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Long time, no blog!

by David Woolcock

An early start this morning so took the opportunity to update the blog – and not before time...

Cannot believe that it has been over a year since my last entry. So what’s new?

Well since I last wrote three of our keepers have thrown themselves out of an aircraft to raise funds for a new penguin exhibit (I think their total raised so far exceeds £18,000!), two of our show team have been paired up for breeding (that’s birds not presenters!!), and we have our very first parent rearing of a Blue throated Macaw chick going on as I write.

Becky, Adam and Perry did tandem parachute jumps to boost the funds raised at the penguin feeding events and to raise publicity for our new penguin enclosure appeal – corporate sponsors of exhibits always welcome by the way. They had a great time and all three landed safe and sound.


Perry, Becky and Adam together with their instructors after the parachute jump.

Cedric the female Citron crested Cockatoo that was bred at Paradise Park in 1993, and has had a starring role in our Free Flying Bird Show over the years now has a mate. Her new partner is Barley, a lovely male that was donated to the park by a private keeper. Both birds are getting along well and although they continue to spend long hours in their nestbox, or rather what’s left of it, so far there has been no sign of eggs.


Cedric with a workshop participant dispaying her star quality.

Another show bird Toby, a Blue cheeked Amazon is also paired up to a female that arrived recently from Exmoor Zoo. Both birds are originally customs confiscations and they too are getting along really well.


Monitor image of the Blue throated Macaw female with chick.

Although we have bred Blue Throated Macaws at the park our breeding pair have been unable to hatch their own eggs resulting in us having to remove clutches for hand rearing. This was obviously not ideal so we have made a determined effort to turn things around. A new nestbox location was established, nest camera installed and increased humidity at the time of hatch was created. The result is our very first Blue throated Macaw that is being reared by its parents. The birds laid two eggs and hatched both, but the youngest chick failed three days after hatching. The nest camera has given us the confidence to leave the birds well alone, which is particularly important with this pair as they become so aggressive when the nest is approached that we fear for the safety of any eggs or chicks within. To date, all is going well. Both parent birds were hand raised in the US in 1991 at ABRC, Florida.

Posted by David Woolcock on 06/17 at 01:23 AM
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Spring is in the air!

by David Woolcock

After the rigours of winter it is always amazing when the first signs of spring arrive. This really is one of the best times of the year to be fortunate enough to have a job working with living creatures. The whole park is buzzing with activity. Whether it’s setting up nest boxes, refurbishing enclosures, planning for the seasons presentations or tending eggs as they develop in an incubator all the keeping staff are in top gear as the new season is approaching.

There are many species already well into breeding mode, almost certainly as a result of the unusually mild weather. Two pairs of Humboldt Penguin currently have a chick apiece and at least two other pairs are incubating. Alexandrine Parakeets, Swainson’s Lorikeets and Gouldian Finches also all have chicks at varying stages of development, and within our incubation room we have two fertile eggs from one of our pairs of Argus Pheasant and five tortoise eggs. Of course we would always prefer natural incubation by the parents but there are some species such as the Argus Pheasant from which we pull clutches to incubate artificially in order to maximise the numbers reared in a single season. It is not without risk. Incubation is only part of the process, a successful hatch and a trouble free rearing are still hurdles to cross before you have an independent young bird. I don’t consider a bird successfully reared until it has chicks of its own!



Pair of Argus Pheasant

Incubating their own eggs as I write are a pair of Rothschild’s Grackle (more commonly now known as Bali Starlings) that have laid the first two eggs of their clutch, and a pair of Spectacled Owls. The owls however, have never successfully hatched an egg despite producing fertile eggs most seasons. For that reason we will remove at least one of their eggs, once the parents have sat for ten days or so, in order to try and hatch it in an incubator.

Incubating Spectacled Owl


Spectacled Owl Egg


"Archie" the Bald Eagle


Archie the Bald Eagle has been moved from his winter quarters and placed in the weathering from where we can start to fly him once again in preparation for the start of the Free Flight presentations. No sooner was Archie moved from his winter quarters than the enclosure was stripped and refurbished to accommodate one of our pairs of Chough. We now have three pairs of these beautiful symbols of Cornwall set up for breeding, each with a camera in the nest so we can monitor their activity without undue disturbance.

There have been many bird movements in the last three weeks, some were simply the moving on of young birds to other collections but many were to establish new pairs here or elsewhere. The young Hunting Cissa that we bred in 2006 are now enjoying a new home at Thrigby Hall http://www.thrigby.plus.com/ and the three young Von der Decken’s Hornbills have now gone to Harewood Bird Garden (1.1) and Bristol Zoo (1.0). Becky and I had a long day on Tuesday, which started at 4.30am. We drove to Waddesdon Manor Aviaries, a private collection and then on to Bristol Zoo, finally arriving back at the park at 9.30pm. A long day but well worth it. We had a guided tour of the aviaries at Waddesdon by Andrew and we were most impressed. Although not a large collection, it is extremely well maintained and a real gem in the world of aviculture, and the setting is just superb. If you get the chance, do visit. http://www.waddesdon.org.uk/contact.html
We collected a female White Crested Touraco from Waddesdon to join our single male. John and Peter from Harewood Bird Garden http://www.harewood.org/
drove to Waddesdon to meet us, they too left home at 4.30 am, and we literally drove into Waddesdon together, good timing! They collected from us the two Von der Decken’s Hornbills and a female Luzon Bleeding Heart Pigeon which we exchanged with them for a male – Harewood had a surplus of males and we had only three females, now we both have the potential to breed this species this year.

After leaving Waddesdon Becky and I drove to a private collection where we were made most welcome, and where we spent over an hour talking birds. Two of our young Violaceous Touracos are now at this collection together with some young Hahn’s Macaws and Crimson Winged Parakeets. We came away with four very nice Yellow Rosellas.

We then drove on down to Bristol Zoo http://www.bristolzoo.org.uk/ after a brief detour in Droitwich Spa trying to find a garage…but that’s another story!
At Bristol we met Nigel just before the Zoo closed for the night. Nigel showed us around the Wallace Aviary which is just brimming with wonderful birds – Victoria Crowned Pigeons, Nicobar Pigeons, Roul roul Partridges, the list goes on and on. Again, if you like birds, pay it a visit. We had a young male Von der Decken’s Hornbill and a female Spreo Starling for Nigel and collected a male Spreo Starling and a beautiful group of young Black Cheeked Lovebirds. Then it was homeward bound.

As I write Perry is on his way to Paignton Zoo http://www.paigntonzoo.org.uk/HTML/index.asp this morning to rendezvous with Lisa from Paulton’s Park. http://www.paultonspark.co.uk/
He is collecting a pair of Greater Necklaced Laughing Thrushes and a young Tawny Frogmouth from her.

As you can see this is a busy time of the year, but there’s always more excitement to come………..

Posted by David Woolcock on 03/15 at 12:46 PM
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ENRICHMENT

by David Woolcock

Duchy College students and some of the enrichment items they made this week.

For the pet parrot, enrichment can come in many forms; treats, toys, a new fresh branch, telling the family dog to sit, the sound of the radio and of course that extra special time spent positively interacting with its owner.

Unfortunately there are a lot of parrots out there that get very little in the way of enrichment. You don't have to spend vast sums of money on toys, there are lots of everyday items which your parrot will love that cost next to nothing. Let's take a look at some of the simple enrichment ideas that we use here at the park. The photographs were taken by one of our staff, Louise, this week whilst she was showing a group of animal care students from Duchy College how to make and distribute enrichment items for our birds.

A simple wooden toy using natural fibre rope dyed with food colouring and pieces of fresh branch.


Pine cones filled with all manner of treats! Seeds, fruits even insects for some species. We always bake freshly collected pine cones in the oven prior to using.


A simple fun feeder for lorikeets or small parakeets. Made from a section of acrylic rolling pin with angled holes drilled into it. Simply fill the holes with fruit juice, nectar or just plain water and hang in the enclosure, the birds love it.


These spiral balls are often found in pet store to feed wild birds. Fill one with chopped fruit and watch the smaller birds enjoy the challenge of getting to the fruit.


This is one of Louise's favourites. A simple wooden kitchen spoon, dipped in honey or unsalted peanut butter and then dipped into millet or a similar small seed. By the next morning its a plain wooden spoon again - or just splinters on the ground!


Okay, not a parrot, a Ground Hornbill. However, the principle is the same. Encouraging foraging. In this case the box is full of insects and fruit, but for a parrot it could be filled with seeds, nuts, fruits etc. Why not fill it with scrunched up paper balls, some of which contain treats. Use coloured paper and only put the treats in one colour - how long before your bird figures out which balls contain a treat and which do not?


A great little treat made from plaited or folded palm fronds. Simple, cheap and fun.


Enrichment should be stimulating, fun and safe for the birds. Experiment with different things. The same enrichment every day can become routine and can get boring, so keep changing things around to keep it unpredictable.

Enriching the lives of your birds will undoubtedly enrich your life in the process as well - enjoy.

Posted by David Woolcock on 01/27 at 07:51 AM
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Welcome to my blog

by David Woolcock

Welcome to my blog. Those are four words that I never dreamed of stringing together in the same sentence, let alone publishing on the web!

So having got this far what will I be writing about? As this is the WPT blogging community there will inevitably be something about parrots from time to time but I will also be writing about the other birds and mammals which I have the good fortune to work with here at Paradise Park.

This is the time of year when the admin tends to catch up with me. After a busy season now comes the time to play catch up, by transferring all of the daily diary entries onto computer. We do try to keep this up to date, that is until the start of the main season, when visitors arrive in ever increasing numbers and our full schedule of public presentations are in full swing, admin by necessity takes a back seat. Paradise Park is a member of ISIS (www.isis.org) and we use the ARKS software to maintain all of our animal records. Lots of end of year data requests arrive from studbook keepers and species coordinators at this time of the year and each one needs to be completed and returned before studbook recommendations can be made.

It is also a great time to review the collection as a whole and to take stock of where we are with regard to establishing new pairings and moving specimens on to other collections. We have just exchanged a female Buffon's Macaw with a private collection in Ireland in order to establish a new unrelated pair in both collections. This is particularly pleasing as I have been trying to acquire new blood in this species for the last two years. Having previously exchanged another female for an unrelated bird in September of last year we now have two brand new pairs ready for the 2007 breeding season. There are many other stock moves planned for the next few months involving Blue throated Macaws, Wattled Cranes and Ground Hornbills to name but three. There can be few global communities that work together as well as the zoological community. Politics, language and even religious differences disappear when it comes to striving to achieve the best for the animals. The exchange of stock and information is so willingly given that it is such a pleasure to work within such an environment.


The news of the week however must be that the EU has decided to do exactly what we have been hoping for -- all wild bird imports have been banned permanently. The temporary ban on all live bird imports has been extended until June 2007, with the new regulation taking effect on 1 July 2007. Congratulations to everyone involved but particularly Jamie and Cristiana -- well done guys.

The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent World Parrot Trust's positions or opinions.

Posted by David Woolcock on 01/15 at 04:34 AM
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