and did not want me getting too close. of the first 3, 080 came and joined the 12.  I saw another beast heading along the track towards Q13 I believe 091 &112 went as well, probably to join the other herd. Having taken the numbers of the 12, I had a good search of the area but could find no sign of any of them, although I believe they were in the general area somewhere.
Of the numbers taken yesterday, with Guy and Jo, all of the Gelvert escapees were accounted for so the one missing was from the Caesars herd.

Birding
Small flock of Great Tits 10 or so
Small flock of Long Tailed Tits 10 to 15
and a considerable number of Jays around the site.

Wildlife
lots of baby bunnies

Had a very good afternoon out with Alan and Jo for a looker refresher session and tour of GW and GCA.

After our first round of looking we did manage to find 29 on Caesar's, and after finding 4 of the Gelvert lot , concluded 6 made their way into Ceasar's from Gelvert (followed the fence line up the Gelvert / Caesars divide from Bourley RD as per Jill's post but couldn't see a breech or way out)? Considering there's meant to be 24 on Caesar's we then concluded we must then be 1 short! Very frustrating. 

Our second round of searching during the tour ended in being 2 short and the herd split into 2 herds on Caesar's. At least thats better than only 1 missing in a weird way. I suspect the 1 (then later 2) were just out of ear shot the first time as I didn't call the main herd in with a bucket as I didn't need to.

A very nice afternoon all in all, especially as each of us learned something new while identifying fauna and flora. Ask Alan about his 'fat wood'.

I have a the list of numbers. Looks like I or another member of the team may need to revisit on Friday just to be sure.

Guy

A good dozen (difficult to count as they are partly concealed by high bracken) just to North East of Horse Pond at midday.

12 at the 'Camp' itself about an hour ago.

All seen today.

I found all of the cattle together at lunchtime lurking under some Holly trees in G33/34. I've never seen them up in that corner before and only went there to check on the fence so was really fortunate to stumble upon the cattle!

All of them looking fit and well but as Jo mentioned - the flies are bad in this heat.

Bit rusty...only found 7!!

Found in two groups: the first (100063 and 600075) were in the trees near the Farnborough Rd browsing laurel and ivy and the rest were grazing in the shade at the bottom of  Skirmishing Hill. I got the tag numbers for 4 of the 5 (100098, 70090, 400080 and 700111) but the fifth was a bit more wary and I wasn't able to get close enough. All looked okay though really bothered by the flies.

Hot day

Hot day for a walk but we enjoyed the breeze which made things much more comfortable.We walked for a couple of hours, down past the horse pond, up to the lookout and a little over to the west..Not a single cow to be seen, though the foliage is so tall and dense that we could easily have walked close to them and not seen them
The water level in the horse pond looked as usual though the level in the sandpit area with the sunken trees was well down.

Tuesday am

6 in Long Bottom around I28 and at least another 6, spread out, amongst the trees around H32. Those I could get close to looked OK.

Full house in 3 herds.

First main herd spotted grazing and drinking from either side of the 1st large pond, and on the other side of the embankment and on the plateau. No issues or concerns.

Second herd of 5 in the Nissan hut.

Last group was only 2 of them preferring each others company to that of the main herd, not too far away but separated by the track and 2 plateaus. Again no problems.

Man on the run

No cows spotted but I did pass Bobby Smith from Hampshire Constabulary most wanted list coming out of a bush near the Coral at the Beacon hill entrance... Police informed.

Caesars Camp another go

Been back out today and picked up the stragglers.

All seen today.

All good but very hot and bothered by flies immensely.

Regards

Ian

Tuesday 4th

I was on the site first thing in the morning and came across a group  of 7 by the flooded area just in from the garage entrance. Foolishly i thought it was going to be an easy day.  I spent an hour of so looking for the rest and eventually found 11 more and the imposter all spread out along the sandy hill track. Despite much searching I could not find the rest.

 I returned to the site in the evening before heading home and searched the site for another hour and a half but only found the two groups again.  The first had now found its way to long bottom and the second was now grazing by the flooded forest pond. Again despite searching far and wide i could not find the last three.

Numbers seen were

First group
107
112
104
106
090
111
056

Second
080
092
105
101
087
057
075
098
063
091
067

Giving a total of 18, leaving 6 unfound.

11 AM found seven in the Camp itself.  One hour later they were at the large gravel pit drinking.