BWC in the Snow?..

Well, kind of... We had a small, very small, dusting of snow here last night. Not really nearly enough from a photographic point of view, but still it was there.

It is thawing fast though, so for those possibly getting excited about the weekend and photographing our animals in the snow... you will most likely disappointed.

But!.. on the positive side of things, out otter cubs are continuing to get bolder every day. Both youngsters are venturing out a little bit more, and a little bit further under the close supervision of mum. We have even seen them playing with each other on their own once, until scampering back to the holt when something spooked them.

December 2016: Photo of the Month

"Poseur" by Mike Doyle

The colder, quieter days of December don't seem to have stopped the buddy photographers showing up. In fact, I think we have seen more photographs shared this past month than we have in other recent months. A really good variety of animals too!

This month I picked this lovely photo of Sylvester, one of our Stoats, to adorn our coffee shop gallery wall. Our stoats are extremely difficult to photograph, they move so fast and rarely stop still for more than a few seconds. So for Mike Doyle to be able to capture one so beautifully, and in such a great pose, was no mean feat. Well done Mike!

As always, to see more of Mike's photographs, then follow the link in his name to his flickr account. 

"Tree Heron" by Etienne Fournier

Some other great photographs were shared in this last month of 2016. It was really nice to see a lot of pictures of our wild wildlife, out on our nature reserve. My favourites being a series of herons by Etienne Fournier in some superb lighting.

"Fox" by Geraint Parry

Geraint Parry took this great photo of one of our new foxes, Ted, settling in well. A classic yawning shot.

"Thieving Squirrel" by Life's a Journey

A fun one here from "Life's a Journey" over on flickr, one of our mischievous squirrels trying to steal some boot laces for their drey.

"Otter on Ice" by Zena Saunders

And we had to include at least one nice ice shot. This great photo from Zena of one of our otters on the ice.

Well done to all the twelve monthly photos form last year. This year, professional photographer Heather Angel will be selecting her favourite from the 12 to win a photographic day here at the BWC. We will announce this before the month is up, and then start looking at 2017.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you all, hope 2017 turns out to be a good one!

So what's new at the BWC?.. Well, the star of the show over the past few days we have been open surprisingly has not been our otter cubs, but has been one of our stoats, Susie.

Susie is moulting in to an ermine coat at the moment, that is she is turning white for the winter. She still has a little patch of brown on her back that will possibly moult out, but I think she will keep the brown mask around her eyes.

Susie has caused a lot of stir, particularly among some of our regular photographers, meaning our otter cubs have had to take second place... they have been out though, and a couple of days a go Emmy even had one of the cubs out on the near bank after the keeper talk.

Today is the last day we are open for the Christmas period, so keep in mind we are now back to weekend, school holiday and bank holiday openings. But if you can't make it out this afternoon, then I am sure Susie will still be white for a few weekends and our otter cubs will only get bolder as the year goes on.