Nothing much new ...

Last week we had the mother and children group and one of our afternoon activities was the Cairns Wildlife Dome. Nothing much new there, the visit is a pretty regular occurrence on each group's activity calendar. As I am yet again being slack on regular blogging I have thrown together this post from the Dome. No matter how much I go there (a lot as per above) I still enjoy it and all the animals. I have my favourites and I have learned many of there antics as well as their hiding places. Apologies for the mostly nothing special photos, I was too busy explaining things and keeping kids entertained.

There are the black cockatoos which I would happily smuggle home. I love these birds even though I know how destructive and noisy they can be. There is just something special about them.

There are the three resident Koalas. Always a favourite with the students. I love it when we happen to catch them very awake and moving around, which doesn't happen all that often.

There are the new small birds in their walk through avery. I have watched the construction of this area from start to finish. I enjoy playing spot the bird in here.

There are turtles. They are super cute sticking their noses out of the water and oven stacked together in one corner.

There are the sleepy Rufous Bettongs or Kangaroo Rats. They are pretty cute and as mean as I am I love finding them in their day time hidy holes (they are nocturnal) and watching them slowly blink to awareness when the light is let in. 

There are the flighty Satin Bower Birds, one pair I believe. They are hard to find and take flight when you get to close of they feel watched.

There are the Curlews. They are seen everywhere; sometimes stalking around, sometimes standing like statues and sometimes making an awful ruckus.

There are the kookaburras, three I think. One Laughing Kookaburra, one Blue Wing Kookaburra with it's blue flecked wings and one very special white Kookaburra who is an almost albino one.

There are the watchful Frogmouths. They remind me of childhood and of them sitting in the trees at school while we played below.

There are the various water birds often found around the crocodile area high up on a tree or fitting.

Then there are the Crocodiles, the freshies and the salties. There are even some little salties that come out to play.

There are the various other parrots and bird, some brightly coloured, some rather plain Janes. The funny King Parrot with its close Green Parrot friend, where one is the other is close by. Sometimes they come close, sometimes not so keen but tasty nuts usually get them on board.

Then there are the very social and always happy to eat Eclectus Parrots who this time decided to freely fly from person to person even before food was offered. I think these were very high on the children's favourites list, right up there with Koalas. I think these parrots knew how much the kids would love their attention and how much they would be in the spotlight. Show offs I think.

NOVA Cairns Blog

(use translator)