BWC Photo Comp Winner's Day

Do you remember the winning photo of last years BWC photo competition? It was a close up of a water vole, taken by Junior category winner Jaime Holme. Well today Jaime visited the centre to claim his overall prize of a one on one day with renowned wildlife photographer, Andy Rouse.

I say day, in fact it was the afternoon and evening which Andy spent with Jaime. The earlier part of the evening saw us down on the nature reserve making the most of the dry weather. Down there Jaime had the chance to photograph several owls, including the rarely seen Long-eared and Short-eared owl.

Then after a short break we headed back to the Centre to concentrate on some of the mammals. By this time the rain had set in, but we still had fun and took the challenge on of otters running head on to the camera in the pouring rain!

Congratulations to Jaime again,  I am sure he enjoyed his day today and know that he would have picked up lots of tips and new skills to take away with him to practice.

Hoglets

Introducing two new hoglets to the BWC family... Timon and Pumbaa. These two young hedgehogs were found washed away down a drain in Godstone after the recent floods. We have taken them on to rear them up.

Leonie has taken on the role of hedgehog mum, they currently need feeding several times a day so it is quite a taking on, but so far she is doing a great job.

Once they have grown up a bit, I am sure Leonie will be happy to show them off during our hedgehog talk.

New Otters

There is not much that is more exciting than when we welcome a new otter to the BWC, but one thing that is is when we welcome two!

This past Wednesday saw two new otters arrive from the New Forest Wildlife Centre. These brothers, named "Jake" & "Elwood," have been introduced in with Lily and Emmy respectively.

The photos in this post are all of Elwood, who has been an absolute star so far! He did his first keeper talk with me this morning, and he was out waiting much to my surprise. He has settled really quickly, and has been seen playing with Emmy on many occasions. Nice for her to have a playmate since we moved her brother Tamar across to Gracie's pond.

Jake is a little shyer, and looks like he may take some time to settle in. However he has settled very quickly with Lily, and on most occasions I have seen him it has been laid up in the reeds, or in their holt, together with Lily. Do persevere to get a peek of him if you visit as it will be worth it... he is one of the biggest otters I have ever seen!

I think Elwood was getting a little fed up with all the attention by the end of the day, he certainly told me to go away in no uncertain terms.

Come and see our new otters if yo get the chance over the Summer holidays.