Country diary: Lambing season is here – how long until white-tailed eagles are overhead? | Andrea Meanwell
April 6, 2026
Animals | The Guardian
Tebay, Cumbria: A planned reintroduction of these apex predators has got us upland farmers worried. We’re still not convinced they won’t harm our flocksThe years seem to be coming around very quickly – this will be my ninth spring at this farm. As the days get longer and the grass begins to grow, my mind turns to lambing. We have a short growing season here, so we plan for lambing to start mid-April, hoping the grass will have started growing by then.
The tiny Ouessant sheep, which have to lamb indoors due to predation, started lambing on April Fools’ Day.Last year I put a large group of Ouessants outside to graze on the Roman fort when they were four days old, and they disappeared without a trace – 13 lambs lost. It wasn’t a fox or a badger, as we know what a predated carcass looks like, and it wasn’t the mink that had been killing hens, as that was leaving dead bodies. Continue reading...
Animals | The Guardian
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