Sheep in the buttercups

Sheep in the buttercups
Sheep in the buttercups
Prestwick Carr
Prestwick Carr

It was peaceful out on Prestwick Carr in the evening sunshine during yesterday’s stock check.  The check took in fields with two small flocks of sheep, contentedly slumbering in the buttercup filled meadow or on the drier edge of a rushy pasture.  Elsewhere the Exmoor ponies were finally in the field by the viewing platform and were duly shut in there for a while.

Green veined white
Green veined white

The site is rarely dry and occasionally you find yourself in a rather more soggy area; it’s here that the cuckoo flower was still in full bloom and the rather old-looking specimens of the first brood of green-veined white butterflies were to be spotted. In the southern buttercup fields silver-ground carpet moths flitted up into the air as they were disturbed.  Their wings were more beige and brown than silver though the colouration does vary.  Elsewhere a couple of female scorpion flies were spotted though none of the more distinctive males were seen with their scorpion like tails.

Silver-ground carpet
Silver-ground carpet
Scorpion fly
Scorpion fly

Photos (c) Duncan Hutt

 

Squirrels on Prestwick Carr

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Red Squirrel signs on Prestwick Carr

Whilst checking on the sheep that have been grazing on the birch scrub at Prestwick we came across this tree stump where the red squirrels have been feeding on the pine cones. They were being shy that day and we never saw any but we often come across them while out there checking on the stock.

A Spring Evening on Prestwick Carr

Exmoor Ponies on Prestwick Carr
Exmoor Ponies on Prestwick Carr

A quick check of the sheep and ponies at Prestwick Carr yesterday evening confirmed that all was well, although one sheep played dead to make us get almost up to it before it jumped up and ran off with its field-mates.

Resting sheep
Resting sheep

Five lapwings put on a fine display over the site, wheeling around and calling overhead while a skylark sang from on high. A kestrel hovered over the site too and a few mallard lifted as we crossed a field to count the sheep.

Photos © Duncan Hutt