look at what's there

Forgot my camera this week, which is really annoying because there were some beautiful soay lambs! Just a week or so old, with one only a couple of days, which Kate was worrying about. The mouflon are also due. The youngest lamb was absolutely tiny, really gorgeous. But apparently, Kate was saying, the soay did not seem to be that great at being maternal, so they had spent a lot of time looking after the lambs. The lambs will probably go to another nature centre as the enclosure is not big enough to support more sheep.

It was another lovely sunny day, on and off, and the centre was busy again. We seemed to do a lot this week, starting with giving the water and food to the rodents, and then doing the bedding for the giant rabbits. I started work with Ariane, then we moved on to join Amy, who had already done the guineas, as Kate called them. It seemed to involve a lot of sawdust this week, and whilst the smell is nice, it gets everywhere and goes up your nose.

We then moved on to the birds which are behind the rabbits. There are some beautiful parrots and some reeve's pheasants which are beautiful, but which were a bit over-inquisitive. Kate warned us that they would attack our feet, or try to mate with them, and that we could either ward them off with a bucket, or, as she did, just go round with them on our feet! One of them puffed himself out and Amy had to warn me a couple of times when he got close. Between us we topped up the food, water, and spot-cleaned, and I raked over the chippings to keep the floor tidy. The parrots flew overhead, squawking, and we all wished we had our cameras so that we could have taken a good shot. Amy sounds like she has always liked being with animals and said how she used to wish she was on the inside as a member of staff, instead of outside, looking in at them.
After we'd finished this, we went over to the rodent house, which is still being refurbished, although I noticed the kangaroo rat is already in. We were asked to tidy it up and give it a really good clean, as they were painting and Kate said she kept finding bits in the paint. It's quite sandy and dusty in there, from the new sand and sawdust and so on. So we tidied up, swept the floor, vacuumed the sand up, and then mopped it down so that it was as clean as possible. It is nice to be able to see that you have made a difference, although it is quite hot in the rodent house so none of us wanted to stay in there too long.

Our last task was to wash some stones for the rodent house. We all looked at each other, trying to figure out why we were washing them, suspecting that Kate had run out of things for us to do, and one member of the public asked me why we were washing stones. I said something about rodents needing things to be clean. I'm sure someone said that they were quite susceptible to things. It was fun though. We then finished up by cleaning the kitchen area and I gritted my teeth and washed up two trays that had evidently had "blended chicks" on... We were looking at the food preparation lists on the wall, how the predators get blended chicks...good protein, I imagine. Talking of food, Trigger was out basking in the sun, with Alex, this week and he was feeding the lovely iguana some dandelion flowers.

A few people this week asked for animals that weren't there, such as pigs (they used to be), tadpoles (?) and the aquarium (they must get that map updated). It occurred to me, that this shows you should live in the present ie look at what is there, not what is not.

An RSPB stall was there, with two men asking for signatures and promoting the cause. I said I'm already a member etc. One man was asking me about my work at the centre, and then saying it was not too late to make a change to work with animals/with the RSPB etc as he had only recently changed. So that was encouraging.