Cinnamon and Leap

Its over three months now since Cinnamon and Leap were released and although we haven't actually seen them on our regular visits to the site we have seen many signs of their presence. Today the kids and I decided to have a good leg stretch near to the release area. It was a nice but breezy day; as we watched the surface of the river we could easily see hundreds of fry, probably salmon and trout babies, in large schools in the shallow water. They were moving from algae covered stone to algae covered stone grazing as they went. In slightly deeper water we came across less numerous parr, (older salmon and trout babies from last year but I can't tell them apart unless they're in my hand and lie still!). There would be an occasional splash as they jumped out of the water for flies. When I was last here two weeks ago there were loads of large brown trout but we didn't see any of them today.

It can be hard looking for otter signs at this time of year due to high vegetation that obscures your view and hard ground makes it difficult to find footprints.

At about midday we found our first ottery sign of the day; it was a couch, a flattened area of reeds in the open air where an otter has rested. And the best news, it was still wet!

That's when we went into indian mode, moving as quietly as we could we moved to the river bank and lay down on a bend in the river about six feet above the surface of the water. We settled down and waited. I find that you have to let nature settle down for a few minutes before you can really expect to see much. That amount of time usually equates to Frances' boredom threshold...

Thank goodness we didn't have to wait too long, after 15 minutes or so we saw a long brown furry animal slink into the water about 100 yards to our left, a beautiful otter, in a bit of a lazy mood by the looks of things. He (or she, it was too far to say with confidence) paddled diagonally across the river towards us in a very languid relaxed sort of way. Head out of the water most of the time but with a dip every now and then to see what was going on below the surface. No haste, no rush, just a well fed killer out for a paddle.

Then one of those peculiar moments when you're watching animals in the wild when it gets so close to you and then its gone! We couldn't decide where! We waited for ages (Frances "can we go now"- and it was her who had spotted our otter first) and eventually moved on.

An hour or so later Rhys and I saw an interesting bit of movement in the water about 300 yards from our first sighting, we were both sure it was the same otter and only 15 or so yards away! But reeds, wind and lots of tall thorny vegetation contrived to prevent us from seeing it clearly. Very frustrating I've got to say; we can't say that it was an otter but what else would it have been?

Anyway, all in all it was quite a rewarding afternoon and we went home very happy.

Later that evening Mandy came home from work and asked to the kids, "What have you two been up to today?" Frances answer?

"We went to Tesco and bought you a new ink cartridge and we both got top ups for our mobile phones, nothing else really...."

May already?

Well, whether we were ready to or not we are now open and animals and staff seem to have settled back into things nicely. Everything is starting to look much greener now after the long winter months; the daffodils are disappearing but all of the bluebells are coming out in the woods and the iris’ are getting closer to flowering in the Marsh Lake.

It’s also that time of year when we are starting to get lots of little babies. Our incubator is full of eggs at the moment, mainly guinea fowl (as they are such poor mums) they will leave their eggs all over the park for us to collect and look after. A couple of their eggs are currently hatching and we already have three Chinese Fawn goslings and some other chicks in the shed. They are all just a few weeks old and when they get a bit bigger can be released into the park with the rest of the waterfowl and poultry. Out in the park one of our chickens has four chicks, which she has managed to look after very well and is very protective of them should anyone try and get too close! We also have two moorhen chicks on the marsh lake which follow their mum around closely and look very cute and tiny! We are also waiting for some babies as one of our Barnacle Geese is currently sat on a nest along with our Little Owls - very exciting! It’s also not just our birds that are expecting babies, we had a count up of our Fallow Deer the other day and think that at least six of the does are looking heavily pregnant and the fawns should start arriving anytime after the first of June.

Cinnamon and Leap still seem to be doing well. We still haven’t seen them ourselves but have seen an abundance of fish and other potential prey in the area so that may explain why they seem to be hanging around.

Dasher along with the other deer has moulted out his winter coat and is now growing his hair back on his shaved area and is starting to look very handsome indeed! He is also enjoying all of the extra attention he gets from visitors and staff and if he feels he is lacking in it, he will make a point of coming to find people and sniff inquisitively at their hands in the hope of finding a monkey nut or a grape.

Our Fallow Deer bucks are just starting to lose their antlers ready to grow back a new pair. Unfortunately this irritates them a little bit and they seem to be more destructive than usual, as they like to rub their antlers on just about anything. We have allowed them to roam around the main part of the park alongside the otter pens to enjoy the sweet taste of fresh grass and plants and hope this takes their mind off their itching heads a little.

The otters are all doing well and seem to enjoy all of the extra attention they get when we are open - particularly Tor, Biggy and Smally. Tor and Libby no longer live with Biggy and Smally as we decided our new British Otter - Troy might like some company, so Biggy and Smally are back to being just the two of them and Tor, Libby and Troy all live together. Troy has gone from being very shy to extremely confident and will come up to us and take fish from our hands, whilst it’s nice he’s so relaxed around us, he can be a bit unnerving, especially as he likes to make sure that he won’t be forgotten and doesn’t seem to hesitate in giving somebody a nip to remind us that he’s there! Tor is also a bit of a handful, he is still very cute, suckling his ‘octi’ to get himself off to sleep and will bounce around the pen after you more like a Labrador than an otter, but he has developed a habit of trying to play with your shoes and clothing in his mouth and gently tugging on them. Although he is very gentle, it is still a bit of a worry! Libby is also a lot more confident now than she used to be, she will also be hand fed and doesn’t seem to worry about sitting outside and eating her lunch in front of visitors although she is still not as relaxed as the other two and is still very vocal. All three of them seem to get on very well together and are extremely playful, using their slide and playing with a ball and hard boiled eggs!

Biggy and Smally are on a bit of a diet, which they don’t seem to appreciate very much, but they are still just as cute as ever and plans are underway for them to go to the Royal Cornwall Show again next month.

Our Scottish Wildcats are also settling in nicely. Initially they were very shy and weren’t too sure about coming out in front of us let alone any visitors that we might have, but now that we have been open a couple of months they seem to be a bit more relaxed and enjoy making the most of our sunny weather - yes, believe it or not we have had some sunshine - and they will set up on their shelves around their pen sunbathing. We think it unlikely that we will have any kittens from them now but our fingers are crossed for next year.