For my birthday present from my uncle I got given a voucher for a photo class with the Nikon School which left me to choose which course I wanted to do there was plenty to choose from but in my head I had thought of doing one with animals seeing that is what I love to photograph so had a look and decided to do a wildlife workshop at the British Wildlife Centre.
We arrived just before 2pm ready for it to start where at the beginning the person who was running the session explained what we will be doing and told us what settings to have the camera on to get the best out of the day. There were hot drinks available at this point before we headed off to the first animal which was the red squirrel. unfortunately the squirrels didn't show so decided we would try again later.
We then headed for the pair of foxes. I thought we would just be standing on the outside of the enclosure shooting through the fence but we actually got to go into the enclosure with the foxes which was an amazing experience and when the keeper was stood next to me Flo the fox put her paw on my leg. Flo's partner is called Fred but he took a while to come to see us and even then he stayed further away from the people.
After we finished and dragged ourselves away from the foxes we headed to meet Braveheart the Scottish Wildcat just like I thought with the foxes I thought that we would have to stay outside the enclosure but we ended up going in with the Wildcat.
After we had met Braveheart we went to the show lawn to meet a special little creature which sadly is declining in numbers in the wild which is Hugo the Hedgehog where the keeper let Hugo have a wonder around trees and the grass area. This was a huge challenge for photos as it was dark under the trees and the hedgehog wouldn't stay still but I still managed to get a few photos that I was happy with.
It was then time to head back to the café for a late lunch. They had plenty of sandwiches and sausage rolls as well as plenty of cake to eat. After the lunch we headed back to the squirrels to see if they were showing which unfortunately they were still hiding in the trees and not coming down. We then headed back to the show lawn where we met a Tawny Owl which we photographed in a tree with a nice background behind which like the hedgehog was a challenge as it was dark underneath the trees.
We then headed to the Eurasian otters which had the 6 month(ish) old babies and the mum in. I thought the enclosure from the outside was amazing for photography with low fences which allows no fence photos so thought we would be photographing there but we were allowed to go in with the otters and had them in arms length away from us which was amazing we had plenty of time to photograph them.
Then we headed to the deer enclosure where we stood on a platform and photographed them while the keeper was throwing apples to them. The Fallow deer were the bravest and came really close whereas the Red deer stuck to the back of the enclosure.
After that we headed to the last section where it had all the small mammals that are native and one species that isn't native. In this area they had Polecats, Water Voles, Stoats, Weasels, American Mink, Adders and a larger mammal the Badger.
That concluded our time at British Wildlife centre (2pm-8pm) It was one of the best experiences that I have done. Thank you to my Uncle for getting it for me and thank you to the Nikon School trainer that took us round.
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