Members Evening

Little Tom with a Little Mouse - by Ingrid Nicholls

It seems everyone was excited about Members Evening, maybe a little too excited in some cases!..

Thanks to everyone who came to see us on Saturday evening, and spend the extra hours after we normally close to see some rare talks, attend more feeds and mingle with the keepers and other members old and new.

The evening was a huge success as always, and we have had much positive feedback already so thank you all again for coming and for your continued support of the work we do. We truly do appreciate it and are very pleased you enjoyed your evening here.

Harvest Mouse - by Shane Standbrige

As always, the evening kicked of with our usual Welcome and Centre update, informing everyone of our plans for the future, recent changes, and going through what to expect during the rest of the evening.

Harvest Mouse - by Ray Braim

We started of with our Harvest Mice down in the Dell. This has proved a popular talk in the past, and had not been done for a couple of years, so we thought we would bring it out again. Not only did this give members an up close and personal look at these adorable little mammals, but also allowed for some great photo opportunities which many members took.

 Stoat - by Dave Burden

A later evening feed of our wildcats and otters was next on the agenda, before moving up to our polecats and stoats for another keeper talk not usually given during our open days. 

The polecats were on good form, but it was the stoats that truly shined. These amazing little predators really made themselves known, and I hope we managed to enthuse some of you with who incredibly skilled and fascinating these mammals really are! 

We finished up with extra feeding sessions with our foxes and pine martens before retiring for the night. 

 Water Vole - by Sean Weekly

One of the best things about members evening though is just the extra opportunities you get to see all the animals at one of their busiest and most active times of the day. The water voles in particular put on a great show, as you can see from this photo above. Rather ironic as I was thinking of doing a water vole talk, but decided against it leaning towards polecat kits for being more reliable... and of course they were very shy on the night!

Anyway, thanks once again to all who came and thanks for all your support and kind words for and about the Centre.