Tag: Colorado

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Isla’s favourite pics!

Since working here, my camera roll has slowly become about 90% reindeer! So here are a few of my fav of our reindeer, getting up close and personal with them to get those super cute nose shots!

Here is the handsome Druid! This was taken last June 2024, after a Hill Trip. When we had beautiful sunny weather for the whole month. Sadly this June has not been the case 🙁
The lovely Lupin here, charging forward for some more hand feed, as you can tell by his crumby nose his head was not long out of the feed bag. This was taken last December 2023, as you can see Lupin has his beautiful fully grown bony antlers.
Elbe here, patiently waiting for some more hand feed… which is very out of character for him, usually he can be very pushy and demanding! But with a few bats of those big eyes he usually finds his way into the bag.
Baby colorado looking very cute! This was taken last autumn when he was still a calf, not long after his summer of free ranging, giving my camera a curious sniff.
Busby looking lovely as ever, taken this June, if you look closely you can see that Busby is looking a little scruffy, this is because he is moulting his thick winter coat into his much shorter darker summer coat which you can see on his legs and nose.
Busby again creeping closer to the camera!
Pretty Winnie here, posing for me up on the ridge of our hill enclosure. Taken in June this summer 2024, Winnie is doing amazing! She’s a little ray of sunshine always putting a smile on our faces!
Hemp trying to figure out if my phone is edible or not! Hemp is a very friendly boy, one of our star hand feeders on our Hill Trips! definitely one of the greediest reindeer in our herd always on the lookout for a white bag!
Cowboy posing after a sunny Hill Trip. One of the few sunny days we had this June.
Little Elbe! This was taken this summer – his antlers are looking AMAZING! They almost look too big for his small body.
Handsome Kernel going in for a camera sniff, this was last summer 2023, he’s looking very smart in his summer coat and velvet antlers!
Diamond looking very pretty! What a poser. Diamond had just recently cast her antlers in this picture. This was just before Christmas last year 2023 when we had some of our girls in the enclosure. She is having a lovely time free ranging at the moment!
Beanie here with her cute speckledy nose. This was last Autumn time 2023.
Little Sorbet posing beautifly for the camera. taken the same time as Beanie’s photo above, there had just taken themselves in from the free range asking for some extra feed.
Oatcake was also part of our lovely free ranging group last autumn.
Adzuki is in our woods here, this was last autumn 2023. The woods are just behind the Paddocks which are currently undergoing a huge refurbishment.

Isla

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Photo Blog: February 2024

We reopened to the public on the 10th of February. With no Paddocks and Exhibition available (the site is currently a very big hole) it feels rather strange! But the Hill Trips are running as usual, in fact for the February half term we brought some of our free ranging cows and nine month old calves in to our hill enclosure allowing us to do two Hill Trips a day. So, we’ve been busy looking after our the herd in the enclosure and checking in with the free rangers once every few days. February has so far been rather mild so far with not very much snow so we’ve been having a relatively easy time, and the reindeer are finding easy grazing. We’ll be back to free range visits very soon (Monday 26th Feb) so if anyone is visiting us between now and the end of April be prepared for potentially much longer walks out to find the herd.

1st of February: Andi surrounded by some of our wonderful reindeer calves.
1st of February: Colorado the cutie!
7th of February: Repairing a fence at the top of our hill enclosure that got ripped up by a recent storm. Cameron is stood by the hole where the strainer post in the foreground should have been!
8th of February (a): Lotti and I head out to bring in the free ranging herd to our hill enclosure ready for the half term school holidays. Here’s Morven leading the way.
8th of February (b): Trying my best to woo the herd across the burn. I can confirm the burn was higher than the height of my wellies.
8th of February (c): Lace was the first to cross the burn with her calf Limpopo at her side. Thank you Lace for being a great leader! The herd were quick to follow her and then marched up this hill that we affectionately call Killer Hill.
11th of February: Holy Moley showing off her lovely incisors!
14th of February: After a day in the enclosure these reindeer are off back out free roaming. From L to R we’ve got Sorbet, Feta, Pip, Danube, Colorado (and his mum Christie just poking her head out behind) and Elbe.
15th of February: Sundae being cute as ever on a very dreich Hill Trip.
16th of February: Amazon saying hello.
16th of February: The state of the Paddocks just now.
20th of February: A recent storm blew down (another) fence within the enclosure. Here’s the delivery of new posts ready for for work to commence.
22nd of February: We did a enclosure swap. These are the girls who’ve been in the hill enclosure for a wee while now heading back out to free roam with Fiona leading the way.
22nd of February: Our wonderful volunteer Emm is back and has brought the sun with her. All the herders are delighted to see her, and so is Feta!

Ruth

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Photo Blog: December 2023

On the last Friday of each month throughout 2023 I have shared photos that I’ve taken on my phone to hopefully give everyone an idea of the goings on at the Reindeer Centre. What a complete mix bag of photos this is to finish the year off! December has seen me up and down the A9 and dotting around locally with beautiful teams of reindeer for lots of Christmas events. I’ve done the odd day at the Centre too catching up with the goings on here, with just enough office time to put together this blog. My wonderful colleagues have also been ridiculously busy on events and at the Centre keeping everything going. Getting through gazillions of adoptions packs, leading fully booked Hill Trips and of course Christmas Fun in the Paddocks. This selection of photos doesn’t really do December justice, but it’s a snap shot of what I’ve been up to at least.

30th of November: Couldn’t resist including this one from November. Moving our free ranging herd in the snow!
1st of December: Cassie feeding the calves out of the bag.
2nd of December: Very chilled out reindeer in Aberfeldy after a short parade. In the team we have Dr Seuss, Frost, Haricot, Lupin, Colorado and Limpopo.
4th of December: After two nights away here’s the same team as above returning to the snowy hills.
10th of December: Stenoa and Olympic posing at the front posing with Santa and a pantomime crew.
11th of December: Seven month old calves Colorado and Ob sharing the same puddle.
12th of December: Amazon needing a chin rest.
12th of December: Bordeaux’s beard blowing beautifully in a cold Cairngorm breeze!
15th of December: Walking a team of reindeer out of the enclosure for a local event at the Aviemore Ice Rink.
16th of December: Herder Melanie and I attend a wedding with reindeer at Raemoir House near Banchory. Here they are eating lunch before meeting the bride and groom.
17th of December: A day at Reindeer House for me and spending as much time on the hill as possible! This is the gorgeous Marple and her daughter Mekong with matching billowing beards on the afternoon Hill Trip.
17th of December: The lovely Chickpea has had an excellent year and is in fab condition.
18th of December: Olympic showing off his lack of top teeth at a visit to a primary school in Aberdeen.
22nd of December: Our team very settled at Gleneagles Hotel. From left to right we’ve got Mississippi, Aztec, LX and Olympic.
23rd of December: Mississippi being especially cute!
25th of December: Before spending a few hours in the display pen each day, we take the the the boys for a good walk each morning so they can stretch their legs. For reindeer this means stopping at every tree to have a nibble at the lichen! Here’s Aztec getting some tasty Christmas Day snacks.
28th of December: Turtle and her calf Amur on the hill.
28th of December: Isla’s last day of work (although I’m sure she’ll be back at some point!) so here she is spoiling Alba, one of our hand-reared calves.

Ruth

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