ornithom
Member
Hi all,
A quick review of our visit today to Blackbrook. I'm writing this at 3.30pm which gives you the idea that we got round the zoo and back home in unexpectedly quick time.
We last visited the zoo in 2009, and previously we visited every year before that. The break in visiting has clearly seen some degradation in the zoos performance, which I think is a crying shame and it has really upset me that the zoo is doing so badly. This zoo (as you all know) has always had a truly fantastic collection of waterfowl, pheasants, cranes etc.
Our visit today gave me plenty more questions about what has happened to over half of the birds that were seen in 2009. As mentioned in another post, all the car park aviaries have gone, as have the Scarlet Ibis aviary at the back of the reception, as well as the pens and some aviaries at the top of the park where the Shelduck/Secretary Bird/SaddleBill stork used to be. The number of wildfowl on show were hugely reduced from previous visits. No scoter, bufflehead, Lesser scaup, Scaly-sided Merganser, plus many more. No Roseate Spoonbill, no passerines, and the pelicans are reduced to 4 x Dalmatians.
So my questions are obviously: where have the birds all gone? I refuse to believe they've all suffered at the hands of the weather, so hopefully they're off show or moved on? And as for the lemurs and other mammals we only saw a very cold huddle of Ring-tailed with the small lemur enclosures all knocked into one big enclosure. Does anyone know where the Sitatunga and Nilgai are as we've never seen them at Blackbrook. The Visayan Warty Pig was having a good time today, but the Penguin pool only had 4 x Humboldts and is currently being refurbished.
The only good bit of news is that they are clearly investing in a new Reptile House (Scales and Tales) which does look promising and is advertised to open in Spring 2014 as is a 'Creepy Cave' near to the Scarlet Tea Rooms.
If anyone knows anything about the future of the zoo I'd be interested to hear, as I am a big fan who has been severely disappointed today (but not put off obviously!!).
A quick review of our visit today to Blackbrook. I'm writing this at 3.30pm which gives you the idea that we got round the zoo and back home in unexpectedly quick time.
We last visited the zoo in 2009, and previously we visited every year before that. The break in visiting has clearly seen some degradation in the zoos performance, which I think is a crying shame and it has really upset me that the zoo is doing so badly. This zoo (as you all know) has always had a truly fantastic collection of waterfowl, pheasants, cranes etc.
Our visit today gave me plenty more questions about what has happened to over half of the birds that were seen in 2009. As mentioned in another post, all the car park aviaries have gone, as have the Scarlet Ibis aviary at the back of the reception, as well as the pens and some aviaries at the top of the park where the Shelduck/Secretary Bird/SaddleBill stork used to be. The number of wildfowl on show were hugely reduced from previous visits. No scoter, bufflehead, Lesser scaup, Scaly-sided Merganser, plus many more. No Roseate Spoonbill, no passerines, and the pelicans are reduced to 4 x Dalmatians.
So my questions are obviously: where have the birds all gone? I refuse to believe they've all suffered at the hands of the weather, so hopefully they're off show or moved on? And as for the lemurs and other mammals we only saw a very cold huddle of Ring-tailed with the small lemur enclosures all knocked into one big enclosure. Does anyone know where the Sitatunga and Nilgai are as we've never seen them at Blackbrook. The Visayan Warty Pig was having a good time today, but the Penguin pool only had 4 x Humboldts and is currently being refurbished.
The only good bit of news is that they are clearly investing in a new Reptile House (Scales and Tales) which does look promising and is advertised to open in Spring 2014 as is a 'Creepy Cave' near to the Scarlet Tea Rooms.
If anyone knows anything about the future of the zoo I'd be interested to hear, as I am a big fan who has been severely disappointed today (but not put off obviously!!).
personally I'd love it if they eventually brought the full set of Common Eider ssp they sent to Hillside back into the collection, and also brought in King and Steller's Eider, so as to have a full set of eider taxa once the Spectacled they already have is taken into account.