I did not spend my whole morning with the kangaroos, but there is where I had a few chances to get the camera out!
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Another Saturday with the koalas. Sigh!
I snapped a good picture of the newby on our team Narelle, with a koala, and she got one of me at the pelican & ell feeding show. Wally, a little pied cormorant is on my arm waiting for fish. Another exhausting day with a variety of amazing animals. I even got to hold an echidna! It is also called a spiny anteater. No worries tho, its quills are not barbed like porcupines. They are sharp & will definitely draw blood if you mishandle them, but they do not stick & stay! Young wombats in a 5 week quarantine before going on public display. I got to accompany one, a boy named Lee, to his vet-check at the wildlife hospital. Other pics: Tree kangaroo close-up, black necked storks (Jabiroos), quokkas, koalas, & Tasmanian devil. Finished my shift landscaping & staining wooden poles & platforms in the new tree kangaroo enclosures. Totally tired, but bicycled home and stayed up past 8 PM! A day well worth it! Took a before shift walk past the koala moms & bubs, and into Blink Bill's Home Tree to see the night displays - lace monitor and some bandikoots are pictured. Or are they poteroos? Hmm... Posed with the man himself - Blinky Bill! Worked the lirikeet feed, roos & wallabies, then the Free flight Bird show. Had a quick peek (sticky beak) of the new young wombats in their quarantine accommodations! WOW! Another hot sweaty day working with these wonderful critters. I was with Keeper Jolene today, and we had some help from another wildlife volunteer, Ashley, for a good part of the day. Started with raking out the tree kangaroos. Walking past the fresh water crocs, I noticed one that seems to have grasped an eel! I'm still trying to get a picture of a quokka smiling. Koala joey Pirate was being separated from her mother, Sapphire, while while mom had to star in a movie being shot elsewhere. So, we had to babysit Pirate & make sure she did not get into too much trouble on her own. Yup, a tough job, but SOMEONE had to do it! A tom brush turkey in full breeding wattle insisted on trying to get in on the wombat's feed. Both wombats just love sweet corn on the cob. One picture of their poo, which is famous for being shaped to not roll down into wombat burrows. The echidnas were fed & then came a treat for three volunteers - we got to walk the dingoes through the park! I was paired with Mouse - what a lovely lady! The lady koalas look very exposed with the shade sails removed for maintenance. Magpie geese in the grey roo paddock. A young brush turkey in the wallaby encounter AND my first views of pademelons! Pronounced paddy-melon, they are a small macropod, or a tiny member of the big foot group of marsupial mammals. On my break, I watched part of the pelican & eel feed show. And that means another koala day! One of the guys was pooping purple - wonder what leaf he nibbled! The huntsman spider on the fence is of moderate size, as huntsmen go. I am doing a trial as a wildlife volunteer on the Mammals 2 round. Was supposed to work with Bec, but Hiedi wound up in charge of me instead. Had some time before shift started, so I did some bird photography. The work was physically demanding, as almost everything on this round is on a hill. I survived, and had a great time being in with the tree kangaroos, quakas, dingoes, and wombats! Oh, and there are koalas on this shift as well. And more! Hot Dog Hut! Wazzup? Wild burgers is closed for about a month for a major upgrade. Also, no trains this week as the tracks get scheduled maintenance. Keeper Clancy & child came into the kangaroo paddock for a visit. On my break I did a sticky-beak at the pelican & eel feed. Back to the roos before ending my shift in the Land of Parrots. Birds were definitely dominating the animal antics this morning. Seemed like there was a convention of Tom brush turkeys in the Wallaby Encounter enclosure. They surprised me with their displays! In the aviary on the hill, seems like love is in the air - in the form of much mutual grooming. Too bad the participants were a Major Mitchell (pink) cockatoo and a little corrella - both males! |
AuthorRetired Canadian volunteer. Archives
March 2024
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