Lapwing

Today we went down the road to the Highland Wildlife Park near Kincraig - an offshoot of Edinburgh Zoo. Rather than try to convince you that I've been to what remains of the Arctic wastes with pictures of polar bears I'm sticking with this which we saw as we were driving round the main reserve where they keep their yaks, bison, deer etc. I was surprised to see quite a lot of lapwings in one part but they're not among the captive inmates and must be here by choice. I think they must be breeding here as quite close to this one was her chick. And quite a lot of goslings near the ponds. Strangely when we drove the circuit again just before going home we didn't see a single lapwing. In the "zoo" part a lone Amur tiger was pacing up and down the same beat like a victim of compulsive obsessive disorder or just bored out of its brain. One part of the tiger housing was out of bounds as they did not want a pregnant tiger to be disturbed though after we got home it said on the TV news that it had in fact given birth later in the day. Mrs P was hoping to see the beavers but a notice said they're nocturnal so you would have to break in when the park is closed which seems a bit pointless having them.