Easter Half Term

The Easter break for schools is now with us, and this always signals the start of Spring for me and all at the Centre. For the next two weeks we are open to the public every day of the week, as well as the weekends and bank holidays.

Easter is often a busy time for us, with lots of people wanting to get out of the house and enjoy the (hopefully) nice weather and longer days... don't forget, clocks go forward tonight! Easter also tends to be when we start thinking about longer days for us... we can enjoy the next couple of weeks of being open, and then the long days for the keeping team begin. On top of the 90 school children a day, our photographic groups visit after staying until 8pm when the evening light begins to fade. All good fun of course.

So in the lead up to Easter, as in previous years, we have had a change around with the water voles on display. A new family are now on the display island, four of them, which we placed out there at the beginning of the week. Already they are settling down and coming out to feed while we have been watching. It will take a little time for them to get used to cameras, but they will as in previous years, I took this one above this morning... so you can see, getting used to them already.

As always with the water voles, first thing in the morning and last thing in the afternoon are the better times to try and spot them... and be patient! Don't wander off after a few seconds having not seen one. Take your time, and hopefully you will be rewarded with a glimpse of one of our most endearing mammals!

Another yearly thing we tend to do is put up hammocks for our polecats. Normally for the summer, we decided to put them in place a little earlier this year. Our previous polecats have loved them, often seen with all the kits laying in them in the summer afternoons, so it will be interesting to see if our two new pairs take to them this year.

We have also spotted our first few heron chicks out on the reserve... more to follow on this next week, but keep your eyes peeled to their nests if you do decide to visit this weekend.

So there you go... Don't forget, we are open every weekday as well as the weekends and bank holidays for the next two weeks of Easter. Hope to see some of you here :-)