Tuesday 2nd
In an effort to cut my monthly fuel costs in getting to work, I am trying the local train service that runs past a station near my house and one near the zoo on its way to Severn Beach.... very handy. Tuesday morning was again cold but beautifully sunny and I couldn't resist taking this shot through the bridges over the lines from the Clifton Down station. I have enjoyed some lovely, albeit fleeting, wildlife sights from the comfort of my train seat... some bullfinches (that I personally haven't seen in many many years and a gorgeous fox sat up in the morning sun eyes shut as if with pleasure it was catching a few warm sunny rays.
After a quick drink I wrapped myself up and headed out for a walk around the zoo grounds to once again do my bi-monthly check on all the ID signs status. I'm looking for faded, damaged or missing signs and cleaning up any that are dirty, cobwebby or dusty at the same time. It was a lovely sunny morning and I took my camera with me. Not long after I had left the studio, in a quieter corner of the zoo I found this lovely family on a pathway. These are the first ducklings I have seen; although I know there have been others already about, as I heard a call over the zoo walkie-talkies that a gorilla had been playing with one and had released it. Luckily it was thought to have come through its ordeal reasonably unscathed as far as could be told and left to return to its mother. The poor wild ducklings in the zoo grounds do have a high mortality rate; the predators such as gulls from above and terrapins in the lake and moat take their toll. Doesn't help that the mother ducks seem to have little sense of protection where their offspring are concerned, allowing them to stray far away from their side, leaving them open to predation. Such is the circle of life, as they say.
In my rounds I went through the invertebrate house, Bug World, and saw that one of the new tanks in the aquatic section was up and running and had new inhabitants. It was a really lovely display and the lighting showed the upside-down jellyfish off beautifully. That delicate pink 'body' topped with paler frills and then gorgeous blue appendages emerging above that. Never noticed the colours of this species like this before... must be down to the fancy lighting fitted especially to show them off.
Also noticed more blossoms endeavouring to convince us that despite the unseasonably cold weather, (Freezing temperatures in March made it the UK's joint second coldest since records began more than 100 years ago), Spring was actually here. Saw this cherry tree close to the Butterfly Forest structure and loved the colours of the tree against the shadowy backdrop.
The zoo was very busy today, the schools are still off and with the Easter weekend fast approaching, and the sunny weather, we had a good number of visitors. This did make getting round the zoo and the checking of some signs a little harder than my last 'ID Sweep'. Going through the nocturnal house, Twilight World, was interesting.... packed with people and very slow moving it was almost impossible to make out where you were going. When there are fewer people you can see the floor and the dappled lighting helps you negotiate your way through the dark. But when the floor is not visible due to the number of people who are packed together (all wearing dark clothing)... you see nothing to help you ... it just looks black. There were a lot of giggles, laughs and a number of 'Oooops, excuse me' as people bumped into the person in front.
I finished my walkabout just before lunch, just in time to meet a student who is doing an art project as her work experience, which is tied in with the course she is doing through a college here at the zoo. She had brought in digital images of her work for me to see and have a chat with about exhibiting this work on Wednesday evening. She has permission to show her work at the same time and place as the monthly evening research science talk the zoo holds.
After lunch I started on my list from the morning's walkabout and I had the text from Education (from the end of last week) for the souslik, so I put that on the ID document and also did the distribution map for the species as well.
I had several queries on things I had seen during my sweep that I needed to check with the animal sections, so I sent off a few emails and I managed to print off 5 ID signs as a start to the list.
Just before the end of the day I photocopied 30 replacement guides for the Butterfly Forest exhibit.
Wednesday I spent in front of the computer. The IDs I printed yesterday were the easy ones that had already been converted to Illustrator documents, but today all the rest I had on my list (9 species) had to be converted from their Quark and Freehand formats over to Illustrator documents before they could be printed. As part of this process some maps need to be redone, some illustrations adjusted - both of which I do - and some text altered- thinned down so that it will fit into the slightly smaller space on the Illustrator ID format. This means me contacting an Education Officer and giving them an idea of how much needs to be cut from the text so that they can re-jig the wording to make it fit the space I have.
That was pretty much it for the day apart from a few other little jobs. Doesn't seem much but it kept me busy all day.
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