Special delivery for Bibury's Rack Isle!

Dense vegetation on Rack Isle, Arlington Row end

Delivery of 9 new visitors for Rack Isle

Last sight of Belted Galloways as they disappeared into the dense vegetation

Ted in the dog house?

Another hot day at Sherborne today or as it turned out at Bibury's Rack Isle. With Mike and the 4x4 'sick' I joined James in Pat's Ford Ranger as we set off for Bibury. Today delivery of 9 Belted Galloways was due at Rack Isle for their 'holiday' from the Ebworth estate, an annual occurrence for the year old cattle stock. They normally stay on the Isle for 6-8 weeks where they manage to chew their way through the dense vegetation before returning to Ebworth.  Before the cattle were due to arrive James and I carried out some minor work on the electric fence James & Rob had erected earlier. At the same time a quick survey of the fence line and water trough {with manual pump to extract water from the adjacent river Coln} was carried out. As a bonus we found a slow worm under one of the corrugated sheets previously laid down as an attractive place for such reptiles. As usual Bibury was busy with the usual tourists and some of them were curious as to what we were doing. The 'lucky ones' were at hand when the delivery trailer arrived and provided some unexpected entertainment for them as the 9 Belted Galloways were introduced to their new but temporary home.  Within a few minutes all 9 had disappeared into the dense vegetation and I realised keeping a check on them during their visit was going to be no easy task!

Over 110,000 signatures for  'banning driven grouse shooting' reached and a good article in the guardian placing the 'shooting and hunting' communities communications in a more realistic context. So not all the media/press is led by the elitists who love the sport of killing animals whilst also harming the natural environment.

On a more bright note aren't we having a ball in Rio, makes you proud to be British although its a shame we soon won't be part of the EU.

A view to a kill...

Ted , new kid on the block

Pip, she's no longer the youngest

Commons, Red Admiral

Commons Ride almost cleared for the 'Hunter'

Commons Ride cleared by new tractors flail

Started the morning at Sherborne playing with the resident dogs: the new pup Ted with Pepper the springer plus young Pip the border collie. 

Was eventually persuaded to join James in the 4x4 where we were to join up with Mike with tractor down in the Commons to continue work on clearing the overgrown rides. Pole saw, tractor flail, loppers, and saw were all needed to carry out the required clearance in a rarely used part of the Commons. It was good to see a fair collection of butterflies {no dragonflies though} which included Red Admiral, Speckled wood, Ringlet and Meadow brown { this complements my Crickley Hill observations earlier in the week of Comma, Silver Wash Fritillary, Painted lady, 'Blue', Marble White}.  

Another necessary but  unpleasant reason for clearing one of the smaller rides was for the resident hunter.  Unfortunately the deer population is still too large so culling has to take place to prevent excessive damage to crops and woodland. I climbed up the 'hunters' seat situated up one of the trees to ensure the view down the ride was not obstructed by vegetation and overhanging branches. So another interesting session down at Sherborne and at least I didn't suffer as much with the biting insects this time.

A positive 'awakening by the NT' to nature wrt farming policy as reported by Martin H blog.