Zoo Trip #44: Marwell Wildlife (Monday 23rd March)

I ran out of time on my last trip to Marwell so wanted to get back as soon as possible. It took over a month but on Monday I set off nice and early and arrived at the zoo mid-morning. I'd driven there on minor back roads avoiding Andover and Winchester town centres and seeing some spectacular scenery I hadn't come across before.

Major construction was taking place in the centre of the grounds and also some paths were still closed off as they were deemed too slippery. These included the leopard walkway which was unfortunate as Kanika and her mother were on a platform that could only be seen from there, but I did get a couple of shots of her father through a glass wall when he came out to survey his domain.

I made it all the way round the grounds this time, with time to spare, and saw most of what I'd come to see. The cheetahs were quite active and the giraffes were in evidence. The snow leopards, too, were treating visitors to some good views, and I got some nice shots of the congo buffalos. I'd photographed these before but never blipped them, so almost chose them today.

However, I spent the largest amount of time at the Amur tiger enclosures. There were two on show in separate territories. One was stretched out in the sun asleep on its side, a paw occasionally sticking up in the air, and the other was prowling up and down and sitting down, as he was when I took this blip, again taken through glass, as he turned his languorous gaze on me.

To avoid the traffic, my journey back was on the M3 and A34 up to Newbury, where I had a coffee stop and took a stroll along the Kennet and Avon from the Lock Stock And Barrel riverside pub.

I whittled down the 224 Marwell images I took to the 105 edited images in the album linked to below.

L.
28.3.2015 (2015 hr)

Blip #1536 (#1786 including archived blips)
Consecutive Blip #029
Day #1825
LOTD #771 (#891 including archived blips)

Alternatives:
Congo Buffalos
Giraffes
Amur Tiger
Male Amur Leopard
Female Snow Leopard

Marwell Wildlife, 23 March 2015  (Flickr album)

Lenses: Pentax 55-300 mm with 1.4 converter (Blip), Pentax 17-70 mm

Marwell Wildlife series
Zoo Trip series
Taken Through Glass series
Outdoor Places I Have Sat In series




Lozarhythm Of The Day:
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Nothing Without You (1990)

One Year Ago:
The Old Forge (Forsythia)