Favorite Non Zoo Nature Places

W

wensleydale

Well-Known Member
I was wondering if anyone had any favorite places that had to do with animals/nature that aren't really zoos. For example a natural history museum or a bird watching site or the university's ag department which allows visitors (for example UCONN allows people to visit their horse barn during the day). Or it could be a farm where they have a couple of beehives. This place could have one or two animals on display or none at all. It just has to be nature/animal focused/related.
 
I've several such places :
Naturalis - Natural History Museum in Leiden, the Netherlands
Natural History Museum Brussels, Belgium
Oostvaarders Plassen - natur reserve on Flevoland - the Netherlands
Dintelse Gorzen - nature reserve near Dinteloord - the Netherlands
Agua Azul - nature reserve with beautifull waterfalls in Mexico
and so on, and so on.....
 
RSPB Minsmere. Singing Nightingales, booming Bitterns, Cetti's Warbler, Marsh Harrier, Avocets and terns by the bucketful, and always the chance of something rare. Dartford Warblers and Stone-curlew nearby. A shop teeming with good books and a café with excellent food. What else could you want?
 
That will be a whole region ;): Zuid-Limburg, the very southern tip of the Netherlands. An amazing hilly varied landscape with lots of nice plants (many orchids), nice snails, rare insects and my favourite mammal species: hazel dormouse and garden dormouse and loads of badgers!

Apart from that there are a few places I have been once that impressed me a lot like the Danube delta, Cape of good hope, Okavango delta, Ranomafana NP, Slovenian alps, Trigrad (Bulgaria) and High fens (Haute faignes/hohes Fenn in Belgium)
 
My suggestions for UK places:-
an early summer cruise around the Farne Islands in Northumberland: the all-day birdwatching trips include landings on Staple and Inner Farne islands, and you will see a range of sea birds including puffins, guillemots, razorbills, eider ducks, shags, fulmars and Sandwich terns - many of which will be almost close enough to touch. But wear a hat because you will be attacked by Arctic terns.

a late summer afternoon when the tide is coming in at Chanonry Point on the Black Isle, near Inverness: if you are patient and lucky you will see the world's largest and northernmost bottle-nosed dolphins hunting salmon within a few metres of the water's edge - plus breeching, spyhopping and all the other dolphin things a little further out.

a November day at Donna Nook near Grimsby: you will see, and hear, hundreds of grey seals on the sands including new born pups, bulls fighting, pairs mating and there is a chance that you may see a cow seal giving birth a few metres away from you.​

You have to pay for the boat and landing at the Farnes. The other two are free ;)

Alan
 
gentle lemur said:
an early summer cruise around the Farne Islands in Northumberland: the all-day birdwatching trips include landings on Staple and Inner Farne islands, and you will see a range of sea birds including puffins, guillemots, razorbills, eider ducks, shags, fulmars and Sandwich terns - many of which will be almost close enough to touch. But wear a hat because you will be attacked by Arctic terns.
Click to expand...

As someone who does not live a million miles from the Farnes, I wholeheartedly second that suggestion - and the suggestion to wear a hat ;)
 
My own list:

Dinosaur State Park (Very large indoor trackway, and you can make a footprint cast during the summer if you remember to bring the required materials, also extensive exhibits, informative films, and nature trails).

Rocky Neck State Park (bring sunscreen, beach umbrella, bathing suit, towel, and lunch in a seagull proof container).

Bluff Point (same)

Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary
Acadia National Park

All of Pittsburg N.H. (Moose). Also the Fourth CT Lake Trail (Grouse, beavers) however beware of the CBP. This is a good place to bring your passport to because it is right next to a non ruined exotically French speaking part of Quebec that I may well find new favorite wildlife places in.

Any Fair with a good agriculture or wildlife exhibit, however I did once see a petting zoo where the lemurs should not have been brought (they were all clutching each other, terrified, I think someone complained/saw the light/both because I have not seen them since).

UCONN Horse Barn (look out for snotty UCONN Students).

Saco River, Maine

Fenway Park (the world's most fearless pigeons).

The Museum of Natural History

And a bunch of other places I probably haven't thought of.

Alas, I have not traveled much outside of New England. Whatever, I'm only 24.
 
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