Keep cattle grazing on meadows
Summer has already been consigned to memory as a damp, miserable affair and yet we have been enjoying some fine autumn weather to make up for it.
It is a constant surprise to discover how wildlife copes with the varying conditions with some quite unexpected results.
Each year, during October, a large group of Sudbury beavers (of the cub/scout variety) descends on the riverside for an annual "bat night".
This year marked the 15th year for the group, and over all those years the fortunes of the local bat population have varied enormously.
Weather conditions on the night are also crucial to a successful session, as bats avoid cold, wet conditions when their prey insects are not flying.
Last year, however, stood out as the worst year and this year might have been expected to be another poor year, as damp and chilly summer nights might not have been suitable for bats to find food to raise their young.
Surprisingly, this year's bat evening turned out to be the best of the 15 years, with a mild, still evening encouraging plenty of midges, mosquitoes and moths to take to the air.
As a consequence, brown long-eared bats were seen flitting around the canopy of the lime trees in St Gregory's churchyard, pipistrelles performed their aerobatic antics in every sheltered spot along the millrace and Daubentons "cruised" inches above the water at the Croft.
Few people realise that there is a wealth of wildlife activity going on at night.
The recent, excellent Visions of Sudbury exhibition at St Peter's church, of art works by local people, demonstrated the breadth of appreciation for the local environment.
Such appreciation is occasionally coupled with concerns about the potential threats to the special riverside landscape.
Interestingly, one artist's work captured the essence of the "lost" Highland cattle, with just the outline of one of the grand old steers in the landscape which, until last year, had spent so many summers out on the Sudbury Common Lands.
The picture served as a poignant reminder of the fragility of the grazing regime on these ancient riverside pastures and how very easily the balance can be upset.
In spite of further clear signage at all access points to the Sudbury Common Lands ahead of the 2007 grazing season, some people either continued to walk very close to, or approached, or allowed dogs to worry cattle. Whilst such behaviour will rarely result in a serious problem, inevitably further incidents must eventually occur unless everyone can be encouraged to act with care and common sense when out and about in this unique landscape.
With the imminent departure of all the cattle to their winter quarters, it is worth remembering their crucial role in the management of the Sudbury Common Lands through the traditional summer grazing regime that maintains the pastoral landscape and provides suitable habitats for a range of plants and animals.
It would be nothing short of disastrous if 800 years of recorded unbroken grazing were to come to an end through lack of due care and attention, or other inappropriate behaviour by a minority.
The unfortunate loss of the large Highland cattle from the Sudbury Common Lands ought to have acted as a wake-up call for us all.
Without cattle, the essential grants supporting the management systems would cease and without grazing management the land could turn to scrub within a couple of decades.
The Sudbury Common Lands Charity Trustees' duty, therefore, is to meet this current challenge to ensure that grazing is maintained well into the future.
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Weather for Sudbury
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -1 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 5 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -5 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South east
