Badgers and a Bank Holiday

It has been a few weeks since the last update and that has seen our first Bank Holiday weekend that counted.  Jubilee weekend had a Bank Holiday (or two?) but we weren’t working so that didn’t count.  Not sure why they are called Bank Holidays over here, as plenty more people get the day off.  NZ probably goes too far the other way though in describing them as Public Holidays, as a lot of people have to work to keep the shops open.  I’m sure there is some sort of more appropriate naming opportunity being missed.

Anyway, the first day of our long weekend was spent doing the chores: cleaning, groceries and watching the All Blacks beat Australia.  None of those is completely boring yet.

On Sunday we headed out earlyish in search of the British Wildlife Centre.  It is supposedly about a 45min drive down the A22 from our place, but when there has been an accident on the A23 and traffic is being diverted from the M25 down the A22 it takes a bit longer than this.  But it was worth it.  I discovered this place in a booklet of touristy things to do in Surrey and was attracted to it as it promised badgers, foxes and other British critters that we haven’t yet seen in the wild (apart from as roadkill).  This is despite people over here still insisting that these animals are so prevalent that you’re led to believe that you’ll be practically tripping over them if you walk down the street in the evening.

Anyway, despite the traffic holding us up, we still managed to get there for part of the keeper talk about the red squirrels.  These are the cutest little creatures, and what my brother says about these being “rats with fluffy tails” cannot be applied to red squirrels.  They are in an enclosure like an aviary and while wary of people, it doesn’t stop them from coming to investigate in case you happen to have a handful of nuts like the keepers.  They are fast little suckers though – as evidenced from the action shots below.  These are consecutive photos with the first one showing the red squirrel advancing along the handrail and the second a close up of his tail as he scooted past.

After the red squirrels, we got to see the foxes.  They were very cool close up.  They look a lot like a dog, but they have the cunning of a cat.  A quite stand-offish cat.

The next keeper talk was at the Scottish wildcats.  However, before that started, we had some time to kill and so we went to see the badgers.  Nothing was doing in their outdoor enclosure, and the reason for this was plain when we went into the cave to see their sett.  They were snuggled up inside, giving credence to the fact that they are nocturnal animals.  It was so dark in the cave that even after waiting for your eyes to adjust to the dark, the badgers were difficult to make out.

The Scottish wildcats were a bit of a let-down.  We were expecting (or hoping) for some ferocious feline with a Billy Connolly attitude towards things that annoyed it.  What we got instead was a tabby not much bigger than our own cats that was pretty scared of most things.  Scottish wildcat indeed.  Splash would have brought one of those home as a plaything.  Apparently they are becoming quite rare though, because of interbreeding with other wild cats and through dying of embarrassment at being called “wildcats”.

After that, we went back to the badgers but they were still asleep and unmoved.

We then headed around to the otters.  They were acting up for the crowd, and very cool.  While we had seen otters in the US and Canada, these ones were a lot more close-up and interactive.

The otters were next to a big paddock with a variety of deer and other antlered animals.  We went and had lunch rather than listen to the keeper talk for them.  On the way back, we stopped in at the badgers again to find that nothing had happened since we were last there.

Lunch there was also an interesting experience.  Having been ripped off for an ordinary sandwich and coffee, we were then entertained by someone’s child literally trying to scream the place down.  The kid screamed at the top of his voice for between five and ten minutes.  It was the sort of scream that would get you through auditions to be an ambulance siren.  If it wasn’t for the fact that it was his grandparents that were trying to pacify him, the staff were going to ask them to leave. We eventually got to finish our lunch in peace and then returned to the badgers.  Still asleep.

We then went through the nocturnal house where we imagined that there was a range of different animals.  Siobhan did manage to detect a minute movement at the back of one exhibit and we got to see a dormouse.  They look like a normal mouse, but instead of a mouse tail, they have a short fluffy tail.  The word on the street is that this makes them cuter.  Cuter than what I’m not sure.  After that we stopped by the badgers to no avail.

A water vole

The wetlands walk was quite nice.  They have set up a lovely boardwalk where a myriad of aquatic life was rumoured to exist.  We are unable to confirm or deny the rumours.  After that we went in search of stoats, weasels, ferrets and polecats.  These all had better things to do as well, as we had virtually given up on them when we spied the polecat coming out of its underground lair.  It was very shy but we did get to see it.  We still had about an hour and a half before the keeper talk at the badgers, and we were struggling to keep ourselves entertained.  So, after confirming that the badgers were safely tucked up, we headed back to see the red squirrels.  It was neat going back to see them without the crowds.

We watched the squirrels for about 20mins while I reconciled myself to having to confine my viewing of badgers to watching them sleep in the dark.  We exited the squirrel enclosure past the badgers’ outdoor enclosure when to our stunned amazement, surprise and utter excitement we got to see a badger wandering around.  And then another badger came out.  We watched them dig out a burrow and then go and hide in it.  But the big badger then appeared from another tunnel to wander around the exhibit.  Having surveyed his domain, he then proceeded to the bath tub and had a splash around.  It looked very playful to us.  The highlight was him wandering back closer to us where he jumped up at a tree in the way that dogs do.  They know that they can’t climb but they’d really like to.  The badger then completed his canine impersonation by chasing his rather short tail in circles for at least three revolutions.  It was the funniest thing.  The last thing left to do was to come over and pose for the camera, which he obligingly did as recorded here.  

We couldn’t imagine the keeper talk topping that, and so we headed home extremely satisfied with our English wildlife encounter.

On Monday we went in search of another National Trust property.  We went to Clandon Park which was owned by the Onslow family.  Apparently one of them was Governor-General of New Zealand about 1890.  It was another grand country manor and in quite good repair.  It seems that it must get quite a bit of use as a wedding venue.

 

What makes it a bit unique over here is that it has a Maori meeting house on its grounds.  Hinemihi was originally situated in Te Wairoa, the Buried village, near Rotorua.  Apparently people sheltered inside it during the Mt Tarawera eruption in 1886.  It got flat-packed after that and reconstructed over here.  Originally it was set up at a different location on the shores of a lake, and it was rediscovered by some soldiers from NZ during one of the wars.  It then was moved to the grounds of Clandon Park.  Sadly, it is looking quite worse for wear but they are currently doing a fund-raising drive to try and have it restored in conjunction with one of the tribes from NZ.

Anyway, the atrium of Clandon Park is quite spectacular.  It is all marble, with some magnificent sculptures and lamp holders.  And not overly religious – more characters from mythology which makes a nice change.  The rest of the house was largely old-house-like.  There were two things worthy of separate mention, however.  The first was the “NZ room” where all of the items collected by the Governor-General are on display.  There is a full size cloak made of kiwi feather in a glass case.  It is quite amazing.  Also on display are a number of stuffed NZ birds.  He had 3 kiwi, a couple of pukekos, two kea, a kereru, a kakapo, and two huia.  Yes, we weren’t sure whether to be pleased that this guy had managed to preserve some of our now endangered or extinct native birds, or whether he might have been part of the problem.  Anyway, it was a nice reminder of home.

The second item of note was a photographic exhibition.  There were some great scenic photos of some amazing places.  He also had a bunch of photos of those slice of life photos of people too, but I’m not a big fan of those.  Still, it was a nice place.

Dutch Garden

The rest of our Bank Holiday weekend came to a reasonably restful conclusion as I prepared for a short week at work.