Sad story - A lamb rejected by mum, Part 5

A couple of hours later, we came back to the spot where we left the ewe and her lamb. The little lamb was lying on the grass, very quietly, but the mum was nowhere to be seen.

We were in for a surprise...

We found her after a few minutes as she was out of sight on lower grounds. Only a few meters away from where we left them both, she was lying on her back, stuck between two large rocks, with her four legs up in the air. Not sure how it happened, but somehow, she managed to fall off the grass verge down about one meter onto these large rocks. Surely, she would not deliberately jump down there!!!

Below are a couple of pictures showing the type of terrain she fell down onto.

She was still alive though. Her legs would make occasional jerky mouvements. Two of the guys moved her slightly to the side so that she would lie in a more confortable position.

We thought of bringing the lamb to her so it could feed. If the ewe were to die, at leat the lamb would have a fighting chance of survival while waiting for the farmer to come back from work!
This was a very unsuccessful attempt. The lamb could not take to her teat and we could not extract any milk by hand either.

So, we decided to move the ewe back on higher grounds so that the farmer could see her from the road. We had to call for reinforcement as the ewe was very heavy. We went to get the other two brothers and the four of them managed to lift the ewe back to a flat part of the grass and the lamb was brought to her.
To be continued...

Sad story - A lamb rejected by its mum, Part 4

The ewe certainly did not want to have anything to do with her lamb.
We were worried our presence (altough we were still at a distance) might disturb the ewe even more so we thought best to leave them be and check up on them later.

It was around midday and, although it is always cold and windy in this part of Scotland, the sun was warm. So, we were hoping the lamb would be fine.


In the video below, you will see a compilation of two clips. One taken shortly after the ewe and the lamb were "reunited" (you can still hear the man's van in the background). The other was taken a few minutes later.

Sad story - A lamb rejected by its mum Part 1

We went to Harris, in the Outer Hebrides, in June  2011 during the lambing season.
We noticed that one of the ewes wanted to have nothing to do with her new-born lamb.  Seeing the lamb being rejected, we were not sure what to do. So, we caught the attention of a local man driving past in his van and asked if he could help in any way.
He picked up the lamb and placed it right next to the ewe.

To be continued...

Redshank / Chevalière gambette

This bird was filmed in Harris, Outer Hebrides.
In the clip below, you can see the bird trying to sleep among the grass. Then, perched on a wooden pole, it makes loud monosyllabic chirping sounds.

Did you know that all that rain we had in England recently is what usually falls in the Outer Hebrides?  The jet stream got stuck too loo down this year and people up there have been suffering from drought!! Yep. No rain for months.  The whiskey distillery had to stop because of a lack of water. Sheep and cattle in the field did not have any water to drink. The grass was turning brown. Unheard of.