rain, finally

We drive to the New Forest Wildlife Park.

It's a small zoo, with the emphasis on local wildlife.

It's small but we still manage to walk 2.3km.

There are various owls. Eagle, burrowing, common barn. Even a couple off snowy owls, a la Harry Potter.

Best animals are the otters. Who knew there were so many varieties! This zoo had three or four types.

There's a talk by a keeper. She knows all the otters and is dedicated to otters in general...a knowledgeable fanatic, a very interesting speaker.

She doesn't like the thought that otters are trapped and killed or kept as pets. She says that the ones doing clever cute things for youtube are Asian small clawed, very clever at "manual" manipulation.

I think these are the type that used to be in Perth zoo.

We move on to the deer. Small roe deer, large fallow deer, largest red deer. The red stags are growing this year's antlers, much more solid than I imagined. They are definitely solid enough to use for fighting. We usually see multi prongs and don't notice that the base is quite thick.

There are some wallabies, looking cold. There are some feral Wallabies established in England. So far they are not a problem.

Wolves! my favourites. They howled as we were leaving:-) Poor things, not fed every day.

A couple of European bison. Some bison have been rewilded into Poland.

Several wild boar, no sign of Obelix.

We finish with sandwiches in the Forest Cafe. Then drive home to relax. It's finally starting to rain, a very light drizzle.

The Inn is humming, packed with people taking hours over a very long lunch. Deb parks the car but it's in an awkward spot. We return, a few times, till the crowd had left. Deb moves the car to a better spot.

The rain now is barely spitting.

Now we wait till it's time for dinner.

.

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
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If everyone is thinking the same way, then someone is not thinking.