A light NW'ly covers the UK, with plenty of cloud caught up in the flow. Saturday night's low: 0C, Sunday's high: 4C Thickness: 524dam (Data from MetO, NOAA and Wetterzentrale)

It's been a wintry couple of days down here, with some light snow on Friday and a heavy sleet shower on Saturday. It was only 2C as I set off yesterday and by the time I arrived in Berkshire it had clouded over and temperatures had fallen to a shade above freezing, with patchy ground frost. It's a good job the wolves have gorwn their winter coats as the last two weeks have been very cold for the latter half of November!

As I pulled into the carpark some sleety rain started falling; it was mainly rain but with the odd snowflake mixed in. Unsurprisingly the frost soon vanished and the temperature rose to 2C within just a couple of minutes. Meanwhile Kodiak and Kenai had noticed my arrival and came up to the fence to watch me. Not long after that the wolves started howling and a recording of it is available here:

http://www.medvale.net/wolves/05-11-27/nov.mp3

It's interesting to note that it's Kodiak that leads with Kenai joining in shortly afterwards. The other wolves can be heard in the background along with some wind and rain dripping from the overhead trees.

The volunteers started to arrive and before long we were in the Obs Room, discussing the tasks for the day. There was no cleaning needing to be done as the wolves had been left out overnight, so instead we went down to Duma and Dakota's enclosure.


Kenai playing with some old fur

The wolves were put into the side enclosure, which enabled us to bring in branches to add interest to the enclosure. It was a great oppertunity to tiday up by collecting old bones as well. During bone-collecting I climbed up onto the mound upon which the wolves spend a fair bit of time. The views are fantastic up there and you can see most of the site with the exception of the main enclosure.


View to the north from the lower enclosure

As I had my camera with me, I decided to try and capture a panorama showing the view:

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360° Panorama: Duma and Dakota's enclosure.
Click to stop the panorama from scrolling, click and drag to move or change direction.

Duma and Dakota can be seen in the holding area and the Euros are also in the picture.

The afternoon walk was another Spice walk and as usual I set off with a couple of others to greet the visitors and apply anti-wolf spray to shoelaces. I was on car duty but halfway through my replacement arrived and I scooted through the woods to catch up with the walkers. Unexpectedly I arrived to find I was being offered the chance to handle Duma - I'd not been expecting that! I handed the lead over to a friend when we arrived at the lake and both the wolves went in for a paddle. Unlike last week there was no ice to be seen, despite similar temperatures.


Who's watching whom?

After a quick "meet and greet" session Duma lead me back to the wolf trailer and we all headed back to the farm. Kenai was taken for a walk around the fields while the visitors had a tour of the wolf centre, then in the gathering gloom it was time to say my goodbyes and head for home. The M25 was refreshingly quiet, not least due to the fact the roadworks around junction 12 have finally packed up.

On the A249 towards to the Island I acquired a queue of at least a quarter of a mile behind me in the 30 and 40mph zones (usually 60 and 70 respectively) - it seems people really don't like obeying speed limits! Amazingly despite people being glued to my bumper they were soon left behind once the roadworks finished and I was able to get up to 60mph

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