Healesville Sanctuary.

Ken and I spent today at Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary.   We went there today for two reasons, the main one being it was the annual Avicultural Society picnic, and we get a few privileges such as seeing 'behind the scenes' with endangered species, how they prepare food for all the creatures at the Sanctuary, etc.


 The weather turned out glorious, and we were lucky to see a lot of birds that are usually elusive.  The Orange Bellied Parrot and the Helmeted Honey Eater would both be close to extinction without the breeding programs set up by the Sanctuary, and we saw both birds today, which was a real buzz.  Those little birds probably wonder what the fuss is about, they just fly about and enjoy life in their protected habitat…

The koalas are always popular even when they are asleep with their back to the tourists.  But the joey in the second photo was a bonus; he'd only been out of his mother's pouch for a few days, and is so cute!  Until today, I've never seen a baby koala at this age.

This is the Helmeted Honey Eater, the bird emblem of Victoria.  There are only about 60 of these left in the wild.  

The Orange Bellied Parrot is smaller than what I expected, considering that it's annual migration is across Bass Strait to Tasmania.  It is estimated there are about 70 birds that migrate now.

 This is one of the food preparation rooms.  So much variety of fruit, vegetables, seeds, fish and maggots.

The Raptor arena - full of spectators waiting for the daily display.

The eagle landed on the arm of the handler, who was standing right behind us.  I was lucky to get this photo, as birds in flight are amazingly fast, and the eagle settled there for just a few seconds before taking off again.

Male lyrebird disappearing into his bushy aviary.

Red tailed black cockatoo on the arm of a volunteer.  This one had been born and raised at the Sanctuary, so is used to humans.

Young King Parrot perched on Ken's hand, eating the seed in his hand.

 We also visited the Reptile enclosure.  Lots of snakes and lizards..

Brolga in the creek.

I got a lot of photos which look perfect on the camera, but they have turned out pixilated on the computer, it is really annoying.  I don’t know how to fix it, but I know it can be done because I googled it, and saw instructions (which are gobbledy gook to me).  

Work done in our back yard.

We have two sets of steps from the back door to the upper level of our back yard, where the bird aviaries are.  Up till now the steps have been gravel topped, which was slippery at the best of times, so we decided to have them paved, as well as having a paved path in front of the aviaries, as that used to get very muddy in wet weather.
The guy that we hired to do the job ordered way too many paving stones, but he used the extra to replace the old pavers under the clothesline, which were unstable after years of ants nests underneath them.  It has made a big difference, so although I was annoyed at the extra expense incurred at the time, I had to admit it was worthwhile doing.
This photo was taken before the paved path:

And this one is after.  There is still some sand on the surface and it will look better once I've swept the path.

This is one side of the yard now paved.  (The photos are pixilated, sorry)

 And this is the other.

The other thing we've added to the house is this little verandah over the back door step.  Ken has been wanting this for years, although it never worried me, as this is the east side of the house and doesn't get as much rain hammering it as the west side.  But Ken found someone to do it, so he now has his back "porch"..

Update.

Well, it surprised me to get a few emails and queries from people who have read this blog, asking why they couldn't find it any more (I had changed the settings to private blog with no access).  So I have changed it again, but only allowing access to readers who have a blogger.com account.   And I have to warn you that I still won't be posting as much as I used to.  I'd like to, but it takes up so much time, adding photos to a blog, writing descriptions, writing lengthy posts about life in general and so on, I just want to spend more time on sewing and other craft stuff; reading more books, and getting to bed at a reasonable time instead of after 3am!  So, I'll be back here with some photos of our newly paved back yard, and places we've been recently that might interest some of you.