Pine Martens

Things have been pretty busy here the past week or so, lots of new youngsters around, the beginning of our summer opening period, and getting ready for our Countryfile Live presentation next week. (More on that later).

So I was thinking, what can I share with you on this blog, then I realised... I hadn't put up a picture of a pine marten for, ooh... at least two weeks :-)

It is that time of year of course where we put our pine martens together for mating. Once again we have introduced Bonnie and Clyde, once again they been seen (and heard!) mating over the past few weeks, and once again we now have the long wait of delayed implantation to see if it has been successful.

Fingers crossed as always, although this pair never have produced a litter, getting them together and mating is successful in it's own right with how territorial an aggressive they are with each other.

Next year we will have two pairs to try with. Bonnie and Clyde of course, and our newer pine martens Drogo and Danaerys who will both be at that age where we can start thinking of mating them.

Summer Holiday Opening

Just a quick reminder to you all that with the local schools breaking up for the summer holidays, it means we are now open everyday of the week until term time starts again in September.

Lots to see here at the moment, all the youngsters are growing fast. Our wildcat kittens are getting bolder and bigger all the time, the polecat kits are beginning to be seen a lot more out and about and little Percy is starting to show some adult feathers coming through.

Hope to see a lot of you here in the coming weeks.

Introducing "Percy"

Say hello to Percy, our new long eared owl!

Percy was hatched out here at the Centre about 3 weeks ago, by our pair of breeding long eared owls. Much like his older sibling Leo, we decided to take Percy away to rear to join our educational and flying team.

Little Tom has been honoured with the task of being mum, but maybe it's best to say he is just a proud dad!

Percy will be living with Tom for the next 7 weeks or so while he matures and grows. Once old enough he will start his flying training, and come to live here at the Centre with all our other owls. By the end of the summer, or certainly shortly after, he will be part of our flying team for the displays.

If you visit us over the summer, and Little Tom is on duty, keep your eyes open as he may well be walking around with Percy getting him used to meeting people.