In January we visited St Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital. Its located in a village called Haddenham close to Aylesbury. It was signed well from the village itself. The main hospital itself has no regular public access as they are busy caring for the animals but there is a visitors centre and a shop which are open daily to the public. The staff couldn't have been more helpful when we arrived and were so attentive to the children. One member of staff went and got a hedgehog for the boys to look at and spoke to them about it for over half an hour, recommended websites and videos for the boys to look at to find out more about the animals and gave them a St Tiggywinkles magazine to read. There is a small museum area which had skeletons of various British animals and a Plesiosaur fossil on the ground floor along with viewing windows into the hospital where you can see some of the animals in recovery. We saw a mouse, hedgehogs, a crow and a duck. Upstairs is an area dedicated to hedgehog memoribillia. It did come across as a bit eccentric in style but the boys seemed to like it ! Outside there are various pens for different creatures who are either recovering or cannot be released back into the wild because of thier injuries. There were crows and seagulls, ducks and geese, foxes, badgers, tortoises, red kites, rabbits, otters, and of course the hedgehogs and various other small animals. There is also a small picnic area with toddler play equipment and a hut all about Red Kites. There is enough to see to keep the children busy for a couple of hours but its not a massive site. They have Easter and summer holiday activities and advised us that the animals are at their most active and visible in the Spring. |
About Me.I'm Ruth. A mum to two boys and a believer of learning through experiencing. Archives
October 2016
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