A Walk on the Wild Side

To avoid writing a very long post this week I have decided to recount the week in two separate posts then you can just choose to read whichever is of interest to you.

On Monday we paid another visit to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park where they had opened another new enclosure. This had been built and populated with its new residents for some weeks but visitors were not able to view it as some time was given to allow the sea lions to settle in. There are six residents in total and they certainly have plenty of space to enjoy themselves.

Despite our regular visits, there are still some animals that we have yet to meet. The hyenas for instance never seem to venture out when we are about. 

Up until last week we had never managed to catch the little family of dik diks but on Monday we were in luck.

Although we have seen the howler monkeys before, they have been tucked up high in the tree canopy and impossible to photograph but last week they treated us to a good view. Apparently, a sad face means that they are content and a 'happy' face means they are anxious so the group seemed to be happy enough.

I still can't tell the new polar bears apart.

One thing that I especially like about YWP is that some areas are managed as habitats for indigenous wildlife. One area is a large wetland area where there was plenty to be seen as many of the water birds had chicks.

One pair of shelducks had ten ducklings to watch over.

There were at least two broods of greylag geese, one being further advanced than the other.

The coots had young to feed too.

The great crested grebes were a little behind in the breeding game. They were still engaged in the courtship ritual. We had hoped that they would treat us to their tippy toes dance but we had to be content with all the head bobbing.

As usual we had an afternoon at Nostell where I was happy to see that all four cygnets were now obviously growing into swans. Only mum was in attendance. The male bird was at the other end of the lake. He'd probably decided that the cygnets were now big enough to not need two guards.

Across the lake we spotted a solitary heron and a flock of mostly male mallards was basking in the sunshine.

The water lilies were beginning to flower. It will look lovely when there are more open blooms.

Some areas at Nostell are being allowed to grow into wild flower meadows. At present buttercups are the dominant species but we hope to spot different flowers during our regular visits.

During our walks in the parkland at Nostell we hear lots of pheasants and I had commented that we hadn't spotted any so just to satisfy me one popped his head up and had a good look at us. Ruby is always curious when she spots wildlife during her walks but fortunately she is content to stand and watch quietly rather than dashing forward barking as some dogs do. 

I'll describe our week at the allotment in the following post.

Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett