Proving to be rather a busy week this week with an urgent appeal from Hastings Borough Council for ponies asap. Originally the Sussex Pony Trust was going to commence grazing at their Hastings Country Park during the autumn. Fortunately, we have a few spare ponies at the moment so they will be going over there on Wednesday, July 23. The following day, a certain amount of mis-informed criticism, concerning the ragwort where the ponies are at Hastings; put out a statement stating the facts (and available on this blog – ‘Ragwort – The Facts’).
On another site, in the Ashdown area, have been spending time pulling ragwort where there is the potential of it becoming a nuisance; I’m not particularly worried about our ponies eating it – they won’t, but want to avoid it ‘getting away’ on areas of disturbed ground and avoiding vehicles whisking it about. July 22 near Coleman’s Hatch, saw a single red kite there today over-flying some woodland I was driving through; the deeply cleft tail was very distinct. [Postscript, late afternoon; kite flew over our house situated east of Ashdown Forest!]
On Friday 25, we held the first of the Trust’s Working Group days on Chailey Common assisting with conservation work on behalf of ESCC who manage the area. Eight of us spent the day pulling and cutting birch saplings – not the best occupation on a hot summers day! The Trust currently has 15 ponies on the Commons (there are also Townings Farm’s longhorn cattle and Hebridean sheep grazing alongside them). The principal task will be making a start on removing birch saplings from an area of marshy ground that used to be floristically quite diverse. This will assist the grazing animals in turning round this area.