The London Continuum - Part 2

7th November

The time has arrived for my journey to London to continue. The tempest that dominated our shores has finally dispersed giving me the opportunity I require. It's good to finally be heading back after a few weeks of disruption. The morning started early, as always, so a Starbucks to gear me up was required! After an appreciated lift off a friend I was once more at the train station. However, unlike my first visits I was, this time, filled with a large amount of inspiration.

I arrived once more in front of the aviary, set my equipment up and got onto the job at hand. The pair of caracara were fairly more sedated than usual, with only sporadic periods of foraging in between long periods of roosting. This could have been due to the weather though, it was only a measly 10 degrees. There was however, quite a lot of courtship & pair bonding behaviours exhibited, nice to see actually! Managed to meet a couple of keepers who I didn't get a chance to meet the last time I was there. It's good to get to meet some of the faces behind the hard work. I also witnessed a classic case of ignorant youth today, a group of "adults" (my age) decided to stand by the spider monkeys and yell their heads off attempting to make monkey noises. Let's just say they were so tone deaf they belonged on the X-Factor. Not only is a complete lack of respect to the animals & visitors, it was no doubt stressful for the little spider monkeys as well! It certainly had a negative effect on my caracara, causing them to wire grab! It's times like that I wish I could intervene, but I am there representing ZSL and as tempting as it was I didn't want to say anything that could harm/damage my time at London. Luckily some of the keepers were just round the corner and put them in their place!

Silverback stud Gorilla at ZSL

Also going to add that I managed to spot a wild pair of jay in one of the trees behind the aviary and a long tailed tit, I love spotting the local wildlife whilst wondering around. 

8th November

Starting off with a moan today. I will simply say that London Midland need to rethink their prices, £53 is an unacceptable price, regardless of what time or train line, for a journey under 1 hour. If I was coming from Glasgow I might understand but from Northampton to London! It's a joke. A very expensive joke, thank god for student loans.

Just to add to the annoyance as soon as I was all set up at London. BAM! Rain. The heavens well and truly opened. Under any normal circumstances I would just stand out in it & endure, but there is no way I'm risking my camera equipment. So I shall endure in comfort, Ive got myself a hot chocolate sat in the cafe & I'm going to wait it out, the rain will pass. I feel like bane during one of his speeches...

"London will endure. The rain shall clear"

Not all doom and gloom though, managed to see a wild cormorant on the canal (a bird I haven't seen in a few years

(Picture)

and I've seen a beautiful little mouse scuttling along, no more than 50 meters away, looking for its next meal. However, one thing really topped it off, I saw one of London's wild ring necked parakeets fly over head!

The rain petered away over the next hour which allowed me to continue with my data collection. The animals must get some level of contentment out of the rain, I've never seen those caracara as active as they were today, was good to see. I also managed to have a quick wonder round the zoo, wow they have one of the best tropical houses I have ever been in, you could actually see the sloths and they had Tamandua & armadillo. The weather was not done with me though, it persisted and found joy in soaking me whilst I walked back to the train station; like that London was finished, my three days of data collection were complete. In one sense it's another thing ticked off my list but on the other hand I think I'm going to miss the journeys and my time there. I've met some great people who have all been nice & helpful something which really helps make the process that little less daunting. My formal research might be complete but this is by no means the last chapter in the London continuum, I'm not a city person, but there is something about it and about the zoo which I feel is going to keep calling me back.

Tamandua

 The Homefront

On other university news I took part in a habitat suitability index for Water voles earlier in the week. I wasn't sure how I felt about it until I was actually out in the field, and I must say it was enjoyable. It's a very worthwhile thing to be a part of especially with it being part of an actual document, got more work to do on it yet in terms of a management plan and other write up elements, but as a group it's been good to put some of our learned theory to actual practical use. There has also been a meeting for the Africa trip... Oh my god it sounds beyond incredible, so glad I'm getting the opportunity to go out there with friends & help with conservation efforts.

Resident Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus)

Also received some fantastic news from back home. My parents managed to view a sparrowhawk kill, along with getting pictures and videos they had to make me jealous by sending them to me! It's great to see the resident male sparrowhawk still going strong, it's the first time I've seen him this year. He looked healthy so hopefully he will stick around, we've got plenty of pigeons in the garden to tempt him back with. Also, my mom is getting a dog in the next few weeks, the canine we are getting is gorgeous & has such a lovely personality, but I'll let you know how I really feel about it when we finally get her, bit uncertain at the moment.