A warm, bright sunny day with lots of visitors happily greeted by residents of the Parc
One of the fallow deer was sporting a toupee...
At least two of the elk had started to shed the velvet on their antlers. They can look quite messy going through the process
Some of the elk were still being bothered by insects and headed for the water
One of the elk was lying very low in the grass, the antlers were visible but the head barely showed.
WIth so many of the geese etc molting their feathers, it seems one of the red deer managed to get a feather stuck in its nose
The caribou have adapted very well to their new enclosure and greeting the (overly) friendly visitors
Some of the caribous are still wearing remnants of their winter coats. The white surrounding their bulging eyes can make for an unusual look.
Tico the moose and his companion were relaxing in their shelter and barely visible, only one of the three moose in the other enclosure was barely visible in the shady grass in the woods
There seem to be a fewer number of wild boars around, but some new arrivals were rather overactive
As per usual, the wolves in the hillside enclosure were hanging out relaxing
We arrived in time for one of the three daily wolf talks/light feedings
Three wolf cubs happily joined in the snack time "performance" and then hightailed it home
We used to see the black bears up on the platforms quite a bit in previous years, this was the first time seeing one up this year.
With the wet year, there have been lots of insects including mosquitoes. The dragon flies have been busy, including this twelve spot skimmer
A juvenile(?) blue jay was calmly sitting under one of the seed/corn feeding platforms, perhaps waiting for the flock to come along to the freshly stocked supply up top. Meanwhile a turkey vulture was hoping for scraps in the wolf enclosure
We frequently see great blue herons at the Parc, but egrets seem to be less frequent visitors
We had not visited the Old Farm for a long while, and there was a new attraction up there so we hopped on the wagon for a ride to the farm
Aside from the goats, there were chickens, peacocks, sheep, large and small horses and donkeys
The new attraction was a Birds of Prey presentation, no flying demonstrations unfortunately, but I good chance to see Oryx, the red-tailed hawk, and Max, the great horned owl
