National Sea Life Centre

The summer holidays are almost over, so as a last treat I took the kids (and Nanny Moth) to the Sea Life Centre in Birmingham.

The penguins were a big hit and they seemed happy to perform, waddling up and down the 'ice', then diving in and showing their true underwater prowess.

 

They reminded me of our mini wildlife picture that was printed in BBC Wildlife magazine!

 

Our mini wildlife photo - taken using plastic penguins on the chalk scraped
out at the entrance of a badger sett!

Bug Mad Girl seemed to like the rays the best as the top of the pool was open and they kept sticking their heads out to look as us. They were pretty amazing to watch as they glided around and they did seem to be watching us just as much as we were watching them.

Nanny Moth seemed quite taken with the seahorses and the jellyfish.

My favourite thing was the chambered nautilus, which are known as 'living fossils' as they were one of the most abundant sea creatures 500 million years ago.

I have had a bit of a thing for them ever since we saw some beautifully engraved shells at the Ashmolean Museum, dating back to the 1600's.

We all enjoyed the underwater tunnel, especially the grumpy turtle that was swimming around and the shark sat on the top of the tunnel posing for photos.

A few other things that stood out ...

We find mermaid's purses (shark egg cases) washed up on the beach, but these
were golden and looked like satin

A sea apple - a type of sea cucumber related to starfish and sea urchins

The rockpool, where you could touch the starfishes and anemones

It was all nicely laid out, very child friendly and all the creatures seemed very healthy and well cared for. However I would have preferred a few more signs so we knew what we were looking at. A nice way to end the school holidays though!