Friday 10 May 2013

The Cattle are Back and Wicken Fen is 114

With it being May most of our graziers are allowed to put their cattle on the various bits they rent from us. Tubney Fen, Oily Hall and Hurdle Hall are now being grazed with Burwell Fen waiting for our own highland cattle and konic ponies later in the month. Oily Hall can actually be grazed all year round but with a new grazier taking over they decided to let the grass grow a bit before putting them out. Bakers Fen, Guinea Hall, Harrisons and the Mere are grazed all year round by our own highlands and konics.

Here are the first few loads getting let out on Tubney Fen:
We celebrated the NT’s 114th birthday at Wicken Fen. The Sedge Fen is a bit older with sedge harvesting being recorded as far back as 1400 and the fen itself beginning to be formed about 7000 years ago. It was a nice cake.
I was down at Oily Hall putting in a small section of fence next to the pond and it struck me that in just over a year the new pond had begun to fill with a huge range of species. I need to take some books down to have a proper look.
We had a star gazing evening on the fen as part of our fifty things to do before you are eleven and three quarters campaign. We had two great talks and learned a great deal, the simplest being that meteorites hit the earth and meteors don’t. Below is a photo of the star Vega, sadly I couldn’t get a photo of Saturn, but it was amazing to see through the telescopes. I had no idea that I would be able to see the rings so clearly.
As usual I am on Twitter @vision_warden .Here are a few more pictures of other bits and bobs that have been going on:    
 Tubney Fen looking nice and flat

Pennies to the Crowd at Reach Fair
 Our stall at Reach Fair
 Still fixing the fences, this one is just about to be stapled back up.