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August 2009
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Friday 21st August New Arrival |
Raul is a white-fronted juvenile male. He also arrived on horseback. (We do a lot of work with the horses in the village, so the lads know us and are aware of our work with the birds). The boys claim that Raul had been in their possession for a while, but he showed considerable fear of humans and had very freshly cut wings. We have a horrible feeling he had been taken from the nest specifically for us to curry favour in some way. We feel terrible that we may have been inadvertently responsible for this bird's capture. The boys received a stern lecture from Jerry and have hopefully got the message. Some dear friends tell us that making progress is sometimes like running up sand dunes. Today we understood exactly what they meant. | |
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Wednesday 19th August New Arrival |
Fidel was brought to our door by two young men on horseback. There is a little controvesy surrounding his appearance - their version is that he was an unwanted gift, but we also overheard comments about 'capture', Either way, we are glad to have him. He's a mature bird - age unknown, and has been captive in the past as his wings are clipped with some regrowth. He is a quiet chap; he grumbles to himself and seems largly content with his lot. He took to good living straight away and is currently enjoying the wealth of stimulation the aviary has to offer. We are unsure of a release date at the moment. |
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| Thursday 6th August |
A few updates: Pinky and Perky are having a whale of a time. They are all over the property, disappearing for hours and then coming back for a feed. They fly with the 'wild' parakeets and then come back for a feed. They leap on our head cackling, then fly away - before coming back for a feed! Wonderful stuff. Blue is still around. He is flying way out of sight and back again on a regular basis - scoping for mates presumably. He eats well and maintains a healthy distance from us. Kaylie and Bonnie came back for a very brief fly-past yesterday. They have been absent for several weeks now and it was, as always, a relief to see them alive and well. Jake comes and goes - sometimes disappearing for days on end. When he comes back he's always ready for steak. We also tempt him with the odd grasshopper too! |
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| Tuesday 4th August |
Release day for Pinky and Perky. After exactly 10 months the parakeets were finally ready for the outside world. There was some trepedation, and not just a little encouragment required to get them out of their aviary, but once they discovered the abundance of leaves outside, they were very happy birds indeed. They have access to food and water and it will be good if they stick around for a while and work on getting those flight muscles up to speed, although with the number of parakeets flying overhead at the moment, I suspect they won't be around for long. |
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| Friday 31st July |
Another new arrival: Pepe, a 5 year old red lored donated by Thatch Caye Resort The guys at Thatch Caye were given Pepe by a lady who left Belize after 5 years. They had hear rumours (!) of our intense dislike of resorts using captive animals as tourist attractions and so the owners brought the bird personally all the way to our front door. Thanks guys - I'm sure Pepe is going to love going back to his jungle roots and has already begun the important work of dismantling our orchard. I have to say, he is probably the best condition red lored I have ever seen (except maybe Spike on the day of his release!!) Well done Thatch Caye: let's hope more resorts with captive birds follow suit. |
 Pepe enjoying craboo |
| Thursday 30th July |
A red lored was donated by 2 boys from the village today. It was given to their mother a few days before and she did not want a bird, nor could she cope with one. We gave them our Bird Rescue shirts and profuse thanks. This bird seems quite well looked after: he has all his toes and seems to be in reasonably good health. He has one clipped wing but can control a fall. We have no idea ofhis history and not a clue of his age. After the usual observation and medicines we will start him off in the smaller aviary to see how he gets on. Thanks to Rosey for the name suggestion of Fidel - I'm sure Raul will follow soon! |
 Fidel |
