AH...the beautiful birds!

Monday at Lone Pine, I was assigned to work with the birds.  I had the opportunity to get in several different aviaries with:

Princess parrots
Lorikeets
Rose crowned fruit doves
Electus Parrot 
Pheasant Coucal
Tawny Frogmouth
and the Major Mitchell Cockatoos.

There is nothing like going in and out of an aviary hoping the birds don't choose that moment to make a break for it.  And as an FYI, apparently aviary doors are shorter than a standard door.  This may not mean much, but for someone who had NEVER had to duck for an opening, I banged my head more times than I care to count.  And I successfully banged it HARD.

In some of the enclosures we switched out the mulch and some just scruffed the mulch up a bit. One cheeky cockatoo talks non-stop when you are working near him.  Of course, I chattered right back at him.  The electus parrot was excruciatingly loud when he was displeased with the work. 

I also changed their seed boxes at which they came flying down to the fresh seeds.  BTW - sunflower seeds are very popular and sulphur crested cockatoos can be coaxed into a small holding pen with them.  :) At one point, the Pheasant appeared to be nesting in his seed box.  Or at least hiding in it...protecting the seeds from anyone else!  Most of the birds get a mix of parrot feed, finch feed and parrot training mix plus their fresh fruits and veggies.

Which brings us to the feed shed.

One building is dedicated to prepping daily meals for the animals (except the koalas who get branches).  I had the pleasure of mixing up emu food.  They like corn, peas, pears, carrots, sweet potato, apples, beetroot leaves (no stems) and lettuce along with some kangaroo feed pellets.  At first I cut the potato too small...then too large.  Picky birds.
Then I got to feed the emus.  Nothing like standing at the feed box dumping in their food when they come charging over.  (Emus are big.)

Of course, the Sanctuary goes through a lot of bowls in a day and the dirty ones have to be washed.  I was waiting for the next assignment and decided to go see if the stack of dirty dishes had started up again.  Then I found all of the mice that had been prepped for dinner.  I opted to go back outside and just watch the koala joey who was starting to explore on his own.  Yes - a perfect day for joey pictures and I didn't have my camera.

On the second food run, we took fresh veggies AND some mouse parts.   I had some pine branches of some type for bird treats and a co-volunteer was carrying the box of bowls and the keeper said to be on the lookout for the kookaburra.  There is one who has no qualms about swooping down out of the sky and taking a mouse part.  No incidents this time.

The pheasant was at the door waiting on his mouse chunks....so excited...pacing.  Just like a little kid with ice cream.  The tawny frogmouth took his third of a mouse and proceeded to smack it around as if to kill it.  Fascinating and yet disgusting to watch. 

As I was sitting on the couch Monday evening, reviewing the day, a question came to mind:  How many snakes live in the mulch pile I was digging around in?  Luckily, that didn't come to mind until I was well into my glass of wine. 

Once again, a wonderful day at the Sanctuary.  Who wouldn't love working there???