some sheep!

Not all sheep are the same…. thankfully!  Most behave in a predictable way,they follow the flock and they have a vague idea of self preservation. However there are some exceptions. For the past couple of weeks there has been an awkward old ewe grazing on a piece of land on Morte Point known as the three cornered island. I say awkward with good cause, she’s good enough at evading capture to still have her lamb with her a month after the rest of the lambs have been weaned.

The three cornered island is not actually an island, but one side is particularly inaccessible, where the sheer cliff turns into a perilously steep grass bank and it was here that the ewe in question had decided that the sweetest grass on the point could be grazed. However having led her lamb down to a grassy ledge, there was no way of getting back up, so when I spotted her on the morning round on bank holiday monday, it was obvious that she was going to need some assistance.

After rounding up a few unsuspecting members of the family to assist (visitors for a quiet bank holiday weekend!) we returned with rope in hand for what I considered  should be a fairly straight forward ‘catch and hotch’ back up to level ground. Unfortunately our errant ewe had different ideas. The very sight of my arrival on her personal ledge had her scurrying further and further down, jumping ledge to ledge far happier to risk a fatal fall than to risk capture. Her lamb was easily caught and with not too much effort carried and dragged to the top of the cliff, in the hope that it’s mother would attempt to follow, but she was having none of it. Even when eventually I caught her, she made no attempt to assist her own ascent, and it took a full hour of rope heaving from the ‘quiet bank holiday weekenders’, to pull her back to the top, passing straight through the middle of a bramble patch on route!

Once reunited with her lamb the old ewe wandered away without a care in the world. Sheep have short memories, so I shan’t be surprised to see her stuck in exactly the same place in a few days time. It’s just as well that not all sheep are the same as 700 like her might be enough to make me give up sheep farming!