The summer is nearly over, well, the summer holidays that is... and what a busy summer it has been. Even with a limit on numbers we have seen very busy days here with lots of visitors, many regulars, and lots of new faces too which had been great.
Of course the baby animals have perhaps been the stars for mot people, but our other animals have been on great form too. I think they are keen of the attention again after the lockdown of earlier this year. Our red squirrels have been particularly good.
We have about a dozen squirrels in the copse, and do the one squirrel talk on them at 10.30am shortly after we open. This is when they are most active, but a tip for you all... if you can't make it in time for the squirrel talk, then after a quiet spell during the middle of the day, they are usually a little more active again nearer the end after our owl display.
As always, the keeper talks really are the best way to get close to and see our animals. With a talk every half hour, it means you are never too far away from the next one.
One more full week of being open and then back to weekends only, with private groups, schools and photographers visiting during the week.
This last month has seen some new baby arrivals. After our successful first litters of hoglets, both our pairs have now had a second litter each. Hopefully these will grow well and be able to be released before hibernation, but in case we need to keep them over winter we have already begun to adapt an area in our hedgerow to give us more space for more hogs... almost like a hoglet nursery!
After 16 weeks of growth, give or take, our red stags (and fallow buck today) have shed their velvet ready for rutting season. This is an older photo of one of our old stags, but give you an idea of the process.
