British Wildlife Centre

 

Visiting the British Wildlife Centre was one of my favourite days out on our recent staycation. I think it might have been my wish to go there in the first place and I charged my camera especially in the hopes of taking some good photos of the Red Squirrels they have there. We did see the Reds (but we just missed their feeding time - it's fairly early if you are wanting to see them yourself!) but they were too speedy for me to get any photos of them. 

In fact, aside from the foxes and deer, quite a lot of the animals we never actually saw as they were all tucked away in their enclosures. The only time we did see some of them was when they had a special feeding and talk slot, which they all know very well and come out to lie in wait for the keeper to come in with treats. 

The Pine Martens were very pretty. They look a bit like tall ferrets, don't you think? We only saw this little lady when she was being fed though but, apparently, they have five of them living there, all in different cages as they are solitary, but with tunnels running over each other so that they are aware of the other Pine Martens existence. 

There are several species of owl balefully staring back at anyone staring through their enclosure fencing. We watched them for a while as two of the owls in different pens were having a very slow discussion with each other, which went something like...

Owl 1: whoooo

Owl 2: ....whooooo

Owl 1: whoooo

Owl 2: ....whooooo

....and so on!

They're gorgeous birds though aren't they? The barn owls are especially lovely with their heart shaped faces and pale colouring. 

We were trying to spot water voles in the water vole enclosure, but actually all we saw were lots of frogs! Some were especially well disguised among the pond greenery so they were actually quite good fun to spot. 

It's strange seeing so many creatures, that we see fairly regularly, in a zoo type setting. Deer, frogs, foxes and rats are all very common in my neck of the woods and we hear owls all the time. The creatures I actually wanted to see (hedgehogs, weasels, voles etc) were all hiding away but it would have been nice to see them up close as, sadly, I mostly see them on the side of the road as terrible casualties, or occasionally brought in by the family cat in the case of mice or voles. We did see some badgers and bats but they were in such dark enclosures I couldn't take any photos of them. The badgers were all in a bundle together though - you could barely tell who was who!

 

Finley seemed to enjoy the day. He wasn't really that interested in the animals though to be fair, just liked being out and about among so many people. It's amazing to look back on these photos and see how much he has changed in four weeks. 

The above isn't any ordinary cat, it's a Scottish wildcat!! I think they have four or five at the centre and apparently, one in particular is so well settled into their enclosure, the keeper giving the talk on them has only seen them five times in five years of working there! Must be a very special yearly treat to catch a glimpse. 

I have seen Adders in the wild as well. We came across one on Ashdown Forest a couple of years ago and accidentally startled it whilst it was eating its tea (a mouse), causing it to regurgitate the mouse so that it could flee faster. It's tricky to explain to a snake that you aren't going to touch it. Or steal the mouse. I like to think that when we had gone far enough away the snake may have returned to finish eating. 

The centre is a fun place to visit if you are in the area - definitely try to see the animals at their feeding time though!