12z today - blustery westerly winds cover much of the UK, with the Azores High ridging over Biscay. Conditions at 12PM on Sunday: Thickness, 526dam, temperature 6C(dewpoint -1C). Wind from the west-southwest, 18 MPH. Today's high, 7C, last night's low 3C. (source: MetO, the 12z GFS and NOAA).

It was pitch black as I set off this morning, with the moon high in the sky and a brisk westerly wind blowing. The roads were very quiet this morning and so it was just over an hour and a half later that I arrived at Beenham.

I'd been beaten, though, by Steve - he's the handler that was on duty to get the wolves up this morning. However, before I set off to find him I watched the Euros howling away:

Alba, Lunca and Latea howling.

Not long after that the wolves rallied, amid much tail waving and noise - and for once I managed to get it on camera. Rallying serves to draw the pack together and is wonderful to behold...

Rallying

I then set off to Kodiak & Kenai's enclosure to help Steve with the cleaning, despite the fact it was well before the usual 10 AM start. En route I snapped this picture of the trees; finally, months after they started to fall, all the leaves have gone.

View to the northwest, 0915z

The cleaning didn't take long (although Steve had already done much of it) and that gave me time to try and get pictures of the wolves. It was a fruitless task as they jogged along at a rate of knots, although I did get several shots of half a wolf, or a stray head...

After that it was back to the Obs Room for some coffee with the rest of today's volunteers, five of us in all. There was a newcomer today, so after we'd finished our refreshments it was time to show him the ropes. This involved cleaning the Euro's quarters and this time they'd left the place clean, with the exception of a couple of meaty bones.

The wolves seem to find the idea of people cleaning their "den" interesting and we were watched by the wolves for a fair bit of the time:

It didn't take long to clean the kennels (as there were three of us), so after that it was back to the Obs Room. I decided to take a detour to say hello to Duma and Dakota.

Here's Dakota, watching the camera:

Not long after that shot, Dakota started acting submissively to Duma:

Not long after that, we all headed to the food shed to prepare the wolves' meals. Several paunches (sheep's stomachs) were chopped into chunks, then some miscellaneous meaty bones were produced from a freezer. This food didn't look particularly inviting, but the wolves certainly found it tantalising!

The food was put in the Euro kennels first, all the time with the wolves watching us intently. Duma and Dakota were next in line and they really wanted to get to that food - they were pawing at the mesh in their eagerness. Finally we were greeted by Kodiak and Kenai as we headed down to them, with the two wolves also sniffing out the food:

Kenai and Kodiak

While I was down there Kenai and Kodiak made a fuss of each other:

Kenai's on the left

There are signs amongst the wolves that spring is around the corner and over the coming weeks there'll be a lot more hormone-induced activity to see. In the meantime, having seen all the wolves and with the food in place for tonight it was time to head back to Kent, under partly cloudy skies.

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