Spring Catch Up

Life at the Wildlife Centre has been pretty hectic so far this year, for many a reason. We seem to be getting busier year by year, all good of course, plus this year we seem to have had a boom in babies being born and unusual rescues in need of our help. Staff changes too, with two new ladies joining the office team, and one of our keepers leaving and a new one arriving soon... plus as well as all our usual jobs, the keeping team have been busy adding new things to dead spaces around the Centre for all to enjoy and learn from.

This has all led to my little time for photography continuing, and a distinct lack in a "theme" or obvious order in what I am about to share with you, but I thought you may like to see some pictures of why I have not posted for a while.

A new camera arrived earlier this year, and I have still yet to take it out properly, but I did take the photo of "Leo" above earlier this year with it. 

Wildcat kittens are one of many an animal born here so far this year, and perhaps the most popular with the visitors. Three kittens from Kendra.

One of the youngsters had a problem with the grass seeds and her eye, but mum has sorted it out for her now.

They were born in one of our boxes, very unusual, but within days Kendra had moved them to the den at the back of her enclosure where she usually has them. They are a good age now, where they come out regularly and play along the back of the enclosure.

Not only mammals we have been successful with this year, but also our owls. Including 5 little owls, all of which have homes lined up already... in fact we currently only have 3 waiting to be collected, although we are keeping one of those... Little Dave. You can easily tell which one he is in the photo above... he is the cutest :-)

As well as animals born here, we have had a few rescues arrive that have needed a bit of attention. 2 badger cubs ended up here that were on death's door... stone cold, no sign of life and covered in fleas and ticks. No time to pass on to a rescue centre, we did what we could with little hope, but they survived the first night. Now, a couple of months on, they are both doing really well and look pretty healthy. Hopefully they will continue to go from strength to strength. 

Another rescue, a little weasel found up near Oxford. She arrived a few weeks ago after her mother had been hit by a car, whilst carrying her across the road! Magically this little one survived, and came to us for the extra care she needs while growing an weaning. We have named her Ginny (Weasley), and she will be joined by another weasel shortly who was rescued at a local Centre but is now too tame to release.

Lot's of other new arrivals and births, but you can keep up with all of those stories on our "Keeper's Blog"

Most of my photos this year have probably been taken on my phone, and after 3 years of working with Meg a couple of lapses led to a couple of selfies... still a way to go to match Meg's selfie skills though :-)

And perhaps my favourite photo of the year so far, and taken on my phone, this one of Albus's antlers...

This shows a red deer stag's antlers that have been cast over 5 years, and how they grow larger each year. 

Thanks for looking :-)

Hibernating Dormouse

I have been behind at work recently, so lack of time for photography has continued... however I do have a new camera! and so motivation is high to try and get out there and use it. Hopefully as the evenings get longer, and the new seasons arrive.

We did have some filming going on last week here at the Centre though, dormice were top of their list, and we very VERY rarely do anything with them, so I made sure I had a camera on hand to take advantage too.

They wanted hibernating dormice, and we obliged with one... Above in a set we created, later decorated with other bits like oak leaves etc.

Carefully twisting him around so he was facing up...

And then delicately moving his tail to one side so that you could see his face.

Theres only so much you can do with a sleeping dormouse, especially with a film crew around and in the time we limited them too, but I managed to get a few I was really happy with.

Even a little bit of sun came out near the end.

photo by Meg Buckland

And here you can see just how small they are, when in my hand to show the scale.

photo by Meg Buckland

Adorable aren't they?.. The professional sleeper.

Thanks for looking :-)

Little bit of Snow

"Albus Dumbledeer" 

A few weeks a go we had a little bit of snow at the Wildlife Centre... and when I say a little bit, I mean a little bit! Hardly anything at all, just a dusting. In most cases it just looked messy, but I managed to take a couple of photos in with our deer and foxes. Using what white stuff there was, it was possible to "fake" it and make it look like there was more snow than there actually was.

In many ways I am thankful that there wasn't much snow, as it makes working that much harder... but from a photographic point of view it is fantastic. The pure white canvas, and the extra light, really brings the vibrant colours out of the animals coats. 

Just to show you how much, or how little, snow there was. This disappeared by lunch time, and left a lot of visitors very disappointed when they visited us at the weekend expecting to see more.

And a couple of our new boy, Basil, in the snow.

Thanks for looking :-)