Wildlife Pond

As you come in to the Centre, just on the right hand side past our giant hedgehog, we have a small area which we plant up as wildflower every year. Not only does this give this area a bit of colour, and welcome you all to the Centre, it also provides vital habitat to much of our wildlife.

I will post photos when it is in full bloom, but for some that were not aware... behind these wildflowers we have a small wildlife pond. It is only the size of approximately four dustbin lids, but just goes to show what you may be able to do even in your own back garden to help wildlife. We have recently given this pond a little bit of a tidy, ready for the new spring to arrive.

While tidying the pond we realised our bird feeders were a bit beaten from the years of use, so have replaced these with new ones for the birds to enjoy. Hopefully we can get the camera working on these again and have the feeding birds shown on the screen in the coffee shop like we did many years a go. Our DVD has proved popular, but is a little out of date now :-)

What with the wildflower, bird feeders, wildlife pond and areas of this section left unmanaged and untamed... it just goes to show that even on a small scale you can create a wildlife haven for wildlife, you don't have to go to the extremism of our 26 acre nature reserve. Just leave a corner of your garden un tidy and see what turns up!

Red Squirrel Ropes

Just a few photos to show you that our red squirrels love the new rope we put up for them last week!

Some of you may remember the ropes we had up when we first opened the walkthrough enclosure... They worked well, but due to funds were not of the best quality, and due to time were perhaps not put high enough to make a real visual effect.

A couple of years a go now the old rope had deteriorated enough that it had to be removed, and we have wanted to replace it ever since... but to do it on a better scale.

This year we were in a position to do this. 220 metres off rope was ordered in one large coil, and a team of four off us struggled to unwind and thread this through the trees of the Copse. We wanted to get it done in one length, and wanted to put it up higher, and hopefully you agree the effort was worth it. It really does look amazing in there.

It didn't take long for the squirrels to start using it. I was in there yesterday morning for half an hour and had about 12 squirrels buzzing around and darting back and forth along their new aerial runways!

Come and have a look at some point if you get the chance, and don't forget we are open every day this week for half term.

1st Adder Sighting of 2015

You know how much I like our adders, and so I just had to nip back post this photo to share with you of our first adder sighting of 2015! Taken about midday today.

I was walking out of our red squirrel enclosure, after failing to get a photo of one of our squirrels on the new ropes we have put up, and saw a photographer photographing something in our adder pen... I thought he can't possibly be photographing nothing, and sure enough when I had a look in he pointed out one of our male adders happily basking in the sun!

So there you go, the milder weather of the past two days has brought one of our adders out today... if this weather continues we may well see the other two males make an appearance too. Keep your eyes peeled.