This is a very silly blog, full of photos of the wonderful Brie!
Brie in September 2020. She is a pretty, pint-sized lass who usually grows petite antlers like above.
Brie is now 11 years old and is probably the smallest breeding female in the herd. But what she doesn’t have in size she certainly makes up for in attitude! She is very feisty to other cows and won’t take any messin’. The famous quote ‘Though she be but little, she is fierce!‘ perfectly sums her up!
She’s great fun to work with, and has reared some wonderful calves during her life. Cicero born in 2020 is one of the tallest reindeer in the herd, Beret born in 2021 is now a mum herself making Brie a granny, Sorbet born in 2022, Danube born in 2023, and now she has another wee female calf born this May and yet to be named. We did try to give Brie a year off motherhood in autumn 2022, but Brie had other ideas and Danube was a big surprise for us when they were found out free roaming in the hills together!
Anyway, I’ve noticed over recent years that I’ve built up a wee collection of Brie sticking her bottom lip out. I’ve not really noticed other reindeer doing this so I think it’s a Brie specialty! She certainly pulls off the “give me food, I’m sooooo hungry” look very well.
Brie in January 2022 with just a wee bottom lip visible.Brie hoping for food – August 2022.Brie with her calf Sorbet behind. Crumbs on her nose reveal she’s already been eating from the white bag! August 2022.Brie looking very scruffy in July 2023 whilst out free roaming in the hills. She’s mid way through the moult and has the tell tale crumbs on her nose again. Brie in August 2023 looking much smarter after moulting most of her winter coat out.A very soggy Brie asking for a tasty snack! Brie doing her very best “I’m sooooo cold, give me more food” face in March 2024. Sorry Brie, you’re not fooling us, just look at that thick winter coat.Brie in August 2024 with her bottom lip and tongue on show yet again.August 2024 with her new wee calf!Every single reindeer in the herd has a folder on our computer system full of photos of them over the years. As I was flicking through Brie’s folder I noticed her bottom lip had even made it on to several adopt photos. This one taken in October 2022 by Hen.
August has been a busy and fun month. The first half of the month was very busy with visitors and sold out Hill Trips. Without the Paddocks and Exhibition this year it feels like the Hill Trips have been even busier than usual. Sometimes we even put a bonus additional Hill Trip on so as not to disappoint too many folk! The reindeer were not complaining about another opportunity to hand-feed!
But as Scottish schools went back the second half of the month got slightly quieter with visitors and we’ve been having lots of free range action which I love. Generally we start to see the free ranging females more as they come down in altitude as the weather gets cooler. Towards the end of the month we also start bringing in the mums and their calves back into the enclosure. They spend June through to August/early September out roaming the hills learning how to be little wild reindeer and enjoying all the best grazing, but when the autumn rolls around it’s time for them to learn what a feed bag is and in time, how to walk on a halter etc. The following photos are a small snapshot of what’s been occurring this month…
1st of August: Sheena leading down Mivvi with Cairngorm mountain in the background.2nd of August: Frost coming over to say hello!5th of August: Kernel and Jelly, both 4 years old, leading the herd on a very dreich Hill Trip.5th of August: Mivvi looking so smart in his short, dark summer coat.6th of August: Harness training in the sun! 7th of August: Sherlock looking MEGA!7th of August: The most identifiable nose on the hill?? Dr Seuss saying hello!8th of August; Amy being mobbed by a bunch of boys (and girl Alba is bottom left) wanting their breakfast!9th of August: A free ranging mission with Cameron. Moving a group of VERY old girls, Ibex, Sambar, Gazelle, Sika and Pavlova with a collective age of 79!12th of August: Handsome Akubra. 13th of August: Haricot on a beautiful breezy morning.14th of August: Wafer coming over to say hi! He looks great this year, with very pretty antlers.14th of August: Winnie and Alba looking super! Both were hand-reared last year.15th of August: A late afternoon excursion from the office to find and move some free ranging reindeer. This is the lovely Emmental who was certainly not shy!16th of August: Cows and calves are back in the enclosure! This is Christie, her male calf, and Solero in the middle.16th of August: Brie’s calf is exceptionally cute! But I could say that about all of them…19th of August: Marple and her calf behind.20th of August: Jenga spending a short while in the enclosure for a wee health check after a summer out free ranging. 20th of August: Sunflower and calf!24th of August: Ryvita aged 15 and looking fantastic!!24th of August (a): Vienna and calf being retrieved from the free range. I enjoyed a lovely evening walk with them back to the hill enclosure.24th of August (b): Vienna and calf home! Back in the enclosure after a summer out in the hills.
Since working here, my camera roll has slowly become about 90% reindeer! So here are a few of my fav of our reindeer, getting up close and personal with them to get those super cute nose shots!
Here is the handsome Druid! This was taken last June 2024, after a Hill Trip. When we had beautiful sunny weather for the whole month. Sadly this June has not been the case 🙁The lovely Lupin here, charging forward for some more hand feed, as you can tell by his crumby nose his head was not long out of the feed bag. This was taken last December 2023, as you can see Lupin has his beautiful fully grown bony antlers.Elbe here, patiently waiting for some more hand feed… which is very out of character for him, usually he can be very pushy and demanding! But with a few bats of those big eyes he usually finds his way into the bag.Baby colorado looking very cute! This was taken last autumn when he was still a calf, not long after his summer of free ranging, giving my camera a curious sniff.Busby looking lovely as ever, taken this June, if you look closely you can see that Busby is looking a little scruffy, this is because he is moulting his thick winter coat into his much shorter darker summer coat which you can see on his legs and nose.Busby again creeping closer to the camera!Pretty Winnie here, posing for me up on the ridge of our hill enclosure. Taken in June this summer 2024, Winnie is doing amazing! She’s a little ray of sunshine always putting a smile on our faces!Hemp trying to figure out if my phone is edible or not! Hemp is a very friendly boy, one of our star hand feeders on our Hill Trips! definitely one of the greediest reindeer in our herd always on the lookout for a white bag!Cowboy posing after a sunny Hill Trip. One of the few sunny days we had this June.Little Elbe! This was taken this summer – his antlers are looking AMAZING! They almost look too big for his small body.Handsome Kernel going in for a camera sniff, this was last summer 2023, he’s looking very smart in his summer coat and velvet antlers!Diamond looking very pretty! What a poser. Diamond had just recently cast her antlers in this picture. This was just before Christmas last year 2023 when we had some of our girls in the enclosure. She is having a lovely time free ranging at the moment!Beanie here with her cute speckledy nose. This was last Autumn time 2023.Little Sorbet posing beautifly for the camera. taken the same time as Beanie’s photo above, there had just taken themselves in from the free range asking for some extra feed.Oatcake was also part of our lovely free ranging group last autumn.Adzuki is in our woods here, this was last autumn 2023. The woods are just behind the Paddocks which are currently undergoing a huge refurbishment.
When sorting through antlers recently and selling various sets, I realised that female reindeer Marple has been kind enough to give us hers for the last three years in a row, which is very unusual. By ‘give’, I mean that she cast them in the hill enclosure, giving us a higher chance of coming across them as compared to losing them outside the fenced area – where they are rarely found. How kind of her!
Marple with a very characteristic expression!
Although I don’t have any of the sets here anymore, I do retain photos of each set sold for my records, so this seems like a good opportunity to talk about similarities from year to year for antler growth for a particular reindeer.
Marple grows what I would classify as a very ‘typical’ set of antlers for a reindeer – average size for cow antlers, with a ‘blade’ at the base on one side (the tine which comes down towards the nose), front points – originating a little higher – pointing forwards somewhat like a stag beetle’s pincers, and then upright shafts which have multiple tines coming off them.
One of my most regular questions on the Hill Trip is whether or not reindeer grow the same shape of antlers each year. The answer is emphatically a yes, though by no means identical. The photos below show Marple’s antlers from age 3, 4 and 5, and you can see they have the same basic layout from year to year.
Antlers age 3Antlers age 4Antlers age 5
But antlers vary hugely, so here’s a composite photo of a ‘pair’ of antlers from two very different bull reindeer, by way of illustrating the differences between individuals whilst still showing the basic layout of the blade, front points and upright sections.
Antlers from bulls Bandy and Gandi – Bandy’s is extremely simple up at the top and Gandi’s far more elaborate (but missing the blade at the base as it was on the other antler of the pair, of which I don’t have a photo).
So what affects how antlers vary from reindeer to reindeer? The answer is primarily genetics. Antler growth is genetically inherited, so a reindeer with parents with rather simple antler growth is unlikely to grow anything too fancy, and vice versa. One of the reasons that our big lad Sherlock grows such enormous antlers is that genes for excellent, huge antler growth run in his family line; both his mum Caddis and dad Atlantic grew huge antlers themselves – Caddis exceptionally so for a female. Marple grows very similar antlers to her mum Ochil, as seen below:
Marple’s mum Ochil (with Marple as a newborn calf!) showing the similarity of her antlers to Marple’s (inset).
Environmental factors affect antler growth too. Having enough energy to grow good headgear is dependent on being in good enough condition, so the grazing abundance and quality is important, which is obviously heavily influenced by the weather. Really hot weather can mean reindeer spend more time lying on snow patches to keep cool, or jogging about to try and evade flies that are buzzing around them, leading to less available grazing time. As I write it’s early July and 9 degrees and raining outside. I’m still having to wear a thermal top under my normal layers and I’m generally pretty grumpy about that fact, but the reindeer are loving life – grazing constantly with no flies around them at all. Every cloud…
Finally, a big part of antler growth is to do with body condition. This can be linked to environmental factors as we’ve just talked about, but other things also affect it, for example illness. A reindeer fighting an illness concentrates their energy on preserving body condition, and antler growth pauses as a result. It will start again if and when the reindeer recovers, but the damage is done and the antlers end up smaller, or slightly malformed, compared to a ‘normal’ year.
Merida with lovely antlers and no calf, and the following year with a much poorer set, but a calf at foot
Female reindeer raising a calf need lots of energy to produce milk, so their antlers often suffer over the summer months, being smaller and often rather wonky. Some reindeer are prime candidates for this – looking at you, Merida! – whilst Marple actually doesn’t struggle too much. At 6 years old she’s in the prime of her life and has energy to spare, so both a big calf and decent antlers in the same season are achievable. However, the difference is still noticeable to some extent: here are those three photos again – the first pair grown when Marple was three, with no calf at foot, and the second two grown in the subsequent years but both times with a calf at foot. The first pair are slightly taller and perhaps a little more elegant, whilst the others are a touch shorter and a bit ‘squatter’ (although a little chunkier as Marple matured).
For any of you that have visited us on our Hill Trips at the end of last year, you may have noticed a young female hanging around us herders, ever hopeful that she can mooch some extra feed. She is a 5-year-old female called Bordeaux, who is very non-descript colour wise and was born in 2019 – which was the year we decided to name our reindeer after European places. She was born on the free range after her mother, Sika decided to go AWOL the day before we were due to bring the pregnant cows into our hill enclosure for the calving season. Doing this allows us to check that both cow and calf are healthy before sending them out to free range for the summer. But Sika must have known that a short stint in the hill enclosure was pending and decided it wasn’t how she wanted to spend the next couple of weeks!
The lovely Bordeaux – any visitors recognise this face?
Bordeaux’s mother is a sweet reindeer that is relatively independent. At the ripe old age of 16 she is now enjoying a retired life free ranging in the cairngorms. Both Bordeaux and her mother look very much alike, which helps me confidently ID at least one of the retired females out on the free range. To learn more about Sika have a read of Hen’s blog here.
Sika (left) and Bordeaux (right) in January 2023. Both have exactly the same facial expression when stood near a herder with a white bag.
In 2022 it was time for Bordeaux to continue her family line and she gave birth to a male calf in our hill enclosure. However, once out on the free-range Bordeaux sadly lost her calf – it is not unusual for first time mothers to lose their calves out on the free range, as reindeer build up resistance to some illnesses that they may encounter as they age. We found Bordeaux hanging around the ski road in rather poor condition, so we decided to bring her into our hill enclosure so we could fatten her up before the winter set in again.
Bordeaux in October 2022. She grew very small antlers that summer and her winter coat was rather scruffy indicating she was in slightly poorer condition than we would like so it was time to spoil her!
Being a super quiet reindeer, Bordeaux always hung about on the sidelines, when food was being set out for the herd – suggesting she may have been quite low in the pecking order. This meant that us herders began to feel sorry for her and decided that we would give her extra feed on the Hill Trips too! It has been well over a year since we started feeding Bordeaux and it is very clear that she now expects extra food whenever she sees a herder. But in comparison to other reindeer, she is very polite about it (Editor’s note: Usually. She did kick Hen earlier this year when demanding food…). She has opted for the puppy dog eyes and patient wait tactic, which of course we can’t ignore because she is being so sweet about it!
Bordeaux in February 2022 – looking much better but we just can’t resist those eyes.Bordeaux posing beautifully.How can we resist this face?Tell tale signs – crumbs all over her face!She must get it from her mum! Sika (left) licking her lips and Bordeaux (right) posing beautifully.
Another tactic I’ve noticed her doing is to stare at you from afar – there have been a few times now that I have noticed her keeping surveillance on the white bag and as soon as you go to feed another reindeer, she is straight in there too. I’ve also been told that she can be quite pushy and rude with Hen, which I find quite hard to believe – Sorry Hen! (Editor’s note: Hen insists this is absolutely true!). So even now that she is in better condition, we still slip her the odd mouthful of feed as she is a super sweet lass, and it is great to have her around.
Whilst the calves get to feed from the bags, Bordeaux tries to stare down Amy. Bordeaux sticking her tongue out behind Emm.
So, there it is, a little history on a fairly popular little reindeer that has brought lots of you wonderful visitors a large amount of joy with the added pleasure of some lovely pictures!
With the Paris Olympics fast approaching I have been persuaded to put pen to paper ( or finger tips to keyboard ) to write about our very own reindeer, Olympic.
Olympic was born in 2012, the year of the London Olympics, hence his name and from the very start he stood out as a little bit different to the rest.
He was quite literally the black sheep/reindeer of his family! His mother Lilibet was a white/grey coloured reindeer who always produced light coloured calves, until Olympic came along and he was born dark brown and has remained a dark coloured reindeer all his life.
Mother and son in May 2012.Lilibet and Olympic in January 2013.
Olympic is a very quiet unassuming reindeer who often lingers away from the herd, often behind one of us. I used to think he just enjoyed our company, perhaps he does, but I also think he is a reindeer that is quite easily bullied by others and so the company of a kindly reindeer herder is often preferable.
Even at feed time, although he likes being hand fed he is not pushy about it, standing patiently beside us until a handful of feed or better still, a bag of feed, is offered to him.
Over the years he has been a stalwart of the Christmas teams, in the early years as one of the newbies coming up and now one of the trainers for the newbies. A quiet canny reindeer he is always a favourite among the Christmas reindeer. But now 13 years old the main Christmas work is undertaken by the younger reindeer and Olympic is cherry picked for a local school or community event. Not too far to travel and very easy once you get there!! Sounds like the best events for me to do!
Olympic is a favourite amongst all of us here, the only difference between us all is that I am Olympics favourite herder. I ‘hear’ a sharp intake of breath among my fellow herders, but it is of course true.
Olympic as a 2 year old in July 2014.Olympic and Haricot pulling the sleigh in Glenmore on a training session with Tilly and her grandchildren in the sleigh in October 2023. Olympic is the ‘old pro’ teaching Haricot how it’s done!Olympic mid-parade in Beverley – December 2023.What a handsome lad!
By the end of July the reindeer finally start looking themselves after what seems like a very long moult. They’re now mostly in their short, sleek and darker summer coats and their lovely velvet antlers are looking amazing. It’s been a generally cold summer so far which the reindeer have enjoyed as it means less pesky flies to bother them.
We’ve been busy doing morning harness training sessions with the boys and carrying LOTS of feed up the hill as their appetite has ramped up – their putting all their energy into those growing lovely antlers and big bellies. Some of the free roaming females have been seen by other herders (sadly not me this month yet!) so no pics of them in this blog, but the ones who have been seen have all looked very well, I always love hearing who has been spotted! The office is busy with sorting out Crowdfunding rewards and the usual adoptions. Plus it’s now peak summer holidays so lots of fully-booked Hill Trips and a busy shop.
2nd of July: Ob and Nile and a very scruffy herd behind.2nd of July: Kernel already looking very smart in his summer coat.3rd of July: Amy with Adzuki harness training.4th of July: Jimmy looking curiously at my white bag.8th of July: Can’t resist this pic of Mr Whippy’s hairy hot pants! Sorry Mr Whippy for the unflattering photo – you’ll look fantastic once you’ve moulted. To add to the strange look, the yellow on his antlers is for sun protection.9th of July: Harness training on a beautiful morning!9th of July: Tub has forgotten to moult and is one of the hairiest reindeer in the herd at the moment.13th of July: A detective and inspector walk up a boardwalk… Sherlock and Morse first in line for food!13th of July: Elbe and herder Hannah.14th of July: I spent the morning at the hill farm feeding the reindeer there and also the pigs and these handsome Soay rams.16th of July: Jester and his enormous antlers.17th of July: Fiona feeding the herd their breakfast.22nd of July: Great to see Athens back in our hill enclosure after spending the first part of the summer at the Hill Farm with Tilly.23rd of July: Aztec (Athens’ big bro) is also back from the farm. Voted greediest reindeer in the herd in 2022 (see here) and I don’t think he’s lost the title!25th of July: Morse and Poirot chilling out together after the Hill Trip.
On my first day I headed up to the hill enclosure with Ben and was very excited to see the reindeer again, our last trip being in December the previous year. We checked the herd and found that Torch was missing, not coming down for breakfast, so Ben went off to find and check on her. I was straight away given the job to lead the visitors down to the visit spot and do a talk on reindeer adaptations to the extreme weather conditions. The visitors were very interested in how they are so well adapted for the snow and cold weather, right from the antlers down to the hooves, and asked me lots of questions. I really enjoyed sharing the knowledge with people. Ben got Torch in and after the visitors had gone we checked her temperature which was fine!
Snoozy reindeer on a snow patch.
Some of the Hill Trips were to the free-range on Cairngorm and it was lovely to see them in their natural environment, hear and see the red grouse as well as the funicular railway and it was well worth the 40-minute walk sometimes needed to catch up with the herd. The conditions could be very severe up on the free-range and on one Hill Trip it was so windy I had to fight to not get blown over. I had never seen it like that before. When on the free-range herders would need to go up first and find out where they were and bring them down to a suitable spot for the visitors. They could be anywhere and on my trip with Ruth and Fiona when we went to find them we would try to call them down but often they refused to move and had to be fetched down. This would involve some trekking across rough ground and on one occasion involved jumping over a burn. Thankfully I didn’t fall in! I went with Fiona on one morning to find them and walked up very high as they were well up on the mountain. There were snow patches in some parts which were knee deep. When we found them they wouldn’t come down to our calling so Fiona went to the front and started to lead them down and I was at the back to herd them from behind. Suddenly a dog appeared off the lead and ran at Fiona and the reindeer near the front and the reindeer turned and started to run back towards me being very scared of the dog. I managed to stay calm and they all stopped and we waited for Fiona to come back up after making sure the dog was back on a lead. We then put Hopscotch on a head collar and Fiona led them down with me pushing from the back but the reindeer had different ideas and went their own way and I lost sight of Fiona. She eventually appeared from the side so we had walked past her with the reindeer doing their own thing. Fiona had thought they had run off but thankfully they had behaved themselves for me and stayed together. When we got to the visit spot we counted them all and they were all there. I got the reindeer special badge for getting the reindeer calm when they were spooked and for keeping the herd together. I was very proud of myself.
Emm feeding the reindeer from the tasty white bag.Emm leading the free ranging herd.
On another occasion with Hen and Cameron we did the free-range Hill Trip but when we got there we couldn’t see them so we had to go searching. We were getting desperate until eventually I looked over a ridge and saw them all lying down relaxing hiding from us. We were very relieved. I did notice how wild the weather could be at this time of year and it could change quickly. On one Hill Trip it was so snowy, sleety and windy that no children were allowed and we had to wear ski goggles to keep the snow out of our eyes. Some visitors were turned away if they did not have proper outdoor clothing suitable for the weather and I realised how important that was. Andi escorted the visitors that day guiding them up and back on the main path because of the weather.
Andi, Emm, and Hen well wrapped up!
One day we had to move some reindeer around. Dante, Glacier, Marple, Vienetta, Vienna and Kulfi all came off the free-range. Vienna and Kulfi went to join some others in the Paddocks and the others went into the hill enclosure. To move them we put head-collars on and lead them. It was interesting to see when we put them into the hill enclosure with the others there was a lot of charging around, rearing up with front hooves and clashing of antlers as they had not met for a while and were establishing the pecking order.
The free roaming herd.
When not out on the hill there were lots of jobs to be done in the Paddocks such as poo-picking, take Paddock reindeer temperatures, feed mixing, scrubbed and cleaned fences in the Paddocks cleaning off bird poo and cobwebs mainly, putting up the pictures and information about the particular reindeer in the Paddocks at the time, answering questions from the visitors and putting the reindeer ‘to bed’ and closing up the Paddocks at the end of the day. There were a lot of things to be done for the adoptions and in the shop helping out with the new adoption forms, restocking the shop and putting Holy Moley cards into envelopes. I even hoovered which is something my mum says I never do at home!
Emm in the old Paddocks!
As the pregnant reindeer were due to calve in the next month or so the herders have a calving bet when all the herders choose who they think will calve first. The loser is the one who reindeer calves last and they have to do a forfeit which is chosen by the herders. It used to be that they had to take a swim in the loch but now most of the herders actually do this for fun so they have to decide another forfeit! I was able to make my choice and thankfully I didn’t lose this year. On Easter Sunday there were chocolate eggs all round Reindeer House and the electric van after Easter Bunny’s visit and we enjoyed looking for them and of course eating them. A few days later Joe did a photoshoot for the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue team for the money raised from the naked calendar which was over £4,500. He did a photo with his clothes off handing over the cheque which was very funny although we kept well away!
On our Hill Trips the calves born in May 2022 were given preferential feeding and are given first go at the special mix from the food sack so we had to keep off the bigger greedy reindeer to let the calves feed. On the Hill Trips there are a number of talks; the introduction, history, health and safety, hand-feed as well as the reindeer adaptations and the herders let me do these at times during my visit which was very special to be given the responsibility. Many of the visitors asked us to take photos of them with the reindeer and I enjoyed this and met some lovely people from all over the world.
From time to time there was a trip to Tilly’s farm to collect grain, barley and lichen to bring back for the herd. I did the trip with Sheena one day. When over there we helped Tilly out with the farm animals. We put some barley in the trailer for the red deer and it was pulled behind the quad bike driven by Tilly and we followed. The red deer came running down when they saw us for their food. We all then went on the quad bike to the reindeer to check temperatures and any with high temperatures had an injection. I helped catch them and put the head collars on to hold them. I was also able to spend time chilling with them and take my own photos. I caught up with Sunny the hand-reared reindeer as well as Elvis the oldest in the herd at the time aged 17 years who were at the farm. I also saw twin one-day old lambs from the Soay sheep and a two-week-old Belted Galloway calf. It was nice to have a cup of tea and kit-kat afterwards in Tilly’s farmhouse with the dogs Tuva and Moskki running round. Tilly was excited to share the new plans for the new Reindeer Centre which had been approved. Unfortunately we had a flat tyre on the way back and I helped Sheena change the tyre. I was able to award her the special badge as she did so well and saved the day and she was secretly proud of herself.
Tilly and Emm on the quad bike with Moskki and Tuva the border terriers.
I really enjoy catching up with all the dogs who come and go from Reindeer House and this time got chance to go for a walk with Sheena and five dogs, two of Sheena’s and the rest from Reindeer House, after work one day. We went round the back of Reindeer House in the paths in the forest. The views were beautiful of Loch Morlich and the Cairngorms.
Sheena and Fraoch, Dug, Elsie, Ginger, and Tiree.
One last thing I had to do in April was to say goodbye to Sookie (a beloved Reindeer House dog) before we left as she was getting very old and poorly and we did not think she would be still with us when I came back in October. We heard a little while later that she had died which was very sad, she was buried in a beautiful spot which was one of her favourite places.
Back in late May, our thoughts start to turn to getting the cows and calves out of the hill enclosure, so they can spend the summer months free-ranging on the mountains, getting peace and quiet and the best of the grazing, and the cows can teach their calves the lie of the land too. In recent years, we tend to take them out in two batches, allowing each batch to spend a couple of weeks in the main section of the hill enclosure first. This has two-fold benefits – it helps to strengthen the calves as they move around more than they do in the smaller ‘nursery’ area, but most importantly it exposes the calves to visitors. This makes our job in the autumn easier when the female reindeer return to the hill enclosure, as the calves are much more relaxed in amongst people than they otherwise would be – even though they’ve barely laid eyes on a human in the interim.
Setting off up through the top part of the hill enclosure
Prior to leaving the enclosure, the cows and calves are all checked over, and given Spot-on to help ward off ticks. We then halter up all the adult females, as it’s a far less stressful process to just lead the reindeer out of the enclosure rather than to try and herd them. We do this in an evening rather than during the day too, as it lessens the risk of us bumping into hill-walkers, who may have dogs in tow. Any young females of a year old who are tagging along with their mums and new siblings aren’t haltered, as they will just follow anyway.
There’s a lot of grunting to start with, as everyone establishes where their calf is, and the calves wonder why there are so many human legs in their herd suddenly!Out through the gate at the top of the enclosureEveryone has settled down and is enjoying the evening wander!
We take the group about a mile or so from the top gate of the enclosure, although the spot we leave them in is only actually a couple of hundred metres from the fence and the far end of the enclosure.
A good year for the cotton-grass this year!I ran ahead ahead to get some photos, meaning I could sit and relax in the sunshine once I’d got into position!Progress isn’t particularly fast with so many reindeer on halters, so there was plenty of time to chat along the way!
Some years in the past the cows have taken off at speed into the distance as soon as they’ve got the chance, but this batch were more than happy just to graze and chill out once we’d taken halters off and released them. This little chap (above) was born a bit prematurely, so had to be bottle-fed for a while whilst mum’s milk got going, so he’s very tame!
The face of a Lotti who’s just realised that two birthday cakes and a birthday present have been carried the whole way out as a surprise!Birthday cake all round!And in classic unpredictable Sheena-fashion – a watermelon! ‘What is the heaviest and most unexpected snack I could possibly bring?!’Some time to chill out for us too (although the sun had sadly disappeared behind the hill by this point).At this time of year the reindeer have started moulting around their eyes, their darker summer coat showing through and giving them all ‘panda eyes’.Time to go, for us and them.Heading home! How could I not finish with this photo?
Through the summer months we see very little of the female reindeer and their calves, leaving them to graze in peace after spending around 6 weeks in the hill enclosure. We will head out to look for them occasionally though, when time and weather allow, but the next time we have proper contact with them again is from August onwards, as they start to return to the hill enclosure in dribs and drabs. It’s like catching up with old friends again!
Fly aged 16 in October 2023 – looking great for an old girl!
We have written much in the past about one of our wonderful female reindeer, Fly. She has been one of the more iconic females in our herd over the years and as she was so dominant (and greedy) this meant she was a good leader during the winter months when we were fetching the herd. Over the years she has had some enormous calves who, like her, have lovely natures. Friendly, greedy but come with an independent steak and aren’t too pushy. Definitely a quality from their mother.
I myself had a soft spot for Fly and over the years grew rather fond of her. Her mum Fiddle was always quite a timid reindeer. You’d tend to see her tail disappearing over the next ridge rather than her following you nicely. Often taking the rest of the herd with her… Thanks Fiddle! Us herders wouldn’t necessarily describe Fly as super tame. She wasn’t pushy for hand feed, would often remain on the outskirts of the herd keeping herself to herself but there was something about her independent nature which I really liked. When you won her over it was so rewarding. She didn’t do things because we wanted her to, she did them cos she wanted to. Inevitably she was a very sweet reindeer in her older years and I don’t think any reindeer knew the hills better than her.
She has outlived most of her family, but still has her son Anster and nieces and nephews, Butter, Beanie and Rocket.
Fly and her newborn son Anster in May 2013.Anster as an older boy in September 2023, aged 10.Beanie, Fly’s niece, is now a breeding female. Keeping the family line going.
This next paragraph will explain losing Fly so don’t read it if you think you’ll find it upsetting. Just before Christmas while out on the free range Fly was spotted lying away from the herd, not bothered about staying with them when we took them up the hill for a feed. When we approached her afterwards she just seemed a bit down in the mouth. We lead her to a quiet spot where we knew she wouldn’t be bothered by people or dogs and gave her a good pile of food. She wasn’t running a temperature and she wasn’t injured either, just didn’t seem herself. A day or two later it became apparent that Fly was indeed on her way out as we found her passed away peacefully not far from where we left her. I know a lot of people may find this upsetting to read and don’t think we aren’t upset dealing with her like this, however, she was 16.5 years old and that is a great age for a reindeer. She had a fantastic life and I will speak about her with a smile on my face.
Fly leading the herd in March 2023 – even without antlers we could recognise her shape from afar.Fly closest to camera, leading the herd again.Reliably at the front of the herd! What a lovely girl she was.
What I will miss is heading to the hills in the winter to go and collect the herd and seeing her face as the first face approaching you. We can spot her a mile off, even when she had no antlers and I would always give her sneaky handfuls of feed while her and I were at the front leading the group in.
Cheers Fly, you’ve been great! Find previous blogs about her here and here.
