Curraghs

The Curraghs Wildlife Park

Monday 14th April, 2014.

No long hikes yet but another pleasure instead . . . a visit from my sister.

We spent most of her visit relaxing and talking but we drove out to Rue Point one afternoon hoping to see terns.  No luck - there were only a few small birds.  We saw one little male stonechat bouncing around on some driftwood on the beach and heard a lot of chattering coming from the direction of a patch of long grass and gorse.  Tim thought it sounded like skylarks.   We couldn't see any birds overhead but skylarks are ground nesting birds and spend most of their time at ground level so he was probably right.

We also strolled up and down the glen roads a few times and saw that the cuckoo flowers (lady's smock) were flowering on the banks of the little river in Fern Glen.  I have some in the garden but mine are not flowering yet.  They are useful as well as being pretty as they are one of the food sources for the larvae of the orange tip butterflies.

Mentioning butterflies reminds me that I have seen a few around already.  One small white butterfly flew across the back garden last week - too fast to get an accurate identification but I would guess that it was a female orange tip.  Then a day or two later I saw a tatty peacock butterfly settled on a primrose on the wild flower bank.  The same one (probably) was back the next day.

I didn't take many photos except on Monday morning when we visited the Curraghs Wildlife Park. It was a pleasant sunny morning and I suggested a visit to the Curraghs nature reserve to see whether the bog beans were showing any signs of flowering.  Tim had a better idea . . . that we should visit the wildlife park instead of the nature reserve because the paths are much wider and the walking easier.  It is a bit early in the year for bog bean flowers but the marsh marigolds in our garden are already covered with blossom and we even have some early flowers on the bluebells. Perhaps everything is going to flower early after the mild winter

I have mixed feelings about zoos and wildlife parks.  It can be amusing to see the animals but there is always the underlying feeling that they are being exploited and should be in their natural habitats. On the other hand, with their natural habitats being destroyed so fast by "civilisation", there may be benefits from captive breeding.  At the entrance we were given a list of events.  Feeding time for the penguins at eleven o'clock sounded worth watching.
  
We had some time to kill before eleven and wandered past the owl cages and through the bat house and the lemur enclosures.  Photography wasn't easy.  Either the camera wanted to focus on the netting around the cages or the sun was too glary but we saw a rather magnificent peacock and I set off in pursuit.  He wouldn't spread his tail for me but led us to the meercat enclosure.

There was a lot of debate about the meercats some years ago.  Nick, the previous manager of the Wildlife Park, didn't think that they qualified for inclusion.  They are desert dwellers and not really appropriate for the swampy Curraghs area - and they are not endangered.  But eventually the pro-meercat lobby won the day with the argument that they are "Soooo cute!" - and would attract more visitors (and money) to the park.

Apart from one little chap who was trying to escape by climbing up the wall surrounding the enclosure, they seemed to be reconciled to their life in the park.  They were still taking turns to check for predators . . . . 

. . . but others were meditating . . . 

. . . or grooming their fur or just taking a quick nap.

We made our way back to the Humboldt penguins.  It was a few minutes before eleven but they obviously knew that feeding time was imminent and were swimming around the enclosure in a state of high excitement.

I wandered off to have a quick look at the flamingoes.

When I returned it was exactly eleven and a wild heron had just arrived to share the penguins' meal.  A few minutes later a couple of herring gulls flew in to join the party.  The keeper said that the heron lived nearly and always arrived at the right time.

We walked through the Asian Swamp area and saw another local wild bird - a moorhen strolling across the grass. 

Then we passed the Capybaras relaxing in the sunshine.

And some short clawed otters playing in their enclosure. 

We were heading for the butterfly trail.  I didn't expect to see any butterflies but the trail follows the north west edge of the park near the Curraghs and I wanted to check on the bog beans.  There were no signs of flowers yet - but we did spot one butterfly which flew off before I could get a photo or identify it.

After that we decided that we had had enough of captive wildlife and headed home.  We have had a minor wildlife invasion in the garden recently. First a very persistent male pheasant - that I managed to "relocate" after a few annoying days. Then the mallard ducks returned - begging for food outside the kitchen. And finally we saw the cutest little baby rabbit on the back lawn one evening. I tried to get a photo but it hopped up towards the top of the garden and hasn't been seen since.

The small birds are still with us.  The pair of great tits have been taking bedding into the nest box outside the living room window. I think they have finished nest-building now but I don't know whether they have started laying eggs.  They are definitely guarding the nest box because I saw one of them chase a rather intrusive dunnock away from the vicinity of the nest yesterday.