12z today - A weak ridge covers southern England, with light NW'lies and cloud for Beenham. Thickness, 542dam, temperature 13C(dewpoint 2C). Wind from the NW, 13 MPH. Today's high 15C, Last night's low 6C. (source: MetO, the 12z GFS and NOAA).

Two days ago it was snowing, yesterday it was a fair bit warmer - and today dawned cloudy with a temperature of 5C. I was leaving at an odd time today, half an hour later than last week as it was the 10th anniversary UKWCT seminar - the jewel in the crown of the Trust's activities. As I wanted to hear the speakers I was down as a guest rather than a helper and at half nine I pulled up in the Beenham school playground.

Cumulus - view looking north (Beehnam, Berkshire), 0830z

I was expecting to find the hall already bustling, but it wasn't. After greeting everyone I took my place in the hall and watched the UKWCT screensaver being projected on the wall for all to see. After a fair few months I've finally got around to finishing it, using Dominic's photos. A test run of four copies proved popular in the shop, I'm pleased to say!

The hall awaits its guests

By ten o'clock the hall rapidly filled up (with 101 people, hence the name of this post) and the first of the speakers started - Zanete Anderson-Lilley on the subject of large carnivores in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Sadly for wolves, they seem to be regarded as fair game and despite the countries recent admission to the EU, hunting continues much as it has done for a while. It's notable that the general public has a dim view of wolves, a positive one of bears and a not dissimilar opinion of lynx.

After a short break Elena Tsingarska took the stage and delivered a somewhat downbeat talk about Bulgarian wolves. The bounty on them has been increased to €30 and with increased development the future of the wolf isn't bright. It's annoying to think that when I visited Borovets in the Rila Mountains in 1992, I was indirectly contributing to habitat destruction of wolves. Even more gloom inducing is the fact that several of the livestock guardian dogs brought by donations from the UKWCT have been shot by hunters!

There was an auction of some wonderful wolf related photos, drawings and books, which raised £875 to be split between the Latvian and Bulgarian projects.

That was followed by a safety briefing about the upcoming wolf walks, then the guests adjourned for lunch. I instead walked back to the wolf centre and set up the PC and DVD player in the Obs Room, noting the Euros and D&D were in their kennel areas ready for the walks.

I went down to see Kodiak and Kenai, with only partial success. Kenai was out and about as usual, but Kodiak was nowhere to be seen.

Kenai looking southwards into Duma and Dakota's enclosure.

Kenai later caught and started eating a pheasant, but needless to say I missed that!

Not long afterwards the guests arrived and went off on their walks - I was in the second batch of walkers, so chatted to various people in the meantime. A bit later it was our turn to walk, so we set out through Tsa's front garden (!) and off into a 20-acre field, newly purchased by her. (Tsa Palmer is one of the directors of the Trust and owns the land on which it stands, FWIW).

It was great to see the Euros in action, after spending weeks watching them from afar. Lunca is still very much the underdog and showed submissive behaviour throughout, while Latea and Alba lead the pack so to speak.

Lunca heads in my direction.

Two thirds of the way around the wolves found a cattle water trough and had great fun going into it:

Alba (left) and Latea

We then headed to the food shed while Duma and Dakota returned from their walk. As I've been in that shed a fair bit I instead watched D&D return - here's a picture of Duma gazing in the direction of the Euros, while Dakota looks to the west. You don't normally get to see them, but in the background are the European wolf kennels; they're the same design as for the other wolves. The caged area is used to hold the wolves when we're preparing for a walk, with access into the main enclosure via portcullis-like trapdoors.

Duma and Dakota were as wonderful as ever. Not long after we started Duma made a bee-line for me and (with tail wagging) gave me one of those mischievous looks, eyes twinkling. I know exactly what that means and braced myself - sure enough, a second later, thunk! She'd jumped up, given my cheek a quick lick and landed again. Not something you really want happening (although I'm sure the guests found it amusing), but she was so quick there wasn't much time to do anything.

There was a brief visit to the stream that runs at the bottom of the field, with both wolves going in for a bit:

Dakota in the stream

For the first time since February last year I did a "meet and greet" as a member of the public, letting Dakota sniff my fist and giving her a good belly rub. Unlike her sister she decided not to jump up at me, although I had the feeling she was weighing her options!

We then headed back and the guests left, while I spent some time chatting about forthcoming shows with the Trust staff (including the amusingly named Cowpie show which I hope to attend). Not long after that I trudged back to the school, picked up my car and headed back eastwards to Kent, having had a fun day!

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