All eleven of our sheep are in this shot. It was early morning, hence the frost on the ground and they were following Jack as she wheeled an empty barrow through their field. It had been full of hay (for the cows, goats and alpacas) and she was on her way back to the barn to refill it with hay for them.
The frost this morning was severe, last night the temperature dropped to -3 degrees so we are told. The 4-acre field is south facing and as such the frost disappeared quite quickly. Parts of the top 3-acre field on the other hand, kept their frost all day!!
The tracks you can see are sheep tracks, they really are followers! Mrs White and sometimes Mrs Brown are usually the leaders with Noss, Skerry, Whalsay and Bressay at the back. They are a close flock now although the original three groupings: Badgerface, non-pedigree Shetlands and pedigree Shetlands can often be seen in groups within the flock. Those original relationships do remain very strong in sheep. Research has shown that sheep can remember up to 50 different faces from their flock for up to TWO years. (Not that we have plans to have 50 sheep, oh no... definitley not!)