12z today - Beenham lies between two warm fronts, with extensive murk and mist. By 16z, the second front had moved to the east, allowing a westerly breeze to pick up. Conditions at 12PM today: Thickness, 549dam, temperature 10C (dewpoint 9C). Wind from the south, 8 MPH. Today's high, 10C, last night's low 0C. (source: MetO, the 12z GFS and NOAA).

I spent much of yesterday afternoon poring over the radar images and sites such as XCWeather, charting the progress of what looked like snow over West Berkshire. Yes, it was snowing over Beenham yesterday and no, we didn't end up with anything here.

I went to bed last night with the thermometer saying -0.3C, our second air frost of the Autumn. Odiham, the nearest station to Beenham, was also registering zero.

This morning as I was leaving Kent the air temperature was 1.5C with overcast skies. As I crossed into Surrey it started drizzling and by the time I pulled up at the Trust the temperature was 4C with leaden skies. As is often the case, I was the first to arrive and the gate was locked. This photo shows the conditions, quite bleak - humidity was 100%, needless to say:

A misty, drizzly morning in Beenham. View to the south, 8:50 AM

The other volunteers turned up and we all headed for the Observation Room. It turned out there was some cleaning to do, but not much (Duma and Dakota didn't go in last night). After spending some time close to the European wolves and latterly Kodiak and Kenai, there was another task - pulling up fence poles and rolling up wire mesh that was protecting some saplings in Duma and Dakota's enclosure. The sodden ground was quite helpful, although there was a lot of brute force needed!

After that, it was time for today's walk in the woods with the European wolves.

Latea, the omega female of the European pack.

The woods were absolutely soaking today as it seems that when it wasn't snowing yesterday it was raining. A far cry from the dry day we'd had here in Kent.....

The wolves aren't bothered by puddles and mud, though, as this photo of Alba shows!

I was on car duty for the second half of the walk (with Dominic, who runs a site with hundreds of UKWCT photos here: http://ukwct.cinimod.co.uk ). Alhough the temperature was continuing to rise, it didn't feel that warm - and a gentle westerly breeze picked up back at the Trust which made it feel even colder.

The guests went on a tour of the facilities after refreshments had been served, then once they'd finished it was time for another trainee walk around the fields with Duma and Dakota.

Dakota, watching the last of the guests leaving.

We set off past the Euro's enclosure and as usual they came up to the fence to see Duma and Dakota - a feeling that was reciprocated by the North American sisters.

Alba and Lunca (behind the mesh), plus Duma - notice that Alba's tail is up (dominance). There's no love lost between those wolves!

There was more "fence fighting" from Kodiak and Kenai as we passed their enclosure - I'm sure that if you could translate Kenai's growls into English they'd be unprintable!

Kodiak (left) and Kenai, hurtling along inside their enclosure.

I was fortunate enough to be able to handle Duma today and as ever I picked up several nuggets of information - for example, if you're right-handed you should usually keep the wolf to your left, using your right hand to hold the lead (the reason is that you can withstand a fair bit of pulling that way). On occasion the wolf will move to the right, meaning you'll have to flick the lead over the back and have the wolf on your right - you don't have as much control that way, but there are times when it's needed.

By the time we arrived back at Duma and Dakota's kennels the sun had set and there was just time for another quick visit to the Obs Room before I decided to call it a day and head back to Kent. By now the temperature was 10C, although as I drove back eastwards it fell to 8C - that warmer air's certainly taking a long time to get here!

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