Normality has resumed and over the last month we have welcomed our lovely visitors to our site in Glenmore and have also caught up with a few of our cows and calves. They’re all looking well and have had a good summer out on the free range!
1st of August: With the ski road still closed, the mountains are quiet, meaning that groups of our free rangers are lower down on the mountains. Here we have Sundae on the right and her yearling daughter Salsa (who is still suckling milk from her mother) on the left.1st of August: Looks like Rocket was tired of being a free-range reindeer, he made his way into our hill enclosure on his own accord. It was a rewarding morning with very little effort from myself and Daisy as we picked up Quickstep from the ski centre as he was with Sundae, Salsa and a group of female reindeer which left us at only 2 male reindeer left out on the free range after the wildfire.2nd of August: Morven looking out over the hill side, she was in another group of reindeer we found close to the ski road.4th of August: Rumba does not approve of reindeer feed sacks being used to carry tools.4th of August: Morris supervising board walk improvements.8th of August: Catching up with Ryvita and co. She has a cracking set of antlers for a 17 year old. 9th of August: Lovely Oro after one of our morning Hill Trips. 10th of August: Sundae along with someone else’s calf and Vanilla behind.11th of August: Lunch time sillies. Rowan is prepared for the sun.13th of August: I enjoyed a day out on the free range looking for reindeer and stumbled across Juniper along with her yearling, Cha Cha, who was in poorer condition than what we would like for this time of the year, so they were both brought into our hill enclosure for some TLC. We train all our reindeer to walk on a head collar, so even when we must use makeshift efforts the reindeer are comfortable.14th of August: First cow and calf back in our hill enclosure. We aren’t shocked that it was Winnie and calf! 15th of August: Orinoco grazing behind her calf.16th of August: Lotti hanging out with Texel, Texel’s yearling Waltz and Texel’s most recent calf.19th of August: Kulfi post scratch. Reindeer definitely put us to shame with how flexible they are.20th of August: It is common to see Aztec with a headdress of foliage. 23rd of August: Iskrem is the first to begin stripping his velvet. 25th of August: Brie and Calf relaxing after one of our HIll Trips. 26th of August: Over the summer, we have had two groups of swallows that have fledged from our shed in our hill enclosure. 27th of August: We use a vocal call to gather the reindeer in our hill enclosure for their food and fairly often it is heard by our free rangers. Here is Nuii with Ryvita grazing, they are currently free ranging in the mountains but heard us calling and came over to see if they could have some food too!
Well, July has been a MONTH! At the start of the month, harness training for our male reindeer was well under way and there was still some really scruffy males around. The antler growth that we have had over the last month has been phenomenal and our male reindeer look completely different to what they did a couple of weeks prior.
Our usual July routine was interupted about half way through by the threat from a local wild fire which was spreading quickly over the mountain side. You will be glad to know that the reindeer were never in any direct threat from the fire but it gave us all a bit of a fright and on the days that us herders couldn’t get up to see the reindeer we were all walking around a bit lost, unsure on what to do with ourselves! We are so lucky to have a great team of people working with us at the Centre, a lot of which were on hand at the drop of a hat to help move reindeer.
It has been two weeks since we’ve been able to open to the public here in Glenmore but we have been able to take Hill Trips at our secondary site and we have most of the male reindeer back from their little jaunt on to the free range here on Cairngorm with a small group of reindeer still out on the mountainside enjoying the peace and quiet.
1st of July: Cappuccino and Mivvi on the morning feed line; still looking very scruffy.2nd of July : Adzuki after of our Hill Trips.3rd of July: Busby and Charleston with their Christmas harness5th of July: Brothers, Ob and Iskrem, were last in for their feed this morning- How handsome are they?8th of July: Stumbled across a leveret whilst walking through the enclosure (photo was taken with a high zoom so we didn’t disturb the little one)9th of July: You can probably tell from Mivvi’s face that it was a warm one!11th of July: It was fun to watch the reindeer emerge from the mist this morning.12th of July: Zap looking very handsome, he has a cracking set of antlers this year. 13th of July: A line of very sleek looking boys. Hemp and Yangtze are closest to the camera; it is a yearly occurence for Hemp to retain his winter coat longer than the other boys.15th of July: Part of the harness training experience is grazing with their harnesses on. Here is Elbe enjoying the early morning sun and lush vegetation.15th of July: At this point we realised that the fire had spread over Robber’s hill and was spreading quickly. 17th of July: After being given the OK to head out to the reindeer we had a police escort. It was quite a sombre drive as I had understood there would be a lot of damage done to the area by fire, but hadn’t thought about the necessary damage that would have been done in an effort to stop the fire from spreading. We owe a great debt to all of those who have worked to save Glenmore and the surounding area from fire.17th of July: Rocket leading the herd. It was a great relief to see the herd after pushing them out onto the free range. We moved the group along to an area that was less affected by smoke and checked that everyone was ok. 19th of July: In the days following the start of the fire, us reindeer herders felt a bit lost but you can always rely on there being adopt letters to be written. In the back ground you can see a sleepy Rowan, who is my fiery Collie.20th of July: A late night mission to locate some of the male reindeer that had been pushed out of the enclosure as a precaution – here are Mivvi and Morris.20th of July: This was Mivvi, Morris and I’s view (looking down towards Loch Morlich) whilst walking back down towards the hill enclosure.28th of July: Ob with the herd lying behind him.29th of July: Being ruminants, reindeer will regurgitate food to further chew it. Here is Yukon with cheeks full of partially digested food or as we know it, cud.30th of July: A fence being in the way is no match for Choc-ice when there is food involved.
