Every reindeer herder looks forward to May – it’s pretty much the best month of the year for us with calving time for the reindeer dominating it. But May is also one of my absolute favourite months for other reasons too, the trees are coming into leaf, the plants in my garden are growing like mad, the weather is generally fairly amenable, and the migrant birds are back.
May looks like THIS to reindeer herders!
Mention May to any reindeer herder and calving is – I guarantee – the first thing that pops into their head. Reindeer are very seasonal with their breeding, and whilst the occasional calf might be born in the last few days of April, the vast majority arrive in May every year. Calving is a wonderful time of year for us – who can resist the cuteness of a a newborn reindeer? – though it comes with a fair amount of stress too, as we do our best to keep everyone happy and healthy. You’ll find lots of blogs about calving if you use the search function on the blog page here (only visible on a laptop/desktop) if you’d like to know more. Plus lots of lovely photos – of course!
Calves Gelato and Zoom at couple of weeks old
But I have other connotations for the month of May. The second one are the cuckoos. We’re lucky enough to still get plenty of cuckoos in this area, although nationwide they have declined by about 65% since the early 1980s. Even the least ‘birdy’ person in the UK surely knows their iconic call, and I associate them so much with May. They call from the forest below the reindeer’s hill enclosure all through the month, and the far-carrying sound is so reminiscent of all the early mornings over the years that I have trudged about on the hill side looking for cows with their newborn calves. Cuckoos seem to stop calling earlier than some species, I’ve noticed, and already as I write (early June) I realise that I’m barely hearing them any more. Such a short season, and yet they are utterly ingrained into our conscious in spring! Read more about other migrant species who are summer visitors to us in one of my previous blogs here.
The third thing I really associate with May here in the Cairngorms is the cotton-grass (Hare’s-tail Cotton-grass, to be precise), which grows on acidic moorland and is familiar to many, with it’s bobbing cotton-wool like flower heads.
Hare’s-tail cotton-grassFab as a calf
It’s not actually a grass but a sedge, and some years give particularly good displays, where it can almost look like it has snowed. It comes into flower in May, and grows particularly well in the bottom of our hill enclosure on the flatter areas there, which tends to be where the cows and their calves hang out during the month.
Calving in the cotton-grass… A very grumpy looking Brie with her grey calf Latte, and Peanut and her calf Kuksa in between.
So there we are – the three ‘c’s that are incredibly strongly associated with May to me. The fourth would be ‘chaos’, but that’s part and parcel with calving so can be combined into one!
The longer we work with the reindeer the more we see their individual personalities, this is one reason I love working with these incredible animals! They are all so unique, and learning all their quirks and characters means we can work with and handle the reindeer better. This wee blog shows a few of their character traits…
The one with the puppy dog eyes…
Bordeaux has a sweet-natured soul with big, beautiful eyes which she likes to use on weak-willed reindeer herders. At the end of each Hill Trip she likes to wander up to the herders and batter her eyelashes at them in the hope she gets to put her head in the white bag containing tasty treats! To be fair to Bordeaux this is most likely a learnt behaviour. A couple of years ago she had a bad summer and came in off the free range in poor condition. We spent a couple of months carrying a special bag of food on to the hill for her containing an extra extra-calorific food mix in order for her gained weight before the harsh winter months. She clearly got used to this special treatment and now can’t understand why she’s not allowed any extra!
Bordeaux licking the evidence of her nose.
The labrador…
Busby is a very lovely and very friendly lad! When he was a calf he was actually rather shy and took a little while for his cheeky nature and fairly outrageous levels of greediness to really shine! The photo below sums his character up well: Isla trying to get past him and Busby making sure that he’s 100% been seen so surely there’s some food in that white bag for him. Reindeer don’t like to be stroked and patted but if there’s a bag of food around, Busby will tolerate most things! He’s also a great poser so often appears on social media especially over the summer months when he’s often in our hill enclosure here on Cairngorm.
Busby doing his absolute best to make sure Isla notices him!
The‘Danger Reindeer’…
Pumpkin is a feisty girl with bags of attitude! She’s dark in colour and very beautiful so people often want to take photos of her or with her. She’s not shy around people and loves hand feeding from our visitors. BUT if you catch her in a bad mood then you may know about it, she’s well known for waving her antlers at people and even snorting! This means herders on Hill Trips are constantly keeping a wee eye on her and often have to apologise for her bad behaviour – “please don’t take it personally, that’s just Pumpkin!”
Beautiful Pumpkin – who wouldn’t want to get a photo of this beautiful lass! Photo from September 2024.Even without antlers Pumpkin can be a bit scary! This was me trying to take a lovely photo of Pumpkin next to her daughter Lapsang, and I get the ears back look and snorted at!
The greediest of all…
Aztec! Arguable, but surely most herders would agree?! In 2022 he was officially crowned the title after herders voted on it – read that blog here. He is very friendly, the class clown, and even though Aztec will be 9 years old in the spring he shows no sign of slowing down. Multiple times, I’ve witnessed him jumping over fences from a standstill at the merest rustle of a bag on the other side – he’s very athletic! Aztec during hand-feeding sessions on Hill Trips adds a bit of drama to the day. He has no patience and inhales the food from one pair of hands in milliseconds before heading to the next pair of out-stretched hands, and then the next… Thankfully he grows relatively small antlers so he’s not wheeling around huge headgear. If you foolishly allow him to get into a white bag, then good luck to you! He ploughs his nose to the ground making it almost impossible for you to remove his head and can be rather embarrassing in front of 50 people on a Hill Trip. What a boy!!
Trying to take Aztec for some exercise whilst on Christmas tour is hard-going when the trees are covered in this much lichen! Here he is free ranging in March 2024 looking all innocent!
Sweet as pie…
Diamond – she’s so lovely! She’s an old girl now at 13. She’s had a permanent limp since spring 2019 and since then she’s been retired from breeding as we don’t want her putting additional strain on her body. As she now doesn’t breed, she gets to spend most of her life out free ranging in the mountains. I’ve had several lovely encounters with Diamond on the free range where she always seems genuinely pleased to see you, and very gently and politely takes some food! The photo below is of Cameron and Diamond casually walking across the Cairngorm plateau. We bumped into her by herself, and she decided to follow us all the way to a lovely safe spot, closer to home. We got some funny looks as we strolled past hill walkers who were doing double takes at our four-legged friend! Hard to believe, but she is the granny of the ‘Danger Reindeer’ above – how is that possible when Diamond is this sweet?!
Cameron casually scrolling across the hill with the lovely Diamond.
The snorer…
Perhaps snoring isn’t a personality trait, but in the warmer summer months Clouseau loves to lie in the exact same spot, snoring away. It’s just off the boardwalk, right by the gate so all our visitors get to experience the sweet snores as he dozes off and waits for the next meal to arrive! He’s actually a rather cheeky chap but boy does he know how to relax!
Turn up the volume! The gentle sounds of Clouseau snoring away in his favourite summer spot!
The last one…
Vienna is a really sweet lass. She’s friendly, greedy, sweet-natured, and a beautiful, unusual colour. However, annoyingly she is most often at the back of the herd trailing along with no haste whatsoever! For other reindeer if they’re being sluggish at the back it’s a sign we may need to check their temperature as they could be feeling a bit under the weather. But we have learnt that for Vienna, that’s just her!
Surprise, surprise! Vienna is the last reindeer through the gate for her breakfast! December 2024.Can you see the herd stretching out right into the middle of the photo? Yep, that’s Vienna’s bottom closest to the camera right at the very back as always.
I could go on and on but I think I’ll stop there… maybe I could write a second instalment in the future!
As the seasons change and we transition from spring into summer our female reindeer will start to move from the lower grounds where they have spent most of the winter, higher onto the hills. This is partly to stay cool as the weather will warm up but also to follow the grazing. In the middle of the winter there will be more snow higher on the hills, meaning further for the reindeer to dig but in the summer the tops of the hills are where the best grazing is.
Waving the cows and calves off to spend the summer free-ranging.
For our reindeer this migration may be only a few miles but across the world, reindeer and caribou (which are genetically the same as reindeer but haven’t been domesticated) migrate long distances. In fact, caribou hold the record for the longest land migration of any animal, migrating a whopping 2,000 miles between their summer and winter-feeding grounds. The equivalent records are held by the humpback whale with the longest migration through water of 5,000 miles and the arctic tern with the longest migration through the air with a mind boggling 18,000 miles.
Long Distance Migration (Varpe and Bauer).Arctic Tern.Humpback.
2,000 miles is still an incredibly long way and takes the caribou first to their spring calving grounds near the coast. The spring calving grounds are highly fertile, providing lots of food for the new mums and free of predators, which is important as the young are born. This sounds like the ideal location to spend the summer and perhaps it would be if it wasn’t for the swarms of mosquitoes that arrive at the start of the summer. These mosquitoes, as well as the warmer weather, drive the caribou to migrate higher onto the hills. They spend the summer grazing on a plethora of different plants and lichens. Summer is a time of abundance in the arctic and sub-arctic regions.
Lace and Ryvita free ranging in the Cairngorms.
With long hours of light, the plants grow quickly, and the reindeer will graze on over 200 different species. This allows the reindeer calves to grow quickly, before the winter. It also allows bulls, cows and calves to all grow a set of antlers. The antlers grow over roughly 5 months and can reach a massive size. The largest set we’ve had in our herd weighed 8.9kg for the pair. It is also important that reindeer gain weight in the summer in order to survive the harsh winter.
Christie’s calf, Espresso, Christie and Borlotti enjoying the best of the summer grazing on the plateau.Glacée and Dante looking fantastic at the end of a summer of free-ranging.
As autumn approaches the reindeer will migrate yet again. As the temperature drops, there will be less to eat high on the hills so the reindeer will move to the lower hills in search of better grazing. It is also the time of year that the mushrooms emerge so many of the reindeer will come into the edge of the woodland to forage mushrooms. They eat many varieties, but the boletus family are their favourite.
In our herd the female reindeer spend the summer months free-ranging and the males spend it in our hill enclosure. This means there is another drive for the females to come to the lower slopes and into the hill enclosure, the boys! The cows know that the rut is held in our hill enclosure each year so when their hormones tell them it’s time to find a mate, they know where to come!
Dante munching on a mushroom.
The migration of the Cairngorm reindeer may be much smaller than reindeer and caribou elsewhere, but it is equally important. It allows the reindeer to move to the best location for each season, following where the best food and climate is.
The start of May was a whirlwind! The first calf of the year was born on the 25th of April, then the cows left us in suspense for a whole week until the 2nd of May until the next one came along. It was then a flurry of calves being born all over the place – we had 19 within one week! Calving then slowed down and things became a bit calmer with the last one found on the 28th. In general we’ve had a very successful month and the vast majority of the calves and their mums are already out free roaming in the hills – I can’t wait to head out to see them over the summer.
On top of this we’ve also had two Hill Trips a day and all the usual business in the office. So I’ll leave it there and just let you enjoy the cute pictures…
As a reminder, we won’t reveal the names of the new mothers until after we’ve let our adopters know in the June newsletter so I’ve tried to be deliberately vague.
1st of May: Brew bored of me talking on a Hill Trip and finding a comfy seat on my rucksack! I’m sure a lot of visitors would empathise with her – I do tend to go on a bit.1st of May: Sisters Zambezi and Juniper hanging out together.6th of May: A gorgeous newborn male calf.6th of May: Bordeaux and Turtle wondering what I’m up to on another beautiful day. I’m starting to forget what rain feels like!7th of May: Amazon looking beautiful whilst out free ranging in the hills!7th of May: Druid is a shy boy and doesn’t handfeed but he loves eating from the white bag at the end of the visit, as you can tell from the crumbs on his nose!9th of May: Choc-ice is a bold and rather cheeky fella! 12th of May: This gorgeous wee one is just over a week old and already very settled around us, so long as mum isn’t too far away!12th of May: A beutiful female calf.12th of May: Cameron walking a calf into the ‘nursery’ area of our enclosure, the mum is just ahead, off camera and this wee one is less than 12 hours old.13th of May: Andi feeding the main herd in the enclosure. Look at the size of Sherlock’s antlers next to everyone else! Busby closest to camera. 13th of May: A beautiful calf chilling out in a bog!14th of May: Another gorgeous calf!14th of May: Three ‘normal coloured’ calves in the wrong place on the other side of a fence to their (unconcerned) mums! Who do you belong to?! 14th of May: Another calf cooling down in a bog. Look at that row of bottom teeth! 17th of May: Spartan tapping his antlers encouraging their growth.18th of May: The first batch of calves getting walked out! Here’s Cameron walking with a mother and her calf following on behind. 18th of May: Free ranging mother and calf! A beautiful evening waving them off! 18th of May: Another calf now free ranging in the hills for the summer. Good luck wee one!19th of May: Kuksa yawning after a Hill Trip. Tiring work being this cute!21st of May: A really funky coloured calf! What a cutie.23rd of May: One year old Chai having a suckle from mum Cheer. Usually the calves stop suckling long before this but Cheer and Chai remain closely bonded.27th of May: How Jimmy spent the majority of my Hill Trip – at my side giving me the puppy dog eyes!28th of May: Another reindeer calf just for good measure!28th of May: Elbe, the twin brother to his more famous sister Alba, looking great.29th of May: Some of our gorgeous boys – Jester, Kulfi, Busby, Mivvi and Olmec.
I was having a photo clear out the other day (my phone is embarrassingly full of reindeer photos) and realised I have taken lots of photos of Cuppa over the past 12 months. Florence, Cuppa’s mum, was my “calving bet” so I think I was particularly invested in her wee boy! For any reader unfamiliar with the herder’s annual calving bets you can read this blog here. So, here’s a collection of photos to see how the little fella has grown up over the past year.
Florence and her new born boy! He was born on the 22nd of May 2024, this was taken a few days later on the 26th.Florence’s calf also on the 26th of May – just look at those “eyebrows”! 10th of June – Cuppa next to his mum a few weeks later and already bigger and bolder. He headed out to free range for the summer the next day.19th of June: I was lucky enough to bump into Florence and Cuppa whilst they were out roaming freely in the hills. They looked so happy up in lovely herd of other cows and calves.This is from the same day as above but just makes me smile – Florence coming over to say hello and Cuppa behind with those distinctive brows!The next picture I have of Cuppa is this one from September the 15th so a jump of 3 months. It’s actually Andi’s photo after Cameron successfully caught him and put him on a halter so they could be walked back into the hill enclosure. What a size difference compared to June! He’s now in his smart summer coat and has grown antlers. Mum Florence is on the left, Lolly is on the right.This is Florence and Cuppa in the hill enclosure on the 3rd of October. Compared to the other calves, Cuppa is one of the smallest of 2024. We believe he had a illness in late summer/early autumn, just before coming back into the hill enclosure from the free range. As you can see he’s cast his antlers already – often a sign of illness. Thankfully with some extra food and Florence by his side he’s rallied around and has grown in to a cheeky confident wee reindeer as you’ll see…13th of December – Cuppa and Florence looking great! Compared to the last photo you can see his winter coat has really grown through… and Florence has broken an antler. 15th of January – After Cuppa attended a couple of Christmas events and with the Christmas holidays over, the pair are now now back out free ranging in the hills and doing really well, he’s never too far from Florence.13th of February – Cuppa and Florence in the sunshine. He’s growing in confidence and cheekiness by the day!26th of February – The pair up high on a ridge before being moved down for the daily Hill Trip. Cuppa clearly wanted a lie-in this morning. 12th of March – Winter is back! Cuppa and Florence on the 7th of April 2025. The pair are often still together but as you’ll see from the photos rather than being rather shy and sticking behind Florence, Cuppa is now much bolder and comes extremely close on the hunt for food.Cuppa on the 25th of April. Cuppa has remained close to Florence’s side for the last 11 months but now he’s almost a year old, they have been separated. Cuppa has joined up with a big herd of male, at our second site in Glenlivet. He’s doing really well and as you can see is beginning to grow another set of antlers. Meanwhile…… Florence is doing well and is having a well-deserved year off from motherhood, which means she’ll be able to spend the vast majority of it free ranging in the hills. Here’s Florence (and her mum Spy behind) on the 29th of April enjoying herself on the free range and beginning to grow a lovely set of new antlers.Cuppa on the 18th of May – a few days before his 1st birthday!
We often get asked by visitors what we do when we’re not up leading the Hill Trips. Being a Scottish reindeer herder is a really varied job, and in the past year as we’ve moved into our new building it has been even more so! Here are a few photos from the past few months:
What people think we spend all our time doing – a snowy day moving the free-range herd across the mountains with CamHow does it look?? Trying out different positions for the antler decor in our new shopBuilding new welly racks! Testing my DIY skills (or lack of) to the limit…Team effort unloading several trailers of wood chip into the new Paddock area.Hanging out with Winnie.A day refreshing our first aid skills, though we hope to avoid using them!Another snowy morning moving the herd into position for the Hill TripHelping with landscaping in the Paddock area.Tree planting alongside our new exhibition area.Coffee “supervising” whilst I poop-scoop!Finding a very old bit of cast antler on the mountain, Building many racks for storing all of our things!Appreciating Sundae’s beautiful nose!
We’re already into calving season 2025, but I’m still finding it hard to believe last year’s calves are already turning into yearlings! In this photo blog you can see Latte grow up from a newborn to a one year old.
Latte was born to mum Brie on the 7th of May 2024. This is them on the 11th of May, Latte is just 4 days old and aleady quite brave coming to say hello.On the 3rd of June we opened the gates and Latte went off to free roam for the summer with her mum, in a herd of other mothers and calves. Latte is in the middle of this photo.On the 19th of June I was lucky enough to bump into Brie and Latte whilst they were out free ranging in the hills. They both looked great, although Brie looked rather scruffy as she’s starting the moult.Another photo from the 19th of June – what a cutie!Andi’s photo from an adventure out on to the free range in mid July – Brie now looking much scruffier but her darker summer coat more visible underneath and larger velvet antlers than her last appearance in this blog. Latte is also moulting her calf coat.Latte and big sister, Beret, on the 11th of September, both now back in the hill enclosure after a summer of free ranging. Both girls have lovely matching white noses, just like their mum.Latte and Brie in October 2024 both growing in their beautiful fresh winter coats.Just a silly photo of Latte from November.Latte out on a local Christmas event at Landmark in December 2024. As a female Latte won’t do any other Christmas work in the future but getting her out a wee bit with a team of big boys means she’s de-senitised to many things, very tame and used to being on a halter, and therefore super easy to work with whilst back home in the mountains.Latte on a sunny day in February 2025 – she’s been back out free ranging since the end of the Christmas holidays.Brie and Latte (with a mouthful of lichen!) in March 2025. She’s recently cast an antler. Latte on a glorious day in early April 2025, now with no antlers!23rd of April – Brie and Latte in the hill enclouse. Latte is just beginning to grow her second set of antlers.Brie and Latte on the 6th of May – the day before her first birthday! Well done Brie for rearing such a lovely lass!
April has been a glorious month! The first half of it was wall-to-wall sunshine for what felt like weeks on end. The reindeer were on the move quite a lot so it meant some big walks getting them each morning keeping us all fit. By the middle of the month we brought some of our (hopefully) pregnant reindeer into the enclosure so it’s been a busy time with reindeer everywhere: on the free range, in the enclosure, in the Paddocks, and of course over with Tilly at the farm. The Paddocks was very busy during the holidays with visitors and even though the Exhibition isn’t ready yet we’ve got a wee quiz for kids, lots of information boards to read, and of course four beautiful reindeer on display! Hopefully everybody who visited had an enjoyable time.
Very excitedly we’ve also had our first calf of the season!! A lovely wee boy who is doing incredibly well. Hopefully the May photo blog will be packed full of calves!
5th of April: Solero is looking fantastic at the moment. She’s in excellent condition and is just beginning to grow her antlers.5th of April: Whilst customers are allowed to bring dogs into the shop in the new Centre, staff have to keep dogs next door at Reindeer House. This is Elsie and Ginger waiting patiently for us at 5pm telling us it’s time to go home!6th of April: Winnie leading the free ranging herd. 7th of April: Feta and her son Earl Grey looking great on a beautiful spring day. 9th of April: Lotti and I had a wonderful morning retrieving the free roaming herd. They were quite high up, above the cloud.9th of April: Almost three-year-old Lolly and her mum Oatcake hanging out together. 9th of April: Moving the herd down to the Hill Trip location. This photo makes me laugh! Unfortunately I didn’t notice the photo-bomber until afterwards and my ID isn’t good enough to work out who it is.9th of April: Sherlock and his ridiculous antlers! He looks like he should be in June, not April, with the size of those antlers!10th of April: Lapsang relaxing after a Hill Trip. 10th of April: Shannon cooling her feet down in a bog.12th of April: Scully has spent the winter free ranging at our second site. She’s now back in the enclosure and is in excellent condition. 14th of April: Colorado is a going to be two on the 1st of May. He’s a very handsome boy!15th of April: Amazon is such a beauty! She will turn two on the 3rd of May.16th of April: Turtle coming in to say hello and see what’s in my white bag! She can be a little fiesty so I wasn’t entirely sure whether she was about to tell me off or not – on this occasion she didn’t thankfully! 18th of April: Hopscotch and Juniper eating from the same pile of food – mother and her almost 5 year old daughter!23rd of April: Dante looking beautiful and just beginning to grow his antlers.24th of April: Sheena and I caught up with some of the free rangers. This is Nuii leading the way.24th of April: Sika looking great for almost 17, and Hobnob behind will be 16.25th of April: Fab being inquisitive.25th of April: Two brothers, Espresso and Colorado, hanging out together. 28th of April: The first calf of the year!! Already very bold and coming over to say hello to Lotti!29th of April: Mississippi and her mum Holy Moley came into the enclosure by themselves to check in, after being out free ranging in the hills. Always a joy to see the free rangers wander in!30th of April: Sorbet, Vanilla, and Hopscotch on another beautiful day!
With only a week or so to go until we could be seeing the first reindeer calves born, here are a few things which are preparing us, and the reindeer, ready for the big event. There aren’t any pre-natal classes for the reindeer but there is a pattern that we tend to stick to at this time of year. About 4-6 weeks before calving all our reindeer need an annual vaccination which was done at the end of March. At this time the herd are still free ranging so we brought them into our mountain enclosure for a couple of days for this as it can leave them feeling a little grotty. They then go back onto the free range for a few more weeks.
Zambezi leading the herd down for breakfast under a brilliant blue sky at the beginning of April.
This year we had an extremely hot and sunny start to April. This also coincided with the Easter holidays and the combination meant we were seeing extremely busy hills with day trippers and hikers. The hot weather was a little tough on the reindeer so they’d seek the cooler climes higher on the hill which meant for a longer walk to find them each morning. Of course, us herders had no problem with this, especially as it was cracking weather! We had to be canny about where we left the herd ready for the daily Hill Trip as we didn’t want them to be disturbed. Once we were into the second week of wall-to-wall sunshine the herd split forces and one group headed in one direction and the other group in the opposite direction. This still left a group of around 50 reindeer for hill trips but the other 20 had a 3-4 day ‘time out’ from visitors. Maybe they did it on purpose as it was mainly our older girls! As a result of them naturally splitting and us not wanting to miss the boat in getting pregnant cows in ready for calving we decided that we’d take them in a week earlier than we were planning to, so Kate and I did just that. We split off the pregnant cows, some of their 2024 calves and left out anything that wasn’t in calf so they could continue to free range. It gave us peace of mind knowing that anything due to give birth in a few week’s time were in and away from disturbance in the mountains. The last thing they need before giving birth is to be chased by an out-of-control dog or a drone.
The free roaming herd enjoying the hills in the good weather in early April.
Since, the free-range herd haven’t ventured too far and we catch up with them every few days for a check and a feed. In this group is Winner and Alba (hand-reared calves from 2023) so this is setting them up nicely for remaining on the free range for the whole summer. The cows in the enclosure are getting an easy feed twice a day and everyday their bellies are growing and udders starting to form. It’s exciting to watch this process.
Alba and Winnie have remained out with the free ranging herd. Sheena checking in with some of the free ranging reindeer.Ryvita is one of our oldest girls at nearly 16. She’s got the biggest velvet antlers out of all the females at the moment and is looking super. As she is long retired from breeding she’ll now get to spend the vast majority of her life out free ranging in the hills.
Amongst us herders we are all set with our annual calving bet picking a female reindeer who we hope won’t be last to calve, otherwise we will have to do a forfeit. Once upon a time the forfeit was to jump into a very cold loch, however, nowadays so many of us enjoy open water swimming it’s not really a challenge so now the loser has to make a cake in the autumn for when we all get together to name the calves of that year. Much more appropriate I think!
Feeding the herd now in our hill enclosure – lots of wide bellies on the hill!The pregnant girls in the enclosure get an easy time with us now looking out for them and giving them at least two good feeds per day. Here’s Hopscotch and her almost five year old daughter Juniper eating from the same pile of food.In the enclosure we’re regularly inspecting the size of bellies and whether there is any sign of an udder. Not sure Hopscotch is impressed!
We returned in May and it was the calving season (Emm’s blog about her February visit can be found by clicking here). The calves are so cute and come in different colours which were silvery, dark brown, normal coloured, and ginger. They are so small and it was so lovely seeing the reindeer being mums to their calves. Some of the mums and younger calves were in the bottom corridor in the hill enclosure which we call the nursery. The mums and older calves were with the main reindeer herd in the main bit of the enclosure. It was so lovely seeing the calves suckling from their mums. Sometimes the mum would lick its tail or bum to encourage the calf to suckle. I saw calves nibbling on their mum ears. The calves would run often over to their mums grunting or the mums would run over to their calves grunting. Reindeer are normally quiet animals apart from calving time and rutting time and it was lovely to see them communicate. My first time handling a calf was when I held Feta’s calf whilst Hen took the calf’s temperature. Most of the reindeer are ok with you going near their calves but Brie was very protective of her calf so we had to be careful around her and her calf.
Emm holding Feta’s calf who we later named Earl Grey as has turned into one of the biggest calves of 2024.
Helsinki’s calf was premature and was so tiny so we kept them by the shed in the hill enclosure so we could keep an eye on them. We went to check them several times a day and were encouraging the calf to suckle. We bottle fed the calf with goat’s milk as Helsinki didn’t have much milk to begin with. Later on in the week, Helsinki and her calf joined the other mums and calves in the nursery as she was producing more milk and the calf was suckling on its own. The calf got much stronger and was doing so well.
Helsinki and her wee boy, who we later named Irish. Despite a rocky start to life Irish is doing well and has grown into a very tame and laid-back fella!
When reindeer are about to give birth, they tend to go away from the herd and find a high place as they are very private animals when giving birth. One day, Christie was missing from the main herd. Lisette went to find her and found Christie with her newborn calf. Later that day Cassie and Amy went to get Christie and her newborn calf and to take them to the nursery.
Lisette’s photo of Christie and new-born Espresso!
During our visit there was a fundraising scheme launched to raise money towards the new Centre. I decided to help support it by taking a swim in Loch Morlich. I am not an outdoor swimming person as I hate cold water. I am more a hot tub person! So, it was big challenge for me to swim in the loch. It was very cold as the water was still coming from snow patches from the Cairngorms. It was very special day as my herding friends, who love outdoor swimming, came and supported me and Tilly and her grandchildren joined in. Even the herder’s dogs joined in too and with everyone’s encouragement I raised £1000 for the new Reindeer Centre. We went for a drink and a meal afterwards at The Pine Marten Bar to warm up and celebrate.
Emm with the hat on and the herders in the loch. Go Emm!!
Following on from my visit in February I went again to Tilly’s farm with Amy. We helped take temperatures and the younger reindeer had an injection to help stop ticks. I was in charge of putting reindeer on head collars and holding them and was able to catch up with some of the reindeer. Winnie and Alba, two hand-reared reindeer who had just turned one year old, looked really well. Also, Elbe (Alba’s twin) who was looking really well too. We took seven reindeer back to the hill enclosure from the farm, Clouseau, Olmec, Aztec, Frost, Zoom, Zap and 99. Tilly tied Aztec and Clouseau the older boys to her quad bike whilst she drove slowly down with them following the quad bike very nicely. We led them down the hill to “Brenda” the reindeer truck. We went back and with help we took the seven reindeer up to the hill enclosure. I led Zoom and Olmec up to the hill enclosure.
One day Vanilla, who is leucistic (white), had a hoof trim. It was interesting to find out that leucistic reindeer hooves grow faster than a normal coloured reindeer. Leucistic reindeer are white, have blue eyes and sometimes are born deaf.
The building of the new Reindeer Centre was going well when I was there. At the beginning of the week, Tilly and Cameron gave me a tour of the new building which was just the walls going up. At the end of my stay Tilly gave me with Ann and Sheena another tour and the change in just a week was so amazing. The roof was on and the first floor in. It seemed to be going up very quickly.
The roof going on!
One morning during the breakfast feed for the reindeer, we did a mock filming session. People who can’t get up the hill to see the reindeer will be able to experience a reindeer hill visit through a film at the new Reindeer Centre in the exhibition. We walked to the reindeer, fed the reindeer, counted them and chilled with them whilst being filmed for a practice run.
