Week 10 - an auspicious day

Week 10 began with the rodents! yey, they must know me well by now. I was working with Toby, who I'd not met before - he said he'd been there 4 weeks but had always ended up doing things on his own. He seemed a sensible lad, doing his Duke of Edinburgh, and just GCSE age. Toby hadn't done the rodents before so it was new for me to be able to tell a volunteer what to do, instead of the other way round.

The rats didn't take long with two of us, so after that we did the squirrels (changing the food, water and spot-cleaning). I over-confidently said to Toby that the red squirrels were very shy and we'd be lucky if we saw one. Neil was doing the owls next door and they were flying about, in a fluster, so I think this disturbed the squirrels. Whilst we were both in the middle of the enclosure, one popped out of its nest box, and started scurrying, really quickly, and nimbly, all over the walls. It even stopped upside down on the ceiling. It was a really wonderful experience; although the squirrel isn't in the wild, it was still beautiful to see it so close at hand, and to watch it, motionless, as it ran about the enclosure. It has really tufty ears (I could not help thinking of Squirrel Nutkin) and a lovely bushy tail. Toby was equally as thrilled, and I, of course, had to take back everything I'd said.

We had a long break, and then I went to the rodent house. This has now been renamed "small mammals" as I think it has a larger variety of animals in there. I had to give each rodent enclosure fresh food and water. From the back, each area is accessible from 2 small hatches, which open in the back panel which the visitors can see. A couple of times I made someone jump, by an arm and face suddenly appearing out of nowhere - I've experienced this as a visitor too! I had to carefully locate the rodent, or small mammal, and then make sure it wasn't about to jump out of the hatch. Each animal had a different food mix, all cleverly stored in those plastic containers you can put cereal in, each with a cup with a different "fill" level, to show how much food you should put in. With the water, I discovered my bucket was leaking, which wasn't helpful! The little harvest mouse was up in one corner, looking across at me with its beady but adorable eyes! One animal, the gambian pouched rat, is not accessible unless you are a senior keeper, as it can be quite vicious. It was nice to see the four-toed hedgehog and tenrecs settled in, and Pippa the ground squirrel is in there too.

After I had finished up here, Sam came to check I was ok, and then it was lunch time. We had a nice long lunch in the sun. There was a steady stream of visitors, as ever.

In the afternoon, we helped Neil out by moving some items from one shed to another, and then we did various small tasks such as sweeping up some bark. It was quite an easy afternoon really so we were happy to enjoy the weather. I had heard earlier that morning on the radio that Hindus thought it was an auspicious day, and so I had a sneaking feeling it would be lucky for me too. Sure enough, as Ariane and I were heading back to the kitchen, what should we see but the elusive beaver, out in the sunshine, munching something. I have to admit, I was very excited. I could not believe it really existed. We even saw it again on the way back from somewhere.

The day ended by putting the animals away, it always seems a shame when people are still walking round looking at them. The woman and her son who were looking at the guinea pigs were amazed (as I was) that the guinea pigs all trot into their house at night, without much encouragement! She said her boy should take note and go to bed when he is told! There is always one grey guinea pig who tries to hide, and this time hid under the little ramp into the house!

Week 9

Ariane and I began by letting out the turkey and peacock (who displayed his tail quite beautifully), guinea pigs and rabbits. All 7 soay lambs were out in the field, looking delightful. We swept all around the guinea pig area, and then fetched a bucket and cleaned all the glass and the windows around the guinea pig enclosure. There are always sticky finger marks to wipe off! Then it was breakfast time for them all, and the guinea pigs started squeaking in unison - it was quite funny. I distributed cabbage leaves and carrots, and left them their dry food in their house - Kate explained the guineas have food with vit C because, like us, they cannot make their own vit C.

We had a nice break, sat in the sun, and everyone was quite chatty this week. Amy was tired but she was being quite amusing, and Alex was chatty too. I suppose now we are comfortable enough with each other to chat quite easily.

Our next task was the rodents. Ariane and I and fed, watered, and cleaned them out. One rat was determined to escape, and nearly made a successful attempt, so we left this one and I told Kate we'd not been able to do it, and she did not mind. I swept the floor and we took the rubbish sacks to the skip.

I had a look round at lunchtime and discovered that the mouflon have had their lambs! Two lovely caramel coloured lambs, who are already quite big. They stayed towards the back, as if they were shy of the public.

In the afternoon, we took some sacks of birdseed back to the rodent house, and then went round and filled up all the feeders. Following a successful ploy we had used earlier in the day, I distracted Sid the goose by standing in front of him, on the other side of the fence, whilst Ariane went round the back and nipped over the fence. She was then able to fill two feeders that hang in his enclosure. I signalled to her when it was safe to move! We felt quite smug to have tricked him. The alternative is upsetting him so he runs at you and attacks... 

Amy was all smiles because she had had the chance to feed a lemur. She and Alex had been working with Colin, a full time member of staff, who had returned to work after having an operation. He seemed glad to be back, and was very friendly and chatty, asking about where I worked and saying he had been there 25 years. It sounds like there is a bit of politics that comes from the council (who run the centre), so not much different from the university really... We were all in the kitchen, chatting, and I was cleaning out a particularly gungy bird feeder. Alex had to get 2 frozen rabbits out of the freezer and was trying to fit them into the box but one rabbit's ears were too long! It was the first time we've been allowed near meat or food, so perhaps Colin has the authority to let us do a few different things.

Still no sign of the beaver: one man asked me where the lynx were, as he'd been five times and never seen them. This is the same for me and the beaver. I think he was too early - the lynx were all out by the afternoon. 

Lastly we went to the soay sheep to replace their bedding; Colin said he wanted to keep it nice and fresh for the lambs. We shovelled up the straw and muck and hay, and replaced it with fresh straw and new hay for eating. When I returned with the hay, Amy and Ariane were away at the skips. The ram came to investigate, and went for me - I put the bag of hay between me and him and he butted that instead. Thank god I had it! He did this again, when, luckily, Amy and Ariane returned, so I had back-up.

Once we had finished we headed back for more duties, but Kate had already put the animals away, so we were free to go a bit earlier.

I was told about some mentions of the new animals at the NC on Twitter, so I followed this up and contacted the tweeter - happily there seems to be a lot of devoted nature centre fans, who have been really positive about the blog and suggested ways of getting involved. I am hoping to post a video clip they have of the otters, and also find out more about setting up a Flickr account for the Nature Centre! The NC goes Web 2.0!

Week 8

Can it be week 8 already (even if I missed one?)! As usual, I really enjoyed the day, although for once it was not sunny but cold. I leapt at the chance to do the rodents again, as it is usually warm in there. Pippa was not in her cage, and I discovered that the rodent house is now open again after its refurbishment! I went along and had a look in the lunch hour, and it looks great. There were lots of creatures I did not recognise, and no spare places, so I asked Kate where all the rodents would go. She explained that they had too many, so some would be off to other places. I said I'd grown quite fond of them! After providing the various mice and rats with clean water and fresh food and bedding, I swept up the sawdust, and took Pippa's cage outside to wash it down. After this, I went into the veterinary room, also nicely warm, and cleaned out 5 units there, two of which I believe had had snakes in and smelt fairly bad... One poorly snake was sitting quietly in its vivarium.

After lunch, Amy and I were given the exciting opportunity of going in the "preds" or predators' area. This involved carefully unlocking and locking one door, before opening another, with Kate's words ringing in our ears about not wanting to let an ocelot loose on the public... In fact, we were just working along the corridor, which runs at the back of all the enclosures opposite the cafe. We had to clean up and replenish food and water for the red squirrels, then clean their window and the sides of their enclosure (metal). This involved ducking beneath some carefully positioned branches in the centre of the enclosure. There are 4 squirrels, and we saw them briefly when we were first there, but they are shy creatures and they soon hid in their boxes for the rest of our stay. Hence no photos of them.... Here is a baby wallaby instead.

Once this was done, we had more cleaning to do in the back of the rodent house. I found out the parrot is called Oscar; he is looking better. Amy stayed to cut some lettuce up for Adam's reptiles, and I did some sweeping and tidying in the back of the rodent house. I mentioned to Kate how nice it was that they were all so grateful and offered praise so regularly. She seemed surprised that not everyone experiences this at work, and I wonder if Les has encouraged them all to be so positive.

Once again, there was no sign of the beavers. But the coatis were quite active, and I enjoyed watching them running up and down. The red pandas may have been popular, but I think their replacements will be just as appreciated.

This time, I was pleased to be able to take some photos of the soay lambs - they have all survived. I was also amused to hear the lemurs making a right racket from across the way. No baby lemur as yet for the ring-tailed family...