Real Wildlife

Walked along to Newhailes this afternoon. The central bit of the estate is fenced off for a dinosaur-themed exhibition. As it says on their website, it is 'an interactive installation of 50 life-sized animatronic dinosaurs from the Jurassic, Triassic and Cretaceous periods. Each dinosaur has robotic movements which include arms moving up and down, tails swaying side-to-side, heads moving up and down, eyes blinking, jaws opening wide with realistic roaring sound effects. Visitors will walk a perilous path through grasslands and woodlands and come face-to-face with snarling, roaring and hissing dinosaurs amongst the trees, bushes and woods.' It isn't exactly cheap - a family ticket on the day is almost £50 but from a distance across the fields it seemed pretty busy (see extra). I was making my way back again, along the footpath that runs around the edge of a barley field, when I saw something running along the path in front of me. Turned out to be a weasel and as I watched another one appeared from the side of the path. I stopped and over the course of the next half hour I saw what I assume was a family of them, popping their heads out from the barley, running along the path and then diving back into the vegetation. Other people went by, walking their dogs but otherwise I was the only one there. The weasels came quite close at times, although it was difficult to get a great photograph. Nevertheless it was great fun watching them and a fascinating contrast to the expensive simulcra a few hundred yards away.