First up, here's a picture of what a
Double Eyed Fig Parrot looks like, this photo was taken about two weeks before
we moved them to the release aviary. I did want to take more photos, but the
little beggars are far too quick and agile to let out of their cage. They are
still getting their plumage in this shot, when we saw them for the last time
today they have even more colour and are much sleeker
looking.
Anyway, move forward to today.
We took them to a remarkable
lady called Margit who lives 23 kms on the Ravenshoe side of Atherton.
The first thing we saw when we
arrived at Margit's was the juvenile tree climbing kangaroo she has raised since
recovering it from its dead mother following her around like a dog. It was the
most affectionate cute animal I have ever seen bar none, although it does have
the unfortunate habit of trying to climb humans like a tree. Here's a shot
of him in his natural element. As he has no mother, Margit has been teaching him
to climb trees herself which led to one amusing incident a week or so back when
the kangaroo climbed a tree, but couldn't come back down.
Sylvia was completely taken by
this guy, she even forgave him for trying his claws out on her
shoulder:-
I've never seen one of these
guys alive, only in photos and a stuffed one at the QLD museum. He was so
curious and eager for attention from the humans that Margit had to put him away
in his "pouch", a laundry bag hanging on the kitchen door to reduce the danger
of walking on him.
However, no sooner had the tree
climbing kangaroo been put to bed, one of Margit's other borders came out to see
what was going on.
I haven't seen too many Paddy
Melons in the wild either. This one was totally unafraid of humans and followed
us around the grounds as we looked for sticks to put in the cage with the
parrots.
I forgot to mention, cats are
shot on sight at Margit's farm.
Lastly we went back to Atherton
to have lunch before heading home. At Atherton we nearly always stop at the
Railco park to eat next to the stream. We have been watching the cross breeding
between the wild and escaped domestic ducks for some time. Some are quite
pretty, some are just plain ugly, others are bloody big.
This guy is just about the size
of an Emden goose.
It was being followed around by
an equally interesting cross breed that was much, much
smaller.
If anyone wants more pics of
ether the paddy melon or the tree climbing kangaroo in all their original
1280*1072 glory let me know and I'll email them to you.
