Wicken Fen Volunteer Grazing Warden's Blog

Snow snow snow!

2012-02-06T09:53:00.000-08:00

Hope that you all had a good weekend in the snow! Some of you may have noticed the artisitc snowmen that appeared outside the visitor's centre yesterday - built by our very own warden team (though I wasn't working so missed out!). There were a few around the fen as well, built by visitors during yesterday which look great too!

Last night, one of the ponies on Verralls fell in Wicken Lode. He was probably trying to drink out of the lode and slipped in on the ice. One of the visitors saw the horse (Percy) in the lode and phoned the centre, who then passed on the information to Carol. We are so thankful to the people that phoned in, because if they hadn't then it's very possible that no-one would have noticed and I don't think Percy would have lasted the night in the lode. So me, Carol and Martin went down to Verralls in the RTV with all the equipment we might need and eventually managed to haul Percy out using the strops and RTV. He was so cold by the time he'd been brought out, and was obviously quite scared by being stuck, but it's just so good that we managed to get him out. First thing this morning I went down to Verralls to check on him, and apart from being a bit jumpier than normal, he seemed fine.

After checking Verralls, I (along with Ajay, one of the volunteers here and at Anglesey) went to complete all the other checks. It was lovely to see the animals with the snowy scene around them - though I think quite a few of them are a bit confused by all the ice! Everyone was fine - the collared animals are still completely not bothered by the addition of their collars. A couple of the bulls on Harrisons had a few new small scratches, but none of them are serious, they'll just need to be monitored for a while until they heal.

In the afternoon, I was in the office and stayed warm!

Thanks for reading - the picture below is of 2 of the boys over on Verralls (Fox and Snips) looking lovely in the snow!

A sprinkling of snow

2012-01-31T10:13:00.000-08:00

Well, there maybe wasn't even a sprinkling of snow, but there was definitely a bit of snow that fell today! After wrapping up warm this morning, I headed out to Bakers to turn on the water at the abstraction point - there are 7 water abstraction points over the fen, and each one has a separate license to say how much water we are allocated to extract. Mainly this is abstracted during the winter months, up until March, although there is a daily allowance for livestock (though often this isn't needed as the ditches on Wicken Fen provide enough water year-round). The abstraction point onto Bakers links to Monk's Lode, taking water directly from there and pumping through, helping keep wetland ecosystems going on the fen!

I then checked on the collared animals, so the 2 horses and the 2 cows. All 4 seem to be doing absolutely fine with them and so far, there hasn't been any sign at all that it's bothering any of them. The data software hasn't completely been set up yet, but when it is, the positions of all the collared animals can hopefully be linked to google maps or some other map, so we can clearly see where the radio-collared animals (and their herds) are. I think the collars send signals every hour, so it's a pretty frequent location that we will be able to observe. When I was with the breeding konik herd, I managed to get a picture of most of the foals from the main harem - they're so cute!

Later on I headed out to Harrisons to check on the bulls and also to do another data collection session (though not much happened today...). At the end of last week, Edmund got into another fight and I found him on Friday with quite a few new cuts on his flank and between his legs. I'm not sure who he had been fighting as none of the other bulls seemed to be injured at all, so I think whoever he was fighting, Edmund came off worse than them. His cuts are healing well though and he isn't limping - just keeping a bit of distance from the rest of the herd. For the past couple of days, he's been found near Ewan, who used to be the dominant bull, so it is possible that the hierarchy is changing again and Edmund is gradually being pushed to the edge of the group. It's difficult to tell for sure at the moment though. As I said, in my data collection session didn't really witness much aggressive behaviour, though yesterday I did a session and lots went on which was great! Two of the bulls got into a small fight, and it was interesting to see the behaviours that preceded it. It was a bit of a rush writing all the behaviours down when everyone kicked off at once, but I think over time I'll get more used to it and it'll be easier.

Thanks for reading!

Post-vet Activities...

2012-01-27T12:01:00.003-08:00

So yesterday was the long-expected vet day, and thankfully it all went smoothly! In the morning, a few of us did the preparation before the vet arrived, which included getting a load of vehicles down to Bakers (the cows were being dealt with first) and ensuring that the cows were all where we wanted them to be. The 2 cows that were radio-collared (Malda 1 and Bramble) were brought into the wooden corral that's on Bakers, through the strong persuasion of cattle feed...When the vet arrived, he sedated the first cow (Malda 1, the red cow pictured below!) and then the collar was quickly fitted onto her. In the picture you can see how it works, it literally fits round the neck and then is screwed on in the correct tightness, so it's comfy for the cow still. After Malda 1 was collared, it was Bramble's turn and although she was a bit more feisty, that collaring went well too. I love the picture below of her in the process - she had only a tiny bit more sedation that Malda but was a lot more out of it, and had her tongue hanging out most of the way through! I also like the red eye she has going on here!

After the cows were collared, they were kept separate from the rest of the herd for an hour or so, and soon recovered well and seemed totally not bothered by the new presence of their collars.

We then headed over to Guinea, where the horses were. The vet, Andy, managed to hand sedate the first horse (Oriola) but had to blow-dart the second one (Nanja) which you can see in the picture below. The sedation in that worked pretty fast, though she kept on being herded by one of the stallions which didn't really help as running around slows down the effect of the sedative. Though eventually she was sedated enough, and the two horses were corraled up and collared. In the bottom picture, you can see how Carol had some attempted 'help' from one of the foals whilst she was trying to collar one of them! Lots of the horses were curious about what was going on, and soon headed over to have a nosy at why two of their girls were being paid so much attention to!

After all the collaring, Andy and Carol went around to the bulls and the koniks on Verralls, to carry out the annual health check. Basically, the vet does a general check on each individual, to keep track of their condition and health. Thankfully everything and everyone seemed to be absolutely fine and he was happy that the animals are all in good health.

At the last bit of the day, a few of us cycled out to double check that Nanja, Oriola, Bramble and Malda were all fine, which they were. We checked them again this morning, and none of them seem to be even slightly bothered by their new collars. Hopefully this will continue and the radio-tracking of the herds can now begin! A good brew was needed at the end of the day by all, but it was really good that it all went so smoothly.

Pre-vet Activites

2012-01-25T09:57:00.000-08:00

Hello!

Tomorrow the vet is coming for the day, and so preparations were made so that there isn't loads to sort out tomorrow morning. There are 4 radio-collars that are being put on animals (2 horses from the breeding group, and 2 cows), and to do this we will need to corral the cows into a crush and sedate the horses. So all in all, tomorrow will be quite a hectic day, but hopefully it will go smoothly! The idea of the radio-collars is that it will help us keep track of the animals, and will give us more information about where they spend their time. The software has taken quite a while to be sorted out, and trial runs have been made with me (and various others!) trudging around the fen with a collar around my neck or hanging off the RTV! So it seems to be working, and now the time has arrived for them to be placed on the animals - they're pretty hardy collars as they're going to have to cope with being bashed around quite a bit, although the animals will quickly get used to having them on - they shouldn't be a hassle to them.

Apart from preparing stuff for tomorrow, I carried out the monthly condition checks on Verralls ponies and the bulls. Although conditions have been dropping off due to the winter weather, none of them are in bad condition really - the female konik, Nadia, on Verralls is looking rather skinny, but she carries a lot of her weight on her belly, so it can be difficult to tell her actual conditions, but we keep an eye on her just to make sure she doesn't get too thin. The foal on Verralls, George, is so lovely!

Out with the bulls on Harrisons, we are monitoring Billy for a swelling that he has on his flank. It's probably resulted from a fight that he's got into, and doesn't seem to be bothering him, so over the next few weeks it should go down, but at the moment it's about the size of a football! Things were very quiet over there today though, which made condition checks easier, but when I did a data collection session for my project, it meant there wasn't any aggressive behaviour to record at all!.. Oh well, nothing is a result I suppose! During lunch, I was watched by the bull pictured below (Harrison) - I think he was intrigued by what I was doing just sitting there munching away at my sandwich.

Anyway, hopefully tomorrow will go well and all the radio-collars will be put on the animals - will let you know how it all goes.

Thanks for reading!

The Curious Calf

2012-01-16T10:26:00.000-08:00

Hi - hope you had a good weekend!

Today started off just a bit chilly, so I wrapped up and headed out to do the start of the week checks on all the animals. Over on Verralls, everything was fine and the scene of the ponies against a frosty background looked so nice (though forgot to take my camera with me at that point!). I headed over to the cows afterwards, who were over on Guinea and were in the middle of a rest period. Though one of them, Gale, was busy having a good scratch on the fence, which would be ok except it means that over time our fences quite regularly need fixing!.. We were out the other day tightening some of the barbed wire on the top of the fences, and as we went along, the horses followed behind and stuck their head over the fence to graze on the other side, totally ruining any progress with tightening the fence that we had made... They leave tell-tale signs on the fence when you come across patches of fur all along the barbed wire!

Everything with the cows and with the horses was fine. I did some ID work on the breeding horses as I still can't tell some of them by name yet, but hopefully soon I will!

In the afternoon, I cycled over to Harrisons to check on the bulls and also to do another data collection session for my project. The session went ok, though there wasn't that much action going on. It's definitely been helpful though and gradually I'm fine-tuning my data sheet and by the end of the week, it should all be sorted. I got some close-up pictures of the calf, Will, and one of last year's calves, Hedwig - she was so curious today and kept following me around!

Poo under the microscope

2012-01-11T10:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was mainly spent collecting poo from some of the cattle and the breeding herd of horses. 12 cattle samples and 12 horse samples were collected, which took over 5 hours!..

Today the analysing of the poo was done! The main reason for the poo collection and analysis is to keep an eye on the worm count in the grazing animals. The animals here aren't wormed, but they still need to occasionally be checked. I don't think there has ever been any serious problems with them, but it's definitely worth keeping checking every month or so. The pictures below show a bit of the set up of the analysis!

First you create a kind of poo solution, and then look at it under the microscope! It's a pretty straightforward procedure, though the quantities of each 'ingredient' is really important to get right, otherwise the worm count won't actually be representative. For the koniks, you look for a type of worm egg, whereas in the cattle you look for this same worm egg and an additional worm egg and worm type.

Also today, I was able to do my second session of data collection for my project! The bulls were actually a bit more active than on Monday, which was useful for getting a bit more data. I noticed a few things again that I need to change on my data sheet, but hopefully soon I'll have the finished thing!.. There were 2 short-eared owls flying around on Harrisons and 1 came so close to me, it was great! Yesterday when we were out collecting poo, there was also a barn owl over on Guinea Hall, as well as a marsh harrier and hen harrier over on Bakers. I'm gradually learning my birds - Wicken Fen is a great place to be able to practise!

Thanks for reading.

The day the bulls were calm

2012-01-09T09:47:00.000-08:00

Today was the first day that I collected some data from the bulls for my research project on their aggressive behaviour. It was also the day that they were all calm and totally non-aggressive! Oh well, it's all part of carrying out a project on animal behaviour... Although there wasn't any aggressive behaviour from the bulls, it was still good to get started on my project, and hopefully I'll be able to do more sessions later on in the week. At the moment, I've set my sessions to be 1 hour long, although this may alter over the next few weeks, and every Monday afternoon I should be able to do a session, and then fit in more during the rest of week depending on what else is planned.

Apart from my data session, the weekly checks needed to be done and also some fencing checks over on Harrisons. In the breeding herd of koniks, one of the stallions apparently caught their front leg in some fencing, thankfully whilst some of our lookers were there. One of the lookers managed to release the stallion's leg (so thank you to them!) and I checked him today and he seems fine and totally unfazed by the event! The Verrall's koniks and the cows are all ok at the moment, and seem to just be grazing away the winter months quite happily, without any incidents. Over with the bulls on Harrisons, things were, as I said, rather calm, although recently there has been some fights going on. The dominant bull Edmund (pictured below!) has been in a few of these by the looks

of him, and today he was again separate

from most of the herd, which would have been unusual about a month ago, but is

becoming more and more common. It's still difficult to say who's challenging him, but I'll keep watching and see what happens! Also, I managed to get really close

to the calf, Will, which rarely happens as he's still very nervy around people.

However today I think his curiosity must have just become to much and he wandered over to check out what I was doing. He looks like a big fluff ball at the moment!

Thanks for reading!

Happy new year!

2012-01-03T11:02:00.000-08:00

Hi,
Hope that you all had a good christmas and new year. It was my first day back today after the holidays - it was VERY windy and wet! In the morning, I was doing checks on all the animals, and thankfully nothing major has happened over the holidays. Some of the lookers and volunteers did checks over the holiday period, so thank you to them! Only one of the bulls, Edmund, who is the old dominant bull has had anything wrong with him. There are a number of cuts on his sides where he has obviously been fighting with some of the other bulls, though they are relatively minor and he isn't lame, but he will be monitored. I'm not sure if this means that some of the other bulls have started to challenge his dominancy or not, but it will be interesting to see if his status in the group changes.

This afternoon, I tried to keep inside due to the weather, and carried on planning my project that I'm going to carry out on the bull's aggressive behaviour. I have my data sheet ready and an ethogram, which is basically a list of behaviours that I have observed in the bulls, and will record when collecting my data. The next few weeks will be a kind of trail-run for my data collection, and I'll adjust whatever I need to, before then getting 'properly' started. Am hoping that it all works out and that I will have atleast something useful to record, though you never know when working with animals... Anyway, hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to have a trial-run with them, and I'll see what (if anything) happens...

Thanks for reading!

Winter Snow! (sort of...)

2011-12-16T09:32:00.000-08:00

Today definitely seemed like a proper wintery day with 'almost' snow falling (very slushy rain...)! I was working with Maddie today (the girl who was on the same placement as me last year) and we started out over on Verralls with the weekly checks on the koniks there. Apart from all looking a bit fed up with the weather, everyone was fine. The ponies' coats always look so different when they're wet, it's makes it harder to ID them because they almost change colour! When we were on verralls, we also fixed a bit of fencing that was broken whilst we were trying to get a horse (George) out of the ditch the other week.

After verralls, we headed over to Bakers/Guinea to do the weekly checks on the cows and the breeding herd of koniks. Everything was fine with everyone, which is always good news! We also saw a barn owl and a short-eared owl over on guinea, which was great to see. By then, a brew and lunch was definitely needed so we headed back to the office and finished off the afternoon typing up some data for Carol's phD. She's been collecting data now for about a year, and with data being collected most weeks, there's a lot to type up... It'll be really interesting to read though when it's all finished and written up, and it'll be useful for the running of the grazing system here and in other places.

That's all from today, have a good evening and thanks for reading!

The Vision

2011-12-12T10:22:00.000-08:00

Hope you all had good weekends!

I was taken around the Vision Project land this morning by Martin, one of the managers here at the fen who helped set up the project. If you want to know more about the Vision, it's well worth taking a look at and thinking about it - I didn't know much at all about it when I started here, and think it's such a great project to be involved in! Here's a link if you're interested at all

http://www.wicken.org.uk/vision.htm

All of the money put into the project is spent on purchasing and reviving the land to how nature 'intends' for it. The ancient fen is so isolated that it needs land around it to buffer the effects of agriculture and drainage systems in the surrounding land. So the National Trust are aiming to expand to a larger scale reserve and in the process, keep the species already present and also to make it available for people to enjoy too! Ok, I'll stop going on about it now, but there's loads more to it than just that...

This afternoon I went out to do the weekly checks on all the animals. Everyone seems to have calmed down a bit now, and it should (hopefully) stay like that until springtime, when everything will kick off again! There are only a few minor problems with any animals at the moment - one of the cows (Snowdrop) is slightly lame and has been for quite a while now, though it is improving! Also one of the dominant stallions in the breeding herd of koniks has had a badly weeping/swollen eye for a few weeks, though again this is gradually improving. Keeping the herds 'semi-wild' means that for some situations such as these, vets aren't always called in unless they get worse. However, the animals are definitely cared for here!! They are also all looking rather fluffy at the moment - I'll try and get some pictures later in the week to post up - with their winter coats!

Thanks for reading!

Another windy day!

2011-12-07T10:12:00.000-08:00

After a long weekend off, I came back to work today and started the oh so glamorous job of poo collection on the koniks on Verralls. This is done every 2 or 3 months so that we can then analyse the poo for worms and assess the approximate level of them in each sample. As we don't worm any of our grazing animals, this is an important thing to keep up as it is the only way for us to see whether worm counts are worryingly high for any individuals. Generally they can cope with quite high levels, and over the year the levels change - in the summer, worm counts are higher than the winter, and so this flux is expected as seasons change.

Spending all the morning out on Verralls waiting for the koniks to poo eventually was finished and I headed back to the office for a well needed brew! In the afternoon, the weekly checks on the rest of the animals needed to be completed. Quite a few of the animals were a bit flighty today due to the strong winds. Over on Harrisons I think Isle (one of the females) is coming into season or has very recently been in season, as lots of the bulls were following her around and the dominant bull (Edmund) was guarding her. When the females are in season, there is definitely more activity going on in the herd and the males frequently are grumbling/braying. It's not a good idea to get too close to them when they're doing this!

After a couple of weeks of carrying out some observations of the group of cattle on Harrisons, I've decided to do my mini research project on the bulls aggressive behaviour. I'm not sure how much I will observe over the coming months, but hopefully enough to do some kind of analysis on and produce something that will be useful! Before christmas, I am going to finalise the details of it and potentially start some data collection. That reminds me, all the visitor centre decorations have been put up today (and over the next couple of days) so it's well worth a visit to come and see them! Also, on Saturday is the 'late night shopping' evening at the fen, a good chance to see all the festiveness around here!

Hope you have a good evening and thanks for reading!

Cattle, ponies and fences

2011-11-29T09:14:00.000-08:00

Hope you all had good weekends!

Today was a REALLY windy day, so we were blown around from place to place outside...It definitely feels like winter is finally arriving!

Spent the morning doing the weekly checks on all the animals, and the monthly checks on the bulls. Most things are well with all of them, though there have been a few scraps between the bulls recently. Two of the stallions in the breeding group of horses had a bit of a fight when we were carrying out the checks as well. It is amazing to see them properly fight, they just have so much power in them!

In the afternoon we fixed some of the kissing gates around Guinea Hall/Bakers. It wasn't that tricky, and I'm gradually getting better at my DIY skills... Saw some different birds out and about around the fen too today - lots of fieldfare, a few snipe, teal, barn owl. There's been quite a few short-eared owls sighted around Burwell Fen/Harrisons so it's worth popping down there at some point to have a look if you can!

Thanks for reading!

The end of another month...

2011-11-25T11:33:00.000-08:00

As this month comes to an end, all the grazing animals at Wicken Fen are coming towards their monthly condition checks. This morning I walked out to Verralls to do this check on the group of non-breeding koniks - it took a while to find them as they had hidden themselves away very well! In these condition checks, they are given a score out of 10, relating to their weight and general condition, and notes are taken on the state of their hooves. These checks are made a lot easier if you can get hands-on with the animal, which some are more than happy with, standing and being made a fuss of, though others are not quite as cooperative... Over on Verralls, some of the ponies are...well...rather chubby. Because they are all geldings, they don't have any breeding to worry about, and so put more weight on as they aren't spending energy chasing females around and chasing other males away!

Later on, I cycled over to Baker's Fen and Guinea Hall, to do the weekly checks on the cows and the breeding herd of koniks. As people who have visited Wicken Fen may have noticed, some of the grazing animals have managed to acquire quite a few burrs on them over the summer (such as the picture below of Sorrell!).

Although this may look uncomfortable, they all fall off over the winter, and don't seem to bother any of the animals! Apart from multiple burrs, all of the cows on Bakers are well - they were all soaking up the sun and grazing away the morning. Such a hard life! Over on Guinea Hall, the koniks were also happily grazing and relaxing in the sunshine. The newest foal, Flynn, is gradually becoming bolder, and he's happy to come up and have a little nosy at who I am, though is still a bit wary. However, the slightly older foals don't just have a 'little nosy', and their curiosity and playfulness definitely overcomes any wariness they ever had!

Once all the checks were done, it was over to the bulls on Harrisons. The mini-research project I'm hoping to carry out may be looking at the bulls' aggressive behaviour towards each other - challenges, threats, etc - though over the next couple of weeks I am (hopefully) going to figure out whether it's worth doing this. There are 2 females over on Harrisons, and both have recently come into season, after the birth of their calves about a month ago. Since their seasons have come and gone, the bulls have calmed down recently, and so if I am trying to collect data on aggressive behaviour when there isn't any, it may not work. Either way, by christmas I will have chosen a definite project and may be at the early stages of some data collection...hopefully!

Anyway that's all from my day and thanks for reading!

Hello!

2011-11-24T14:14:00.000-08:00

Hi,

I am a few months into my year long placement at Wicken Fen and I hope that over the rest of my time here, through this blog, I can help keep people updated on things going on in the grazing area of the fen!

After settling into Wicken (and getting used to the fact that the closest shop isn't just down the road) I have spent lots of time becoming familiar with the grazing animals that we have here - highland cattle and konik ponies. I have spent lots of hours gradually learning each individual animal by name and this IDing is definitely an ongoing process! At the moment, the main things I am involved in are IDing the konik ponies on site and trying to plan a small research project of my own. Alongside this are daily and weekly checks that are carried out on both the highland cattle and konik ponies, writing down data during data collection for the grazing warden Carol's research, and any other event that occurs in a day - one thing I quickly learnt here is that each day is not the same!

Anyway, I will be writing more posts soon and thanks for reading!