There is a nice building called water webs and wings, that has tropical fish, Mrmosets, lots of vivariums and a view onto a big mixed aviary.
For those of you that haven't seen the review that I wrote for the blackbrook website, here it is:
The first thing that you notice when driving up to blackbrook are the flamingoes. All they look like is a flash of pink. This flash is similar to blackbrook in many ways:
Its space, It’s not a huge place, but there’s a lot of stuff compacted into this small area.
Its history, It’s not been open as long as most british collections.
And its energy. All the keepers at Blackbrook seem to be really nice and want to share what knowledge they have with you. I paticularly admire them at Pelican feeding time, when little kids come up to them screaming.
There are many unusual species kept at Blackbrook. Some can be seen, just be getting out of your car. The avairies around the two car parks are full of pheasants, owls and other small birds. Some of the more beautiful species are the grey peacock pheasant, Great argus pheasant, siamese fireback, crested fireback and swinhoe’s pheasant. Also in these car park aviaries are a pair of red legged seriamas and a small group of black crowned night herons.
The first building that you go into is the shop. It has lots of tropical fish in tanks that are scattered throughout it. One in paticular, the one on the floor, makes you wonder how on earth they clean it! There is also an aviary that is easily viewable from the shop. It has a small group of Squacco herons and Blacksmith plovers.
Then there is water, webs and wings. This building has an array of species, from austrailian frilled lizards and white rumped shama to white lipped tamarins and pygmy mudskippers. This building did used to house lots of trop-ical birds, but when the place was redone in 2007, they were all moved to make way for the marmosets. There are three species living in very nice, roomy enclosures. At the back of the building is a very big viewing window that lets you see into the big water avairy. This aviary has Mountain peacock pheasants, Pink eared ducks, boat billed herons, ruff, lilac breated roller and African pygmy geese. The mountain peacock pheasants are very secetive and can usually be seen skulking in the bushes at the far side of the aviary or dashing from one planted area to another. Fortuneatly blackbrook has thought of this and has added more viewing windows on the outside of the aviary.
Then we go the wetland way! This is one of two large walks at Blackbrook. It takes you past many of the waterfowl exhibits. There are magellenic steamer ducks and Maraguai storks in this area, both of which are rare in zoological collections. The main attraction here is Lemur Lodge. A large lemur complex that houses mongoose, mayotte, white fronted, red ruffed and black and white ruffed lemurs. The white fronted lemurs were the only members of their kind in the UK, but they bred and their youngsters have moved on.
The lemur complex, may be the main attraction in this area, but it’s certainly not the biggest. There is a very large paddock along one side of the wetland way that has white naped cranes, muntjac deer, Whooper swan, falacated teal, ruddy shelduck and swan geese.
Other species housed in this area are Secretary birds, Black swan, Australian sarus crane, Magpie geese, african spoonbill, demosielle crane and black crowned crane. On exiting the wetland way, there are some domestic animals to look at. The goats are very tame and enjoy to be stroked around the chin. However remind children to wash their hands in the taps provided.
When going to the lakeland walk ( The other of the two big walks at Blackbrook), you are greeted with the sight of a row of owl aviaries. There are about five small owl species displayed. When you’re at the end of this row, you can look into the aviary that you saw before in “water, webs and wings”, and have a better look at the mountain peacock pheasant.
On passing through the gate to the lakeland walk, there are two things to look at. A pair of wattled cranes, and a flock of Flamingoes. The wattled cranes are a very agressive species and have been known to seriously injure people. They are tall birds, like all cranes, but have large wattles projecting from their chins. The flock of flamingoes live with many species of duck and are one of two flocks at Blackbrook. Also on the lake land walk there is the small mammal block. This area has four small mammal species. Meerkats, African crested porchipine, Asiatic short clawed otters and Giant marmots. There is also an aviary at the end of the small mammal block that has Great blue turaco, hammerkop and 3 species of british waders.
The next enclosure is home to a pair of saddle bill storks. They used to be housed where the maragui storks are now, but were moved to this bigger area when Blackbrook was closed for redevelopment. Around this area, there are Blue cranes, Both species of spur winged geese, crowned cranes and marabou storks.
The lakeland walk has a lot of blakbrook’s larger species. Here the ratites are well represented, with cassowary, ostrich and emu all being displayed. The cranes are also shown off to quite a standard. Black necked and sandhill crnes are exhibited. The only members of their kind in the UK. The Pelicans at Blackbrook are also very special. There are three species here which cannot be seen anywhere else in the UK. They are the very large Ausralian pelican, the very small Brown pelican and the very unusual American white pelican. The American white pelican is paticularly unusual because the male has a small protrusion on the end of it’s bill in the breeding season. This protrusion, gradually wears down with age, and while young birds will have nice round ones, the old will have theirs worn down. The best time to see the pelicans is at the feeding time. This is is the only time that the pelicans are hugely active. They will squabble and fight over every single scrap of fish. I’ve even the 25 year old American white pelican have a go at one of the pink backed pelican, over one of the tiniest pieces of fish.
Apart from large birds, the lakeland walk has lots of waterfowl. There are Eiders, scoters, Canada geese and Silver teals all displayed in very large enclosures. The newest part of the lake land walk are the new aviaries. These aviaries have some very unusual species. Germains peacock pheasants, Lady ross’s turaco, Milky eagle owl and pied billed raven are some of them. The only other animals left to see are the tortoises. There are two species here, and they are both quite large.
I’ve been to Blackbrook four times, and each time I go something new seems to appear. I am amazed at the unusual species that spring up on every visit. If you like animals, Beautiful scenery, nice walks or a quality gift shop, then Blackbrook is the place to go.
