My birthday weekend in Belfast

Friday was my birthday, and for my birthday, my parents and I went to Belfast zoo! I was lucky to meet education officer, John Fisher, who was with me at the summer camp 4 years ago, and keeper, Raymond Robinson. One of the highlights of the day was being there for sun bear feeding time. They were given two dead mallards, three dead chicks, and pieces of pepper, yam and carrot. Another highlight of the day was seeing the red squirrels at the zoo’s red squirrel nook, which is located next to the education centre. This is the first time, as far I know, that I have seen this species, and I would see squirrels in the wild the next day, at the Mount Stewart estate, east of Belfast.

Another thing that was special was seeing the spectacled bear family, which consists of male Spook, his mate Alice, and their daughter Lola, together. We also have a feather that we found in the zoo’s rainforest house, that likely belongs to Scheepmaker’s crowned pigeon, the largest member of the pigeon family.

We also spent some time inside the chimpanzee house, then moved to the gorillas, and before we left the zoo that afternoon, we said goodbye to Lola and Alice at the spectacled bear enclosure. We also looked into the zoo’s new ‘Buzz stop’, home to a colony of honey bees.

The following day, we visited the Ulster museum, just by walking from the Wellington hotel where we stayed and which is close by. Later, we drove to Mount Stewart, an estate along Strangford lough, where, as mentioned above, me and Dad caught a glimpse of two wild red squirrels on the same tree trunk. The squirrels were probably fighting over territory. During courtship, males would chase females who are ready to mate, but it was too early to be the mating season. I would say seeing the red squirrel is a late birthday present, like the otter from last year.