Stories of a short, fat bastard.

A young, almost-juvenile sacred kingfisher. He is still young enough to gape at anything that moves, which means feeding him isn't the fight I usually have with kingfishers. Hopefully I'll get him to self feed meal worms and I Can't Believe It's Not Meal Worms from a tray. He hasn't been long out of the nest and is quite fat. Rehab looks good.

Welcome Swallow.

See what happens when I get a digital camera? I go mad taking photos and post them all over my journal. I have uploaded more photos to Flickr in the last two weeks, than I had in the previouse 2 months.

I blame Canon.

( Sheesh. <i>More</i> photos! )

Two magpies, 2 hungry hungry peewees.

I now have in care an injured raven.

Photos to come. RWaaaaaaak!

The White Plumed Honey Eater has a new friend. He is a White Plumed Honey Eater. She has decided the small, green and grey bird with white ears is much more attractive than the large black and white birds. She still comes down to drink at the nectar station, and begs for meat-mix when it's being handed out, but I saw the pair of honey eaters in the bottle brush, sipping nectar. My baby is all growed up!

One red-rumped parrot, four willy wagtail babies. The chicks are tiny and I'll be handing them to a baby bird expert tomorrow. Oh, and Fips, of course.

I had a young galah in care for a few days, but when I saw him clinging to the inside of the cage with three wild galahs clinging to the outside, I figured it was time to let him go. So I did. He hopped out, walked around with the others for a few minutes, and they all took off.

The youngest peewee was released a few days ago, which surprised his honey-eater friend. She flew into the empty cage, chirped a few times, then went back into the trees. I thought that was the end of it between them, but they still hang out together. I see them roosting side-by-side, and the honey-eater still begs for peewee food. She loves her feeding station though, and I go through quite a lot of nectar mix. I did see her having a go at bottlebrushes in the garden, which is nice. She can take care of herself.

The smallest peewee is getting used to living outside the cage but being the smallest he is picked-on by the older peewees. The older peewees still don't know what to make of him because the instant they try to assert their authority, they suddeny have a small, grey maniac bouncing off their heads and backs, screaming melodic battle cries in Honeyeater.

I've reduced the amount of food I feed the outside birds and they're learning to fend for themselves. The poor dogs have to put up with five peewees and two magpies stealing their evening meals. This is the wrong sort of fending, of course, but it won't last long.

Peewees



Magpies


Noisy Miners


I had to do some cage shuffling today. The larger two of the young peewees went from the medium cage to the large cage with the two oldest peewees, the magpie in the small cage went into the medium cage (with a stop-over in a cardboard box) the smallest peewee and the noisy miner went into the small cage, and the new magpie is in the tiny nursery cage, because he's still too young to perch. The oldest peewee is sitting on the bottom of the large cage Being Grumpy because his personal space has been invaded. The miner and small peewee are snuggling together because it's all strange and scary and We Don't Like It At A--ooh food onna stick! The miner is also learning about eating nectar. He likes the mix a lot but he still won't drink on his own. He's looking a bit shabby because he mistook the nectar dish for the water dish and hopped in for a bath. I had to catch him and hold him under a tap to rinse the sticky gunk out of his feathers. Tomorrow I get a mouse drinker and make a fake flower.

The Peewee Mafia stopped at the office and left me an offer I couldn't refuse.