It never ceases to amaze me how many people ask, "…but what do you do in the winter when you are closed?" It is very tempting to say we wrap the birds up in cotton wool, put them in boxes and then store them away until February!! If only life were that easy.

Unlike most tourist attractions where you can turn off the lights and switch everything off until you re-open, when you have livestock they still have to be cared for the same way whether you are open or closed.

 

Ferret feeling the cold

In the past the Trust has shut down from the October half term until February, and the birds have been able to put their feet up. Winter was traditionally the time they could eat as much as they liked, put on weight and moult through new feathers. Small delicate birds were moved into heated accommodation in the hospital, and everything could relax without being disturbed by the public. Staff also took the opportunity to relax, often with razors disappearing for 4 months, and uniforms safely tucked away. On come the scruffy work clothes, as winter has been the main time for maintenance work, the knocking down of old aviaries and the design and building of new ones. Days tend to be shorter so the staff enjoy the rare chance of getting home earlier, and there is generally a more relaxed feel about the place. Of course the office is one of the busiest places to be with the phone lines red hot up to Christmas, and the staff busy putting together Gift packs and getting them in the post in time for last posting dates.

Ice cold pond

Until last year all the staff used to take block leave for 10 days over Christmas, leaving the boss (Ashley), myself and long time staff member Phil to look after all the stock. As you can imagine it is a huge task, and we would try to get ahead of ourselves on Christmas Eve by getting the staff to prepare 3 days worth of food in advance to save us some time over the holiday period. The tasks of the day would be divided between us all, normally Ashley & Phil taking on starting the feeding on the bottom section, whilst I dealt with letting out and feeding all the other stock such as ducks, chickens and deer. Water is vital to the domestic birds and mammals, so a cold spell meant that all water bowls had to have the ice broken and be re-filled. Not always an easy task - if the water bowls were frozen it normally meant so were the pipes. This meant dragging buckets up to the dragonfly pond, breaking the ice and bringing buckets of pond water to wherever its needed. Feeding all the stock normally takes until late morning and, when the round was done, we would make a cup of tea, take it up to the hides and watch the herons come in. Although don’t let Phil carry the cups, as you would be lucky to have anything in them by the time you got there! Of course, you haven’t finished for the day, as in the afternoon you have to come back up to lock everything back up for the night!

Hungry horses at full gallop

It is a lovely feeling to have all the grounds to yourself and nice to feed round without the pressure of being finished by opening time. Really cold weather however can cause havoc with the feed round, with meat not defrosted, locks frozen solid and the need to get the amounts of food spot on to allow birds to cope with the cold. The grounds look beautiful in the snow however, almost magical, and it's amazing to be the first human there in the morning and to look at all the wildlife prints around the ground. The Trust must be alive after we have gone to bed! One of my favourite ever sights was when we had both the Shire horses grazing in the meadow, and I took their food up to them one snowy morning. They galloped across the whole meadow with snow flashing up from their feet, although it was slightly worrying just whether several tonnes of horse would stop in time amongst the snow and ice!

Winter at the Trust

I am often asked what do you do on Christmas Day. Well - the same! Birds do not know it's Christmas. So present opening has to wait (something that Ashley hated as a child living on the wildlife park), and dinner cannot get in the oven until you have finished. However we have not had a bad Christmas yet, although we have to take it steady on the amount of alcohol consumed! Boxing day always also has to have the family tradition of counting the herons coming in for the feed, something that Ashley’s children enjoy as much as he used to as a child! It just does not have the same appeal as the play station! Only once when Ashley came down with the flu on New Years Eve and could not get out of bed and I was up there on my own, did I despair that I would ever get back until February. However my luck was in, as our vet John Chitty had dropped in with his wife and 2 children on their way back to the surgery, so they were quickly dispatched with a bucket of food in each hand, and feed round was completed in record time! And they say it should not happen to a vet.

Of course, now those days are gone, as we are open at weekends, birds now work shifts throughout the year, and staff just take what holiday they want at Christmas. However, I still think it’s likely that we will still be spending our family Christmas Day at the Trust for a long time to come.

Merry Christmas and a Happy 2008.

Tracey

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