LETTER OF THE WEEK

Lovely Al is a regular visitor to the Park and each season his Mum treats him to a Keeper For A Day as a special treat.  Al is blind and is accompanied by his fantastic carer Tim ….. We received this lovely card from Al’s Mum…..

“  Dear Lorraine,  Thank You SO very much for Al’s wonderful hands on experience at his ‘ Keeper For The Day ‘ on 16th September.  As always you and your team provided a unique opportunity for him to meet the animals and birds which was truly the “ hands on” time which he needs so as to fully understand and appreciate everything at Seaview Wildlife Encounter.  Your staff are exemplary in their interaction with Al – please pass on my grateful thanks to the members of the team who worked with and met Al on his KFAD.
Yours  Lindy ( Al’s Mum)

Letter of the Week from Ex Keeper Holly

Hi everyone! 

Sorry it's been a while since I last messaged,I have been extremely busy! 

Things are going really well here and I am loving the course. Made some awesome new friends and can't believe how much I have learned so far and how much more there is still to learn! I don't think you ever stop learning here out in the bush.

Where do I begin, the topics I have covered so far include mammals, amphibians, arthropods, ethology, taxonomy, botany, reptiles, viewing potentially dangerous animals, grasses and geology to name a few! 

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Last semester we had a whole week dedicated to tracking, basically a whole week staring at the ground. Doesn't sound very exciting but it was so interesting. Learning how to identify and interpret tracks and signs or as they call it 'reading the bush newspaper'! 

Last week I was also very fortunate to be on the game drive vehicle that tracked and found a pride of 9 Lions!! Just magical.

I have attached a few photos.

Hope all is well at Seaview and that the park had a busy summer holidays. The new rat Alfie is so cute.

Love to everyone and all the animals :)
 
Holly xx

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Fantastic TripAdvisor Review from Keeper for a Day

 This week we received an amazing review on TripAdvisor from Amanda Hurst who took part in a Keeper for a Day experience with us this summer!



“My favourite place in the world!”

OK, so I must admit a little bias as I've been coming since here since I was a child, when it opened as Flamingo Park (early '70s). I first visited with my parents and grandparents and now I am returning with my own child. I love this place. I love how you get mugged by the ducks upon arrival (come in the morning when they're most hungry), I love the walk down to the lake at the bottom, feeding the ducks, swans and geese (get down and feed them by hand, don't just throw seed at them), I love the Wallaby Walk and the slightly mad alpacas, I love giving the pigs a good scratch on the back, I love the shouty parrots and trying to spot Dippy (a penguin with a Facebook page) amongst the penguins, I love the tranquillity of the Tropical House and the buzz of the cafe. 

Speaking of the cafe, I don't think it's changed since I was a child and that is a compliment. Excellent food (crab sandwich for me, every time), a nostalgic vibe and absolutely the best milkshakes in the world. Oh, and a decent proper cup of tea. In a cup. And all at very reasonable prices (we spend less in a day visiting here than any other attraction on the Island).


If it's possible, I love Flamingo Park (as it will always be to me) even more after my visit this year and my Keeper for a Day experience (thank you Sally, and the other keepers for the most amazing day). Meeting Dippy and the other animals was amazing, and being in the with meerkats was the highlight of the day (don't tell Dippy though). If you're visiting the Island, book a Wildlife Encounter in advance, it'll honestly be the highlight of your holiday.

Any reviewers that say they can be in and out of here in an hour or so are clearly not getting this place at all. This is the Isle of Wight, not a theme park. Slow down, enjoy the scenery, smell the flowers, feed the ducks, watch the animals, feel the sun on your face (hopefully), have an ice cream and forget the mainland. Yes, there is something old-fashioned about the place but it's lovely, it's a reminder of British summer holidays the way they used to be. That IS what the Isle of Wight is about, traditional bucket & spade holidays, and Flamingo Park is the tiniest and the best piece of that. 


Visited August 2014

EMAIL OF THE WEEK

This week we received a lovely message from Jhuma, the mother of Sohum who took part in his Keeper for a Day experience with us this summer!



Dear Lorraine, 

Sohum would like to thank Sally and the entire team for giving him a grand experience that left life time memories.. 

We are all very grateful to Sally for teaching Sohum how to care for animals, being very helpful and making Sohum at ease and taking excellent photographs. We are also very thankful to Charlotte, Becky and others for making this an enjoyable and memorable experience for Sohum. I hope you can pass this on to the animal keeper team. 

During our earlier visit on 19 July, when we decided for Sohum to come back as a KFAD, Sohum took a beautiful snap of peacock, enclosed. You may want to add this in your collection of photographs on the website - we are very happy with it. We would also like to enter this picture in the photography competition for children. 

We have already given permission to use Sohum's KFAD photographs for your website - Please could you email us to notify, when you do so. 

Thank you. 

Best,



Jhuma (Sohum's mum)

The Isle Of Pink is back…. for the month of September

The Isle Of Pink is back !  The Island is turning pink again throughout September with a range of activities and stunts taking place.  It’s all to raise funds for life-saving research into breast cancer whilst spreading an important awareness message at the same time.  The Park are contributing by having the team on site on Monday September 1st for a fund raiser day accompanied with a Dippy Story !  Please support this worthy cause ………

The super duper Pink race
Today it was Pink race day, a day everyone had been looking forward to for a very long time. For the last 7 days every animal in the Park had been given special pellets to pop into their drinks and take at meal times 3 times a day. These contained a special ingredient which all the flamingos eat to maintain their bright pink coloured feathers. If taken following the Keepers strict instructions it would guarantee complete colour change by day 7. Today it was day 7 and to our absolute delight we discovered it had worked!! Every single animal had turned to bright pink!


The first ever Pink race to take place at the Park was being organized and judged by Amber the owl, a very wise old Eurasian eagle owl. Each animal taking part had been given a sponsor form several weeks ago and all of them had been very busy collecting as many sponsors as they could. After the race all the money would be gathered together and given to a very special charity that did research towards medicines to help cure Breast Cancer. Today the whole Park had been decorated with pink bunting flags, pink balloons tied on to the outside entrance of every animal’s house and the flamingo’s playground floor had been fitted with a very soft fluffy pink carpet.
Brian, a large and very friendly white goose who lives at the Park’s upper pool had been training the flamingos for weeks ready for the Pink race. He had given each bird an individual exercise programme and set fitness targets to complete each week. The flamingos had been separated into 3 teams by the 3 different flocks that live at the Park, the Chilean’s, Lessers and the Caribbeans.


Kookie, known by everyone at the Park as the “ laughing Kookaburra”, a very crazy bird who tends to laugh all the time at anything and with everyone, today was on the gate to welcome all the pink guests, and collect together the many sponsorship forms. The flamingo’s playground soon turned into a pink blur of colour as the animals filled the rows of seats. High up on the stage overlooking the race tracks stood the beautiful Sammy, a blue fronted Amazon parrot. She had the most wonderful voice and sang for all the animals as they waited for the contestants to get ready and the race to begin.


The pink Park animals gathered around the refreshment tents where the parrots were serving all kinds of delicious pink foods, prawn cocktail and crab sticks, pink iced cupcakes sprinkled with 100’s and 1000’s, huge whipped up balls of candyfloss on sticks and tubs and tubs of strawberry ice cream!! The pink drinks being served ranged from freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice, strawberry milkshake with floating marshmallows and bendy straws to super fizzy pink cocktails which contained quite a lot of alcohol and were not allowed to be consumed by the contestants taking part in the race.


The flamingos began to take their places at the start line, some stretching and warming up their muscles whilst others stood posturing on 1 leg and having a natter. The Chilean lady flamingos were sitting alongside the race tracks on top of their birds nests as their eggs were due to hatch at the end of August. They had been given the extremely important job of spotting any cheating or rule breaking during the race.


Amber the owl stepped onto the stage at 3 o’clock and spoke to all the pink Park animals through a very loud claw held speaker, he congratulated all of us on such a super pink race event and wished all the flamingos and race partners the best of luck! He then handed a pink blindfold ribbon to each flamingo which the little race partner then tied around their head to completely cover their eyes. Amber then explained the rules of the pink race, once blindfolded the flamingos were then to bend down so their small race partner could climb carefully onto their back from where they would shout directions to their flamingo as to the whereabouts of the finish line. The winning flamingo being the first to cross the pink finish line ribbon with their little pink animal race partner sitting on their back. The first aid squirrel medical team were standing by close to the track in case of any injuries.

Dippy being the largest of the flamingo race partners rode on the back of the largest flamingo of the flock, his name was Francis. Other animals such as the white mice, chickens, rabbits, cockatoos and rats all took their places on the start line ready to race! Amber blew the whistle and off we went, it was a very funny race, lots of the flamingos bumped into each other, wobbled all over the place and some wandered quite far off the race track even though they were being given very good directions. Others were quite speedy but lost their race partners off their backs and had to pick them up again all whilst being blindfolded!


The winner of the pink flamingo race crossed the ribbon with a huge smile across his pink face and his partner was waving his little paws high up into the air, it was Roger the rabbit and his flamingo who had won!! Pink trophies were handed out on the stage to the winners and runners up, everyone clapped and cheered and then all joined in the pink after race party which went on late into the night!

EMAIL OF THE WEEK……

Hi,
Just wanted to let you all know what a wonderful time my two daughters, wife and I had at Seaview Wildlife Encounter last week. It was the highlight of our two week break on the Isle of Wight.
We can't wait to visit again next time we're on the island.
All the best,
Mark, Karen, Georgia and Daisy Montague
PS. They both now want a Wallaby!

A Beautiful Baby Bleeding Heart

Over in the Tropical House this week the Keepers discovered the nest of one of our Bleeding Heart Pigeons. 

Inside the carefully made nest there was an egg and a beautiful little baby! Take a look at the photos below:









Found only on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, these pigeons are one of a number of species of ground dwelling dove. They get their name from the splash of vivid red colour at the centre of their white breasts.

On first sight you might think that the bird has been wounded, especially where the reddish hue extends down the belly giving the illusion of blood running down the body. The Keepers are often called to the Tropical House with reports of injured birds only to find that it is one the Bleeding Heart Pigeons!