Walker and Arktos

HBD; hundred blip day.

This was a nice family day out together, preceded with and followed by reasonable walks for the dogs. The earlier walk in particular threw up lots of Caley diving and jumping related shots.
In between the walks we were at the Highland Wild Life Park. Its a short drive for us and with a family season ticket it doesn't matter the same if your visit is perhaps a short one in the afternoon. The normal entry fee is high and as such you feel like you need to spend a big chunk of the day there to justify the cost.
We just did a quick circuit of the walk about area and clearly we have never been here at this point in the day. About ten minutes before they closed we were up looking at the Polar Bears. Normally there are dozens of people milling about and while you always get to see Walker and Arktos you are aware of not wanting to stand there too long in case you are blocking someone's view. I would hate to think I was blocking a child's view esp. Also the line of sight is nearly always obstructed by the robust fence mesh. You don't get close to the mesh fence either. The visitor is kept behind a parallel barrier about 3 metres from the mesh, thus it is virtually impossible to take a shot without a wire strand (even one thrown out of focus) appearing in the final image.

Tonight, however, both bears were relaxing on the raised north bank of their 4 acre enclosure. An unobstructed, if distant, view of both animals was available over the top of the securing fence. The light wasn't great and this shot was taken with my original DSLR and lens which L now uses from time to time. It needs a small aperture to be sharp but the focal length wanted a fast shutter speed too.

What I'm saying is its not a great image but the view is a precious one. The only two Polar Bears in the UK and right at that point we were the only ones there to appreciate it.