Residents

You treat a place with respect for those who live there. Some days you may see them and some days not. It's not just the animals themselves. They are so large that they leave obvious marks of their presence. Deer tracks through bracken and through the woods and across streams are particularly clear at this time of year. Being shy creatures they prefer their own routes to those made by us.

In this they are a complete contrast to the cattle that SWT are again bringing on site soon. That's a great pity and utterly indefensible when so many deer are present. The operation is a tasteless reduction of one of the few places with a sense of wildness into another farmed and managed property. What an opportunity here to let wild animals and wild landscapes have their head. Bringing farm animals and farm regimes onto this land compromises the true value of Blacka represented by deer and other wild mammals in the interest of centrally provided grants usually aimed at satisfying the extreme and prescriptive wing of the bird lobby. What a disappointing and unimaginative grazing project implemented by timid people who can't look beyond the off-the-peg 'solution'. Here today the place is uniquely home to animals that would have been here a thousand years ago making their own impact on the landscape and its vegetation, but because they are not part of their sterile management plan the conservation bureaucracy are stuck with their inflexible policy. So much for wildlife trusts. Perhaps they should be called tamelife trusts.

On another subject relating to the deer, the hinds seen today look in really good condition with smart red coats while the stags in two other places have still a scruffy air about them. I assume the moult is now well ahead but much energy is going into new antler growth. Meanwhile some at least of the hinds will be feeding two, though hormones contribute to the healthy appearance..