Peregrines in the city!

A flash of yellow caught my eye this morning as I saw a peregrine falcon up close and swoop by! Wow!

We are lucky enough to have a pair of peregrines on the clock tower at the University and as I was looking out from an office window on the first floor, a magnificent peregrine swooped low past the window - its bright feet made me look twice and I saw its beautiful striped body (bluey grey and white) and hooked beak. What an amazing bird! 

It then went and sat on the 12 storey Muirhead Tower, no doubt using its incredible vision to look for pigeons in this cold weather... It then swooped back past the window a couple of times. It was wonderful to see this beautiful and large falcon so clearly and so close by! My manager was with me and it provided an enjoyable excuse to talk about birds instead of work.

Falcons such as these are now nesting in cities on tall buildings and you can see them now on the BT Tower in Birmingham and at the Tate Modern in London - the RSPB runs a date with nature so you can observe these birds through telescopes.

Find out more at the RSPB website where you can see a picture of the bird and hear its cry, which I often hear from my office as it flies round the clock tower.

Nothing beats an unexpected encounter with nature like this, and I've been happy all day as a result! 

Birds friendly schools!

Although I am no longer working at the Nature Centre, I have taken on a new volunteering role with the RSPB. I will be a volunteer for the Birds Friendly Schools project in the West Midlands. This project is to tell schoolchildren all about garden birds - what they are called, what they look like, and how to help by feeding them. It involves three visits to a primary school, and works with one class of children who are between 7 and 11.

The first visit is to the school teacher, to explain how the project works and how the second and third visits will go. During the first visit, you give the teacher a nest box and a bird feeder, and some seed, so that the class can begin to start feeding the birds over winter. My first visit should be taking place over the next couple of weeks.

The second visit is in January, by which time you hope that some birds have been coming regularly to the feeder, which will be hanging somewhere in the school grounds so that the kids can see birds coming to it. The nest box should also have been put up, and birds may use it for roosting (sleeping overnight). Did you know that wrens like to roost together and you can get many wrens sleeping in one box! 

During the second visit the children do the Big Schools Birdwatch - similar to the Big Garden Birdwatch which has been going 30 years. You count the birds coming to your playground or garden for one hour, and these results help the RSPB see the population of birds nationwide; which are increasing or dropping in number. The results vary according to your local environment.

The results of your survey and the national survey form the basis of your third visit and so you can explain to the children how different birds live in different areas, and how they have different features (beaks, legs etc) according to what they eat, where they live etc.

I have attended training by the RSPB and I am very impressed by the quality and amount of resources given to me to give to the school and to use on my visits, to help make it interesting and exciting for the children. I was feeling nervous about it, but I am confident that I know a lot about the birds we are focussing on (six main ones) - and other garden birds. I have been feeding the birds in my garden, which is important in this snowy weather.  I am sure I can be enthusiastic, as I love birds, and I hope I can inspire at least one child to enjoy them too.

I am currently trying to contact the teacher at the school (in Smethwick) and arrange a time to visit. I will keep you posted with how each stage of it goes!

Time to say goodbye

It is with sadness that I report I have decided to end my volunteering at the Nature Centre. After six months I felt I have experienced a good range of tasks, and had reached a point where I was ready to move on to other things.
I really enjoyed my experience there, particularly knowing that the people I worked with were of like minds. It makes such a difference to be able to share your views and passions with people and not feel like you have to explain yourself. In the last couple of weeks, I met Sian, who is doing the Animalcare course, and who was completely on the same wavelength. She was vegetarian and against all animal cruelty, and I hope that she enjoys her experience at the Centre and gets lots out of it.

There are many volunteers now on a Sunday! I will miss the staff, as they are a great team and work very hard to look after the animals. I saw that there were lots of events on over half term, such as meet the reptiles, and design some toys for the animal enclosures. If you can get along to the Centre over winter, it is open at weekends from 10-3, and you can follow them on Twitter and Facebook. Just search for Birmingham Nature Centre. The staff are always working to enrich the animals' lives, and to make it an interesting and informative day out for the public.

Volunteering has taught me many things, including how to think logically and work methodically, and to show common sense when you are working with (the public and) animals. Luckily I never managed to lose a rodent or let the ocelot escape.
I have been privileged to work there and experience close up encounters with the lemurs, squirrels and coatis - all favourites. Not to mention my little mara, and the fast-growing rheas! I am sure I will go along in future and see how they all are.

So ... if you fancy it, why not think about becoming a volunteer in my place! Not because the government want you to, but because you want to. I recommend it.

news of new arrivals!

Wow, I'd been away 3 weeks and everything has moved round! The first thing I saw was that the goats are now where the sheep lived; the sheep are in the wallabies' old pen, and the wallabies are where the goats were.
The guinea pigs have moved into the grassy rabbit pen, and the lovely Mara has moved in with the rabbits. I think he/she is still getting used to them. I didn't realise, but the Mara squeaks just like a guinea pig! I think it is my new favourite...
We have some new arrivals! 8 rhea chicks are now where the guinea pigs used to be. They are of various sizes but will all grow to be 5 foot tall. From South America, the rhea americana eats fruit, seeds, small insects. It is a flightless bird, like an emu or ostrich, and has no tail feathers, and 3 toes on each foot. I had the enjoyable task of cleaning out their bedding, replacing the sawdust, and then spot-cleaning the enclosure. The rheas can run really fast and they were very amusing. One would pick up a stick and run really fast to the other end of the pen. Then another one would chase after it and grab the stick off it. Then I was cleaning outside the pen, sweeping the whole area, and cleaning the glass. When I was taking the soap suds off with the squeegee, the rheas were really interested, and were standing behind the glass looking at me, following the squeegee along with their heads!

In addition to that, I checked the hoofed mammals' water and replenished their hay, with Charlotte and Rosie. It is a shame, but hay and straw really do make me sneeze. In the afternoon Cath, Kate and I did the squirrels enclosure, (food, water, cleaning) and all four squirrels were darting around. They really are very appealing and such a nice colour.
We also did the pheasant and parrot enclosure - food, water and spot-cleaning. Kate was on pheasant duty with a broom, as they can attack you if you're not looking. Cath had an enviable spot next to the parrot dish - some beautiful coloured parrots were flying very close to her and picking the nuts out, to crunch. They also have a mixture of fresh fruit, seed etc.
Cath and I spot-cleaned the tortoise enclosure (they didn't seem to mind), and swept round the monkeys and the mammal house (the monkeys were very interested. I had aching shoulders the next day: you can tell I am getting some exercise).
There are 2 baby meerkats! It is nice to see the animals breeding as it means they must be happy with their environment. The baby meerkats are tiny and have little squashed faces. There was also a new sugar glider waiting to have a companion to live with; it had been donated by one of the public.

Big Excitement!
Cath and I were going to put the rabbits and mara to bed, and it was just about 5pm, so everyone had left. We were walking past the beaver, saying it was hardly ever out, when lo and behold, I realised that the beaver was in the corner of the enclosure, near us! He/she is quite a large mammal, like a small dog, with an  appealing face, and sleek brown fur. The tail is large and thick and dark, and you could see a scaly pattern on it. We were very excited. The beaver turned round, ambled over to the water, and dived in. It then had a leisurely swim up and down, and looked quite content. It was really lovely to see it swimming, and we realised it must prefer to be out of the public eye. It shares the enclosure with a ne ne (hawaiian goose), many of which you can see at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetland trust.

I was very pleased to be back, and although there seemed to be lots of volunteers this weekend, it was still very nice to see some familiar faces (human and animal).
Photos to follow.

monkey magic

1st August - after a happy chat to Colin about the delights of camper vans, he said I could accompany him on the monkey round. We started at the new tamarins house, and Colin explained that he had to check the temperature daily; it is kept in the twenties. He emptied a bowl of water over the leaves to keep the air humid. I had to keep next to him, to make sure the monkeys were not disturbed by an extra person being in there. There were four monkeys, one behind us up on the ledge above the window, which is his favourite place.

The next stop was the Goeldi's which are two parents and two babies: apparently baby Goeldis are hard to breed in captivity, so Colin was very pleased that these had survived. He seemed particularly fond of them. I had to stick by him again, and I gave the monkeys a bit of banana. The female also enjoys the special gum that is part of their diet.
It was very nice to go in to see them, as I have not done this before. Colin asked me to clean out their indoor quarters; they were shut in the outside enclosure while I did this, and as soon as I'd finished I was to tell Colin, so that he could open their hatch again. The monkeys would not survive if they were left out in the cold at night. To clean their enclosure, I had to scoop up their sawdust from the floor and any shelf area, and then wipe down all the walls with a mild disinfectant. It was quite warm in there, so with the door shut for safety, I was quite hot by the end of it.
I went along to the small mammals house to help Rosie and Joe, two new volunteers. We were giving the rodents a spot clean, then swept and vacuumed the floor, as sawdust goes everywhere. The afternoon was quite easy, with all three of us weeding the ecology garden. It did not need much weeding but was nice and easy, and Rosie, Joe and I had a nice chat about what it is like being a volunteer. Joe was there all week on work experience.
The day ended with us putting the animals away - I delegated to Rosie and Joe, and then we attempted to put Sid away but he was hissing as usual and we did not have any protection. On crying to Colin that it was too hard, he laughed at us and said, put him away! take a broom, so with a broom in hand, Joe did a great job of steering the hissing bird towards his shed. It was quite a result.


8th August - it was a really hot, muggy day, so luckily I was not asked to do anything too physical. I started in the small mammal house: Kate apologised that it was boring, but the rodents need doing, and I am quite used to them. I made the effort this time to work a bit faster, but it still took all morning. There are a lot of rodents. I did an almost full clean of the off-shows, and talked a bit more to the rats, for stimulation. I also became brave and stroked one, and it did not mind at all.  The lemmings are funny: they can be nestling quietly in a corner and when I reach in to disturb their sub-strate (bedding), they all rush to the front, and try to escape. I had to make sure the main door is shut while I do this, in case any leap out. One mouse nearly tricked me by leaping on top of another mouse's back and making a bid for freedom.  The baby rats had grown and were now like mini adults; very sweet.

I also cleared out the off-show degus, the chinchillas and the tenrecs (who bite, but were fast asleep). I did the on-show waters. Pippa, the ground squirrel, had been gnawing at her hatch and pushing the bedding out each day, so Kate had moved her off-show and explained that she was hoping to get a larger enclosure, with a friend or two for Pippa. We are both fond of her: she is very appealing.
In the afternoon I filled the bird feeders with bird seed, and learnt of Colin's new plans for a "walk through" section in the new Mouse Lemurs section. (They were hiding so well during the week that they had to be looked for). It sounds good. He explained that he did most of the maintenance at the Centre, and I have seen the staff creating fencing, sawing, hammering etc, as well as taking care of the animals. 
I topped up the soay sheep water (managing not to let the ram see, and avoiding being butted) and then it was time to put the animals away. I met Kate coming away from Sid's pen, and kindly she'd done him for me... Perhaps spending so much time with the rodents has its advantages :-)

Moth count and Bat Walk!

Moth Count

On Saturday, various groups in the West Midlands had got together to organise a Moth Count and a Bat Walk round Cannon Hill Park and the surrounding area. There was a magnificent turnout of about 50 people, including lots of ultra keen children, who were really excited by seeing the moths and bats.

It was an all-night event, although you could leave when you wanted, and unfortunately this time I was not able to stay late, but I am looking forward to hearing about future events.

A national expert on moths, Dave Grundy, began by talking to us about moths and butterflies and passing round moths to look at. There were some enormous ones (an old (dead) death's head hawk moth) and a tiny one, no bigger than a pinhead! There were moths that looked like twig ends and bits of bark. In the Victorian era, people pinned out all the butterflies and moths they found; now we trap and study them and release them back into the wild again. Many moths were named by well-off Victorians, who named them after things around them. Hence you have moths with names such as footman, carpet moth, tapestry, and pistol-case bearer moths.

Dave traps moths every Friday night in his back garden, or further afield, and studies them. He talked about the perceived differences between moths and butterflies: that people like butterflies because they are pretty, but don't like moths because they are brown and boring and come out at night. But apparently some butterflies are out at night and some moths are out during the day. Not all butterflies are bright, but some moths are colourful. Moths hide away in trees, bushes, and so on during the day to avoid predators (birds, bats etc). People think moths eat their clothes, but with the increased use of synthetic fibres, this is increasingly unlikely, and any moths you do find in your house might be quite rare. He encouraged us not to keep sheds ultra clean and tidy, and then we might find some moths living there.

Moths and butterflies are lepidoptera - the tera part meaning they have wings. The wings have scales on them. There are thousands of species of moths in the UK and around 60 species of butterfly. Basically, Dave tried to make us see that moths and butterflies are the same: there was no one characteristic that you could use to distinguish something as a moth and another as a butterfly.

Moth trapping and counting can give us a good idea of what species there are, and how many there are of them. Dave was going to set up the moth traps and then return to them later in the evening: he was going to be there literally all night. You too can study the moths in your own garden, and the more rural area you live in, the more you are likely to see. Moth traps have a light which attracts the moths; they fly in and then you can have a look at them, before releasing them again. You can also attract moths by leaving your bathroom light on and the window open and they will fly in.  I asked Dave why moths are attracted to the light - he said, surprisingly, that scientists are not sure about the answer to this question. It could be something to do with moths navigating by using the moon!

To find out more about moths visit www.opalwestmidlands.org or http://ukmoths.org.uk
Garden moths scheme: http://gms.staffs-ecology.org.uk/

Big Butterfly Count http://bigbutterflycount.org/

Click here to see the results of the moth count!   193 sighted!

(oce)lots of work

This week was very busy; I started by letting out the rabbits, guinea pigs, turkey and peacock, and I replenishing their water and food, taking back the old food bowls and washing them up. The guinea pigs are so funny when they get their food: they start squeaking as soon as you arrive with the carrots and other veg. Imagine 18 guinea pigs squeaking, it is a lovely welcome. I slopped half the bucket of water down me, as usual, and had to get half way inside the rabbit hutch to get the food bowl out.

I then did the water for all the small mammals - "on shows and off shows" - there were some desert hamster babies: tiny pink things. The sugar glider was in the corner again and looked up at me with wide eyes! There are some tiny new rainforest frogs off show: beautiful colours - one is bright, bright green.

The rest of the day was cleaning up: spot cleaning (ie scooping up poop) in the sheep, goats and wallabies, - this time with new volunteer, Holly, who was really nice, and is doing the volunteering off her own bat, which is impressive. We got on well and it was nice to have company again as I was beginning to miss Ariane. We ended the day by cleaning all the windows round the "pred" block; which gave us a nice chance to look at the lemurs, the red squirrels, and the ocelot, who was curious enough to follow us round and come right close to the glass. She really is beautiful.

One thing I observed at lunchtime: there are notices (although rather small) that ask the public not to feed the animals. This is because the animals get the food that they require, and feeding them random things might not be good for them. But in spite of this, a whole gaggle of kids and parents were busy feeding leaves to the soays, which seemed happy enough to eat them all up. What I thought was a bit much was how some of the dads were pulling whole branches off trees and dividing them up... Well if the sheep are ill it was half their own fault for being greedy...!

Sheep comparison

There are 5 types of sheep at the Nature Centre - I bet you never realised that!

My favourite (if I had to choose) are the Mouflon - probably because the two Mouflon lambs are just beautiful with their caramel coloured coats. They are a rare species, and originally came from the islands of Corsica, Sardina and Cypress, where they live in mountainous/rocky areas.  The male mouflon at the Centre has a good pair of horns and has been separated from his two females and the two lambs as he can be quite defensive and start butting both them and people. He went for Alex once and apparently the visitors cheered the ram on!

Soay
The Soay are a larger group, with dark brown wool. The male also has horns and can run at you if it is defending the lambs. There are 7 or 8 lambs, and I was told that the sheep weren't so great at keeping them clean and the staff have to make sure that their wool is not matted or messy. Originally they come from the isle of Soay. Its ancestry is thought to go back earlier than other sheep. Soay means Island of Sheep in Norse.

Icelandic and Jacob sheep
There are 2 icelandic and one jacob sheep who are in the first enclosure when you arrive. They have thick wool and the jacob sheep has spots. They have recently been sheared and look tremendously different without their fleeces!

Cameroon
Two cameroon sheep (both males) live near the entrance. They are a beautiful browny tan colour; one has horns and the other does not. Their bleat is very distinctive, quite low and loud. They are, of course, from Africa. They are a bit more goat-like in appearance, with short fleeces and long faces.

Coati Monday

The title is a pun on coatimundi, the full name for coatis. Today I learnt that there are loads of them at the Iguacu waterfalls on the border of Brazil / Argentina.  They have become tame, and run up to everybody  and try to get into your bags and pockets to get food! I think ours would take your finger off if you tried to get too close.

Tomorrow at the Nature Centre there is an inspection by a group that will allow the NC to join in further participation in breeding programmes etc. So yesterday, instead of staff trying to find tasks for us to do, they were lining them up. While I was doing a task for Neil, Kate came along to borrow me, and when I had just started Kate's task, Colin had one ready for me. So it was all go.  Ariane seems to have finished, which is a shame because we did not have chance to say goodbye. :-( (It's more fun having another volunteer to work with, so get volunteering!.)

I started off filling up various water troughs - first the mouflon (the lambs are growing up and look gorgeous with their caramel coloured wool), then the wallabies. I gave this trough a good scrub inside and out with a scourer. Thankfully there are various taps and hoses round the centre, so I do not have to walk far with buckets of water. When I do carry water around I invariably slop half of it down my leg, and over the ground.  The cameroon sheep also got a clean trough of water.

After that, it was over to the small mammals house (formerly rodent house), where I was given the extensive task of a full clean of the "off shows", ie the rodents behind the scenes. This involved emptying each tank of sawdust, water bowl, etc and dipping it in a bucket of soapy water, then drying it off. There are about 24 tanks of mice, including some empty ones, and then another lot of rats, and the mad lemmings (forever jumping up and nibbling their bars). It took me ages. It involved transferring the rodents into a fresh tank, before cleaning their tank. This took some doing, as some of them were not keen to go into the holding tube, to be moved into the new tank. They are so fast and tiny, the priority is not to lose any. I felt quite bad disturbing the sleeping dormice, but they are absolutely beautiful, with short tufty tails.  It was far harder to move the rats - they did not want to be picked up, and they did not want to move, and who am I to argue. One lot had babies - tiny blind pink things.

Once this mammoth task was over, I had to do the water in the "on-shows"- those in the tanks viewed by the public. Pippa, my favourite ground squirrel, was full of life and came up to the hatch to try to nip me (thanks, Pip!) There are 4 beautiful tiny harvest mice, who scurried away when I reached in for the water. And when I opened the hatch of the bizarrely named "sugar glider", its furry face and big eyes were right next to me! (pic: wikipedia)  Apparently they eat sweet sap and, like "flying" squirrels, glide through the air!

I was pleased to see the new arrivals on show: two large African Spurred Tortoises, and the mouse lemurs - so called because they are tiny! They are also nocturnal. Come and visit them!

I ended the day on a high: after putting the rabbits, peacock, turkey and delightful guinea pigs to bed, I braved Sid the goose (with a broom for safety). Sid must be getting used to me, as he walked obediently to his house. Little did I realise the door was shut, so he waddled off, and we had to have a second go, but in he went! No hissing, no attacks... I was very pleased :-)

Sacred Ibis

In the previous post, I was asked in the comments why the ibis are sacred. I had never questioned it, but it is really interesting to find out the answer, and to read more about these graceful birds.

"This species is now extinct in Egypt where it was venerated in ancient times. The ancient Egyptians believed that their god Thoth sometimes came to earth in the form of a Sacred Ibis. Thoth, a scribe of the gods, was the inventor of writing and measurer of time who symbolized wisdom and knowledge. This ibis is depicted in many murals and mummified specimens are common in burial places; over 1.5 million birds were found in one group of tombs."


This is from the Oakland Zoo website (California) http://www.oaklandzoo.org/ which has many interesting pages on its own animals.

Another blog reader sent me a link to information about mummified ibises, which you can see at the British Museum website, with a fascinating photo. And here is an image of Thoth, taken from Wikipedia.

Predator Round

I have meant to update before now but have not been for a fortnight, and for the last couple of visits I have done many of the usual things: rodents, sheep, etc. Alex has finished and I think Ariane can't have long left either.

Today's visit though was thoroughly worthwhile and very enjoyable. Due to mad-sounding staff issues, courtesy of the Council, it sounds like not all of the staff may be able to stay on. So, presumably as a caution, Colin let me go on the "predator round" with Sam today, so that I have experience of that.  Firstly I cut up and weighed out a selection of fruit for the lemurs, that would be a nice fruit salad for me and you.
It is done to a strict order, and there is a sheet which you can follow to ensure that everything is done. First of all we went to the sacred ibis, and I swept out their water pool and gave them their food. Sam saw to the lynx, as volunteers are not allowed in with them. Then on to the otters - there are 5 of them and they were squeaking as soon as they saw us coming. There are various tasks to perform in each enclosure: replacing water and food bowls with new ones; replacing bedding or spot-cleaning the enclosure for droppings and litter; cleaning the windows. As I was cleaning the windows, I felt something nudge my ankle. Looking round, I found four otters lined up behind me, curious as anything, and one started biting my trainer. Sam said to shoo them away but they kept coming back!
We also fed the coatis. These 3 south american animals are very appealing and made tiny squeaky noises. They too were inquisitive and ran round looking at me, as I looked for droppings. I'd scattered their food around the enclosure, and they were busy running round finding bits to crunch.
There is a whole block of "preds" so you can go from one enclosure to another, within the safety of a secure corridor. Sam did the ocelot, a female, and then I cleaned the windows in the wildcat enclosure, barn owls, and ring-tailed lemurs. We gave the lemurs bits of banana - they are a family of 3 and they came right over. They have very bright orange eyes, grey fur and dark stripy tails and were making a sort of gulping noise.
After the lemurs, the meerkats. They are much smaller than I think, and, like the otters, were curious enough to come up behind me while I tried to clean the windows, and nip at my shoes! I could hear people on the other side of the glass making remarks about the meerkat on the advert...
More than one person today joked to their child that I was a human in an enclosure, as it seemed like that to them from their side of the glass. Sam said it stopped being funny quite quickly. I thought that people were more interested in watching me clean the windows than looking at the animals...
After sweeping the predator corridor, the next part of the round is the bald-headed ibis. These too make an interesting noise. Two tragopan (tragg-o-pan) share their enclosure: the male is brightly coloured, while the female is darker (the usual in the bird world).  I removed droppings, and also feathers. It was tempting to keep one: they look dark but have a beautiful green sheen.

In the afternoon, I would have happily helped out again but Neil asked if I could do the wallabies. I topped up various animals' water (it's been a hot weekend) and then cleared out the (smelly) wallabies. I saw something moving in the straw! I realised it would not be anything scary, and moved the straw to one side to see. It was a big shiny black beetle - presumably a dung beetle! I left it to get on.

I do not understand the council for the proposed methods of cutting costs; the staff are all very dedicated and knowledgeable and work hard. I realised that I could not keep my own field of animals (which was once my dream) without having many staff and/or volunteers. Plus I have discovered that working with straw makes my eczema itch and my lungs feel like I can't breathe. So that's a pain! But finding out more about the predators this morning and getting close to them was really interesting and I feel privileged to be allowed in with them. But of course, anyone who volunteers can also have this opportunity.

Week 12

I discovered that both Ariane and Alex were not coming in - I think they both have exams - so this left just me, as Amy has now moved to Wednesday.  I spent the day helping Kate, so it was back to the newly done "small mammals" house, to help out there. I was to give them all clean water, make the substrate (bedding/flooring) look nice, and clean the inside and outside glass of the tanks on display.  The behind-the-scenes rodents have now all moved across from the schoolroom to the small mammals, and this is much better than the temporary place they had before. The smaller mice had new homes. After I had realised I had a leaky bucket of water, and taken it back, I soon replenished the water and moved on to the animals on  display.

It proved much harder than I thought to clean the glass inside the tanks- each has a hatch that you can open at the back, but it was not easy to reach across with the squeegee to the front - sometimes bits of twig got in the way, and other times I was worried about letting the rodent jump out and escape. There is the added fun of the public watching you, and most times I felt I had made the glass worse than before I started.

The funniest thing was when I got to the tenrecs- the madagascan hedgehogs. There are several of them, and I  was confident they were not going to escape, as they were sitting quietly, so I opened the hatch, reached across, and cleaned the glass easily. I withdrew my hand, and began to close the hatch door. Only when it started to swing shut, I realised with horror, that it had a small shelf on the inside, and on that shelf there was a tenrec! I had swung it out over the floor, cleaned the glass and swung it back in before realising! The poor thing. This really gave me a funny turn, and I had to be really careful with the rest of them. Even lovely Pippa, the ground squirrel, looked keen to escape, so I had to give her glass a miss.

On the outside, it was much easier to clean, and I could see where I needed to go back and clean the inside...I saw the Gambian pouched rat - we are not allowed to open this rat's hatch, as it is half blind and might bite. It was quite big, and looked like it could barely see.

At lunchtime, I had a look at the coatis - they really are fast becoming a favourite of mine. They are so appealing and were quite active, so I watched them running around and up and down the trees.

In the afternoon, I was cleaning the glass in the invertebrate house. I have not been in here as a volunteer, and I was a bit freaked out by the size of the salmon pink tarantula.(Apparently, she can be a bit grumpy!) I told myself not to be daft, as it was behind glass, and was not going to "get me!" so I cleaned the glass (there are also cockroaches, a smaller tarantula, giant snails, and more!) I had to clean it very gently so as not to disturb the creatures, or dislodge the tank.

I also had to do the squirrel enclosure, where luckily half of it is sheltered, as it absolutely bucketed down!

The new tortoises and lemurs have not arrived yet.

Week 11

Week 11 was baking hot and Colin had the good sense to say we could wrap the top of our overalls round our waist; I spent the entire day cleaning out stables and enclosures.
First of all, Toby and I cleared out the pygmy goats' bedding - they are quite calm and let you get on with it, while they go and eat grass. I found that their straw had loads of bits in it, and the whole thing made me sneeze for ages. After we'd finished, we found Neil, to ask for a new task, and I mentioned that I thought I had a straw allergy. Not ideal when you're volunteering there, but perhaps there is a face mask for next time.
After our break, I was expecting Toby to come back and join me in the sheep paddock - the usual thing of clearing up the poop with a couple of short handled shovels. Not a bad job, but it gets so hot in the sun that I was tempted to join the sheep in the shady corner. Toby never appeared, and I learned later that he only does 2 hours in the morning - surely it is hardly worth coming  in for, but that is not to say that he doesn't work hard when he is there.
A baby blue tit had fallen out of its nest or tree, and was on the ground by the sheep pen. A visitor asked me about what to do with it, and I realised that as a worker, the public expects you to know what to do with all animals. I thought that you are supposed to leave baby birds  alone, so that their parent can come back to them. When humans touch them, I believe it can put them off. Anyway, I later saw a man lift it up and throw it back into the tree, which seemed to work, so what do I know.
More stables followed, with Ariane and I cleaning out the mouflon hut - luckily the ram is next door, and we got to see the 2 lambs, who are growing fast and a gorgeous caramel colour.
Later that day, we went to investigate what Alex was doing with Colin and the others. They were preparing a small hut near the ibis, for the promised new arrivals of giant tortoises and mouse lemurs. Apparently the latter are nocturnal, so it is debatable how much of them the public will see...

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...

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.

Week 6

Sadly no Nature Centre this weekend just gone, as I was cough cough coughing and it would not have done to cough all over the animals, staff and visitors. Plus I needed to rest.
So I missed my animals, of course, and look forward to catching up with them next week.
Meanwhile, some information on the tamarind monkeys. 

"You've got a lovely job!"

Several people said this to me this week, when I was in the first enclosure, and they had just come in. I was busy scooping sheep poop, so I know what they meant. But in fact, yes, I do have a lovely job! I am now looking forward to Sundays, which come around quite quickly. I may have been scooping, but it's not such an offensive job, and the sheep were a bit closer this time.  I responded in various ways to the public, but always with a smile and a positive answer.

MOTs done here
I think I'm quite slow at some things, however, and worry that I'm taking too long. Mind you, they always have to think up a task for us, so maybe nothing needs rushing. I was using 2 shovels this time, which was a better scooping technique (I'm learning), but by the end of the morning both hands were absolutely aching. Either I was holding the shovels funny, or it was just building up my muscles. Either way, I thought I would not be able to scoop much longer. The sun was out as well and I felt a bit funny by mid-morning. A cup of tea and a twix really helped. Back to scooping, and I watched a steady stream of visitors entering, all carrying boxes. In them were tortoises of various sizes. The Centre was holding a Tortoise MOT day, where a tortoise expert checked over people's pets and gave them advice. I saw a few tortoises of varying sizes peaking out of the boxes. I had no idea there were that many tortoises around - as I understand you can no longer buy them.

After doing the sheep, it was on to the sitatunga again. This week the male mouflon was in the field that you have to go through to get to the sitatunga. I waited a while because he was watching me and I did not want to be charged! I decided to go for it and made it quite safely into the other field. The male sitatunga seemed to be getting braver, and came a little closer to me than before. I found it harder to scoop in the sitatunga pen, as there is a lot of mud on the side, so I could not scoop up half a ton of mud as well. I hope it was ok.
It was a busy day again at the centre, especially with the tortoises, and while I was on lunch, someone asked me if I enjoyed working there.

People kept asking (ok, two people asked), where the aquarium was - but the fish have actually been replaced by the new tamarind centre. I had started the day by cleaning the tamarind glass - I'm not that great at cleaning glass yet, but years of watching the window cleaners from the bus stop, doing Bearwood High Street, should have given me some clues.


Afternoon
In the afternoon I did a small bit of fence painting, with Amy and Ariane. This involved braving the goose pen to get to the shed to get the paint. Luckily Sid was busy hissing at the public, so I ran in, and ran out again with the paint. The girls had done most of it and had got paint on their faces, not sure how! When we'd finished, we went round to the rodent house, which is nearly finished, and Les thought of some new jobs for us.

Sam asked if I could water the plants in the sacred Ibis enclosure - she advised me that they get spooked easily which they did - there are 6 of them (I counted 7 so I was a bit worried one had escaped!) and they were flying over my head, flapping. I gave the plants some water and made sure I locked up after them. There was minor excitement when a police helicopter flew over and landed in the park. Not sure what was happening.

We ended the day by putting the peacock, turkey, rabbit and guinea pigs away. We also bravely went over to put Sid away - he clearly did not think it was bed time - it did feel early, as the sun was out again. Ariane took two sticks, and I found one too, and we guided him into the shed. He kicked up an awful noise when we shut the door. We left the guinea pigs until last, because there had been lots of people there looking at them. They are so funny how they trot in to their house, but one or two tried to hide under the houses!

When geese attack

As the weeks progress I am learning various lessons, which makes a really refreshing change. It is great to be learning new things, not only about the animals, but about what I can do and about how to do things. I am quickly realising that animals have different animal natures.
Take, for instance, the dog, the night before. Something was bothering him, and in my naive belief that a kind word and a pat can make everything okay, he must have felt threatened, and hung on to my arm with his teeth. So I could be forgiven for thinking, the next day, that all animals were being affected by something. Perhaps the scent of spring in the air? I was on rodent duty again, which I was not unpleased about, as it meant I knew what to do and could work through without having to ask lots of questions. I thought I would try to be more methodical this time, and change the water and give them their food (unappetising looking nuggets) at the same time as changing their bedding. Although I decided to call it "flooring" as they use it in the daytime too... It must have been my presence disturbing them, but at one point all the rodents seemed to be scurrying about, squeaking, biting the bars and generally being frantic. Hence I thought that the animals could sense something that I could not... But this was fanciful and the real reason, I am sure, is because I was upsetting their peace and quiet.
It seemed to take me ages to do all the cages, but there were a few extra to last week, including some hairless rats, some baby rats, two chinchillas and some degus. However, no one comes to say, why are you taking so long, so perhaps I worry for no reason. Sawdust goes everywhere, so I am getting quite good at sweeping. I am becoming quite fond of Pippa, the gopher, who is the largest of the rodents there.

My next task was to fill the bird feeders, of which there are quite a few around the site. As it was Easter Sunday, the centre was busy, and so I was asked various questions, as I walked around filling the feeders with seed and nuts. Luckily I already have a good knowledge of where animals are, so I can direct people; and having watched wildlife programmes over the years, I have picked up enough knowledge to answer basic questions. One man asked why the cranes did not fly away. I hazarded a guess that their wings are clipped. The red pandas have now moved to Wales and in their place were some coatis, so I was pleased to be able to advise a visitor what they were. One woman asked me what some flowers were; unfortunately I had no idea. As a member of the public, you expect staff to know everything, or at least to be able to find it out.  I really like seeing the public enjoying the nature centre.

What I like about the work is that it is of a totally different nature to my day job at the university. I enjoy figuring out practical problems, and it must use a different part of my brain, as I can feel that this part has been under-used recently! It took me a while to figure out how to get a bird feeder back on to its bracket (it was a simple case of removing the top first, or it would not fit back on, but it took me a while to work out). One member of the public insisted on helping me, but I had to encourage him to continue looking round, as it would not be appropriate for a member of the public to be doing my job.


Visitors were excited to see me with two buckets, walking in a meaningful manner, as they thought I was off to feed some animals. I had to explain that I was feeding the birds. I reached one group of feeders that was in the goose's enclosure, when a little boy and his family asked what I was doing. "We'll stay and watch!" they said, just as I was having second thoughts about entering the pen with the goose. After they said that, I felt obliged somehow, to please them, and foolishly ventured forth. I'd heard things about Sid, the goose - how he was vicious and defensive, but then I had naively said to Ariane, "oh all geese are like that!" However, no sooner had I opened the gate, Sid rushed at me, wings puffed out, and before I could think twice, he bit at my leg with his beak, then went again for the other leg! It felt vicious and sharp, and I had visions of gaping wounds...(no damage done, surprisingly!) Backing off as quickly as I could, I wasn't fast enough to shut the gate and Sid came out into the outer grass pen. I went out and shut the gate, realising that I would have to call for help to get him back into his area. The little boy was clearly entertained by all this, although his family were concerned for me, and I explained he should keep away from the goose so he didn't get pecked.  Val at reception called for assistance, and as Kate was coming to help, I saw that Sid had made his own way back, so I hastily shut the gate on him. She apologised for him and said that he hates some people but doesn't mind others. She is one of the lucky ones. Back at home, it dawned on me that he must be called Sid because he is vicious...

To make up for the goose attack, the day ended nicely. Alex was the other volunteer on, and he is quite calm and pleasant. He said that he'd been attacked by one of the mouflon sheep one day and that a crowd had cheered it on! Talking of crowds, the sun had been out and a crowd had gathered to watch the lemurs, who were sunbathing in the most comical positions, one of them stretched out as if doing a star jump.

Sam is a full time worker, who is in charge of feeding the animals. She let me go in with her to the ring-tailed lemurs enclosure. Here is a family of three, with a baby lemur due any time soon. To my delight, Sam let me feed each lemur a piece of banana - they eat a predominantly fruit diet. I held out a piece of banana, and the male lemur reached forward from his branch and took it from me. The female did the same. It was an absolute privilege to be this close to such beautiful creatures. I got chatting to Sam and she said she had done the animal care course, with her placement here, and then got a job (although still on a temporary contract). She thought that experience counted for a lot, rather than doing degrees in zoology or something. It was useful to hear her experience. She said she worked 9-5 and that everyone in the centre got on well, which is something I had picked up, I think. It is a nice atmosphere and everyone is pleasant to the volunteers. They do seem busy.

To finish the day, we went to the rodent house, which is still being refurbished. Les, the manager, was busy getting things ready and asked me to clean some plastic panels that would be re-used in the displays. Alex had already been cleaning them so he advised me how to remove the old coating and wipe them with white spirit. He is very helpful like that. I didn't mind doing this, as it feels like anything you do there is contributing towards keeping the centre going. Unfortunately there was only time to do one panel before it was home time, and Alex and I went to put the guinea pigs, rabbits, peacock and turkey away for the night. Sensible Alex took a broom to shut Sid the goose away, but luckily Kate had already put Sid into his shed!

Week 3 - rodents

I really enjoyed my third day at the Nature Centre. There was only me and another girl, Ariane, so we did our tasks together. She was very nice and clearly a bright girl; and we got on well throughout the day.


Rodent care

We met Kate, who is one of the full time staff: she gave us our first task of the day which was to look after the rodents. The rodents are in temporary accommodation, as the rodent house is being refurbished. So they are currently in cages such as you would keep your hamster in. Kate said that this wasn't ideal but they would be back in their normal house next week. There were 27 cages in all, and we had to change the water and half-change the bedding in each one. Kate explained that scent is very important to rodents, so that changing half the bedding leaves them with their scent on the other half.

There are lots of procedures to follow to avoid contamination and so on. We have a red bucket to put contaminated water in and a yellow bucket for fresh water. Ariane and I gave them fresh water together. The rodents range from fancy rats through to tiny mice (harvest mice) and some rodents not from Britain, including a gopher (Pippa) who is on a diet.  Unfortunately I could not tell what they all were, as their temporary homes did not include labels. Once they are back in their house, I will walk round and see who is who.

Ariane then went to clean out the guinea pigs and rabbits. I carried on with the rodents. I had to lift down each cage, take out half the bedding and replenish it with new bedding. Being new, I have been asking lots of questions, and had thought that Kate had pointed to a bag of new bedding near the door. However, on getting some of this out, I could see that it was not the soft stuff that they had already, so I had to double check, as I did not want to do it wrong. I was right: there was some soft bedding in another bag nearby. 

It was a good task for learning to work methodically; I had to concentrate so that I did every cage in turn, and so that I worked logically to make sure that the old bedding did not contaminate the new bedding. I counted the number of rodents in each cage, so that I could be confident that I was leaving the same amount of rodents in the cage after I'd finished! Some were docile and moved out of the way of my hand. Others were more lively and I had to take care that none leapt out of the cage (or up my sleeve!), which is not unknown. The further up the line of cages I went, the more lively they seemed to become! The ones at the end (spotted mice) were very lively; biting the bars and trying to get out as soon as I opened the cage. I had to encourage them up to the other end, but when they looked too keen to escape, I popped one into a holding container.  Most of them were huddled in little nests at one end; Kate had told me to check for injuries or fatalities, as mice in these conditions could be quite "brutal" - but luckily I did not see any. I took care not to throw any of the rodents away with the bedding, but when I did pick one up it was obvious as it wriggled!  It took me all morning to do the cages, with only one nip, and I really hope none escaped; I don't think they did. I was not able to take a decent photo of the rodents, as I did not want to startle them with the flash.

Behind the scenes
After lunch, we went behind the scenes in the rodent house (a different world!) and had to soap down a parrot's cage for a parrot who was returning. There was a parrot next to it, who was poorly, and had some feather loss. He was very interested in what was going on; he was very sweet; parrots are very intelligent. The mice at the end went mad when Ariane was vacuuming - so did the monkeys whose enclosure backed on to the rodent house. There was a moment of reality when Kate found a dead baby mouse who the mice had rejected - she removed it and put it in a bag. I was looking at the mouse when I realised it was still breathing. However, when Kate returned, she explained it would not be possible to resuscitate it and put it back in with them again. We finished off in here by starting on cleaning the rodents' usual homes, including cleaning the glass, and trying not to leave smears!


End of the day

Ariane and I finished the day by rounding up the guinea pigs, which was lovely - I thought it would be a case of catching all 20 of them, but they all trotted obediently to their hutch! We also put the turkey, peacock and rabbits away. Sid the goose, known for being like goose are, ie defensive, was already in his shed.

I really enjoyed the day - I saw the iguana again, and also behind the scenes in the vet area. There were some tenrecs - a type of hedgehog from Madagascar. I didn't even know they existed.  It feels really nice to work there; the people are friendly and Kate was quite talkative about the animals, which was great. We are working until 5 now, as the centre is open for the summer season. 

Week 2 - do you work here?

I was lucky that my second Sunday was another dry and sunny day. This week I found the same nicely-fitting overalls as last week, but was a bit perturbed to find someone else's (clean) tissues in the pocket, and some of those plastic gloves that make your hands sweat.

Mucking out

The day started by sharing mucking out duties with young volunteers Alex and Jake. Both are in college and have been volunteering a few months, so they were dab hands at mucking out. First we got spades and black bags and headed for the wallabies. There are 4 wallabies, one has a baby; they seemed quite docile and unperturbed by our presence. I was quite struck by how pleasant their hut was: a concrete floor, wooden sides, lots of straw, food and a salt lick. Mucking out involves moving all the used bedding and droppings into the centre of the hut floor, and then spading it into black bags. I soon realised that it wasn't as easy as it looked, but luckily, Jake and Alex were experts. They got lots of straw on their spades, and into the bag. When I tried it, I found it hard work to even get the spade in the heap of straw, and then I found that all the straw fell off my spade, so I ended up with a tiny girly amount of straw to put in the bag. At that rate, it would have taken a long time to clear the hut, so I am glad Jake and Alex were more efficient. We took turns in holding the bag and using the spades. I suppose I must give myself time to learn new skills!  Once all the bedding has been bagged up, we have to fetch new straw from a hut, and spread it out across the floor. That was quite fun, making the wallabies' new bed, but I sneezed a lot when bits of straw filled the air... Alex fetched a trolley and the lads took the black bags back to the skip. 

More muck

Our next task was to muck out the sitatunga; their hut was quite smelly. I was trying to joke and chat to the lads, but I think they're a bit shy, or prefer to concentrate on the job in hand... Everyone is nice enough but I suppose teenage lads aren't known as the chattiest of people.

Boisterous ram

After a break, we were asked to muck out the mouflon sheep. I saw one of the rangers raising his eyebrows, and I'd already heard rumours about this sheep... Sure enough, as soon as we started on the hut, the ram took an unwelcome interest in our activity. The exact opposite of the sitatunga, instead of running away in fright, the ram ran towards us. Luckily Jake and I were in the hut, shovelling straw, but Alex got charged by the ram a couple of times - he fended him off, but I think the ram must have knocked him. The ram started tearing the black bags with his hooves. But he was mostly interested in eating the fresh hay and straw that was waiting to go in the hut. Realising we had to look after our own safety as well as complete the job, we decided to inform Neil, the ranger on reception, who had no problems about coming back with us and watching the ram until we had finished. He knows the ram can be quite boisterous, and said that one of the ewes is pregnant. Neil said we'd done a good job and held the ram back by the horns until we'd all got outside the gate. It is nice to receive praise from the staff; it's very encouraging.

Raking

We waited a bit before our next activity, as the rangers were in a meeting. The other volunteers seemed happy to sit about after our lunch hour as well, but - call me keen - I was eager to get on with another job. I thought,  I can sit around any day of the week. I'm there to learn and do things. From this week the Nature Centre opens every day; so the manager, Les, wanted the place looking tidy. I quite enjoyed raking the leaves up (even though there are leaves everywhere once you start looking!) as it is really satisfying to see a visible difference when you have completed a task. I am enjoying that part of it already. I don't really get the same kind of satisfaction at work in the week.

Moonlighting

Whilst I was queuing for chips in the café, I bumped into one of the students I work with. She did a double take once she saw I was wearing overalls, and said "Do you work here!?" Another woman asked me this as well, so that she could report something:

"There's a meerkat in with the lemurs!" 

I did my best to be professional; I went over to check and sure enough, there was a meerkat in with the lemurs. I said I'd report it immediately and so I went to reception, knocked on the staff door, and popped my head round. The manager thought I was very polite. They knew about the meerkat already so he told me to go back and tell the woman that they would come and sort it out. I'm glad he told me that, as I perhaps would not have thought to return to her to update her on the situation. She was still there; a crowd had gathered (it was a very busy day), and she was glad to be updated.
Someone else asked me if there was any food available - I started directing him confidently to the café, but it turned out he meant food to feed the animals. That isn't something which is available there.

Iguana watch

After a little more leaf-raking, Adam came along and said he needed "two people to dig a hole" and "one person to iguana watch."  I thought the two lads might be better at digging the hole, and he could see I fancied iguana watch, so I followed him with anticipation to find out just what this entailed... Adam brought out "Trigger", a rhinocerous iguana, from behind the scenes (not on display to the public). He was a fine looking iguana, with a body a foot long, and a tail of equal length. Trigger was placed on a strip of grass about 2 foot wide which runs in front of the ocelot enclosure. In front of this are metal railings, so you cannot get up close to the enclosure. Trigger was being given some fresh air and sunlight on this patch of grass, and Adam needed me to watch him to make sure he did not go under the railings and escape. I was excited at having this responsibility, and glad to be trusted with it on just my second day. 

Adam went off to help the manager; I was left with Trigger. Pretty soon a crowd of people had gathered at the railings and were asking all about him, intrigued and excited to see the iguana out and about. The kids thought it was a dinosaur or a crocodile, but lots of them knew that he is a big lizard. I enjoyed talking to the public, telling them that it was a rhinocerous iguana, and that he was 10 years old. Carefully repeating what Adam had said about how his previous owner had brought him here, I pointed out how some of the skin on his back had got burnt by the UV lamps, but Adam had treated it with cream and it got better. They asked about what iguanas eat; luckily I was able to hazard my best guess, later confirmed by Adam, that it is mostly vegetation and small insects. Sometimes small mice.  Iguanas can live to 30-40 years - 10 more than I imagined. There is some information on iguanas here.

I was with the iguana for about 30 mins and there was lots of interest from people in that time. One of them thought that Trigger wasn't real because he was as still as a statue at one point! He was enjoying eating the daisies. He kept moving along the grass, and although he was ambling, I think he could go faster if he wanted to... He did get close to the railings a couple of times, and so, as shown, I had to lift him gently and turn him in another direction, by putting my hands under his body. His tummy was soft and lovely; he was quite a solid creature; I enjoyed lifting him. I'm not sure he enjoyed it, as his back legs scrabbled each time and his toes scratched my arm. He has a very long back toe on both back feet.

Adam popped back and asked me to guide the iguana back near the door as he'd come and put it back shortly. I somehow managed to coax Trigger back towards the end of the grass. Whilst I was waiting, a woman was telling me in a heated manner about a man who'd had an argument with her, but I had to focus on the iguana and so I directed her to reception. 

Adam returned to collect Trigger. He was appreciative and he kindly answered all my questions on Trigger, who was put back into his heated house.

I really enjoyed iguana-watching and the next day all I could think about was the iguana; he made a real impact on me, watching him close-to and actually being privileged enough to touch him. It feels nice that although the bulk of any job with animals will be mucking out, I am already being given the chance to see different animals and to be trusted with their care.

My first day

I was unnecessarily nervous before going along, but there was no need to be. I just wanted to make a good impression and to make the most of the day.

First job
There were lots of rules to read and remember, which I will need to recap on. I started off by raking straw in the sheep enclosure, with a volunteer called Sam. The three sheep were quite docile - 2 from Iceland, one from the Shetlands or somewhere. They eyed us warily (one had horns, so I kept an eye on it, whilst raking!) Sam said they wouldn't approach us. He was doing his Duke of Edinburgh volunteering and seemed to enjoy the exercise and being with the animals. He was very kind and showed me where everything was and told me how to do things.

Raking was fine, although it was one of those jobs where you know the straw will be back over the field the next day! But it felt nice to be making it look clean and cared for, for both the sheep and the public. And it is always satisfying to be able to see that you have completed a task well.

The sheep are by the entrance, so we could see lots of people coming in, for Mothers Day. The sun came out and I got quite warm in my specially provided overalls, which I really liked - all-in-one dark green - they made me feel the part.

Scooping
Once we had raked and bagged up the straw (before the wind blew it everywhere), Adam, our supervisor, said "good job", which was great (because you don't always get praise at work!) - and then asked us to scoop up the sheep poop in both halves of their pen. We did this with little shovels - a spade with a very short handle. It was quite an inoffensive job to do, and it was nice to be out in the fresh air hearing the public enjoying the animals.

An hour for lunch, which was great, because we needed time to wash our hands, take overalls on and off, and eat. I had a little look round at the other animals - lemurs were out, otters were busy and there is a new tamarind monkey section. They are tiny.

Afternoon

After lunch, Sam had gone home, so I was on poop-scooping duty with the beautiful sitatunga. I was very excited to go in with them, as they are my favourite. They are supposed to be inquisitive, and the male one did come over to look at me - but he didn't get closer than 12 feet and they are all so nervy, they ran away when I went closer. By this stage I was getting too warm, so I must remember not to wear so many layers next week - it's not easy to strip off when you have the overalls on top of everything.

One member of the public asked me where the meerkats were - I suddenly realised how a uniform/overalls makes you officially look the part and that people were expecting me to look and act like a true member of staff. Thankfully my many trips to the place meant I could tell her straight away how to get to the meerkats, and not look like a bumbling idiot. It felt great to be able to help her. I think I felt at ease doing the smiley staff bit, from having done this at university events so often.

Once I'd done the sitatunga, and struggled with the padlock - aware I could not let the animals escape on my first day! - I went to find Adam to ask him to check the enclosure was shut properly. He was in with the snakes, behind the scenes, with a volunteer called Alex. Whilst Adam went to check the sitatunga, Alex showed me the corn snakes. They were very pretty, but I am not sure how much I like snakes. Their movement is a bit weird. Alex was moving corn snakes from a kind of holding area to separate plastic boxes, and he explained that he had to feed them separately or that they would fight. He put in a dead mouse for one, and it leapt forward to eat it. I wasn't too freaked out by the dead mouse; it just looked dead.

Adam had asked me what animals I would prefer to work with, which was great, because I didn't realise I would have any choice. I explained I would probably prefer not to have a look at the spiders, but that I would be happy to learn about all the other creatures. I might even look at the spiders if I am feeling brave. After all, I want to learn as much as I can about as many animals as I can whilst I am there, and they do have a wide range.

Afterwards
At 4pm it was home time and as I walked through the nature centre, I realised everyone had left - I had not noticed them leaving at all! It was a really good first day and at one point I had just realised it "felt right" and that it was lovely to be in the air, with the animals nearby, and with people who cared about them. I felt tired aftewards, and in the days following, my shovel arm has been sore - but I'm hoping that with regular exercise, I will toughen up and not notice! Sunday is nearly here again already...!