On the way back from Portland (and again yesterday – as part of our annual round of field trips), Glamorgan Bird Club members visited the WWT (Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust) reserve at Steart Marshes. It was blowing a gale during our first visit and it had been a full-on weekend so we only visited one hide, Polden. There were few birds to be seen but we spent an interesting hour in the hide, being entertained by the local residents.

And they appear to have found us extremely entertaining as well, coming right up to the windows to check us out – those smears on the glass are nose prints!

Although we weren’t entirely sure of their breed, the WWT website confirms these are Longhorns, a traditional British breed. Their horns weren’t actually very long but some looked to have been trimmed and perhaps these beasts weren’t yet fully grown.

The cattle, owned by local farmers, are used to graze the saltmarshes as part of WWT’s environmental management programme. And, perhaps due to the unique taste their meat acquires from that diet, they have apparently ‘been attracting the interest of some of London’s finest eateries’.

I’m not a meat-eater so I definitely wasn’t sizing up their palatability but their handsome features and evident curiosity were very appealing.