Shorelands Wildlife Gardens

29/06/2020

Thankyou for all the phone calls and messages. Obviously we didn't open in May as planned and all of our coach group visits have been rebooked for 2021. As we are a small site, we will remain closed to the general public, only opening to smaller pre booked groups (from 1st August). We are now excepting group bookings for 2021!

03/08/2019

Due to ongoing family illness, Shorelands will not be opening this year. We had hoped to open in August, but it's now becoming apparent that May 2020 will be a more realistic date. Many thanks for all the support and messages. Ben & Sarah.

24/05/2019

Lots of hype in the media this week about the pair of White Stork nesting at Knepp Estate. The adult birds came from Warsaw Zoo as part of a group of rehabilitation birds. Our first group of Polish birds arrived in 2014 and we had chicks in 2016 (filmed by the BBC). Last year we also imported 6 pairs for a zoo in Scotland, who have also had nesting attempts.

16/05/2019

May Open Weekend....
Sarah Potterton was injured in a horse riding accident on the 1st April and is taking longer to recover than initially expected. As Shorelands is our home, we have decided to cancel our open weekend and aim to open later in the year when she is fully recovered. We would recommend that you visit the Earsham Wetland Centre near Bungay as a free alternative.

06/01/2019

We have another busy year ahead and have once again decided to concentrate on our conservation projects. We will therefore only be opening to the public for one weekend in May and another in August, both in aid of conservation charities. We are still taking booking for pre booked Gardening, Education, Art or Natural History group visits during the day or early evening throughout the Summer. We will post the May dates soon!

24/08/2018

Being closed to the public has enabled us to make some improvements to the site and we are also in the process of replanting the gardens, unfortunatly we dont plan to reopen until 2019. The animal collection is always changing, with young animals moving to other zoos or conservation projects and some animals arriving for rehab.
This Fallow Deer arrived from Hertfordshire, it's mother was hit by a car and an emergency caesarean was performed that saved the fawns life. Now 9 weeks old, he will be moved across Earsham Wetland Centre to meet the other tame Fallow Deer.

07/08/2018

Morning, we are still getting lots of messages to ask when we are reopening. We are still open for pre-booked group visits, but are directing all other potential visitors to the Earsham Wetland Centre.

Morning....the sun is out, the sky is blue, we have a refreshing light breeze and the animals are all fed, watered and brushed ready for 10am.

22/05/2018

We have been busy with our native species surveys. We have located 6 Little Owl territories within our two neighbouring villages and it appears that we also have 4 Barn Owl nests, but Tawny Owls are completely absent this year. Nests in neighbouring villages have all failed so it appears to be related to food availability. Hopefully the rodent population will increase before the Barn Owls start to hatch!

16/04/2018

Spring arrived at Shorelands today and we had our first White Stork egg of the year!

09/10/2017

The Autumn jobs have started and for some of our animals, such as this White-collard Lemur nothing much will change. However many of our younger animals will be moving to homes in new zoos and wildlife centres as part of coordinated breeding programmes. In the coming weeks we will be travelling to 6 European countries, delivering our surplus young animals and collecting a few new species to add to the collection here at Shorelands.

04/09/2017

If you visited last summer you will have seen the baby stork that was sat on the lawn (the BBC filmed her for the One Show). Over the winter she started roosting on our buildings and this year has been walking around amongst the visitors. This week she decided to leave! First she flew to 4.5 miles to Scole and then came back. Then she flew 6 miles to Hoxne, roosted over night and then flew 24 miles to Hethersett and joined families on the playing field. We have now moved her to Earsham Wetland Centre and will be moving our other White Storks to join her today, giving them more space to feed and nest naturally.

28/08/2017

We have now closed for 2017 and would like to thank all of our visitors and our many supporters. We will reopen in Summer 2018, but while we are closed we will still be updating facebook with our conservation projects and animal news. Many of our domestic and native animals will be moving to the Earsham Wetland Centre (11 miles East of Shorelands) and we hope that you visit this site in the coming months.