Fourteen members of the club (strictly 13 plus a wife) visited the British Wildlife Centre at Lingfield arriving at about 9.30am for a 'cuppa' before a briefing about what we could expect to see during our visit.
The centre was started by a farmer who grew tired of rising ealy each morning to milk his cows and decided to turn the farm over to a place where the public could come and see exclusivly British wildlife, unlike most zoos and safari parks which contain animals from all over the world. It is self funding with the profits being ploughed back to improve the content and the facilities each year.
We were lucky enough to have Izzy for the day and she started by dividing us up into two groups (there were 19 of us altogether as we were joined by 5 other people).
One group were taken to the Foxes and the other to the Scottish Wildcats. For our £75 entry fee we were taken right into the enclosures so that we could get really close to our subjects and we were there on a day without the general public crowding round us. I found it really amazing to see wild animals going right up to and even jumping up on the keepers, who came armed with buckets full of food for the animals, dead young chicken chicks! After a decent period when there was a constant click of shutters the two groups swopped over enclosures; and then later we had a coffee break. Lastly before lunch, we made our way to the deer park where we were quite close to a herd of Red Deer. To get there we went between two small lakes created for Otters. I had just been up to Shetland where we had spent a whole week photographing birds but hoping to get somewhere close enough to see and photograph wild otters. We did finally see one which was very nervous and kept a very wary eye on us. I suppose we only got about 50 metres away form it. Here today they were 5 feet away!
This day was probably the hottest of the year so far, so we really enjoyed our packed lunches in the shaded picnic area.
After that it was into one of the Otter enclosures where they were fed with fishy bits. Again we were able to get to about a metre away from them on dry land, amazing.
Then we went to see two young Badger cubs and were in a section where we saw Water Voles, Frogs, Polecats, Stoats, Weasels and Snakes.
Finally we went to an area known as The Dell and Izzy brought several Owls down placing them on branches and in a tree for us to snap away. Barn Owl, Eagle Owl and my favourite, the minute but very cute little Owl.
By now we were all very hot and tired but we had had a fabulous day with some very special photo opportunities. Everyone enjoyed the visit I hope.