Why is winter the best time to see Strangford Lough?
We get a lot of birds here in the winter. The most famous is the pale-bellied brent goose.
Ninety percent of the world’s population of Light-bellied brent geese spend their winters at Strangford Lough. They make a 2,900-mile journey from Canada for the warmer winter.
What's the worst thing about winter?
Other than the rain? We spend a lot of time cutting back scrub. It’s a hard, monotonous job, and not very exciting - but it’s got to be done.
The low lying bushes and brambles can provide a good habitat for birds, but they also swallow up fields and crowd out summer wildflowers like Dog violet, Yarrow and Bird’s-foot-trefoil.
We cut the scrub back with chainsaws, piling up branches onto smoky bonfires. Cattle will graze the site to get the grass the right height.