nanoboy
Well-Known Member
We popped down to Healesville Sanctuary on Australia Day (26/01/12) with the aim of doing a few pre-booked "magic moments".
At 11:30am, there were approximately 100 people in the queue, but zero people in the FOTZ members queue, so that was pretty cool to flash our membership cards.
We rushed off to the bird show at 12 noon, stood in the shade next to the area where we knew that the birds land during the show - it pays to be a regular.
The bird show is now a combination of the two shows (birds of prey and parrots) that they used to put on until recently. Sadly, since we were last there (August 2011) no new elements have been added to the show. It was the usual parade of the wedge tailed eagle, the black breasted buzzard breaking the egg, the barking owl barking, and the long billed corella talking, to name a few. All in all, pretty entertaining still!
Then we rushed off to do a 10 minute encounter with the Goodfellow's tree kangaroo. What a beautiful animal! I am sure that the encounter lasted a bit longer though. There were 6 people on 'tour', and the keeper fed the kangaroo and we individually patted her (the kangaroo, not the keeper!) whilst she was eating. They are so fluffy! This is a must-do experience for anyone who is into encounters, and at $10, you can't go wrong.
After an overpriced, albeit tasty, lunch in the bistro, we had our second "magic moment", this time with a pair of ~8 month old 'baby' wombats. I love wombats, so this was a treat for us. These were "common wombats" (although they really should change that name I think, since they aren't as common any more - bare-nosed is better), so their coats were very coarse. We got to feed them with grass, which they readily ate from our hands, and the keeper put them on our laps (while she kept a firm grip on them) for a quick photo. This second 'tour' group was a bit wack though - very selfish, always getting in the way of photos, and never wanting the wombats to eat from anyone else (I'll keep my stereotypes to myself). But, at $10 per person, what do you expect? Overall, still a pretty cool experience for the price.
On our way out, I stopped a random employee (who turned out to be the guy that did the bird show) and asked why the cockatoo enclosure was undergoing repairs and where were the black cockatoos. Turns out that Healesville is planning to open an interactive "World of Parrots" walk-through aviary by Easter. At set times, visitors will be able to actually feed the birds by hand (I am thinking Kuranda Bird World here). Right now, he said, quite a few birds are being hand-raised behind the scenes. From what he said, there will be cockatoos, cockatiels, eclectus parrots, and golden-shouldered parrots, to name a few. I am really looking forward to this new enclosure, of course!!
A few pics are to follow.
At 11:30am, there were approximately 100 people in the queue, but zero people in the FOTZ members queue, so that was pretty cool to flash our membership cards.
We rushed off to the bird show at 12 noon, stood in the shade next to the area where we knew that the birds land during the show - it pays to be a regular.
The bird show is now a combination of the two shows (birds of prey and parrots) that they used to put on until recently. Sadly, since we were last there (August 2011) no new elements have been added to the show. It was the usual parade of the wedge tailed eagle, the black breasted buzzard breaking the egg, the barking owl barking, and the long billed corella talking, to name a few. All in all, pretty entertaining still!Then we rushed off to do a 10 minute encounter with the Goodfellow's tree kangaroo. What a beautiful animal! I am sure that the encounter lasted a bit longer though. There were 6 people on 'tour', and the keeper fed the kangaroo and we individually patted her (the kangaroo, not the keeper!) whilst she was eating. They are so fluffy! This is a must-do experience for anyone who is into encounters, and at $10, you can't go wrong.
After an overpriced, albeit tasty, lunch in the bistro, we had our second "magic moment", this time with a pair of ~8 month old 'baby' wombats. I love wombats, so this was a treat for us. These were "common wombats" (although they really should change that name I think, since they aren't as common any more - bare-nosed is better), so their coats were very coarse. We got to feed them with grass, which they readily ate from our hands, and the keeper put them on our laps (while she kept a firm grip on them) for a quick photo. This second 'tour' group was a bit wack though - very selfish, always getting in the way of photos, and never wanting the wombats to eat from anyone else (I'll keep my stereotypes to myself). But, at $10 per person, what do you expect? Overall, still a pretty cool experience for the price.
On our way out, I stopped a random employee (who turned out to be the guy that did the bird show) and asked why the cockatoo enclosure was undergoing repairs and where were the black cockatoos. Turns out that Healesville is planning to open an interactive "World of Parrots" walk-through aviary by Easter. At set times, visitors will be able to actually feed the birds by hand (I am thinking Kuranda Bird World here). Right now, he said, quite a few birds are being hand-raised behind the scenes. From what he said, there will be cockatoos, cockatiels, eclectus parrots, and golden-shouldered parrots, to name a few. I am really looking forward to this new enclosure, of course!!
A few pics are to follow.
) the outdoor platypus exhibit was being renovated and no one could get close enough to see it. Has anything changed around that area?