12z yesterday - An occluded front lies over the Celtic Sea, having brought cloud earlier in the day to Beenham. Although the isobars are slack, the wind was quite gusty. Thickness, 547dam, temperature 17C(dewpoint 7C). Wind from the south, 17 MPH. Yesterday's high 18C, Saturday night's low 7C. (source: MetO, the 12z GFS and NOAA).

It was slight misty when I left today, with clear skies and temperatures just above 5C. As I'd not seen the wolves for a fortnight I was keen to get to Beenham and thankfully the roads were largey clear. By the time I arrived at the Trust the skies were cloudy and temperatures had risen to around 10C.

As usual John (the safety officer) was there and we chatted about the European wolves. Latea's still maintaining her alpha status but thankfully isn't harassing Lunca as much as before - indeed, all three wolves were in close proximity for a fair bit of the time.

The European wolves atop their mound

John then headed off to take his dogs for a walk, so I decided to pay Duma and Dakota a visit. I went along, camera in hand, to their enclosure, unlocked the gate to get behind the safety fence - and nothing happened! Previously the wolves heard the bolt and came rushing over, but this time they were nowhere in sight. I headed along the front of the enclosure and caught sight of Duma and Dakota at the opposite end of their enclosure.
Duma spotted me and first trotted, then galloped over:

Duma, heading my way

I recorded her approach in the form of a low-res video file and you can watch it using the following link - her tail and ear posture is of note as it suggests an effusive greeting!

http://www.medvale.net/wolves/05-04-03/apr.mpg

Dakota saw me making a fuss of her sister and also came over, then after giving her a scratch as well I headed back to the Obs Room to await the rest of the volunteers.

There was no cleaning as the wolves spent Saturday night outside, which meant there was plenty of time to chat. One of the subjects that came up was the weather and I was asked whether or not it would rain. A few minutes later I pulled up the "fax" analysis chart and was gratified to hear Sue (one of our assistant senior handlers) talking about how the isobars were somewhat slack ahead of the cold front and that it didn't look like the front would reach us for a fair while - and while that was going on John was muttering about me going to a German site to download an English chart!

It turned out the cloud was caused by a small occluded front, but by late morning the front moved away to the NW and the skies started to clear. The Euros greeted the sunlight by howling and rallying, so I decided to nip outside and record them.

http://www.medvale.net/wolves/05-04-03/aprwolves.mp3

The only thing that spoiled the recording was the gusty southerly wind, it was surprisingly strong!

Not long after that it was time to prepare for the walk. The first part ofthat is bringing the wolves onto the concrete area by the kennels, ready to be brought out and taken to the wolf trailer. I spent a few glorious minutes in there with several others and received a big slobbery lick across my face from Duma!

We then all headed off to the woods to meet today's guests, who were from the National Farmers Union. I was on car watch duty and I noticed with amusement that when a cloud drifted over and the wind got up it felt slightly chilly, yet when the wind eased and the sun came out it was pretty warm. After a while I was relieved of duty by Angela (who's lurking out there, I know) and I headed into the woods.

The lake in the woods, with some altocumulus

I caught up with everyone at the "stump talk", and took some pictures of Dakota.

Dakota getting some attention from Dominic

The walk resumed and the wolves went around by the lake. They did go in, but only briefly despite the warm air temperature...

Duma (left) and Dakota by the lake

I then had a chance to handle and this time I chose Duma, as I'd handled Dakota the previous time. This time there was no "testing", with Duma being a pleasure to walk with. Of course, it's the wolves who determine the exact route and if that involves going through big puddles then so be it! Sue kindly took this photo of Duma deciding to lead her handler through a muddy puddle...

Duma

Back at the Trust there was a fair bit of merchandise sold and as usual the guests seemed happy with their day out. After they'd all left Dominic extracted a large chunk of ice from a fridge and it was decided to put it in the Euro enclosure for the wolves to investigate.

By the way they pawed at it and rolled on it you'd think they'd never seen ice before!

With the sun still beating down it was time for me to head for home and after saying my goodbyes I arrived back to a very warm Leysdown just under two hours later.

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