A Kent safari

Having Sam stay for a few days gave us a good excuse to visit Port Lympne Animal Park (zoo). I'm not impressed by all zoos but the two Aspinall Foundation Zoos in Kent are a pleasure to visit. The animals always look in good condition and the staff are helpful and seem full dedicated to their charges.

At Port Lympne the current stars are the Siberian Tigers. The tigress, Ingrid, above and her partner, Tugar have produced two beautiful cubs, that were born on June 27th.

They have just been named Zaria and Roza, although I have no idea which is which. Although they are only ten weeks old they are already beginning to show interest in some meat to supplement their milk diet.

Siberian Tigers are sadly endangered and it is estimated that less than 500 remain in the wild today. They are under threat from poaching and loss of prey species.

I've always liked the "back-lights" on the Tiger's ears, presumably they are used in the recognition and signalling language that they have.

The park has a large area of open space for animals to wander and although not quite the Serengeti it does allow the animals a wide area to range over. This Grant's Zebra looks quite at home of the Kent grassland.

Although the African Elephants are in their own enclosure the can been seen from the Safari vehicle that give a tour of the grounds.

Halfway round the safari route there is a stopping point where some of the smaller animals such as snakes and frogs can be seen. In addition there is a small group (three) of Pygmy Marmosets. This is one of the smallest primates in the word and it is the smallest Monkey. They are native to South America, in Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru and inhabit flooded forests and bamboo thickets. At the moment they are not listed by the ICUN.

Among the animals wandering in the park were a number of Defassa Waterbuck. This male seems to have had an accident with one of it's horns.

The largest of the Spiral Horned Antelopes, the Eland is a bovine like animal and it is farmed for it's meat in parts of Africa. The name Eland comes from the Dutch word for Moose, possibly due to it's moose-like face.

The Roan Antelope is one of the most handsome of the horse-like antelopes (Hippotraginae). It is tall and powerful, and the males have a fine set of horns to defend their herd of females for other males.

I'm not usually a fan of Zoo photography, but the young Tigers were irresistible. The Aspinall do good work for conservation and the animal parks will, hopefully, help to get the next generation to appreciate the treasures of the world some what better that their predecessors.

Tomorrow is another day

Today we went over to Walthamstow, to bring Sam over for a couple of days stay. As we left the northern end of Blackwall Tunnel my phone rang and Pam answered it. Jack was calling to tell me they'd just found a Wryneck in the Freedown.

I'd walked round the Freedown every day this week so it was a bit galling to know that on the day I didn't, a Wryneck had put in an appearance.

When we got back it was still not quite dusk and in the hope that the Wryneck had a late ant snack attack I decided to have a quick whizz round.

Needless to say I didn't see it, or for that matter any other bird out feeding. I did hear one of it's relatives, a Green Woodpecker, calling loudly from Farm Wood and a couple of Meadow Pipits flew over calling. A Chiffchaff had a half-hearted attempt at a song and a Robin gave a melancholy greeting as I walked by, but that was it.

As the sun sank lower in the Sky I decided that it wasn't going to happen today, and I hope that it will still be around tomorrow.

I walked past Bockhill Cottage and it was the first time in the ten years that I've been in the village that someone was in residence. I think it's great that an historic building is back in use and hope that it makes a good home for the new owners.

Scraping the barrel

Another very quiet morning at Bockhill. There was a Spotted Flycatcher in the Freedown and the "big field" did hold three Wheatears and a Whinchat, but although I scanned every clod I couldn't find the Dotterel that had been in my minds eye when I started out! It must be because I read about the Dotterel on Pendle Hill on Mike Watson's blog last night. I did bump into Gerald Bovis and his wife, it was good to meet someone who was just a name on a couple of comments on the blog until then.

High tide at Pegwell was around 5 p.m. tonight, and for some reason I though that a visit to Backsands Scrape might be worth while. Today was one of those days when the journey wasn't really worth it. The usual group of Redshanks (20+), Greenshanks (8) and one Spotted Redshank were in the far corner and a Snipe was probing on the edge opposite. One Greenshank dropped in briefly, right in front of the hide, but soon decided to join the others.

On the way back I popped into the Restharrow Scrape hide in the hope that there might be some activity there. A couple of Little Ringed Plovers were running round on one of the small islands and a Common Sandpiper bobbed up and down on the island in front of the hide. One Green Sandpiper made a noisy entrance and continued to announce it's island hopping movements with it's musical calls. Suddenly I was aware of movement at the edge of the reeds and a Water Rail came into view.

The evening light was now putting a warn glow on everything. The Water Rail was pretty much perpetual motion and slipped along between the reeds.

A one point it crossed a small open space but it quickly accelerated across it. The sun caught the front of the bird and reflected in it's eye.

When it got in front of the hide it sprinted along to the thicker reeds, to the left, which by now was directly into the setting sun. One Garganey was feeding with a small group of Teal along the right hand side of the pool. A pleasant end to the day.

Runner Bean Blues

A beautiful day, but with the clear night most of the migrants had cleared out. There were very few warblers around, but the walk to Hope Point was still worth while.

This Common Buzzard flew over me in the Paddock, but it was only when the corvids started their noisy pursuit that I became aware of it. AT this time of year one can hope for a nice Honey Buzzard, but although I tried this one remained a Common one.

I did come across a disappearing Wheatear. Now that the fields are being ploughed Wheatears are hard to see and the large clods make it even harder.

This one became easier to spot when it stretched it wings and showed it's "white-arse", an old country name name for the bird.

It seemed to do a lot of stretching, it might have been using the sunshine to encourage any parasites to the surface before preening.

I really like their rather proud and cocky stance, it has a form of defiance in the attitude.

The Holly Blue in the garden seems to be showing as much liking to our runner beans as I do. There surely is no better vegetable when fresh than a Runner. It's such a pity that the growing season is short and worse when the wind blows half of the flowers off!