Whipsnade, July 2024
Date: July 8th to 12th, 2024.
24th of July, 2024.
Since upgrading my ZSL membership to Gold, I had not visited either London nor Whipsnade Zoo. As my diarywas empty, and everything else could hold, I decided at short notice to take a visit hopefully before, the school holidays got into full swing.
This is approximately a 50 minute journey from home, I left at 9 am with the intention of arriving at 10 am as they opened. Unfortunately so had a lot of other people. I queued for 20 minutes to take the car into the zoo. Whipsnade is a very large area, I choose to take the car in and drive from corner to corner of the Zoo and get out and explore each area in term.
The weather was going to be light cloud and sunshine up until about midday and then it was going to cloud over until about 4 pm. The light was going to be decent with the best light being the first couple of hours.
I had noticed on the website that they were now increasing the number of activities during the day, (clearly to coincide with school holidays), and what caught my eye were the flying displays. The first of these was 11:15 am and that was to be my primary focus. If I got the chance to see the chimpanzees and visit the butterfly house that would be great, anything after that would be a bonus.
I was not expecting any particular photographic challenges, other than the flying display, where the light and the direction of the Sun, and whether the birds were backlit or frontlet could be an issue.
I arrived at 10:20 am And went to the African section of the zoo. At first I thought the rhinoceros were still in their pens, however they were in the far corner of their paddocks and busy chasing antelopes. This seemed very unusual. On passing the Cheater enclosure, where is usually nothing on view, I noticed three Cheaters in the open, one on the roof of a hut, one prowling the fence line and the third sleeping in the long grass. I got a few photographs. I then proceeded to the centre of the zoo which is where the flying display area is. It was very professional, and very short lasting only 20 minutes with four species of birds being flown. Given the audience were predominantly under six years old, the more colourful the birds the noisier it became.
After a brief stop for a sandwich and a coffee,I saw a couple of chimpanzees and visited the butterfly house. It was now just after 2 pm, and everything was very crowded. I called it a day.
