High pressure covers southern England, with relatively mild air aloft and cold air trapped underneath. Saturday night's low: -4C, Sunday's high: 5C. Thickness: 543dam. (Data sourced from the Met Office, the GFS model run via Wetterzentrale and NOAA.)

An unusual sight greeted me when I pulled the curtains yesterday morning - thick fog! We rarely see the stuff here, despite being near the sea. As an added bonus the temperature was hovering just above freezing, having reached a low of -1C earlier in the night. Finally, at long last we had a ground frost as well, with a grass temperature of -0.8C. Despite the low temperatures the car was covered with slush which was easy enough to scrape away.

The fog persisted as I drove along the Island and by the time I reached the marshes near the bridge the temperature had fallen to -4C, with the fog depositing rime on the cow parsley and bushes. It looked like a picture postcard scene, but sadly I couldn't stop to take a photo!

Apart from a brief reading of 0.5C at one stage, the temperature remained below freezing all the way to Beenham and by the time I pulled up at the wolf centre it was -4C with a thick frost everywhere. As soon as I got out of the car I was struck by just how solid the ground was - back home although it was tinged with white it was squelchy rather than frozen. As the main gate was firmly padlocked I went for a quick walk:


View to the SW, Beenham, 9 AM

A bit later the other volunteers started to arrive and before long we were walking down to let the wolves out. Kodiak and Kenai are now in the main enclosure, somewhere they've not been before. As usual, Kenai poked her head out then went back in to grab some food, while Kodiak ambled out and promptly scent-marked. Here's a picture of him scraping the ground afterwards:


Kodiak

Wolves usually scrape with their paws after marking, as they have glands there and it helps reinforce their scent.

The Euros were next in line and last but not least Duma and Dakota, who are now in Kodiak and Kenai's old enclosure. We've moved the wolves around to make things a bit more interesting for them - the three enclosures all have different features and the variety can only be good for them. Here we see Duma looking towards the Euros:


Duma

With the wolves out, there was time for a quick refreshment break before work started on cleaning. This time D&D had carefully cached their food under the straw bedding, just as wild wolves would bury excess food for consumption later. After we'd finished there was a flurry of activity from the enclosure, accompanied by some yelps and sqeaks - Duma had decided to show her sister who's boss. I recorded part of it and the clip is available here:

http://www.medvale.net/wolves/05-11-20/dd.avi (2MB, DivX, 14 seconds).

It shows the wolf's body language well - Duma standing tall, tail held high and Dakota crouched low. Eventually Dakota decides she's had enough and shoots off at what must have been at least 20mph!

As usual, there was a woodland walk and three of us headed off to greet the visitors (and spray their shoes with some anti-wolf stuff!) Wolves love dangly things and the spray is supposed to make shoelaces unattractive to them.

The woods were frankly breathtaking, with sunlight shafting through the tree canopies and ice glistening on the ground. Although it was 1PM the air temperature was only 0.5C in the shade and it felt truly wintry. Back here on Sheppey seeing frost lingering all day in the shade is amazingly rare, so I was gawping at it. Everyone else seemed completely unfazed by it, but I was amazed at seeing what looked like a couple of day's worth of frost in places - it looked just like a light dusting of snow!


The guests get a safety briefing

The wolves were really keen to explore the frosty woods and seemed to have no problems at all walking on the frozen puddles (some of which cracked under their weight and some of which supported them). I know there's a saying about "If November ice shall bear a duck, there'll be nothing after but slush and muck". I'm not sure what country lore applies to ice that bears a wolf though!

The lake was pretty well frozen as well and the whole scene was breathtaking for me:


A frozen lake

I'd been handling just before then and the wolves seemed to handle the frozen and slippery surfaces with aplomb, the fur between their pads no doubt helping greatly. I then handed the lead over to Sean, who can be seen in the following clip leading Duma into the icy water.

http://www.medvale.net/wolves/05-11-20/lake.avi (4MB, DivX, 42 seconds)

I was half expecting the wolves to clatter through the ice, but instead they stayed in the non-frozen section. There was time for another round of "meet and greets", then we headed back to the Trust in the late afternoon sunshine, still with ice all around. The temperature had only reached 3C or so by 3PM - whereas back home on the Kentish Riviera temperatures had reached 7C with the frost melting soon after sunrise.

The guests seemed to really enjoy themselves and the weather was near perfect, a textbook winter's day (despite it still being autumn!) To my amazement frost started to form on my car around 4-ish and by the time I left for warmer climes the temperature had fallen just below freezing. The effects of being inland are quite remarkable, it felt like being in a different country rather than a different county!

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