Birds of a feather....

As many of you already know, I'm a bit of a bird nerd. I love all things avian, especially psitticines or birds of the parrot species and corvids, which include magpies, crows and even birds of paradise. Recently at Billabong Sanctuary we have developed a free flight bird show, with the help of my very awesome housemate, Ryan or better known as "Eagle". In this show, which takes place everyday at 2pm, we fly different birds. In the current line-up is "Freeze" the Bush-stone Curlew, "Skwimm" the Tawny Frogmouth, "Guenther" the Australian Barn Owl, "Roxy" the Barking Owl, "Yasi" the Black Kite, and "Billy", the Sulfur Crested Cockatoo.

On the left is "Freeze" when he was only a baby and on the right is "Skwimm".

 On the left is Ryan with "Yasi" and on the right is me with "Geunther".

 On the left is "Roxy" and on the right "Billy" joins us for our morning break.

"Ash" on the left is on a perch during the day and guests can feed him sunflower seeds. On the right, "Selena" the emu rests her head on my shoulder.








Getting to work with these amazing birds is a real privilege but it gets even more fun for me as I work to train the new entries to the bird show! As I raised "Skwimm" I knew he was going to be a bird that the public would interact with so I did a lot of socialization with him to get him ready. With "Selena" I hope to walk her down to the show area and have her lie down with me while I show people what an imprinted bird behaves like then allow people to come and give her a pat! We are also in the process of training a chicken, a whistling kite and hopefully "Snugglepot" will eventually make an appearance flying in the show! We have 8 Swainson's lorikeets that I am training to fly to the show area, feed on nectar out of cups the public holds then fly back. I'm putting up a nest box with the hopes of hand raising a few so that interact with the public more.

Another fun part of my job is having the role of baby birdie momma. I get to raise the birds in my home and really enjoy all the things that go into the care of a baby bird. Sure they are noisy, and a bit messy but it's a very rewarding activity. Below is a sequence of the time that we raised the barn owls.

5 week old and still puffy.

Two week old fluff balls

Fully fledged and eating on their own.

"Geunther" coming down to the show area for his performance!

 On the left I am in a training session with "Roxy" and in the background "Snugglepot" can be seen looking on.
On the right, the two baby curlews huddled up on the rug at my house.








Next week I will be bringing home the new Red-tailed Black Cockatoo chick and again, the house will have gone to the birds!!! Stay tuned, more birdie action ahead in the coming posts!

New bub!

     This last Tuesday I got a 12 week old dilute Swainson's lorikeet. She came all the way from Perth to me in North Queensland! It was a 12 hour journey total and it's taken a couple of days but she has settled quite well into her new home. Neuro can't get enough of her, although he still finds me more interesting if given the option!

Here are some pictures of her:

         As you can see, she looks quite different than Neuro. She is a hypomelanistic version of him. Other names for this colouration include cinnamon as well. When she molts she will become even brighter! She was raised from the age of 8 days by a friend of mine in Perth. You don't usually start hand raising that early but she had splayed legs and had to be in a brace. 

1 week old with splayed legs.

8 days old with a brace on.

I'm really glad it was caught soon as she is just fine now! How cute are they when they are this little?!!! I look forward to the adventures to come! I'm still working on a name for her. In the running is "Chillipetin" "Milia" and "Zvezda". Suggestions welcome but for now I'm just happy to welcome her into the family!

Neuro

                 As you may already know, my boss gave me a 5 week old Swainson's Lorikeet last July. I've raised him and he has a very active life where we go on hikes and we go to town and he meets all sorts of people of all ages. He will get on anybody and usually tries to taste you. Lories have brushes on the ends of their toungues specially designed for getting pollen as the main diet of a lorikeet is pollen, nectar and fruit. They have very quick digestive systems and therefore tend to be rather good foragers. I make toys and offer exploration as forms of enrichment for him all of the time.

Postmix Neuro Steves

Neuro is a source of constant entertainment and occasional irritant. He's curious, intelligent and high energy, always getting into something or finding new toys!

This is some video of Neuro in the rain:

Pretty cute guy and so full of personality!

Neuro is a bird I've wanted for some time and they are pretty hard to come by in the states. He's really special and there is alot to say for hand raising a bird. There is a bond and a solid foundation that never gets broken. I wanted to introduce you to him and I will getting a new lory to keep him company and to add to my delight in this species next week! Stay tuned!

Cockatoo shenanagins and crocodile joy!

           In a previous post I showed a croc hatching but I wanted to show you today, the very last of our estuarine crocs hatching. This bunch is from Modonna, Jaws' female.

Rick feeds Riley on the left. I got to feed him for the first time this week! Pictures will be posted when someone takes one of me doing it.

 
 I other news, I found myself up a tree last Friday as Ash, our red-tailed black cockatoo took a long flight across the billabong and into a melaleuca tree. I ate my lunch in the tree and with the help of Ryan, put up two large perches in the tree to help him climb down!

Me up a tree!

                                        

  

We had waited a long time but he looked quite comfortable up there so plan B was to row across the billabong and squirt him down with a hose. 

                                  The front of the park from the billabong, beautiful place!

         The good news is that once we reached him by boat, he was in such a good position that I could again climb the tree and wrap him up in a t-shirt and pass him to Ryan at the base of the tree. Ash was flustered but otherwise o.k. We clipped his wings the next day. Every birds moults at different times and paces so it's hard to know when it's clipping time and that is why I have put in a strict monthly check and clip for all of our perch birds. :)

Wild wet season weather!

Apparently the wet season either peters out or goes out with a bang, such is legend. It looks like it's another bang year cause these last few days have been one for the records.

This happened last Tuesday. This is my old neighborhood, the cruddy one I lived in before I moved to Alligator paradise.

This is a park and ouch to the house in the distance.

Looking down the street sends memories of Yasi through my head.

 A freak tornado came out of nowhere and tore Vincent apart. It left the neighboring suburb alone.

This is the horrible house I used to live in, looks like the insides got a good whack with the fan and the eave lying out front, glad I wasn't there!!!

This is the Alligator Creek bridge, the water got so high that it actually flowed over and cut off access to the highway. The highway was cut between Townsville and Ayr (90kms south) in 4 places! 

 
To the left and right are views from either side of the bridge once I could drive over it again.

This is Alligator Creek, cut off two homes and the National Park, just one property next to us.

Some serious raging water! There are billboards up during the wet encouraging people not to cross flooded roads. There are also TV ads with cartoon characters telling kids not to play in pipes and drains!

Our creek flooded too, it only flows heavily when Alligator Creek floods.

This is on Alligator Creek road which leads to my house, luckily I live on high ground!

 The paddock on the left was so flooded that is created it's own little waterfall!

Despite all of the crazy weather we experience in North Queensland, it's still a beautiful place to live! I'm going to miss the wet season.

Monsoon of words.

Rainy weather always makes for good writing. At least for me. I've been absent for a bit, mostly due to needing to leave the country in order start the visa renewal process which resulted in a 10 week hiatus in Mexico and Texas. It was a fabulous journey and I hope to publish it in this blog along with some other global gallivants and tips for traveling. This may seem a bit ambitious with so few updates lately; I've been struggling with the formatting of this blog, mainly the integration of movies and pictures into text. So I'm currently looking for another site to host but I'll keep this current in the meantime. :)

                                                "Savannah" and her joey "Moses"

As mentioned before, it's been raining here. Alot. Constant rain for two weeks solid. We have some sort of tropical low stalled above us and living in a valley in the mountains on the coast you can imagine the rainfall. Today we got over 100mm (4") of rain. I'm not complaining, I really like it. It means working in the rain too, that can suck. It's really hard to rake leaves in the rain and when your black cockatoo/bettong exhibit is under water, it's hard to re-substrate and refresh it. Other than that, it's really nice. A cacophony of croaking... heavy rain on a tin roof...... comfortable weather perfect for leaving the doors open....heaven. I don't mind being wet either, well at work that is; when your hair and makeup are nice (which does happen some times in my case) it is annoying. The greatest thing about the rain though is that oddly, it increases my productivity. I can't get distracted by wandering around outside enjoying the wonderful scenery. There isn't much you can do when it's flooding. Even getting to school is a bit treacherous. Yes, I'm in school, studying Zoology. It is pretty fun, I mean, who wouldn't want to study in the tropics?

Ok, enough of my background babble. Here are some pics of what's been happening since I've been back (February 8th).

Me and my little rare Pellewensis

Houdini, the best koala ever!

Robbie's inland taipan on our bed. Check out the pretty pattern on her!

 During the wet season you don't really get to see the mountains but it sure is pretty watching the mist, fog, and clouds drift through our valley.

As you can see, there are still moments of blue sky to enjoy too!!

Our little Macroglossus minimus visitor.

   

Brand new estuarine crocodiles

Baby crocs externally pipping

 

Babies are always fun and these guys are no different. On the left is "Savannah" again and our youngest koala "Moses" who is only 30 weeks! On the right is a video of a baby croc hatching. Keep in mind video is not always well supported, hence why I'm looking for a new site. I hope it does work though!!!

Date night to the Cowboy's game!

 On the left I have Skwimm, the little Tawny Frogmouth I was raising last November. On the right is Rosalinda and Neuro hanging out on the bed. :)

White's tree frog found at our house!

As you can see, I've settled back into my awesome life in the tropics!!! I'll keep updating weekly and show you all of the wonderful things I get to experience in fabulous north Queensland!