Country diary: traditional Lakeland shepherding at its best

Helm Crag, Lake District A flock of pregnant Herdwick ewes are expertly herded along the rocky fellsides

Not a solitary sheep tumbles to its death on Helm Crag or Steel Fell as I watch, though hundreds of them are picking their way down fellsides bristling with crags and along precipitous trods no wider than a single bootprint, and they are all pregnant.

The last time shepherds gathered this flock was in December. After duly becoming pregnant, when the tups were mingled in with the flock, the ewes were returned to the fells, finding their way as if by sixth sense back to their native heafs (pastures). Now they're being collected again, this time for ultrasound scanning to check how many twins might be anticipated come spring.