The cows return to roam on the common

Helena came back from meeting a friend in town at lunchtime and told me that the cows were returning to Minchinhampton Common today. The common is now owned by the National Trust but it has a range of Commoners rights associated with it. One of them is the right to graze cattle, but only in the summer months, to stop overgrazing of the traditional Cotswold limestone grassland.

So we drove straight up to the Old Lodge pub and restaurant in the middle of the common land and parked on the grass verge. We were lucky that the cows were already grazing close by so we walked over to watch them. They have been cooped up on local farms for the winter and some of them already had calves.

As we stood watching we saw small flocks of starlings flying close around and over the herd, as they love to follow them, settling onto the grass close to the grazing cows. I think the cows' disturbance of the ground brings worms to the surface, as I saw several starlings with long worms in their beaks.

Another delight was to hear and watch skylarks ascending and flying overhead, whilst singing profusely. They are always hereabouts and I always love their presence.

I saw one large cow bellowing from a distance and this drew the herd across the common towards it. There then followed this stand off with the two large beasts putting their heads down rather like rutting deer might. Before long and after a session of rapid grazing they headed off across the common to pastures new. A young black cow got left behind and suddenly wanted to catch up with the herd, at which point I got this 'Extra photo' of it running, surprisingly looking somewhat like a horse.