British Wildlife Centre ~ Keeper's Blog

BWC 2012 Photo Competition

2012-01-24T17:21:00.002Z

This years British Wildlife Centre Photographic Competition is now open for entries. For all the details check out the page tab above, or visit our website.

Following on from last years success, we have once again split the competition into 6 categories. 2 entries per category are allowed, to be submitted by Friday the 14th of November 2012.

Photographs will be judged by our judging panel. Winners and runners up will be displayed in our gallery through out 2013. Winners will also receive an annual membership to the centre.

The overall winner will win an exclusive photographic day here at the BWC. They will be accompanied for the day by Head Keeper Matt Bintead, giving unrivalled access to the animals including opportunities to photograph some animals not seen on our normal photographic days.

Below are this years categories, including the new "Fauna Fun", for funny moments captured on camera including a caption.

Animal Portrait

Capturing the character of the animal

Animals in their Habitat

Showing the animal within it's home

Animals in Motion

Showing the animal in action

Animals and their Keepers

Showing the connection between the animals and their keepers

Fauna Fun

Humorous images caught on camera with an accompanying caption

Junior

For those young photographers aged 16 years or under

Members Day

2012-01-21T21:05:00.000Z

Thanks to all who came to our Winter's Members Day today and made it such a success! Luckily the weather held out for us, and although the wind got a bot too much for some of our smaller feathery friends, everything went according to plan.

We look forward to seeing you all again over the coming year when we open up for the March weekends onwards. In the meantime, keep an eye on the blog for more upcomming events at the BWC... Including the launch of out 2012 Photographic Competition!

BWC Photo Competition 2011: Overall Winner

2012-01-17T09:57:00.002Z

Congratulations to Jamie Holme for his image of the Water Vole winning the overall photographic competition for 2011.

Jaime was only 11 years old when he took this fantastic photo of the water vole. It caught the eye of all the judges on the first sort through of all the entries, and was eventually selected as the winner of the "Junior" category with all the judges agreeing "it is one my favourites from the whole competition."

After looking back over the 6 winning images again, it was very difficult to chose just the one from 6 very different photos, all extremely good in their own right. But the judges eyes kept turning back to the water vole thinking it had a certain something to it.

"We saw many entries of the water vole this year, but when we first saw this one it leaped out to us as a contender. It was different to all the others, but still displayed all it needed to be a classic portrait photograph. The close crop works really well to add a different look at this adorable British mammal, with his paw holding the rush whilst eating really making it for us. An iconic, but sadly declining, British mammal "Ratty" the water vole shown off to great affection."

Many congratulations to Jamie again, who will be spending a day at the British Wildlife Centre later this year with multi award winning professional wildlife photographer, Andy Rouse.

BWC Photo Competition; 2011 Category Winners

2012-01-09T10:21:00.001Z

Today sees the announcement of the 6 category winners and runners-up for our 2011 photographic competition. They were chosen by our judging panel made up by Head Keeper, Matt Binstead. Centre owner, David Mills and Internationally renowned wildlife photographer Andy Rouse.

Overall the standard was very good, and it made the decisions hard, but below are the chosen winners and runners-up.

ANIMAL PORTRAIT

WINNER

"Focused" by Philip Petrou - submitted via email

RUNNER-UP

"Sweet Dreams" by Madmike - submitted via flickr

ANIMALS IN THEIR HABITAT

WINNER

"Stargazing" by Peter Hale - submitted via email

RUNNER-UP

"Field Mouse" by John Harding - submitted via email

ANIMALS IN MOTION

WINNER

"Snowy Owl" by Realise Photography - submitted via flickr

RUNNER-UP

"Frog" by Wendy Goodbody -submitted via email

ANIMALS AND THEIR KEEPERS

WINNER

"Devotion" by Chris Sweet - submitted via flickr

RUNNER-UP

"Fox Cub" by Fless2 - submitted via flickr

ARTISTIC INTERPRETATION

WINNER

"Deer" by Moira (GML Images) - submitted via flickr

RUNNER-UP

"Badger Blur" by Jason Steel - submitted via flickr

JUNIOR

WINNER

"Water Vole" by Pardus99 - submitted via flickr

RUNNER-UP

"Squirrel" by Sid the Photographer - submitted via flickr

Congratulations to all the photographers mentioned above. You will be contacted over the coming week to be asked to submit a higher res version of your photo. This will enable us to print them ready for the "Competition Gallery", which will be displayed in our coffee shop throughout 2012.

Many congratulations to the category winners! Each receiving a complimentary family ticket. From the 6 winners an overall winner has been selected, and will be announced on this blog next Monday (the 16th of January.) They will win the grand prize of a 1-on-1 day here at the BWC with Professional Photographer Andy Rouse.

Nocturnal House

2012-01-06T11:57:00.003Z

Winter has seen the arrival of a new keeper talk for the Centre on Common Dormice, and it has proved to be very popular with many people saying it is the first time they have ever seen one before! This is great news for us, as it was a little teaser for what is to come later in the year.

As those of you who have been to one of our dormice talks will know, our new planed exhibit for 2012 is a "Nocturnal House" where we propose to switch day and night around to display our more strictly nocturnal animals to you during our day.

By using special lighting we propose to make our night their day, and our day their night... hopefully encouraging them to explore their enclosures while you are here to see them. Since the 3 types of animals we hope to show you are our only hibernaters, this may prove the best way for you to see them as for most of the year they are asleep and they are arguably our most nocturnal animals even during the warmer months when they are a bit more active.

As well as both types of dormice (the Common, or Hazel, and the Edible), we will also have a nocturnal enclosure for our hedgehogs. Our hedgehogs in the hedgerow are very happy, and used to being used for educational talks, but are very difficult to see outside of their Summer keeper talk. Therefore we have decided to create a second hedgehog home within our nocturnal house for you to see them "out and about" at night.

Finally, we are hopeful of being able to house some of our native bats for you to see. This could be very difficult as a lot of legislation covers our British bats, and they are a difficult mammal to keep in an enclosure, but our British bats do make up a quarter of all the mammals we have living in this country and so it is a shame that we do not currently recognise them here.

More details of this new exhibit will come throughout the next few months, and we hope to have it opened in time for our Easter holiday opening. But for now here are a couple of bat facts to wet your appetite...

- There are currently 18 recognised bat species living in Great Britain, 17 of which are known to be breeding
- Bats are not blind, but use echolocation to find their way around
- Bats can live up to 30 years
- Even the smallest bat, the pipistrelle, can eat up to 3,000 insects in a night
- Bats are more closely related to humans than mice

For those who have missed it, the Common Dormouse keeper talk will continue 1:00pm everyday during our February half term opening. After which we will have to stop it, apart from the occasional meet and greet, due to crowd size and the dormice habits.

BWC Photo Comp; "Animal Portrait"

2012-01-02T09:04:00.006Z

Happy New Year to you all, and welcome to the eagerly anticipated final short-list for our 2011 Photographic Competition. I'm sure it will come as no surprise that the Animal Portrait category received the most entries with nearly 250 photos submitted.

Below are the 20 short-listed entries as selected by the staff at the BWC, and as with all the categories the winner and runner-up will be chosen by our judging panel headed by Professional Wildlife Photographer and friend of the Centre, Andy Rouse.

"Flo at feeding time" - ASB Images

"Fairwell to Lex" - David Miles

"Barn Owl" - Dolts 007

"Foxy Flo" - Flwersnow

"Hedgehog" - Green Dreams Photography

"Yawning Fox" - Green Dreams Photography

"Water Vole" - Ian Rentoul

"Red Squirrel" - Janet Howard

"Vole" - Jenny Hibbert

"Sweet Dreams" - Madmike

"Quick blow dry and I'm all yours" - Mandy Swanwick

"Polecat" - Mjvallely

"Over the Grass Horizon" - Old Man George

"Focused" - Philip Petrou

"Super Red" - Portiaphotos

"Peeking Polecat" - Pui Hang

"Stalking Kendra" - Pui Hang

"We're all here!" - Sally Moloney

"Frodo" - Steve Sinton

"Moment of Relaxation" - Sue Edwards

Many congratulations to all of the short-listed entries over all of the categories. Winners will be announced next week with the overall winner of the grand prize the following week. Good Luck!

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T09:21:00.000Z

Best wishes from all the Keepers at the BWC to all of you for the coming year! Thank you for all your support through out 2011, and for helping to make the Blog and the Centre great.

Things will not stop as we start a fresh for 2012. We have new plans for a new exhibit at the British Wildlife Centre for early next year... more news to follow as things develop. And of course the blog will still be offering regular posts to update you on the comings and goings of the BWC. Starting on Monday with the final shortlisting announcement for our 2011 photographic competition. The 20 contenders for the "Animal Portraits" category.

Happy New Year for tomorrow, and don't forget... we are still open every day until the end of Tuesday January the 3rd, 2012. Maybe see you here.

BWC Photo Comp; "Animals in their Habitat"

2011-12-27T09:36:00.004Z

Happy holidays to you all, I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. If you are looking to escape the festivities for a while then why not come and see us... we are now open everyday until next Tuesday, January the 3rd, 2012. If you don't fancy coming out but still need a break from the Christmas season, then why not take a peek at the photos below..

The following 20 photos are the short-listed entries for the "Animals in their Habitat" category of our 2011 BWC Photo Competition. This category saw a staggering number of entries and so if you managed to get into the group below, many congratulations.
As I have mentioned before, winners to be announced during January of next year as chosen by our judging panel, headed by renowned wildlife photographer Andy Rouse.

"Little Owl" - David Miles

"Tawny" - David Miles

"Short Eared Owl" - Diandy

"Where's Wally?" - Flowersnow

"Adder" - Gary Rachame

"Badger" - Hubert Hung

"Hide and Seek" - Joannel Wainford

"Field Mouse" - John Harding

"Marsh Frog" - Keith Brooks

"Fox" - Mark Tolcher

"Harvest Mouse" - Mark Bridger

"Fox" - Mike Bainbridge

"Mouse" - Moira (GML Images)

"Water Vole Snacking" - Onca99

"Red Squirrel" - Pagnobito

"Stargazing" - Peter Hale

"I'm looking down on you" - Peter Tettlow

"Otter" - Phil Homer

"Natural Acrobat" - Sue Edwards

"Mouse" - Tabbiecat

Next Monday, and the first blog post of 2012, will showcase the final 20 photographs in the competition and the short-listed entries for the "Animal Portraits" category. Unsurprisingly this was the most popular category receiving the most entries.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-23T07:55:00.001Z

Happy Christmas to all our blog readers. Thank you for your support over the past year, we hope you all have a fantastic few days while you enjoy the Christmas festivities.

Please remember, we are open to the public from Tuesday the 27th of December 2011 until Tuesday the 3rd of January 2012. So if you need an excuse to walk of your Christmas dinner, or just want to escape the family for a while, do come and visit us. New keeper talk times are listed above under the tab and include for the first time, Dormice!

Merry Christmas!

BWC Photo Comp; "Animals in Motion"

2011-12-19T10:05:00.001Z

Today sees the announcement of the twenty photos short-listed in the "Animals in Motion" category. A large number of entries were submitted to this category, showing off lots of different interpretation of the heading. It was very difficult to condense them down to the final short-list but I think you will all agree, we have some stunning images here shown below...

Winners to be announced during January of next year, chosen by our judging panel headed by professional wildlife photographer Andy Rouse.

"Doing the Fox Trot" - ASB Images

"Off to find my Supper" - Dereck Howes

"Gangway, Coming through" - Helen Shaw

"This many Hazelnuts" - Ian Rentoul

"Otters play fighting" - John Gribble

"Squirrel with Huge Nut" - John Gribble

"Deer" - Karen Jones

"Wildcat" - Keith Brooks

"Front Crawl or Doggy Paddle, Umm" - Mandy Swanwick

"Ethel" - Mark Bridger

"Jack" - Mark Bridger

"Lex" - Miacat

"Jack" - Mike Bainbridge

"Snowy Owl" - Realisephotography

"Flo on the Run" - Russel Harvey

"Foxes" - Stevesinton124

"I'm coming down" - Sue Edwards

"Having a Domestic" - Susietphotos

"Prey in sight, Closing in" - Tenpinphil

"Frog" - Wendy Goodbody

Once again, a great short-list of varied images. It will be difficult to select a winner. Next week we will announce the final twenty photographs short-listed for the "Animals in their Habitat" category. These will be posted a day later on the Tuesday, the day after Boxing Day.

BWC Photo Comp; "Animals with their Keepers"

2011-12-12T12:00:00.002Z

This week sees the 20 shortlisted photographs entered for the "Animals and their Keepers" category. I think you will all agree that their are some fantastic images below, all worthy of their place here.

As always, the judging panel headed by Professional Wildlife Photographer, and friend of the Centre, Andy Rouse will be picking the winners and runners up of each category to be announced in the New Year.

"Come on Richard, You know I can fit another chick in" - Amanda Hawes

"Turbo the Hedgehog" - ASB Images

"Devotion" - Chris Sweet

"Forty Winks" - Duncan Jennings

"Squirrel and Laura" - Erica Bower

"Fox Cub" - Fless2

"That Tickles" - Helen Shaw

"Trust" - Helen Shaw

"Hedgehog" - Jason Steel

"Fox cub and Keeper" - John Gribble

"Katie and Flo" - Karen Jones

"Baby Badger" - Linda Dance

"You nose how much I love you" - Mary Morgan

"I love you" - Philip Petrou

"Rich with Barn Owl" - Philip Pound

"In safe hands" - Phil Long

"Wildcat" - Robert Parker

"Izzy my friend" - Talkbacktopics

"Red Deer" - Tenpinphil

"Promise not to bite" - Tessa Brammel

Good luck to all the short-listed entries, next Monday sees the announcement of the short-listed twenty for "Animal in Motion"

BWC Photo Comp; Artistic Interpretation

2011-12-05T11:02:00.001Z

So, another Monday, another category to announce the shortlisted entries for this years BWC photographic competition. This week it's the turn of the "Artistic Interpretation" category where we allowed any amount of manipulation, big or small.

The photographs below were selected by the staff at the Centre and as with all the categories, the winners will be chosen by our judging panel, headed by internationally renowned professional wildlife photographer, Andy Rouse.

"Badger in Bluebells" - Andy&Nic

"Water Vole" - Andy&Nic

"Brock" - Artography

"Barn Owl" - Dolts007

"Cute Kitty" - Flower Snow

"Gigantasaurus" - Helena Pugsley

"Fox" - gneil

"Badger Blur" - Jason Steel

"Otterly Perfect Place to Be" - Mandy Swanwick

"They'll Never Find Me" - Mandy Swanwick

"Tawny Owl" - Mark Bridger

"Fox" - Mike Bainbridge

"Deer" - Moira(GML Images)

"Fox" - Old Man George

"On the Run" - Old Man George

"Stalking " - Philip Petrou

"Tawny Owls" - Philip Pound

"The Silver Dish" - Portiaphotos

"My Name is Honey" - Pui Hang

"Colourful Fox" - Steve Moulding

Once again, judging will take place by the end of the year with the winning photographs to be announced during January of next year.

Good luck to all the entries!

A Year On

2011-12-02T10:40:00.001Z

Can you believe it? A year a go we were covered in snow here at the Centre. It was the most snow I had ever known being here, a decent foot and a half all around the Centre getting to well over 2 feet were it had drifted on the nature reserve. The above is a photo I took during this week last year!

Then above is a photo I took this year! It couldn't be more different. Temperatures have been really mild and the Autumn colours are hanging on. How long will this mild weather hold?

BWC Photo Comp; "Junior" Shortlist

2011-11-28T09:27:00.001Z

Welcome to the first of our posts showing off the 20 short-listed photos for each category. First up is the Junior section. We were very pleased to see a lot of interest in this category, which was for people aged 16 years old or under.

Below are the 20 photos... congratulations to all who made it this far. Winner and runner-up will be announced early January after our judging panel, including professional wildlife photographer Andy Rouse, have had a chance to look through them all.

"Marsh Frog" - Andrea Alvarez

"Tawny Owl" - Andrea Alvarez

"Red Squirrel" - Chris Smith

"Frog Prince" - Daniel Jackson

"Just so cute" - Daniel Jackson

"Red Fox"- Fiona_35

"Reflection" - Fiona_35

"Polecat" - Sam

"Eagle Owl" - Kai Vallely

"Red Fox" - Kai Vallely

"Fox" - Laura Rouse

"Have you got my best side?" - Lydia Akrel

"Squirrel" - Lydia Akrel

"Water Vole" - Pardus99

"Wildcat" - Pardus99

"Squirrel" - Sid the Photographer

"Squirrel" - Sophie

"Harvest Mouse" - Tim Brammel

Good luck to all the short-listed entries above. The next category to be announced will be the Artistic Interpretation.

BWC Photo Comp; Staff Favourites

2011-11-25T08:50:00.001Z

The next in our weekly blog posts on the 2011 photo competition, in the run-up to the winners announcements early next year, is to show off some of the staffs favourite photos.

The task was simple... for each staff member to chose one image from the hundreds entered which they particularly liked. Not necessarily what they thought was the best, but one of their favourites. It proved a very difficult task but below is what was chosen.

The short-listing for each category is nearly complete, and next Monday will see the first blog post on the short-listed entries. First category to be announced will be the "Junior" category showcasing the talent of the 16 year olds and under which visit the Centre.

So, onto staff favourites...

Realise Photography

Izzy, Keeper - "I like the way the motion of the wing is covering the owl, with just the eye visible between the feathers"

Miacat

Rich, Keeper - "I really like this one because it shows off a wildcat really kicking ass!"

Mandy Swanwick

Leonie, Keeper - "I like the way it shows the movement of otter through the water and the way it has captured the spume"

Diandy

Tom, Keeper - "I love the muted colours in this one and the way it accentuates the golden eyes of the owl"

Mandy Swanwick

Jean, Centre Manager - "The detail captured in the fur as the otter has just come out of the water is amazing"

Phil Long

Liza, Interpretation and Marketing - "I love how this photo shows Flo as she really is, always happy, full of life and enjoying being stroked and tickled by Matt"

Sid the Photographer

Mandy, Coffee Shop Manager - "This one just makes me smile every time I look at it. It is almost human like in pose, and reminds me of how I feel after a day at work"

Ian Rentoul

Linda, Accounts - "A great pose. I have seen many of the squirrels like this, but this is my favourite"

Phil Homer

Michael, General Maintenance - "It makes you look at it closer after a first glance. Then you can see it is an otter with good camouflage and in a really natural setting"

Philip Pound

David, Owner - "I think this is a clever idea, and it has been done really well"

Talkbacktopics

Matt, Head Keeper - "This one stood out to me as it shows two of my favourite girls, both looking very smug as they think they have just done a good flying display"

Don't forget to check out the blog on Monday for the short-listed entries for the "Junior" category.

Photo Comp: Round Up

2011-11-21T16:21:00.001Z

Wow! A staggering 804 photographs have been entered in to this years BWC photographic competition, over the six separate categories. Having downloaded them all over the weekend, this week sees the difficult task of whittling them down to a shortlist of 20 photographs per category.

This will not be easy as the standard looks extremely high and varied, but the BWC staff are up to the challenge and always enjoy looking at a good photo, especially when it is of one of our animals.

The shortlisted entries will then be looked at by our judging panel made up of:

Andy Rouse; International Professional and Multi Award Winning Wildlife Photographer
David Mills; BWC Owner and keen Amater Artist
Matt Binstead; BWC Head Keeper and keen Amateur and Award Winning Photographer

Between them they will choose the winner and runner-up of each category, with any dispute being decided by head judge Andy Rouse. Then from the 12 chosen photos the overall winner will be decided by Andy Rouse to win the prize of a one-on-one day with him here at the BWC, worth £500!

Winners will be announced during January of next year.

Each week in the lead up to the announcement there will be a blog post on the competition. This will start with the staff's favourites, where each staff member will pick one photo they particularly like for what ever reason. Not necessarily what they think is the best, but just their favourite.

This will follow with the shortlisted entries from each category for you all to look at, then finally a post to announce the winners and runner ups of each category and then the final post declaring the overall winner.

Here are just a few pics from the competition to wet your appetite for some amazing photos which are going to be posted over the coming weeks...

Buckbeak888

Chris Allesebrook

Chris Sweet

Dominic Burch

Duncan Jennings

Gary Rachamme

Gill Merrit

Jason Steel

Mandy Swanwick

Mark Bridger

Mike Bainbridge

Paul Reader

Philip Pound

Portiaphotos

Ray Braim

Sue Edwards

Tessa Brammel

Tim Wright

Night Heron spotted on Nature Reserve

2011-11-17T11:43:00.001Z

Back in May of this year, we had a very rare visitor of Britain visit our nature reserve. At the time, although knowing it is not often seen in this part of the country, we did not know just how rare this sighting was.

The bird was a Night Heron! Duncan Jennings, one of our more frequent visiting members and keen amateur bird watcher, was lucky enough not only to spot this rare bird but also take these photos you see on this page.

After casually mentioning this spot to our local expert twitcher, Ken Noble, he got very excited and asked to see the photos as evidence. Once he had confirmed that they were indeed night herons he passed this on to the Surrey Birds Club Records Committee who immediately got in contact with me.

Apparently, this is only the 4th Night Heron to have been spotted in Surrey since 1900! Well done Duncan!

The Night Heron is a very rare visitor to Great Britain in general, and any spotted over here tend to have come from the Netherlands either slightly blown of course or during a slight detour whilst migrating. The photos show it is a juvenile night heron with the brown and pale flecked plumage, the maturer ones being more black and white.

They tend to be quite a crepuscular bird mainly hunting at dusk on the edge of the bank, for small fish and invertebrates. Although only seeing one on our nature reserve, they quite often hang around in small groups and it is not unusual to see them in the trees such as our Grey Herons that live on our reserve.

Well done again to Duncan Jennings for these great photos of this rare bird. To see more of Duncan's photos check out his flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/68514682@N02/

BWC Native and Natural Photographic Competition

2011-11-14T16:00:00.001Z

Just a quick reminder to all you budding photographers that this coming Friday, the 18th of November, is the closing date for entries into this years BWC photographic competition.

For details on the competition and how to enter, click on the "Photo Competition" tab above, or take a look at our website www.britishwildlifecentre.co.uk

Good luck to all who enter!

British Wildlife Centre DVD

2011-11-13T11:06:00.001Z

Over the past Summer you may have noticed a few film cameras around filming the Centre and it's staff? Well, this was all in aid of a souvenir dvd of the British Wildlife Centre which is now available in our gift shop.

This DVD lasts for approximately 35 minutes, and tells the story of the British Wildlife Centre owned and managed by David Mills. It starts from its beginning up to present day, and includes many of the staff and animals which work here and make the Centre happen.

If you would like a copy of this DVD, then by all means pop in to see us during normal office hours (10am - 4pm Monday to Friday), or get in contact with the main office at info@britishwildlifecentre.co.uk or 01342 834658

The British Wildlife Centre DVD is priced at £11.95 plus postage and packaging if you wish for it to be delivered.

It will make an ideal Christmas present for members and fans of the work we do here!

Winter Lunch Club

2011-11-08T13:21:00.001Z

FOR MEMBERS-ONLY

Winter Lunch Club

Due to popular demand, we are running a weekly Lunch Club for those members suffering from withdrawal symptoms during the winter when we are closed to the public.

Places are limited to 30 and must be pre-booked. Lunch will include soup and a jacket potato with fillings, followed by free access to the Centre to see the animals. All for just £10.00.

Friday 18 November 2011
Wednesday 23 November 2011
Thursday 1 December 2011
Wednesday 7 December2011
Wednesday 14 December 2011

Doors open from 12 noon, with lunch at 12.30 pm and you can stay until 3 pm.

To help us plan, places must be pre-booked, so please contact us.

Email: info@britishwildlifecentre.co.uk or call 01342 834658, and provide a contact telephone number. Should bookings fall below our minimum we may cancel and of course we will let you know.

Please remember to bring your valid Membership Card with you.

We hope you can join us!

Water Vole Release

2011-10-28T12:17:00.001+01:00

Recently we have just introduced another batch of Water Voles out onto our Nature Reserve. After another successful year of breeding, plus additions from Wildwood in Kent, we re-paired up our voles ready for next season and released the spare voles into the wild before it was too late in the season.

After the initial releases two years ago, the patient few have been spotting the voles out on the reserve while we have been open to the public. We are hoping with the new influx sightings will be more common, and next year we can look at further releases slightly further afield.

BWC Photo Competition

2011-10-23T09:32:00.000+01:00

Just a reminder that this years British Wildlife Centre Photographic Competition closing date is on the 18th of November, 2011. This means that this half term week is the last open period we have before the close for you to come and get some "Award Winning" photos!

All the details on the competition and ways to enter are found above under the Photo Competition tab.

Good Luck to all who enter!

Dormice

2011-10-18T23:04:00.003+01:00

As some of you may already know, we are part of the breeding programme monitored by Paignton Zoo for Common Dormice. Many of ours have just started to go into hibernation, so we took the chance to check on them all and see what we have. It was another successful season with our pair producing 2 litters!

Keep an eye on the blog over the Winter for some exciting news on dormice and new exhibits.

Christmas Cards

2011-10-15T17:37:00.000+01:00

I know it's only October, but we are only open until the end of October so we have to push it now... This year we have decided to do a couple of exclusive Christmas Cards featuring our animals in the snow.

Of course, it made sense to use the very popular "Fox in Snow" which did so well in Countryfile. As well as the fox, we have made the squirrel above into a card.

These cards are A5 and priced at £1.50p each, or £10 for a pack of ten (5 fox and 5 squirrel.) They are available now, and will stay on sale after October when you can still pop in during office hours to pick up a pack if interested.

Goodbye to Laura, Hello Tom

2011-10-03T15:43:00.001+01:00

Unfortunately we have to say good bye to keeper Laura, pictured above on her favourite day here when the firemen arrived!

Laura has decided to leave us to go travelling for a year. Her plans are to go to Australia to train to do some ranch work, while spending all the money she earns on seeing the "sights" downunder. While that way she hopes to take in a bit of New Zealand as well.

Laura has been a valued member of my keeping team for over three years now, and will be surely missed. We wish her all the best in her new adventure.

Of course, this means we have had to hire a new keeper....

Above is Tom. His first day was today, and already he is making new friends with our very friendly Flo. Tom has come straight from University where he has completed a degree in Ecology and Biodiversity, after studying Countryside management at Plumpton College. During his studies he did a lot of volunteer work within habitat conservation, and has some good experience in particular with handling and surveying of small mammals. Something I hope to utilise over the coming months with our ever expanding release programmes on to the nature reserve.

Tom is here for a year to gain some valuable experience, before going out to gain work in the field of habitat management and conservation. Vital work to help encourage the growth of our British species. Of course, this coincides with when Laura will return... We hope that maybe she will re-apply for a position when it becomes open.

Meanwhile, our new female otter... Grace, has settled in extremely well. She now uses her observation holt, and has often been seen cuddled up with Stirling, pictured below. Over the weekend she has started to come out even with people around to watch, and has even been approaching us for food, although not quite yet hand feeding.

Stirling seems very happy with his new mate, and we are all very hopeful for a litter of otter cubs over the next year.

BWPA Awards

2011-09-28T23:10:00.000+01:00

Another thank you from me to all of you who again have congratulated me, this time on my photograph awarded in the British Wildlife Photography Awards.

The above photo of Flo has been commended in the BWPA "Animal Portrait" category, and has been used by many newspapers this past weekend as one of the photos to advertise the awards. It will appear in a book and exhibition, and I will be attending the awards next month to see the opening of the exhibition.

I have been very lucky this year with my photos, and of course am very pleased with the Countryfile competition, but this award means much more to me as is a competition a lot of the professional photographers enter, and my photo will now be in a book alongside the likes of Andy Rouse, Mark Hamblin and Danny Green etc.

Badgers on the move

2011-09-26T22:59:00.000+01:00

Last Thursday we had a little move around with our badgers. For the past couple of weeks we have been working on our semi-wild badger sett, preparing it for a family of badgers. At the same time we wanted to move our two friendly badgers Titch and Honey from their off display enclosure to on view. Therefore we decided to move our badgers from the display sett out on to the nature reserve, leaving hand-reared Toby behind, and introduce Titch and Honey to Toby in the main enclosure.

We started by catching up the four badgers, Murray, Humbug, Bubble and Squeak from the main pen and drove them out to the wild sett.

After adding some fresh straw for them to drag in to make their bedding, we slowly introduced them one at a time to their new home.

Once they had all been re-homed safely it was time to collect Titch and Honey and introduce them to their new home.

It wasn't long until Honey was out and about and exploring her new home. Normally for the badger keeper talk we only had Toby make an appearance, and one or two of the others on a rare appearance. But already this pas weekend has seen both Toby and Titch come out for the talk. I am sure it will just be a matter of time until Honey settles on to her new home too and joins them in the afternoon.

As for the now semi-wild badgers... they have settled in extremely well. They are fenced in to an extremely large area, and we still feed them daily. Their sett is visible from the Wetland Boardwalk, and I wouldn't be surprised for you to see them in the late afternoon as the light starts to darken.

New Otter, Grace

2011-09-22T13:16:00.002+01:00

On Sunday, we introduced a new otter to our collection. Above is a photo of "Grace" who came to us from the New Forest Wildlife Park, in the New Forest. Originally Grace was a wild orphan cub, but after being rehabilitated by the NFWP they were unable to get the cooperation from local landowners to allow her to be released back where she came from. Having been in captivity now for nearly 3 years, it is believed she is told old to be returned and so needed a permanent new home.

With Stirling having recently lost his mate, we thought we could offer here that home. The hope is he will pair up nicely with Stirling in the future and possibly even mate to produce more otter cubs.

As you can see from Ian Rentoul's photographs above, she was shy at first to enter her new enclosure, but was soon rushing out to explore. If you come to the Centre she is now in our third otter pen, but is still very shy so you will have to be patient to get a glimpse of her while she settles in.

Thanks to Ian for his photographs of her release. To see more of Ian's photos check out his flickr page linked.

Fox in Snow

2011-09-19T23:03:00.001+01:00

Thank you to all of you who have come up to me or messaged me one way or another to congratulate me on being one of the finalists int he Countryfile competition.

The above photo of "Fox in Snow" I took last December in the snow we had, won the "In all weathers" category to become one of the finalists, and feature in the Countyfile calender which will be on sale to help raise money for children in need.

I was not able to put it up on the blog before today, for fear of making it look like I was trying to manipulate the public voting which closed last night. Over all winner will be announced in 3 weeks time on the programme, and of course we all have our fingers crossed at the Centre.

It's extra special for me as the photo is of Pickles. One last moment for her in the limelight after she sadly passed away earlier this year.

Thank you again, and coming up later this week... new otter arrival news.

Fergus out on Display

2011-09-11T14:38:00.002+01:00

Fergus is now out on display! We have introduced him in with our female Kendra in the middle of the three enclosures. The hope is they will settle down nicely with each other over the Winter, and hopefully mate next year to produce more young wildcat kittens here at the Centre.

Wildcats are tricky too breed successfully, and we have been VERY successful in the past, but this year has just been one disappointment after another. After last weeks announcement of our new litter of kittens, they have since passed away. We had been keeping them very quiet due to the loss of both the first litter earlier this year to accidental death by the mother, and the father due to cancer, but at just over 8 weeks... and with them beginning to be spotted by the public, we thought it safe to announce the arrivals. Unfortunately one died earlier this week and the other two at the end of the week. We are awaiting post mortem reports on them all.

In brighter wildcat news, it is that time when we can start moving our kittens sired by Lex and Kendra last year around. Isla, pictured above, is moving to a new home up in Scotland this Monday, where she will be paired up with a nice young male to hopefully play an important role in the breeding programme. This has left Richy Junior on his own, so we have moved Iona over to his enclosure to give Kendra and Fergus more space. Keeping up?

Introducing "Fergus", the Wildcat

2011-09-03T12:09:00.001+01:00

Thursday evening saw the arrival of a new male wildcat, who we have named Fergus. Fergus could play a very important role in the breeding programme of Scottish Wildcats, and may well end up being our main dominant tom. Currently he is housed off display in a holding pen while we get him microchipped and vaccinated, whilst moving around our other wildcats to make it easier and less stressful to put him on display. I would hope to see him out in his new home by the end of next week.

At the same time as Fergus arriving, we also acquired some water shrews and a male weasel. The water shrews are also currently off display while they settle down into their breeding pairs. Soon we will have one of these pairs on display in our hedgerow pond.

The male weasel is already in his display pen. Housed in half of the inside weasel exhibit, with the female in the other half, we are hopeful they will settle down together and we may be able to introduce them for breeding next year.

New Mink Arrives

2011-08-29T11:34:00.000+01:00

Saturday afternoon saw the arrival of a new mink to the British Wildlife Centre. As many of you know, our elderly male mink "Lucky" passed away earlier this Summer due to old age, and we have been looking for a replacement ever since.

This new youngster will tame down very well over the next few weeks, and I am sure he will be out and about on view when he gets into his new routine.

The american mink is a non native mustelid, that has come over from America. In most cases due to fur farming for their coats. Many animal rights groups aided their escapes from these farms, and they have since been spreading and increasing in population over the country. Although not their fault, it does mean they are now classified as vermin due to the destruction they can cause on our own native wildlife.

There is no doubt however that our new young mink is a very handsome chap, and will be a great ambassador for the trouble that invasive exotic animals can bring.

Video of our Water Voles

2011-08-24T13:14:00.000+01:00

As many of you know, since I think I have told everyone who has visited recently, our water vole enclosure is a hive of activity at the moment and one of my favourite enclosures at the centre currently. I have spent a bit of time over the last couple of mornings getting a few photos and video clips. You have seen some of the photos on here and the other blog, and below is a compilation of the better video clips.

If you can only spare half a minute or so, just watch the first bit as it is my favourite bit of video I got. If you have more time, the clip lasts just under three minutes.

Water Vole Youngsters born on the Display Island

2011-08-20T19:43:00.000+01:00

After introducing a new pair of water voles to our island display at the beginning of the year, they have settled down extremely well and produced a litter. Growing up on display and in front of the public they have no fear, and have been a fantastic exhibit over the past few days posing well for photographers.

The best time to see our water voles are in the morning and at the end of the day, but while they are growing up the youngsters will often be seen out and about during the middle of the day too.

New Stoat in Photographic Pen

2011-08-16T13:19:00.000+01:00

Yesterday saw the introduction of a new male stoat to our photographic pens opposite our snakes and polecats. We hope he will settle into his new home well. Meanwhile we are keeping his sisters off display to keep them safe as they are hopefully now pregnant and expecting young next year.

BWC DVD

2011-08-11T12:31:00.000+01:00

The last few days has been a busy schedule for us all at the BWC. Of course, we still had all the animals to look after and public to meet and greet, but we have also been busy filming for a DVD.

It has been something David has wanted to do for some time now, and this Summer has been the time to go ahead and do it. The DVD will be a souvenir of the Wildlife Centre and something we will put for sale in our gift shop. Hopefully it will give everyone a good idea on what we are all about here and the work we do.

The film team will be back in September to add to their 12hours of footage they already have, and then the hard task of condensing it all down to about 40 minutes will begin. We hope to have the DVD in the shops for the New Year.

Introducing the Roe fawn to Willow

2011-08-08T19:51:00.000+01:00

New Roe fawn, as yet unamed, is settling in extremely well. Now is the time to start weaning him off of the goats milk, and get him onto the coarse ration and browse. Today we let him and his fallow friend, who I have since found out is another buck, not a doe as we were told when given to us, through to the main enclosure to mingle with the other deer.

They soon relaxed and enjoyed stretching their legs for a good run, before sniffing the other deer and becoming comfortable with them. The muntjac didn't even seem to notice them, but Willow and Chestnut were soon coming over to say hello.

We are hoping that the will get on very well, and that our new Roe buck will mate with both Willow and Chestnut for some fawns in 2013. The new buck will be mature enough in his first season next year, but due to Roe Deer having a "true" delayed implantation, no new fawns will be born here till at the earliest 2013.

Another New Little Owl

2011-08-01T20:55:00.000+01:00

Today saw the arrival of another new little owl. This young female was bred by a private breeder in Cheshire, and is the new partner for Robin. We are hoping that they will settle down together and form a bond and eventually become a breeding pair.

Our aim is to breed little owls here at the Centre. Some of which we can rear to join our flying team of owls, and others to pass onto other wildlife collections and falconry parks. They are very charming owls with lots of character, and always seem a popular hit with many visitors.

Tutoke Update

2011-07-27T14:38:00.000+01:00

You may remember that earlier this year Richard took on the task of rearing one of our barn owl chicks. Tutoke was taken at a week of age, and Richard has done a great job in training her to fly. She is now a regular member of our flying team and will be a new staple in our "Owl and Bird of Prey" photographic days.

New Roe Buck

2011-07-21T21:33:00.001+01:00

Today saw the arrival of two new deer from Harper Asprey wildlife rescue. We have been on the look out for a male roe deer for some time now, to pair up with our two does, so when we were asked by Harper Asprey if we could offer this young buck a home... of course we said yes.

While being reared, he has formed a close bond with a fallow deer. Therefore his friend came with him, and they are currently both in our roe deer enclosure. Once older and weaned we will introduce him to our other roe deer, and then decide on whether to leave the fallow with them as well or introduce her to our other tame fallow.

New Little Owl, "Scrappy"

2011-07-14T23:21:00.000+01:00

This morning I picked up a new member for our flying team. The hard work has been done on this one for me, she is already a friendly owl which is very happy to be around people and has flown for many displays in the past.

"Scrappy" has come to us from the Warren Hill Raptor Project in Suffolk. She is a two year old little owl and already has become a huge hit with the keepers and other staff at the Centre. I am taking her under my wing for a few days while she settles down to her new life here at the BWC. She will be housed off display with our other flying owls, but will be out and about this weekend to say hello to everyone.

I hope to debut her in the owl display the following weekend, once she has settled to her new routine and the Dell.

Members Evening, and More Kittens?

2011-07-10T11:21:00.000+01:00

Thank you to all our members who came to our annual Members Evening last night. It was a huge success with over 100 people turning out to make the evening a great experience for all involved. We have had a lot of nice feedback already, and hope you all enjoyed your extra time here at the BWC.

When I had finished the talk about our Wildcats, and the conservation work we do with them, I was informed by the keepers that Kendra was looking very "big"... Is it possible she could be pregnant again?

Although Scottish Wildcats would only ever have one litter a year, if the kittens are lost at a young age it has been known for the female to come into estrous again quickly for a possible second mating. Maybe this has happened here, and we will have little "Lex" kittens later in the Summer.

Obviously we are all very excited about this possibility, especially after the tragic loss of her last litter followed by the father recently due to kidney failure.

I will keep you informed on the progress...

Thank again to all our members for your continued support of the British Wildlife Centre. Hope to see you all here again soon.

Members Evening, Reminder and Schedule

2011-07-07T11:27:00.000+01:00

Saturday the 9th of July, 2011
5pm - 8pm

We all at the BWC look forward to welcoming once again all our members of "Friends of the British Wildlife Centre" to our annual Members Evening. This year taking place on Saturday the 9th of July, continuing on from our normal closing of 5pm until 8pm later that evening.

As usual, it will be a fun and informal time to get to meet many other members and all the BWC staff, and of course we will have the extra talks and events to make the evening that little bit special.

Summer 2011's Evening Schedule will be:

5.30 - Welcome from Centre owner, David Mills

6.00 - Wildcat Talk with a focus on the conservation work we do

6.30 - Otter Talk with a focus on the research work we do

7.00 - Pine Marten / Fox / Polecat - Feeds at the relevant enclosures

7.30 - Badger Talk wit a focus on our future plans

8.00 - Evening Close

Look forward to seeing many of you there. If you could just drop us an email or phone call at the main office to let us know you intend to come, then we would be appreciative. Helps us to manage staffing and refreshments.

Fox Cub Update

2011-07-05T10:17:00.000+01:00

We have had a lot of evening photography groups of late, and it seems the main stars of the show have always been Flo's fox cubs. They are growing fast, and becoming very playful. Often seen out and about now, and often seen interacting and playing with dad Frodo.

The three orphaned fox cubs we had brought in to us, which Katie has been rearing very successfully, will soon be making there way to a new home. We have decided to keep the male, Shadow, here at the Centre to introduce to Frodo and Flo when he is a little older. The two vixens however look destined to meet up with "Snoop", who we passed on to the Isle of Wight Zoo earlier this year.

This will then leave the 4 fox cubs sired by Flo. We will look at re-homing then at the end of the Summer, when they are just a bit too big for the enclosure and boisterous for the parents.

Don't forget, Members Evening this Saturday! More details to follow later in the week.

Owl Update

2011-07-01T19:08:00.000+01:00

Richard has done a great job in rearing Tutoke, the barn owl chick. She is now looking beautiful and will make her flying debut this weekend at the owl displays. You will have to be patient while she builds up her confidence in front of a large crowd, but on her practice session today she was amazing.

In other owl news, the young female little owl that was brought in as a rescue and has been recovering in our display aviary, has now recovered and been re-released. This has allowed us to introduce Robin, our friendly little owl, into the display aviary. He has been a brilliant photographic owl, but not being an imprint will enjoy his life in the new aviary a lot more. I am hoping to acquire a young female to pair up with him later in the year... you never know, we may breed our first ever little owls in 2012.

Look out for Robin this weekend.

Wildcat Update

2011-06-29T10:08:00.000+01:00

We have had a lot of bad luck with our wildcats so far this year, but have used this to offer our kittens from last year a nicer enclosure on view to the public.

Una and Dougal are still in the first enclosure, Kendra has been joined by her sister Iona in the middle pen and last years kittens Isla and...., Richy Junior (yes I know, don't ask!) have been put into the third wildcat enclosure.

Don't they just look so much better in the snow?... You can't tell me the above looks like a tabby! Anyway, more news to come on our wildcats for all you members on our annual Summer's Members Evening, Saturday the 9th of July. Look forward to seeing you all there.

Pine Martens

2011-06-27T17:57:00.000+01:00

This afternoon we introduced two of our pine martens together in preparation for the breeding season. After they were seen mating last year, it was decided to let Clyde and Bonnie have another go in the hope they can go one step further and produce a litter of kitts next year.

Normally introducing pine martens is an aggressive affair, and a nervous one for me... but I have never had a problem with these two individuals. They have always seemed to get on well together with no tension at all. Hopefully they will mate again this year, and we may well be looking forward to a litter next year. It would be the first time we have bred pine martens if they do.

I am contemplating introducing Hamish and Buttons too. It would seem silly not to, as they are another potential breeding pair, but Hamish does show a lot of aggression towards Buttons through the wire. This is more normal behaviour, and maybe it is better in terms of trying to breed, but still it makes the whole process more worrying. It was too late in the day to try today, but depending on how they are tomorrow I may give it a go in the morning to give them all day to settle down, while we are there to intervene if needs be.

Pine martens are extremely difficult to breed because of their solitary and aggressive behaviour towards each other, and are seldom bred in captivity. But hopefully we can follow in the success we have had with all our other mammals and produce young kitts in the near future.

New Water Voles, and Polecat Kitts

2011-06-26T13:53:00.000+01:00

This morning we placed a new family of Water Voles out on to our display island. These are from our breeding stock which we hold off view from the public. There were only two voles left on the island, both old males which were bred out there and extremely used to sitting out in front of dozens of cameras. However, in their old age, they have been seen less, and so it was decided to retire them off view and allow a new family to thrive and make the island their home.

Parents and four kitts were placed into the tunnel system of the island. We hope that the youngsters will grow up to be comfortable out in front of people, and if they don't the first litter they breed on the island certainly will be.

Yesterday we decided to change around our polecats in preparation for the Summer opening. Early in the year one of our females, Velvet, gave birth to 7 kitts. We separated the father from her when she started to get very aggressive towards him, and paired him up with another one of our females in an off-view breeding pen.

Now that the kitts are about 8 weeks old, we have moved them with their mother on display in one of our smaller mustelid pens. Here they will prove to be a great exhibit with the youngsters beginning to get really active and keeping their mother on her toes.

Eventually these young polecats will be relocated by the Polecat studbook holder, some of them may even make a return to the wild!

Over the next couple of days I will let you know about some changes with our Pine Martens and Wildcats.

Other baby news...

2011-06-21T21:25:00.000+01:00

Along with other news, I will be providing you with updates on our badger cub, fox cubs and red squirrel kittens over the coming weeks. But first I thought I would mention some of our "lesser" known animals. It is quite easy to forget sometimes some of the smaller animals we have here at the Centre, but we have had a lot of other baby activity this year already!

Of course our deer have had fawns/calves again. Quite early this year too, the photo above is of a few days old fallow fawn.

Once again we have bred polecat kits, but this year it is to our new breeding pair "Storm" and "Velvet". Storm was a road casualty brought to us by the studbook holder, Lesley Palmer, to pair up with the very aggressive Velvet. After a lack of mating last year we questioned whether Storm was up to the job, but since he was such a handsome chap Lesley and I decided to give him one more crack at it. He hasn't disappointed, and Velvet now has 7 young kitts to look after.

Our display pair of hedgehogs have been a little less active than normal, outside the talk time, and this is due to them having a couple of hogletts to look after. "Lemming" and "Erin" sired young last year too so are experienced parents, and these young hedgehogs will be placed on a release scheme later in the Summer when they are of a nice weight.

And once again the BWC is home to baby rabbits. Earlier this year we replaced the three rabbits we had on display with our off-site colony, which had tamed down very nicely. These have proved to be a far better exhibit showing both natural eating, grazing and digging behaviour comfortably in front of the public. Earlier this month they produced there second litter of healthy babies showing that they truly have settled into their new home, and now the youngsters are often seen out in their outside run too, during the day.

Current Research at BWC

2011-06-16T10:51:00.000+01:00

The BWC helps out with many research projects every year, another important and vital role of any zooligical collection, and after posting about our work with Conservation Dogs (supplying pine marten scats for training Luna), I was surprised to hear of so many of our visitors interest in this side of our work. Therefore I will let you know of any other interesting work being carried out here, and with that in mind...

Currently we have work being done with our Stoats and Weasels, and a couple of projects with our Harvest Mice.

Hair sample tubes from the Vincent Wildlife Trust have been put into our stoat and weasel enclosures to test if they actually work. The idea is these smaller mustelids will go through the baited tubes and leave hair samples on some sticky tape. Once the design has been made successful, these tubes and then be relocated to the wild as a surveying technique to see if these animals are present in a given location. So far they have collected hair well, and things look positive for a wild application.

At the same time as this we are trialing a similar device, on a smaller scale, with our harvest mice for the Surrey Wildlife Trust. This is still in its initial stages, and will yet be seen if it is a viable option for wild work.

One project that has been running for a while in our harvest mice is special feeding stations. Some of you may have seen them up in the past few weeks. These devices are hopeful of collecting harvest mice droppings while they feed off the ground, as a way to show a populations exists. Once the design has been tinkered with we will then relocate these feeders to our reserve, where a known population exists, to see if they still work. And finally they can then be used in the wild as a way of establishing if harvest mice are in the area.

Exciting animal news coming up over the next few days and weeks so keep in touch.

Something Special

2011-06-13T18:14:00.000+01:00

Another busy week has passed (sorry for lack of updates), and another hectic week is in front of us all here at the BWC. Today started off with two school visits, two researchers asking for our help, and a whole day of filming by the cbeebies crew.

Some of our animals are to be the stars of "Something Special" where Mr Tumble, or at least his alter ego Justin, shows some children some of the different British wildlife.

The 3 featured animals where our Red Squirrels, Fallow Deer and Hedgehogs. Other animals where filmed for linking bits and pieces as well.

All performed excellently, and with a bit of patience from the film crew, they went away happy with what they had achieved,

I will let you all know when it airs, when I know, but it could be a little bit of fun to watch.

Now to finish off a busy day, I am off to "imp" Jack the peregrine's tail feathers. Some of you may have noticed a couple that had broken... well to aid his flight, and make him look a little more presentable, I am taking him to see my falconer guru to repair the damage. Check him out at the weekend in his new apparel.

Red Squirrels gone to Kilnsey

2011-06-06T14:43:00.000+01:00

Once again we have had a very successful year in breeding our red squirrels. At the end of last week, I took three of them up to Yorkshire to drop them off at Kilnsey Park.

Kilnsey Park is a lovely little place set in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales and it's stunning scenery. In our early days they helped us in acquiring red squirrels, and ever since we have helped each other out in looking after Britain's native squirrel. If you are ever up that way, do go and pay them a visit and see how our squirrels are getting on.

In other news back at the Centre, Honey our young badger cub is growing fast and has already proven to be a delight with our visitors. After each badger talk we take her out to meet the visitors, and stretch her legs a little in our photographic enclosure. As you can see, she seems to enjoy her self, haring around the pen and investigating anything new... including the camera.

She now lives at the Centre permanently, and has been sharing accommodation with our other tame badger, Titch, during the day. This week we will let them share pens for the night and see how they get on. I am sure they will be fine however, as they are often seen curled up asleep together after they have finished off their breakfasts.

Woodpeckers

2011-06-01T13:31:00.000+01:00

A few weeks ago we had three young woodpeckers brought into us here at the Centre. We are not a rescue Centre as most of you know, and usually hand any animals brought into us over to a dedicated rescue centre, however Izzy decided she would like to take these unusual birds under her wing to rear and release.

Many of you have seen them grow, and last Monday morning we took them down to the woods to release. The photo above was taken a while ago while they were half way to adulthood.

New Badger Cub

2011-05-28T08:13:00.000+01:00

Another busy week at the Centre saw Andy Rouse here for a couple of days photographing fox cubs, and planning a possible new workshop. Heather Angel running one of her popular photographic workshops, and the usual array of school trips and private tours.

In amongst all this though, we found time to welcome a new member to our badger family. Pictured above is "Honey". She is a rescue cub that had been reared for a little while before being passed onto us for a new safe home. She is already quite a character, and can be seen at certain times of the day in our photographic pen, when we are open to the public.

Our own resident badger fanatic, Laura, has taken on the task of bonding with Honey and introducing her to our cub from last year, Titch. Given time we hope to then introduce both of these to Toby to form a nice clan in our observation sett. Our remaining badgers will then be placed into our "semi-wild" sett on the nature reserve. In the future this will allow us to offer badger watching evenings... something I know many of you have requested in the past.

In other baby news. Tutoke is growing fast, and you can see how proud doting mother Richard is! I am sure he will be up and flying for the Summer (Tutoke, not Richard), and will add to our already popular owl display. Twilight and Eclipse are still sat on 4 other chicks in the barn, all that can be seen on the screen in the reception area.

More of Flo's cubs

2011-05-21T23:47:00.000+01:00

It's been a busy week for us all here at the Centre, and this evening I had a spare few minutes so I decided to sit in with Flo. We now believe that she has had 5 cubs, but tonight I just saw the four. The cubs have been great recently, coming out after the keeper talks and playing around nearer the end of the day just before 5pm.

Flo's cubs out and about

2011-05-16T17:30:00.000+01:00

Flo's fox cubs are now gaining in confidence, and we have seen them emerge for the last few evenings after closing. They even made a short appearance over the weekend after one of our fox talks. Of course, it is only a matter of time and they will appear far more often and in front of the crowds and cameras.

Here are a few pics I took yesterday evening of toe of the cubs that were happy for me to be there while they played with their dad, Frodo. In total four cubs have been seen at once so far.

Fox cubs emerge.

2011-05-10T23:13:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, Richard saw Flo's cubs emerge for the first time! He has seen at least three at the same time, but of course there could be a few more hidden away. Surprisingly Flo has had them in a different area of the enclosure than last year, but when a little bigger and moving around more, they may well feel they need to move back to their earth.

I had a little sit in the enclosure this evening, but all I saw was one cub nose occasionally peeking from the den. The photos on this page are of the three orphaned cubs currently being reared by Katie.

The three cubs, "Shadow, Polly and Tipsy", will be on view after the fox talks this weekend, in our photographic pen opposite the polecats and stoats.

Of course, you may well glimpse our own cubs with Flo too.

New babies out and about to see!

2011-05-08T09:27:00.000+01:00

The first litter of red squirrels to be born in a walk-through enclosure are now "out and about" their new home. Having been born in one of the boxes in the holding pen, it has taken the last week for the 3 youngsters to find their feet in the branches and get the confidence to venture into the main part of the enclosure. Yesterday, for the first time, saw the mother lead the kittens out into the wide world. They ventured half way around the pen, where they remained playing in the trees mush to the delight of the small crowd at the keeper talk.

All three kittens look healthy, and we hope they will follow their mother in being friendly and coming up to say hello to you all in time.

The three fox cubs that were brought to us last week are going from strength to strength. Katie is doing a grand job in rearing them, and from next weekend we will have them out for you to meet after the two fox talks. They will be on display in the photographic pen we used last year for the youngsters. Originally as a place for the youngsters to get used to people being around, and eventually, when they are a little older, a place for them to stretch their legs in a secure setting.

New arrivals

2011-05-02T17:52:00.000+01:00

Another busy bank holiday Monday, amongst which we had to find time for the arrival of three very young orphaned fox cubs. These three cubs will be reared by Senior Keeper Katie, before likely heading off to the Isle of Wight Zoo to set up a new exhibit with our old cub Snoop.

Today we also removed one of the barn owl chicks from the barn. Richard has decided to take up the cause of rearing this one, and we hope it will feature as part of the flying team by the end of the Summer.

Wildcat kittens

2011-05-01T11:16:00.000+01:00

Yesterday saw Iona give birth to her litter of kittens during the day. She took up the same place as last year in her enclosure, and over a couple of hours around midday gave birth to what I believe is 4, yes 4! kittens.

This is a large litter for a wildcat, and after last year failing to look after just the one, we all hope she has learn't and will be better prepared for this year. So far she is doing a grand job.

I only had the small lens on my camera, so it is a very grainy picture, but you can still make out the face of one of the kittens. For some far better efforts check out our flickr page (linked on the right) for some much better photos of the proud new mum and her babies.

I spent the early part of the afternoon watching her through binoculars, and I think I could make out 4 distinct kittens. I watched her eat the umbilical cords and clean them all up before settling down for a well earned rest. All four kittens tucked in very quickly for their first meal.

BWC update

2011-04-30T09:20:00.000+01:00

After a very busy week here at the BWC, and hence a slight lack in posting, I thought I would up date you all briefly on a couple of the lesser thought of animals. Firstly, our Marsh Frogs are proving to be very vocal. I am sure you will of heard them on recent visits, but they are now at it all night as well. Good opportunities to get nice photos of the puffed out cheeks.

Gnasher, one of our elder and more experienced hedgehogs, spent a morning filming with the PTES. He is to be the star of a new interactive, youtube game, to try and get youngsters interested in looking after wildlife and helping these animals by doing the odd little thing in their garden. When all finished and done the PTES have promised to send me the link, so I will endeavor to pass it on to you all too.

As for Jack, some of you would have seen him flying this year, but I have not had the chance to fly him as much as I had hoped. Therefore Katie has volunteered herself to help with his training/flying duties and you may see a new face controlling him in the skies.

News next week of yet more BWC babies, and a very exciting development with our badgers to be announced in a couple of weeks!

Wildcat Kittens

2011-04-23T17:44:00.000+01:00

A few nights ago saw Kendra giving birth to another litter of kittens. The very patient of you may catch a rare glimpse of these rare and elusive kittens at the rear of the enclosure.

It looks like she has had two, and so far both appear to be healthy. We will have a closer look once they have grown a little, but for now will leave them alone to settle in to their new world with their mother.

Below sees the second kitten coming over to great his or her sibling.

Last year Iona also produced a litter, and today she did look a little thinner. So who knows... a few more days and I may well be bringing you news of our second litter of wildcats.

Wildcats are one of our rarest mammals with only 400 left in the wilds of Scotland. Along with other centres, we are trying to breed the purest of these animals for an eventual release programme in the future. To find out more about this wildcat haven follow this link: http://www.scottishwildcats.co.uk/

Red Squirrel Kittens

2011-04-22T17:42:00.000+01:00

The first year after we introduce females into our red squirrel walk-through enclosure has seen its first litter of kittens! Pictured above are two kittens in one of the nest boxes, taking a glimpse out into their new world. They have yet to venture out fully, but I think it will only be a matter of days before we see them climbing through the trees of the walk-through.

Below is another shot of a kitten poking his head out of a smaller hole in the box. I have only seen two together myself, but it is possible the mother may have had more in her litter.

Keep your eyes peeled next time you wander through the enclosure for the babies, our first litter of 2011.

Dormice enclosure

2011-04-20T18:21:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we hosted the CDCBG meeting for 2011 (Common Dormouse Captive Breeding Group). The BWC is one of the newest members to the captive breeding group, housing a pair of their dormice for breeding and potential future release.

The new enclosure above, which many of you have seen being built opposite our snakes, will be the new home for these enchanting animals and their offspring. Dormice spend most of their lives asleep, and are extremely nocturnal. A glimpse of them therefore is unlikely. But with specially adapted nest boxes, and an enlarged entrance way to the pens, we hope to be able to offer the occasional "meet and greet" of these beautiful mammals.

And just because a photo of an empty, half built pen, is not much to look at... above is a photo of our resident crazy bird lady spending a morning in the woods with our hand reared tawny owls, all in aid of some Easter publicity adverts.

Dance of the Adders, 2011

2011-04-17T22:26:00.000+01:00

The weather is warming up again, and the adders are dancing again. If you can, try and get here in the next couple of days to see them in full swing. The activity may cool off towards the end of the week when they start thinking about mating.

A couple of photos from today, have a look at the flickr site for some more action shots of this amazing ritual.

Eric the Red

2011-04-16T11:27:00.000+01:00

Our master red deer stag, Eric, is getting on a bit now. He is about 15 years old, and probably wouldn't reach much more than this in the wild. Of course, in the wild varied ground and a short life means that the length of hooves would rarely cause a problem, but with the soft ground of the paddock here and the lengthen life span it is possible for a deer's hooves to become over grown.

Therefore, yesterday evening, we trimmed Eric's hooves back. He was beginning to struggle a little bit on his front feet, and along with his old broken leg, it was starting to cause a little lameness. Of course, trimming a red deer's hooves is not a straight forward task. We had to get our zoo vet involved and dart Eric to sedate him enough to be able to work on him.

All went well, and after 40 minutes work he was back on his feet and grazing only yards away. He obviously didn't seem to mind too much about his ordeal and was maybe grateful for his new ease of movement.

Adders Dancing

2011-04-12T13:39:00.000+01:00

Our adders have started dancing once again. Perfect timing for all you budding photographers as well, as we are now open to the public everyday for the rest of this week and next week. Come see if you can catch a glimpse of this impressive ritual, rarely seen in the wild.

Flo's had her cubs

2011-04-09T10:11:00.000+01:00

Hello... You may have noticed the new look to the blog, I hope you all like it. We where getting a little tired of the old look and thought we could make it a little more "professional" if you like, and a little less like all the other google blogs out there!

Well, to start off the new look, what better way than to announce that Flo has had her cubs. She disappeared a few days ago, and emerged a couple of days later looking much thinner than she had been. I would guess it will be about 4 weeks till we start seeing the cubs emerge, so maybe 5/6 weeks for them to be bold enough to come out with visitors being here. Something to look forward too.

Below are some images of last years cubs.

Don't forget, we are open to the public everyday now, including the week days, for the next two weeks. Plus the two bank holidays of the week after.

1st Harvest Mouse Release of 2011

2011-04-07T19:54:00.000+01:00

Today we released our first batch of harvest mice out onto our nature reserve for this year. We breed many of these little mammals every year, and despite the very cold Winter we had our breeding pairs only slowed up a little. With the nice warm weather recently, it seemed an ideal time to add to our reed beds around the reserve.

These amazing mice weigh less than a two pence piece, have opposable thumbs and are the only mammal in Europe to have a prehensile tail. All this enables them to climb high up in the reed beds and make themselves at home.

Some of you very lucky visitors have commented in the past on seeing our mice out around the wetland boardwalk, and we hope these new additions will help booster their numbers and make them a more common site for visitors. Of course we still have our two display tanks and our breeding pens in action.

Meanwhile, earlier this afternoon, Senior Keeper Laura spotted a common lizard wandering a little too far from home. We are hoping to create some new reptile enclosures around the boardwalk later this year, but in the meantime while releasing the harvest mice we relocated this lizard back to where he probably came from.

Our nature reserve is a relocation site for British reptiles. So far we have welcomed grass snakes, common lizards and many slow-worms. You would have to be extremely patient, but a glimpse of these elusive reptiles is certainly a possibility, especially now the weather is warming up!

Don't forget we are open during the week for the next two weeks, and all the bank holidays over the Easter period. Hope to see you here.

Stoats

2011-04-04T20:54:00.000+01:00

A couple of years a go, we were home to one off the best and largest captive stoat populations. They were a huge success offering the sight of this very elusive predator to many a visitor, and their pens were often surrounded by the keen amateur photographer too.

Unfortunately, as many of you know, we had a very nasty virus sweep through our collection, claiming most of our stoats and weasels. It has taken us a while, but we are getting closer to where we used to be.

After a brief spell on display last Summer, our stoats were removed from public due to the hope that they may breed. Now I am very excited to say we have two male stoats back out on display in our photographic pens and a new female has joined our male in the hedgerow display in the hope we can breed from them. Still off-display are our breeding females who are due to give birth over the next month.

Stoats are one of the smaller members of the mustelid or weasel family. Differing from weasels in that they are larger, and have the very distinct black tip to the tail. Some stoats turn ermine in the winter, this is when they change coat colour to all white, yet retain their black tip on the tail, although usually this only occurs in the more northern regions they are found (we did use to have a Scottish stoat here who went ermine every winter.)

Stoats are very playful and curious creatures, but this hides a viscious streak. They are no doubt one of our greatest predators, able to single handedly take down prey far greater in weight, such as a fully grown rabbit. Far more impressive than a herd of lions having to work together to take down a zebra.

If you haven't guessed yet, the Stoat is by far one of my favourite of the British mammals! Come see them soon in their new display enclosures.

Nesting Herons

2011-04-01T09:24:00.000+01:00

Before we started work on our nature reserve, over 5 years ago now, we had herons visiting the centre daily. Once the reserve was under way they started roosting here, and now they are permanent residents often numbering well over 20 individuals.

Come the late afternoon you often see many of them lining up at the back of our deer paddock, waiting for visitors to leave. This is when they can have a look in our otter ponds for any left over fish the otters have left behind.

Once again it is that time of year when the chicks have started to hatch. We have more nests than before this year, and at least two on which I have seen chicks. I took the above photo yesterday evening after seeing one head poke up from the nest... it was only later when looking on the computer that this picture above (the only one out of the 5 or so I took) had a second head peering over the top of the nest too.

The herons are always a joy to watch, and we do put food out for them every afternoon at about 4.30pm. It is for this last half hour of the day you can often see the parents squabbling and taking food back to their chicks.

Come have a look for yourself.

Last Thursdays "Owl and Bird of Prey" Photographic day

2011-03-29T12:14:00.000+01:00

Last Thursday saw our first "Owl and Bird of Prey Photographic day" of 2011 take place. Having built on our 1st day back in November, and the trial day I ran at the end of last Summer, this past Thursday proved to be a huge success.

We started off in our ancient bluebell woodland, photographing both tawny owls and long-eared owls before making use of our expansive nature reserve with many other types of owls and our peregrine, Jack. We then ended up in the woods with Ethel before rounding the day off with a late heron feed.

All in all we got through seven different types of bird, flew 5 different types of bird and had an opportunity to photograph most of them with their prey!

We have another 3 of these days planned for the rest of the year, plus an extra couple being run by wildarena. They are booking up extremely fast, and if demand is there, we may well be looking at arranging a few more dates too.

A gallery of the types of photos you can take on one of these days is currently in motion, link will be here when finished, and we may well add a gallery for the types of photographs you can catch on our normal BWC Mammal days too.

New Mole

2011-03-25T17:56:00.000Z

Today saw the arrival of a new mole to the BWC. It has been a while since we had a mole on display, our last one dying of old age, but when he was there he proved to be one of the most popular animals even coming out to hand feed. Lets hope our new mole, Matty, follows suit.

Moles are thought to be one of the six most common UK mammals but they are very rarely seen. Normally their only give-away is the molehills they leave in their path. They are very well adapted to living under ground, tiny ears and eyes and huge shovel like forehands to help them to dig. Their fur can lie either way making it easier to traverse their tunnels backwards and forwards.
They will prey on most invertebrates with earthworms being a staple diet. They have been known to bite the heads off of worms and store them in a "larder" if food is aplenty.

Make sure you stop by next time you are here to see if you can see our mole.

Fox cub, "Snoop", arrives at the BWC

2011-03-21T19:06:00.000Z

Over the weekend we received a call from someone over at the Chetney Marshes about a fox cub they had found. This young dog fox was spotted wandering alone by the side of the road, and had obviously been abandoned. Looking a little worse for wear they took him in and looked after him and got him looking far better for himself. However, not having the time to continue to care for him they asked us if we would like to take him on.

Of course, I knew the man for the job... it may not be a wildcat, but its the next best thing for keeper Richard!

Rich has taken on the task of continuing to rear this cub, and has given him the name "Snoop". Once ready Snoop will be heading off to another wildlife centre, possibly the Isle of Wight Zoo, to pair up with the vixens we are sending over there in a few weeks time.

In the mean time, keep your eyes open for Snoop around the centre next time you are here.

Jack is back!

2011-03-18T08:52:00.000Z

After a nice Winter's rest, I have started to get Jack, our Perregrine Falcon, flying again. It will not be long till he is back on form flying over the deer paddock.

You may be lucky enough to see him this weekend in training, but if not then be sure to check him out next weekend when he will be on a scheduled flight at some point during the day.

He is still a little slow (for a perregrine) but it will only take a few weeks until he is back on top form and giving all you photographers a real test for in flight shots.

New Keeper

2011-03-14T09:33:00.000Z

Some of you may have noticed a new face around the Centre over the last weekend. Well, this is Leonie. Leonie is our newest keeper and has been taken on as maternity cover whilst Louise is away.

Leonie came to us from working in a pet shop and a veterinary practice and after studying for both a ND in animal management and countryside management. Leonie has also volunteered in the past at animaline rescue centre, and so has some experience with British Wildlife already.

We all welcome Leonie here and hope she settles in quickly and enjoys her time with us at the BWC.

New Buzzard

2011-03-12T11:30:00.000Z

This past week has seen another arrival at the British Wildlife Centre. A new buzzard, pictured above, has come to us as a wild rescue through our vets from Liberty's Falconry Centre. "Michael" as we have tentatively named him, is a lovely looking bird but unfortunately in no good state to return to the wild. We offered him a home here to save him from being put-to-sleep, and he is settling in very well.

Michael is in the aviary with Bella, above, and we hope they will pair up and maybe next year we will have buzzard chicks at the Centre. Some of you may remember, we have had chicks before in the past. Indeed that is where Infinity came from, our buzzard member of the flying team, daughter of Bella and Billy.

Adders emerge

2011-03-10T09:20:00.000Z

Finally a little bit of sun has blessed the Centre this year. Temperatures have been up, and some of our more scaly residents have started to emerge from their Winter brumation.

Here in the UK we have 6 species of reptile recognised as living in the wild today. The grass snake, smooth snake, adder, sand lizard, common lizard and slow-worm. Of these we currently house 3, but plans are underway to build new reptile pits around our nature reserve boardwalk to house all 6 species separately.

Other lizards, such as the wall lizard and green lizard, are found in some areas of the UK but are yet to be fully recognised.

The 1st of our reptiles to emerge this year were the adders, first seen on the 24th of February and since having been seen warming up in the little morning sun we have had over the last few days. We have been lucky in the last few years to see our adders "dance", and we hope they will continue to do so this year.

New Kestrel on Display

2011-03-05T12:03:00.000Z

Over the past couple of days we have had a little tidy up around our aviaries. Some of the old shelters have gone, and a new lower shelter for the Eagle Owls has been put up. The trees have been lopped to prevent dead branches from falling and breaking the pens, and the pheasants have been moved on.

As for our Kestrel aviary, we decided to put our new male kestrel out on display there. We will be calling him "Kes" of course. The original plan was to train him to fly, but I think he will fair much better out on display where we hope to find him a mate later in the year.

New Enclosure

2011-03-03T10:45:00.000Z

Those of you that have visited us so far this year will have noticed our new enclosure. Built where we used to have our red squirrels, we are hoping this new pen will be home to pine marten kitts.

Many of you will know we have our fingers crossed this year that Bonnie will produce a litter of kitts. If everything goes well the plan is for them to eventually live in this new enclosure. Being as large as it is will allow us to get in there with them and keep them friendly, allowing for some fantastic photographic opportunities as well as using them for film and schools. Of course, if Bonnie does not produce, then the pen has been thought out as an ideal photographic area to allow photographers access to some of the other animals we will have this year... badger cubs, fox cubs etc etc

In the mean time it may well be used for our wildcat kittens before they go to their new homes.

The pen still needs to be painted to allow the wire to "disappear" to the eye, and we are currently adding bark chip and setups to the enclosure. The final touch will be a grass meadow mix to give it some life and some nice flowers in which pathways will be created for photographers to use.

Barn Owls

2011-02-27T09:14:00.000Z

With the recent sad loss of Milo, we have had a slight re-shuffle with our Barn Owls. Now Twilight and Eclipse are housed in the Barn enclosure (they were originally in the aviary), and Alba has moved down to the aviary to join the remaining chick from last years clutch.

Now with our pair in the Barn, it means we have barn owls back on our camera. Hopefully more chicks will be hatched later this year and you will be able to see them develop on our camera in the coffee chop.

New Foxes Arrive at the BWC

2011-02-24T09:11:00.003Z

After the sad passing of Marley, late last year, we have kept our eyes open for a nice young friendly fox to pair up with Biscuit. The original idea was to hand rear a cub from this year, but then we were asked if we would like a tame fox called Josh from Riverside Animal Centre.

Josh is a 6 year old dog fox who is very friendly, and not only does he come from the same place that Biscuit did. But he has also lived with biscuit in the past. This seemed like fate, and so yesterday saw the arrival of Josh to the British Wildlife Centre.

Along with Josh came a very old female fox called Dog. She is also very tame, and the London Wildcare Trust didn't want her left on her own. Being over 10 years she may well not last too long, but I am sure whatever life she does have here will be a happy one. We have re-named her Vixen so as to avoid confusion with the many school groups we take round.

You can see from the photos above, Josh couldn't wait to get out and about and explore his new home. Below, Vixen was a little shyer at first but soon settled in.

Be sure to come and meet our new residents soon. They are very friendly and would love to meet you.

2011 Photographic Competition

2011-02-21T11:44:00.001Z

British Wildlife Centre, 2011 Photographic competition: Native & Natural

Today sees the launch of our new photographic competition. After last years success we have decided to run another competition this year, and have changed the format a little too.

Instead of three competitions throughout the year, we now only run the one over the course of our busy season. However this is now split into six different categories.

Animal Portraits

Animals in Motion

Animals and their Keepers

At home in their habitat

Artistic Interpretation

Junior

You may enter one, or all the above categories, but are limited to only two entries per category. Entries can be made email or at our flickr group in the relevant category http://www.flickr.com/groups/british-wildlife-centre

The winner and runners up of each category will be chosen by a judging panel made up by Centre owner, David Mills. Head Keeper and Centre photographer, Matt Binstead. And internationally renowned wildlife photographer, Andy Rouse.

The winners and runners up of each category will be displayed for the following year in our Wildlife Photography Gallery in the reception centre, with links to photographers websites if requested.

The winners of each category will win a complementary family ticket to the Centre.

The overall winner, chosen from the 6 category winners, will win the fantastic prize of a 1-on-1 with the UK's top possessional wildlife photographer, Andy Rouse, here at the British Wildlife Centre. A prize worth £500!

The competition is open now, and is restricted to photographs taken here during 2011.

Closing date is Friday the 18th of November, 2011. Photos will then be viewed and chosen over the Winter period before the winners being announced in early 2012.

Good luck to all who enter, lets make this competition as popular as last years!

For all the details of this competition please checkout out official website at www.britishwildlifecentre.co.uk

Andy Rouse, Widlife Photographer and competition judge

Last years winner, Nigel Picknell

Half-term Opening

2011-02-18T16:43:00.000Z

Just a reminder to you all that we are open to the general public for half-term next week, then from every weekend from March through till the end of October. Hope to see many of you here. And look out for the launch of our new photographic competition for 2011 on Monday!

Goodbye to Milo

2011-02-15T12:17:00.000Z

A couple of nights ago saw the passing of one of our eldest, and most well known animals. Milo the barn owl. Milo died over night in his enclosure due to old age. He was raised here at the Centre over ten years ago, and since then had become a firm favourite with visitors of all ages.

For many years Milo was on welcoming duty in the reception area until we decided to retire him earlier this year due to him getting on a little bit. Milo was always on hand to greet our school groups and visiting photographers, as well as making many trips out for educational talks to various groups of size and ages.

Milo was a real asset to the Centre and will be missed by staff and visitors alike, but always remembered.

Cats and Rabbits on the move.

2011-02-10T16:02:00.000Z

Continuing with our shuffling of animals, our wildcat kittens will be taken off display tomorrow and housed in an off-display enclosure until they are to be re-homed. The male will be going to another Centre later this year, and as some of you are already aware, the young female will be kept at the Centre and put back out on display with Dougal after Una has retired. It will not be long until the breeding season is under way, and we hope to have more kittens later this year to help the captive breeding programme.

Today we finished tidying up our rabbit enclosure. The outside area for the rabbits has had a bit of a spring clean, and now looks much better than before. A new batch of young rabbits, including a very friendly one called Sammy, are now its inhabitants. These will be soon be housed in only the warren and outside parts of their enclosure, thus allowing us to extend the hedgehogs into the current inside rabbit pen via a small bridge which will link the two pens.

Otter and Fox News

2011-02-08T10:47:00.000Z

We have had a little re-shuffle with our otters of late. We have decided to keep hold of our two otter cubs that were born here earlier this year, and have made room for them in the middle of our three otter ponds. Oscar has been removed from this pond temporarily as he is under the weather, he is currently housed off-display until he recovers. He will then return to pair up with Lilly in our main pond. Stirling is still where he normally is.

At the same time, we are trying to catch up our fox cubs. Frodo and Flo are showing interest in mating again, and so we need to re-home the cubs. It looks like the Isle of Wight Zoo is keen to have them, therefore we are currently trying to catch them up to move on before any new cubs emerge from the earth.

Our Pine Martens to Help Find Wild Pine Martens

2011-02-01T12:18:00.001Z

A couple of weeks ago I was asked if we could help in the surveying of wild pine martens in the UK, the request was for several pine marten scats to be sent to a Miss Louise Wilson at Wagtail UK Limited. Of course, we always try and help where we can, but it was not until I had contacted Louise a couple of times that I understood what the scats where to be used for.

Wagtail Limited is a company that trains and handles detection dogs. Although mainly still used by the police, immigration & customs and the Ministry of Defence the use of dogs as a surveying tool, locating scats of a particular species, is a new theory in the UK and Europe, but has proved very successful already over in the US.

Louise, with the help of Luna above, is hoping that by training Luna to sniff out pine marten scats she can not only help the surveying techniques for these elusive animals in the UK, but also bring and show how effective this relatively new technique in conservation is to Britain.

Vincent Wildlife Trust is showing a keen interest in the progression of Luna's training, and I an sure they will be working closely together in the future to try and establish a far more accurate status of pine martens in Great Britain today.

This all sounds very exciting, and we will be sending of scats from all our individual pine martens to aid with her efforts. To find out more about the work carried out by Wagtail UK have a look at their website linked here. And the new Conservation Dogs site here.

We of course wish Louise and Luna the best of luck with their training and future work in pine marten conservation.

Youngsters moving on for the New Year

2011-01-28T09:04:00.000Z

It's that time of year again when our animals are going to begin thinking about pairing up. Already I have seen some courtship chasing in our Red Squirrels, and you all know that we are very hopeful for Pine Marten kitts this year. Of course we hope to have more wildcat kittens, fox cubs and possible otter cubs too. Therefore we have to move on our litters from last year to have more room.

Our wildcat kittens, 1 male 1 female, will be moved off-site with in the next month. The young female has been given the name "Isla" and will be kept at the Centre. She will eventually pair up with Dougal when Una has sadly passed on. The male kitten has a home lined up by the studbook holder, and should leave the Centre during the Spring of this year.

The remaining otter cubs are strong and healthy, and again it seems we have 1 male and 1 female. The female cub will be held back and has been given the name "Emmy". She will eventually pair up with our elderly otter Oscar for his remaining months/years before finding a nice young mate for her. The male cub will be swapped with an otter sanctuary for a new female to pair up with Stirling.

Finally, our 4 fox cubs are to find a home on the Isle of Wight. Here the I.O.W zoo is looking to create a few British attractions. As well as taking on our cubs, they will also be collecting some of our harvest mice and have been having a close look at our walk-through red squirrel enclosure with the idea of imitating it on the island.

Winters Members Day

2011-01-24T10:00:00.000Z

Thank you to all our members who attended our Winters Members day this past weekend. The day proved to be very successful, and despite the very cold weather we had over 80 brave members turn out.

We started the day with a welcome talk by owner David Mills, highlighting our plans for the coming year. This was shortly followed by a Harvest Mouse talk down in the Dell followed by photographic opportunities. Once again this proved to be a very popular talk, and maybe we can look at featuring it more often.

As usual, regular feeding times were scheduled with keepers on hand to answer any questions, and then a Pine Marten talk told of our high hopes for 2011 and our new enclosure.

The day ended with a special owl display, extending our usual daily talk to show off all 7 of the owls found living in Britain today, including watching 7 owls fly!

Thanks again to all who came and made it as fun and enjoyable day for the staff as well as members. Look forward to seeing you all over the coming year, and of course we will have something special lined up for a members evening in the Summer.

Thank you

2010 Photographic Competition, Overall Winner!

2011-01-20T14:49:00.003Z

2010 Overall Winner

Scottish Wildcat - Nigel Picknell, philpickproductions.co.uk

"As Portraits go this is a classic. I really like the moody feel that Nigel has created by shooting in Low light and by using the dark background this draws all your attention to this beautiful Cat. The real draw for me though is how Nigel has decided on getting really close to his subject and by doing so, as a viewer you are attracted straight to those wonderful piecing eyes, Great Stuff." - Danny Green

Last years photographic competition was a huge success, seeing over a hundred entries per competition. It is therefore no surprise that the individual winners were hard to pick out. Therefore I called upon the services of the experts, asking a different professional wildlife photographer, to select the winner of each season. From these three winners, the keeping team chose their overall favourite. The Scottish Wildcat portrait taken by Nigel Picknell, winner of the Autumn/Winter competition. Nigel wins a free photographic day here at the British Wildlife Centre.

Below you can see the winners of the other 2 seasons.

Red Squirrel - Mark Coventry Roe Deer Fawn - Karen Jones

Chosen by Andy Rouse Chosen by Heather Angel

Spring 2010 Winner Summer 2010 Winner

A new competition for 2011 will be announced and launched here the first week of February 2011. Keep your eyes peeled for this exciting new format including a fantastic prize!

Autumn/Winter Photographic Competition Winner!

2011-01-20T12:11:00.000Z

Scottish Wildcat, taken by Nigel Picknell

Congratulations to Nigel Picknell for his winning photograph of a Scottish Wildcat. As always the competition was of a great standard, and our professorial wildlife photographer had a hard choice picking his favourite but eventually decided on the above.

For our Autumn/Winter competition I asked renowned wildlife photographer Danny Green to choose his favourite from the 12 shortlisted. This is what he said about this photograph taken by Nigel, and why he chose it as his winner.

"As Portraits go this is a classic. I really like the moody feel that Nigel has created by shooting in Low light and by using the dark background this draws all your attention to this beautiful Cat. The real draw for me though is how Nigel has decided on getting really close to his subject and by doing so, as a viewer you are attracted straight to those wonderful piecing eyes, Great Stuff." - Danny Green, dannygreenphotography.com

Congratulations again to Nigel. To see more of his work check out his website philpickproductions.co.uk

New Keeper Vacancy: Temporary/Full-time (maternity cover)

2011-01-18T11:21:00.000Z

All our congratulations go to Louise, one of our Senior Keepers, who early December last year gave birth to a baby boy, Archie. Mother and baby are well, and I am sure Dad and brother Harvey are helping out mum as much as they can.

This of course leaves a temporary gap in our keeping team, and so we are offering a temporary/full-time keeping position from March through till September as maternity cover whilst Louise is away.

If interested in joining our team this Spring/Summer then head over to our website and check out the details on our vacancy page.

Winters Members Day, Saturday 22nd January

2011-01-13T11:43:00.000Z

Just a reminder that this years "Winters Members Day" is on Saturday the 22nd of January. A week this Saturday. For more details have a look on our main website, linked in the sidebar on the right, and please let us know if you are planning on coming.

Last years members day was our first for this time of year, and was a huge success, following on form the ever popular members evenings we hold every Summer. This year plans to be just as good. I already have some ideas lined up for talks, and will have in place back up plans in case of poor weather.

It will be a great chance to see our animals at this time of year when you normally do not get the chance to visit. There will be regular feeding sessions and talks throughout the day as well as a chance to talk to the keepers about their work and the animals.

Hope to see all you regulars here, and many new faces too.

Round up continued...

2011-01-10T09:39:00.000Z

Another photograph taken on one of our photograph days, this time of a Hedgehog taken by "Cathy Roberts"

A photograph taken on one of our normal open days in the walkthrough red squirrel enclosure. This great capture was taken by "Peter Trimming" on flickr

Photographs from our raptor days seemed popular enteries this time, the above of a peeping tawny was taken by "Mbridger68" on flickr

And nice to see not all the enteries were of our furry friends. Many snakes were entered into this competition, the above being one of our favourites of an adder. Taken by "Felt_tip_felon" - Strike a pose. Seen on flickr

Thank you for all your fantastic enteries. The keepers have selected a finalists list of 12 photographs, a couple from the ones seen in these posts, and from these the overall winner will be selected by a professional photographer over the next couple of weeks. Then a years winner from the three competition winners will be selected to win the prize of a photographic day here at the Centre.

Look out for these posts soon, as well as news of our new photographic competition for 2011!

Autumn/Winter Photo Comp, round up

2011-01-10T09:31:00.002Z

Once again the competition exceeded expectations, and the number of enteries increased from our Summer comp early this year. The standard was high and here are just a few examples of some of the photos entered.

Above is a photo of Ethel's eye, withthe reflection of the woods and the photographer in it. Taken by "Artography" on flickr

Photograph of our little owl, Robin, peeping out from our stone wall on one of our raptor photo days. Taken by "The Otter King" seen on flickr

We really liked the photo above taken by "Claire Forster" - Let me tell you something. Showing the interaction between keeper and aniaml.

And a particular favourite of mine was this photo above taken by "Julie Redford" - What's he up to now. A great capture to have all of our otter family in one photo with mum, dad and two cubs looking on at the third one!

Photographic Competition

2011-01-06T09:22:00.000Z

Just a reminder to all you budding photographers out there, you only have till the end of tomorrow (midnight Friday the 7th of January, 2011) to enter our Autumn/Winter photographic competition.

I was expecting this competition to have fewer entries due to us being open to the public less often, however it seems to have had the most photographs submitted of all the competitions so far! As usual the standard is very good and I look forward to looking through them all with the other keepers.

The winner will be announced before the end of the month, along with details of our brand new 2011 British Wildlife Centre Photographic Competition.

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T09:53:00.000Z

The Keepers and all the other staff at the BWC would just like to wish you all a very happy new year and all the best for 2011. Thank you for all your support over the last year, it is always appreciated.

We are currently open to the general public for another 3 days (until the end of Monday 3rd January), and then start the new year with a busy week of photographers, school road trip and a birthday party.

2010 was a great year for us all here, and I think 2011 will shape up to continue this success. Lots of plans for the Centre are in the backs of our minds, some which we have already started on as many of you would have noticed visiting us over the last week. Most noticeably for this year we hope to really establish our breeding loan populations of Red Squirrels around the South. We already have 3 locations, and a further 4 who are interested in working with us this year. As well as this we would like to take our flying displays one step further and just fine tune them with our new arrivals, and.... well we can't give all our plans away but maybe there is a clue on this page for another of our big ventures!

Look forward to seeing many of you at the BWC throughout 2011. Don't forget... Members Day is coming up soon, on Saturday the 22nd of January 2011. And the closing date for the Winter Photographic competition is this coming Friday, the 7th of January, with news shortly after about our brand new photographic competition for 2011!

Best wishes to you all for 2011.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-15T10:32:00.000Z

All the Keepers and staff at the British Wildlife Centre would just like to wish all our regular blog readers a very Merry Christmas!

At this quiet time of the year we are still very busy, with essential maintenance work, building new enclosures and just the extra work and time it takes to look after all our animals on the colder winter days. With this in mind, and with the predicted extra snow we are supposed to be getting, the "Head Keeper's Blog" is going to take a brief 2 week break from posting updates.

Please remember, we are next open to the general public from Monday the 27th of December - Monday the 3rd of January. Although often a very cold week, it is always a fun week to visit the Centre and a great way to walk of the Christmas dinner or just escape the family gatherings for a day! The new keeper talk schedule for this week is listed under the "Keeper Talks" at the top of this page.

Thank you for all your support this year, and look forward to seeing many of you over the next open period.

The Blog will be next updated very early in the new year, so be sure to check it out to keep up-to-date with all news from the BWC!

More snow photos

2010-12-10T17:17:00.000Z

A slow week at the Centre while we are still just getting back to normal after the heavy snow fall. More snow predicted for a couple of weeks time too, they think it may be a white Christmas here...

Anyway, here are a few more photos of our animals in the snow to look at.