Pastures Planted and Pastures New

Friday, April 5th 2019

The remaining heathland was scarified this morning and Gerry showed off his new-found farming skills by scattering Heather seed on the disturbed ground with the borrowed seed fiddle drill!

The sunny spells gave hope that the tiny seeds were getting a good start to their long germination.

Whilst the sowing was taking place, Colin was busy with a different kind of seeds. He was filling the many bird feeders around the reserve. Flocks of redpoll are common just now and today was no exception with several feeding in the field centre back garden.

Later in the day, Susanna from The North Yorkshire Exmoor Pony Trust came to take away two of the ponies from the moorland. Corvus and Fawn have been doing a great job all winter by eating the rushes and gorse in this area. However, the construction of a new wetland scrape has decreased the amount of grazing and it was time for them to say farewell for the summer months.

Fawn was very well behaved and not too difficult to catch considering she is a wild pony. Corvus though, being old and wise, gave everyone a bit more of a challenge as expected!

Finally, both were caught and walked to their transport. Our sincere thanks to Susanna for loaning them to us, they have been a real pleasure to look after and have made a good difference to this particular habitat.

They will be missed but Lark and Taurus remain for now to continue their important role in managing the moorland.

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