Brrrrr!

Well, what a change. A weekend of rain, gales and hail to beautiful blue skies, wall to wall sunshine and no wind; I know which I prefer!

Although the heavy rain did cause us to flood quite a bit no major damage has been done and no big trees were blown down so after a little cleaning up on Monday we're set to cut a hole in the fencing, build a bridge and continue clearing a copse by the marsh lake of dead wood.

Once the copse is clear and some drainage work has been done we intend to build a new otter pen here. Once it's built we can move some of the otters out of their older pens and refurbish them. We've decided to leave a tree for William and Tino to climb. That's right, climb! These two British Otters are both expert climbers and if you can't see them on the ground or in the water look up and they'll be looking down on you from a convenient limb.

The family continue to do well and the cubs look good, though one is still smaller than the other three. Zephyr looked a little off colour today, and they didn't eat all the supper last night-a very unusual event so we'll be keeping a close eye on them .

William and Hilda (a pair of British Otters) are at last playing, cavorting and sleeping together. They're obviously settling in well together and enjoying each other's company. One victim of this though has been the waterworks in their enclosure; William (the show off) has broken the waterfall, blocked the drains and is digging holes everywhere. Lets hope he doesn't cause too much damage.

The wallabies all look well and don't seem to mind us working by the Marsh Lake too much as long as they get the odd banana skin. We have seen the Muscovy and Shelducks beginning to pair off and practice their courtship dances, very elaborate for the mature birds and a bit clumsy for the younger ones, still, with practice they'll all make Tamar Come Dancing. Lets hope it stays dry for a couple of days.