The Rabbit population is bigger than ever and Deer numbers continue to climb and so the experiment I set up of a cage about 10m x 5m excluding them has worked very well. I did it to protect Orchids but with this very dry summer so far and the Rabbit population it has in fact also protected the other flowers and grasses so that the sward looks much taller and more substantial than outside the cage.
First the Orchids - when I set up the cage I counted the Orchid rosettes very closely. I managed to find 73 rosettes. Normally I would expect to nurse about half of those through to flowering through wire cages so I was hopeful that close to 73 would make it. The actual count yesterday was 172 flowering spikes of Common Spotted Orchid!!
This shows that grazing pressure eliminates a lot of Orchids before I see them.
The question now before me is how many such cages I set up next year!
The photos show the cage externally and internally.
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