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.