Visitors to Birds of Paradise

I little late with my blog post again but better late than never :-)

Last week I was really pleased to be on the bird section of the zoo. I haven't been on birds for ages and I always enjoy working on the section.

I started off by going to the Toucan House (which really needs to be renamed as it only contains one toucan these days. I think I introduced you to the toucan the last time I was on the section. This time, not only did I get to clean out her enclosure, but I also hand fed her some grapes.

Despite reassurances that they had settled down somewhat, I refused to go into the enclosure with the sun conures; after being attacked twice now, I have no desire to get bitten again. Instead, I cleaned out the bats which I thought was much more fun ;-) I was warned that they will urinate on you, but I got in and out no problem at all, much to my relief.

The rest of the morning (and part of the afternoon) was more or less spent making up the foods. Although I do quite enjoy it, it does take a long time and by the end, I must confess I do get a little bored of cutting up apples. I also got to watch a bit of one of the shows - This is Stella, an eagle owl who was found living wild on an estate (living off the local cat population!).

In the afternoon, one of the other volunteers and I got to go and feed the penguins, who took this opportunity to all go for a swim (and they never go in the water). This makes feeding difficult, as we're not supposed to throw the fish in the water (in case they don't get eaten), however we stuck to putting them in the shallow part of the pool where we could easily get them out again.

At the end of the day, some visitors were brought to the Birds of Paradise section. The head primate/reptile keeper, thought it would be a nice idea to bring his new giant tortoises out of quarantine for the first time to enjoy a bit of sunshine and the fresh grass. The male tortoise wandered off almost immediately and happily set about eating the grass, the female was less sure and after a lot of sitting there, looking decidedly nervous anytime anyone went near her, she eventually headed towards a nearby tree.

 'Lancelot'*

 'Guinevere'*

*They don't actually have names yet, but one of the other volunteers and I came up with these two - The reptile keeper was less impressed. ;-)

The tortoises are about 12 and a half years old and were apparently living in someones garden until they got too big and were given to the zoo. As you can see from the photos they're already quite big but are expected to become a third bigger in size before they are full grown.

So here is my blog post for the day, I've finally got the photos up which go with the post. I wonder what section I'll be on tomorrow...

Bird Attack!

This week (and last week) I was working on the bird section of the zoo. I always like working with the birds; the work is less manual than in other parts of the zoo but its always good fun.

For the first task of the morning, Claire and I headed over to the Toucan House to clean out and feed the birds there. We were hoping to get it done pretty quickly and so she started with the bats, which arrived at the zoo a few weeks ago, which I started at the other side with the sun conures.

I’ve always liked the sun conures; theirs was the first aviary I cleaned out, back on my first day volunteering back in March (or was it February? – I lose track), but I was a little bit nervous. Last time I had gone in the cage one of the birds had become quite aggressive towards me and I got bitten on the arm.

This time, I gave them their food first (in the hope to distract them) before setting to work cleaning the enclosure. I was about done and just sweeping up the mess they had made with their new food when one of them landed on me. I was hoping he’d be content with simply biting my hair band but unfortunately Carlos decided to bite my ear and then my finger (as I raised my hands to protect my ear).

Although they weren’t serious injuries, they really hurt and my finger started to bleed which meant we had to put on a plaster and go and fill out the accident forms before we could get back to work

I made Claire do back in the conures’ cage to get my cleaning stuff out of it.

There’s a picture of the culprits.

Things fortunately became less dramatic after that. I cleaned out one of the toucan cages, who was definitely one bird I didn’t have to worry about attacking me. This is Tammy and he is a real sweetheart and sometimes tries to feed you. Today however, he was simply interested in trying to eat food out of the conures’ old food tray.

Later on I did my usual tasks of cleaning out the small aviaries and the lovebirds. I like doing this a Lolly, on of the lorikeets is particularly friendly, the trouble was, when she landed on my shoulder and refused to get off I was paranoid that I’d get bitten again!

I also had to go and clean out the parrot cages, this is always interesting as you have to try and find boxes and empty toilet rolls of them to play with and put them imaginatively in the cages, and then prepare their feeds.

This is Bobby one of the parrots.

The final task of the day was to get the food out the freezer for the birds of prey to have the next morning. Here’s a picture of Monday’s breakfast defrosting… Yum!

I think that’s enough for the day. I have rambled long enough. Stay tuned for more exciting adventures next week!

Looking after the penguins

Today I worked on the bird section of the zoo and spent most of the time with the Humboldt penguins.

My first penguin task of the day was to help Claire catch three of the penguins and put some cream on their feet. This is because their feet are becoming cracked. The cream has to be put on twice a day. Two of them we caught easily, one by tempting him with some fish, the other by cornering them in their enclosure. The third penguin refused to be caught and went swimming instead. This meant when he finally was caught we had to wait for him to dry before rubbing on the cream.

I then had to hose down the rocks while Claire hoovered the pool (with a wet vacuum cleaner).

After we were done, I left the penguins for a while and made up the feed pot; a mixture of carrot and cabbage that the public can buy in bags and feed to a number of animals around the park.

In the afternoon, I finished off my work with the penguins by getting to feed them which Liz gave a talk to the public. I say getting to feed them... Actually only one was hungry so I only really fed the one... But it was fun anyway! :) This is me feeding Vera below:

It was a great day and the penguins are lovely. I also went with Liz to check on the two penguin eggs they have incubating. They're quite hopeful at the moment and they hope they'll hatch 15-18 May so fingers crossed for the safe arrival of chicks soon!

Sunday 21st March 2010 - Trial Day

On 21st March, I arrived bleary eyed at the Park at 8am for my trial day. After a brief meeting with Kayleigh about safety issues and a quick tour she assigned me to spend the day working on the bird section of the park.

As she left me with Claire, one of the bird keepers she assured me that I wouldn't be left alone and that I'd have someone with me the whole time. 10 minutes later, Claire had to leave - The horn billed toucan had hurt his foot and she had to take him to see the vet.

Things were very hectic on my first day - Claire still refers to it as the Sunday from hell, but despite this I did really enjoy myself. I cleaned out some of the small aviaries and gave the birds some food and was rewarded by having the sun conures land on my back. Here's a photo of the two cheeky chaps from the safety of the other side of the bars. ;-)

The most of the rest of the day was spent preparing the food for later, with Stephen one of the other volunteers and doing some general cleaning around the site.

I did however get to watch part of the bird show which was running that day and listened to them talk about the different birds they had there. At the end of the show, the public get the opportunity to hold a barn owl and take photos and I was delighted to be able to as well. I got the extra pleasure of being able to stroke her as well (which the public aren't allowed to do). Her feathers were so soft! Did you know you should only stroke then with the back of your hand? I think it's something to do with the waterproofing of their feathers.

Overall, it was a great day and I was definitely looking forward to going back the next week!