12z today - several fronts lie in the vicinity of the UK, but neither of the fronts over England were that active, bringing cloud rather than rain. Conditions at 12PM on Sunday: Thickness, 544dam, temperature 11C(dewpoint 8C). Wind from the SSW, 13 MPH. Today's high, 11C, last night's low 4C. (source: MetO, the 12z GFS and NOAA).

So far, this January's been more like April than the depths of winter temperature wise, so I was pleased to see we just about managed a ground frost last night; -0.2C on the grass with an air minimum of 2.3C. The temperature had risen to 3C as I prepared to leave this morning, with copious amounts of dew on the car.

It was mostly clear as I set out, with varying amounts of cloud as I headed westwards towards Beenham. The sun rose as I trundled along the motorways, but I didn't see much of it for it soon became completely overcast. It was still overcast as I arrived at the Trust, to be greeted by a locked gate (and no wolves).

View to the NW, 0855z (Beenham)

This photo shows the European wolf enclosure as viewed from outside the Trust, including the seldom photographed wooded area. As you can see it's pretty muddy, not least because the wolves are great at destroying anything that tries to grow there!

Not long after that, John (our health and safety person) arrived with his wife, Paula, and they unlocked the main gate. They then went down to let the wolves out, while I headed into the Obs Room to have a look at one of the PCs which had been playing up earlier in the week.

Alba and Lunca
As usual, the European wolves bounded on to their wooden shelters and started howling. Duma and Dakota joined in and I decided to nip outside and record them at it...

http://www.medvale.net/wolves/05-01-16/jan16.mp3
(Duma and Dakota have higher pitched howls compared to the others)

Other volunteers started to trickle in and the TV proved popular. I'd set it playing some really old news reports about Roger and Tsa Palmer, the founders of the Trust. Long-gone wolves such as Denali, Quattro and Katmai were featured and had I not spent the past week fiddling with the footage I'd have been watching with rapt attention too.
However, there was cleaning to be done so I headed out with Angela, another volunteer, to see what sort of a mess Duma and Dakota had made. As it turned out they'd not eaten much of their food at all, several bits of paunch and bones littered the straw. To top it off, one of the wolves had dumped some paunch in the water bucket - lovely! One of the benefits of cleaning the wolves' quarters is that the creatures will often come up to the mesh to greet you and today was no exception with both Duma and Dakota saying "hi" to us two.

After dealing with D&D's kennels there was a second job to do, namely the European kennels. Unlike D&D they'd eaten all their food and their sleeping area was clean, meaning it didn't take long to do the cleaning. Back in the Obs Room the (2 hour) video was still proving popular, with a debate programme about wolf-dog hybrids catching people's attention. Back in the mid 90s there was a lot of fuss about the animals, but as it turns out there's only one wolf hybrid in the UK and it's kept at Wolf Watch UK in Shropshire.

Preparations then started for today's members walk and I zoomed off along the country lanes to help out with spray duty (putting gunk on people's shoe laces to try and dissuade the wolves from nibbling/playing with them).

Duma (and Angela)

As usual I was on car watch duty. This time I finished reading the Wolf Park Ethogram, which has plenty of info about the various things wolves get up to and bits about their body language. Not long afterwards a replacement arrived and I zipped through the woods in search of the wolves - noting that although it was windy, it didn't feel cold at all. I caught up with everyone as D&D were doing a "meet and greet"; this time as the wolves and their handlers were busy I decided against going up the wolves and saying "hi".

Dakota
(Note the black spot on Dakota's tail in the picture above - it was pointed out today that all wolves have one, as it marks the location of a scent gland.)

After that I tagged along at the back of the group and when we reached the lake Dakota decided to have a quick swim:

Dakota

Parts of the woods look quite bleak now, as there's been a policy of "harvesting" some of the trees. Nothing's planted to replace them, as it's believed the forest will naturally regenerate.

The wolves (and the bulk of the walkers) are in the distance...

The rest of the walk was uneventful and we soon reached the end, then I zoomed back to the Trust to set up various bits for the public. There was meant to be a training walk with Duma and Dakota, but it turned out someone had let the girls back into their enclosure so Kenai was brought out instead. She was certainly eager to get out, pawing at the bolt on the gate in the kennel area.

Although I've walked with Kenai several times now, I still have a sense of awe when out and about with her - after all, she's the wolf I adopted six and a half years ago and back then I couldn't have imagined ever doing this! (That's over a quarter of my life - boy, do I feel old!)
Kenai was as lovely as ever to walk, vigorously scraping at the ground with her paws to leave her scent. As we walked past the other wolves both Duma and Dakota as well as the Euros growled; there's no love lost there.

Once the walk was coming to an end, there was a surprise. The guests were still down by Kodiak and Kenai's enclosure and on seeing them Kenai wagged her tail. It transpires that Kenai still likes meeting people and (to my amazement) it was decided to do a "meet and greet" with the public and Kenai - I doubt they realise just what a rare event that was! Kenai lapped it up, revelling in all the attention before going back into the enclosure with Kodiak.

After a brief detour to find damaged bits of the travelling cage and prop them against the side of a barn to be repaired tomorrow, it was time to head back to the Obs Room. Shortly after that, in the gathering gloom, I said my goodbyes and set off for the long journey home. I set myself a new record on the way back, at 1 hour and 39 minutes - amazingly every single road was clear, with no jams or slowdowns whatsoever.

All in all, another fun day!

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