Photo of the Month: February 2017

"Otter Cub" by Bob Howell

Trying to keep things seasonal, and relevant to the yearly activities, we had our eyes open for some lovely photos of our otter cubs... and we weren't disappointed. We have had a lot of them sent in to us and shared over the internet. Our two new foxes seem to still be drawing a lot of attention too, and believe it or not we had a very... VERY small snow flurry at the beginning of the month, which a few of you managed to enjoy.

Of all the fantastic otter cub photos we saw, we decided to chose this one above taken by Bob Howell. We loved the way she still had some grass on her head as she left the water. As always, check the links in names to see more of the photographers pictures.

"Otter Cub" by Zena Saunders

Lot's of playful photos of our cubs, they have been seen often playing with sticks and roots in and out of the water. 

"Otters Playing" by Natasha Jefferies

Elwood is being a great dad as always, and is always up for a bit of playtime with the youngsters.

"Red Fox" by Sean Weekly

We have seen some great portraits of our new foxes, like this one of Basil who is settling in to his new home really well.

"Roe Deer in Snow" by Bob Howell 

And remember that snow flurry I mentioned?.. Well, Bob was one of the photographers who happened to be here, and took this lovely photo of  one of our roe deer with the snow still falling.

Otter Cub Update

Half term is half way through, and the stars of the week have been our two young otter cubs! Despite the somewhat dismal weather, they have both been out and about frequently and made an appearance at most of our otter keeper talks... and all our otter main feeds.

They are both doing really well, and growing in confidence daily. Both already hand feeding by the keeper, and showing their own individual personalities and traits. They have all been showing off their playful sides too... when we had the short snow flurry last Saturday, they were rolling around and playing with a snowball. And as with his cubs in the past... shortly after most of their feeds, Dad, Elwood, has been seen playing with them in the water, tumbling in and out and cartwheeling in the water.

We are still open for the rest of the week if you wish to come and see them, and then of course still open for the weekends after this week. Hope to see some of you here.

Photo of the Month: January 2017

"Ermine Stoat" by Jonathon Hicks

It is time to share our first photo of the month for 2017. We choose our favourites from the ones we see shared over the internet, or sent in to us via email. The main places we look are flickr and instagram, so if you post your pics in one of these places, there is a good chance one of us will see it... but if you have a photograph you are particularly pleased with... why not email it in to us!

We have decided to share photographs that have been uploaded within the month in question, but will always show a preference to those taken that month too... it is nice to keep it seasonal... especially since the 12 chosen images make up our coffee shop gallery for the following year. The overall winner, chosen from the 12 by a professional photographer, then wins a photographic day here at the Centre. 

So on to January 2017! Lots of seasonal pics on view, otters on ice, animals in the snow but we have picked this lovely shot of Susie the stoat, having turned ermine for the winter, taken by Jonathon Hicks. A nice closeup, which shows the full white coat and black tip to the tail in the background. 

As always, click on the link in the photographers name to see more of their work. Below are some other pictures that caught our eye this past month. 

"Otter on Ice" by Zena Saunders

A black and white otter on ice by Zena.

"Otter on Ice" by Gary K Mann

Gary has some great otter on ice pictures on his flickr stream, but we particularly liked this one... just how we feel on some of the colder mornings.

"What is this white stuff?" by Natasha Jefferies

You can see we didn't have much snow, but that we did have caused some great reactions form the animals.

"Eagle Owl" by Daniel Hannington

And an older picture, but a great one. Ethel flying straight towards the camera during our owl display. Great eye contact!