During the first week of May all our Sparrow terraces (a triple nest box construction) were being used and by the 13th of the month young were being fed by their parents. On the 7th of the month the Moorhen who had eaten all of the frogspawn in the small pond near the Lynx enclosure had built a nest of woven live reeds and grasses and laid 6 eggs. She did this very surreptitiously and she immediately dived off her nest into the water if any body should disturb her. She would stay under water for several minutes until the “danger” passed, sometimes just showing the red on top if her crown. By the 12th she had laid seven eggs and by the 30th all but one had hatched and departed to the Big Pond.
On the 9th May the two keepers and I visited a local nursing home and took several animals; a Coati Mundi, Figgy the tame Guineafowl, a Tenrec from Madagascar three tiny Tortoises and a huge African Spurred Tortoise. We gave a little presentation. It puts money in the coffers of the charity and all seemed to enjoy it.
On the 11th May I had a phone call from a friend who has a small farm with a few ponds. Apparently, he was checking his ducks when he noticed that a Canada Goose, which had been sitting on a nest, had been taken by a fox, so my friend took the six eggs and put them in his incubator. Three days later they had all hatched.
“Would you like them?” he asked.
“I know my keepers would” I replied and fixed a time to pick them up. They are utterly charming, have grown fast, and by the end of the month are the size of ducks and have moved into an aviary. When adult we will put them to live wild on the pond.
On Saturday 12th May Daniel came down with a Safety Officer and Duncan McWhirter, our vet, who has a ranch in South Africa. They proceeded to anaesthetise our five Pumas, two Fishing Cats and two Lynx to take blood and test for various matters before being exported to a zoo in Panama and one in Holland.
Andy, who runs Axe Valley Wildlife Park and is a great friend, presented me with a dainty female Meerkat to go with our tame male “Flick.” Pixie, my nickname for Lauren, our keeper, thought the female was very sweet, so the new little girl was called “Sugar.” The Meekats fell in love the minute they met and we have high hopes.
May was extremely busy. On Sunday 13th another conservationist visited us and brought with him two male Ring Tailed Lemurs. Whichever one our lovely female likes best will stay. The other male Lemur will go off to Andy at Axe Valley.
On 15th May, two baby Lynx were born to the bigger female we call “Aunty,” because last year she had no babies of her own but shared in the upbringing of the litter produced by her sister, the more spotted female. Certainly, Seamus our big male from Ireland is doing his job because “Spotty” was also heavily pregnant at the time and in fact she had three babies on 23rd May. Only one young male out of the five was a surprise.
The Peahen more or less disappeared except for coming for some grain early each morning. She has a nest on the edge of the orchard. We hope she is not disturbed by the fox this year!
On 17th May two Jaguarundi were born to our senior female and on the 19th one to our younger female. They are tiny, two are black and one a foxy red.
On Sunday 20th May one of our two year old Pumas and little Lovejoy moved to new homes. We have seen videos of both and can see they are happy.
It was good to see a couple of immature Greater Spotted Woodpeckers on our hangers on the 22nd and a great number of young birds; Tits, Sparrows, Thrushes, Blackbirds, Finches and young rabbits. We also have an enormous number of molehills dug by our mining friends in our new wood garden.
On 25th May, we went to the Port Gaverne Hotel for lunch and on the way we watched a hovering male Kestrel. I am worried we see less and less of these beautiful birds, which is why we are trying to find a male for our female to breed them. We also watched several breeding Fulmers on the cliffs above port Gaverne.
At the end of the month something we had planned for 6 months eventually took place. Two of our Pumas, two Fishing Cats and 2 Lynx travelled to a wonderful conservation collection in Panama. We had also had an addition to our collection, a male Rothschild Mynah to replace the older male who died last winter. He was introduced to our female who has been laying eggs already this season. He immediately stood high on his legs, stretched his neck and uttered sweet nothings to the female, within seconds he mounted her and she stood firm. Again high hopes for the summer.
On the last day but one of May we drove across Dartmoor to our favourite moorland pub, the Warren House Inn, where they have had a fire burning continuously for over 100 years. The mist came down so we only saw the odd Stonechat, Meadow Pipit and a few Crows and Ravens. But as we left the pub and were walking to our car a wonderful sound of summer floated up from the wooded valley deep down and opposite the public house – “cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo” the first we have heard for a couple of years. Summer is here.