A bird Carcass in the scrape field

It’s a bit overcast today and there’s rain in the forecast; the land needs a good downpour. On the approach to the pond the scrape in the opposite field is dry and just a patch of cracked mud now. I can see one of the Exmoor ponies at the gate, a quick glance at the app shows a cow near the water’s edge and two on the NW boundary. I’m going to see if the rangers are still trying to pump water to the scrape with their new solar powered pump, if not, we can open the southern boundary to the cows for the last few weeks of their visit here, the pump will be safe in its fenced in area, it’s the pipe that’ll get crushed if they don’t move it. At the pump I spooked a Heron that was stood on an island of mud, it flew round in a circle then landed close to another Heron that wasn’t bothered by my arrival, there must be fifty Mallard at the southern end of the pond. From here I can see the cow at the water’s edge. Its making its way across the pond, up to its belly in mud, it glances across for a minute or two then continued its journey to the other side of the pond before getting out and disappearing into the reed bed.

I can see small circles forming on the water created by light rain droplets, the water levels getting critical! there’s muddy islands all over the pond. Two people arrived at the bird hide, the hide is about half way down the eastern side of the pond, I walked that way to see what the vegetation was like for the cows, this area will be grazed if the NT have finished pumping water and it gets opened up to the cows.

The bird watchers say they’ve seen Godwit, Teal and Red Shank. I walked back to the gate area and could see the other two cows making their way around. I took some pictures for an update of the good work the cows are doing, then, the cows must have spooked the Exmoor’s as they galloped past the gate toward the bird hide, the cows trotted behind them, I don’t think there’s much love lost between the two. The cows are looking well on this diet of Phragmites, grass and leaves from the Willow and Alder coppice, with mud up to there’s bellies obviously enjoying a cool wallow from time to time.

I left the site but noticed what looked like a bird carcass in the scrape field, then another one, I climbed over the fence to investigate, both birds, about the size of a Goose, were well decomposed and looked like the same species as they have a white streak in the mid rib of the remaining black feathers, could be a nocturnal visit by a fox that caught them out although I guess they would have taken them away. A lone white goose has been on the scrape honking away, it doesn’t look injured, I wondered why it was there on its own, meanwhile I’ll wait to see if the rangers get back to me regarding the boundary move.