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22 May 2009
Rare lambs born among bluebells
Fifteen lambs, including two sets of twins, were born to The Wildlife Trust’s rare-breed ewes at High Wood and Meadow Nature Reserve.
Volunteers spent the past fortnight checking that the ewes all delivered safely. The mothers and lambs will shortly be moved onto the next grazing compartment onsite. Currently they are still confined in their electric fence lambing paddock, which provides protection for the newborn lambs from foxes.
The Trust's flocks of native-breed sheep have increased thanks to funding to develop its conservation-grazing programme as part of the Harebells in the Hollows project. The sheep are used as a tool to reduce scrub and weeds on the sensitive grasslands.
The funding - a grant of £18,000 - has enabled habitat improvements at both High Wood and Meadow and Ramsden Corner Nature Reserves, near Daventry.
The two reserves are situated in the rolling Northamptonshire countryside, at the start of the Cotswolds. The rare acid grasslands are a declining habitat in the county. Only ten hectares - the equivalent of ten football pitches - remains on protected sites in Northants.
The Harebells in the Hollows project is funded by The Veolia Environmental Trust through the Landfill Communities Fund. The project has also provided essential training and tools for staff and volunteers, and enabled an area of woodland trees to be coppiced creating varied habitats for birds and beetles.