12z yesterday - a weak high lies to the SW, feeding winds from a westerly quarter over southern England. Conditions at 12PM on Sunday: Thickness, 532dam, temperature 6C(dewpoint -4C). Wind from the WSW, 10 MPH. Yesterday's high, 6C, Saturday night's low -1C. (source: MetO, the 12z GFS and NOAA).

The first light of dawn greeted me as I got up yesterday morning, with pale blues and yellows to the east. The ground was white outside, but this week it was from a hoar frost rather than snow, the last of which thawed on Monday. The temperature rose from -1.4C to +0.1C as I prepared for my weekly trip westwards and after scraping the car I set off.

The roads were quiet as usual and with cloud building in from the north the frost soon melted. I arrived at the Trust in time to see John (one of the seniors) leaving after letting the wolves out. It turns out that Latea and Alba had continued harassing Lunca, the deposed Alpha.

For the time being the European wolves are out of bounds (so as to avoid sparking any more attacks on Lunca), so I headed down past Duma and Dakota's enclosure. Both wolves are in season at the moment, which tends to make them somewhat frisky and leads to the occasional growl as Dakota submits to her sister. Both wolves came over at a rate of knots once they'd spotted me:

Duma

After spending a couple of minutes talking to them (I used to feel daft doing that, but not any more) they went off and howled:

Dakota's on the left - both wolves are facing west

I left them to it and headed down to see the old wolves, Kodiak and Kenai. The former came over to the corner of his enclosure and whimpered, but there was no way I was going to cross the safety barrier and get closer to him!

Kodiak

Then, as Duma and Dakota had done, both wolves faced west and howled:

Kenai (left) and Kodiak (right)

I then headed up to the Obs Room to await the arrival of the others. Once everyone had turned up we went off to do the cleaning - this time it was Duma and Dakota's kennels. Apart from some straw which had fallen on the floor, the wolves hadn't made much of a mess at all. Needless to say it didn't take long to give the floor a scrub and sort out the straw and before I knew it I was back in the Obs Room.

Yesterday's walk was a private booking from a church group and I was on spraying duty again - so I grabbed Angela and Caroline (two handlers) and we set off for the woods to greet the guests. They'd come along in a coach, which was unusual, but apart from that everything went as normal. As the wolves were being led from their converted horse box I was surprised to see white stuff falling from the sky, a soft hail (or graupal) shower.

Duma takes a drink from the lake

After an hour or so I was relieved of car watch duty and set off through the woods. Rather than using the normal paths I decided to take a short cut, taking the hypotenuse of a triangle rather than going the normal way. This happened to take me through the bracken and I was slightly surprised to see it's very dry in there - assuming we don't get much in the way of rain this spring the place will be a tinderbox by summer. I caught up with the wolves by the lake, but as I'd already said hello to them earlier in the day they weren't interested in greeting me.
Despite the fact the lake would be around 5C at most, the wolves waded in as usual - then again as they went in when it was icy the other week it takes a lot to deter a wolf!

As we approached the final stretch I was asked if I'd like to handle one of the wolves. Needless to say I decided to go for it and a few minutes later found myself with Dakota. Now, you'll remember I mentioned the wolves are in season, and it didn't take long for the fun to start. Dakota decided she wanted to sniff me, but that meant getting the chain lead draped the wrong way over her shoulders. After dancing around a bit to keep the lead in the right position it was suggested I stroke her, which helped calm her down.

A typical view of a wolf walk - Dakota's on the left, Duma is on the right

After her sister had finished doing a "meet and greet" we headed off, except that Dakota hadn't finished with me. Without so much as a sound she jumped up, then, unable to find anything to rest her paws on, she fell back down again. Needless to say that isn't something we want the wolves doing, so when she did it again a few seconds later I used one of the few words the wolves are trained to react to. I growled - and lo and behold, Dakota went back down and the walk resumed as normal, albeit leaving muddy paw prints over my coat and face!

However, those wolves are mischievious and after another few minutes Dakota decided it would be fun to stop several times, although she soon carried on again. The wolves often try to prolong the walk at the end as they enjoy being out in the woods - it's one thing watching the handlers trying to encourage the wolves onwards, it's another thing entirely to be one yourself! After a few minutes of that I handed control over to someone more experienced than myself, although even she had her work cut out!

Back at the Trust the visitors brought half a metric tonne of merchandise, by far the most I've seen sold in the year since I started there. For the first time I can remember there was no training walk (as there were no trainees) - just as well as it was chaotic in the Obs Room with pretty much everyone wanting to buy something.

Eventually, just after 5 o'clock, the last visitor left and a busy day at the Trust was almost at an end. I said my goodbyes then headed back to Kent, with the roads much busier than normal.

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