Monday, May 10, 2010

Today I volunteered to get the new facility ready to move the Kanyana animals into tomorrow.  The new place is such an improvement, with all new equipment in the hospital and kitchen, and a separate building for patients in isolation.  In the old place the hospital, kitchen and isolation units were all together, now the kitchen alone is about twice the size of the original facility, which is the house of the sanctuary's founder.  The new grounds are located out in the Perth Hills, in a beautiful bush setting with lots of tall trees and peace and quiet.

Friday I go out to my first school to observe the education program, and we'll take about 10 different animals to show to the kids.  Here are some of our education critters.  This spiky guy all covered with leaves is an echidna, kind of like a porcupine or a hedgehog.      

And here's what he looks like underneath.

This is a pic of me holding a bobtail, or shingleback lizard.  They are very slow moving and quite heavy.

And this is a boodie, also known as a burrowing bettong.  He was sound asleep and wrapped in a pink blanket, obviously a mistake since he is a boy, guess there were no blue blankets around..  When I asked a volunteer what his name was, and she said "Boodie", I replied that I knew he was a boodie, but I wondered what his name was.  When she repeated "Boodie," I thought we were having an Aussie/American communication problem, but in fact, his name really is Boodie.  Boodie the boodie. 

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Bill went diving again today, not far out off one of our local beaches.  Saw this cuttlefish, sort of a combination of an octopus and a squid. 

And here's a spiky looking thing called a pencil urchin.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Yesterday was my final training session at Kanyana, and today was my first regular shift there. A woman and her daughter brought in a sick bird, and six of us volunteers were all standing together in the hospital when they came in.  They walked right up to me to give me the bird, asking if I was the supervisor.  I guess the fact that I was clearly the oldest one there, made them naturally assume I must be in charge - ironic since it was actually my first day.  The other volunteers were either high school or college kids, so I guess I shouldn't feel too surprised.

Took these pics of some of the patients: 

This little guy is a Boodie, and everyone initially thought he was a baby, since he's only about 1/3 the size of the others we have.  However, he is from Barrow Island, and apparently the island species are typically smaller.  The volunteer was feeding him milk through a syringe, so he has milk all over his mouth.  Barrow Island is known as "Noah's Ark" because it has so many species found no where else on earth.

 This is a Bobtail, a type of large, heavy lizard with very thick scales like armor.  He was in for the flu, and after being on antibiotics for 2 weeks they are usually ready to be released.  It's important to release them in the same area they were found, since they mate for life and the whole family stays close by. 

These guys are Kookaburras, and when they start laughing you can hear them from a very long ways away, they're incredibly loud.  These two were ready to be released, and while we were in the aviary, a Kookaburra on the outside kept flying down to harass these two.  They seemed to be very bothered by him, and kept flying to the top of the cage and hitting their heads. 

These are the two Tawny Frogmouths used in the education program, and an additional one was brought in later in the day.  They are nocturnal, and during the day they sit with their heads tilted back, looking straight up, only they have their eyes closed (since they're asleep.)  Because they sit completely still on the branch of a tree, and their feathers blend in so closely with the bark, they are very difficult to spot.  They also make a strange, low-pitched  humming sound.  We had to pinch the heads off of mealworms, and then I fed them to these guys with tweezers.  They also eat mice, but someone took the mice that we'd put out to defrost, so we had to tide them over with worms.  I have volunteered to start working in the education program, so once I learn everything I need to know about the animals, I'll start taking them out to schools, retirement homes, special events, etc.  Some of the animals in the program include these tawny frogmouths, echidnas, a python, bobtails, boodies, bilbies, tree frogs and Henry the black cockatoo.  

 
This is Henry, he's pretty obnoxious and spends a lot of time screeching as loudly as he can.  He was raised from a tiny chick by an old man who fed him coffee and toast, and not much else, and he never learned to fly.  So when he brought him to Kanyana, they tried to get him to fly.  It was a windy day and when he opened his wings, a gust blew him into a nearby tall tree.  He was so scared he wouldn't top screaming and they had to call the fire department to get him down.  So since then he's been the resident mascot, with free run of the house.  

Friday, April 30, 2010

Went out today for LaW with some of the ladies from the American Women's Club, and although it may sound impressive, it stands for lunch and wine.  Every month they go to a different winery, and there are probably 30 to 40 wineries nearby.  Once again, prices never cease to amaze us, as a piece of cheesecake was $16.50, so  combined with the risotto it came to $48.50 for lunch, for one, and that did not include anything to drink.  We're not stupid, we do the free wine tasting first, then drink water with lunch.   

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Today was my second day of training at Kanyana, and we got to clean out the Bilby enclosures.  They are really comical looking animals, with huge ears and big hind feet.  Some were tame enough to pet, while others (males of course) were grumpy and hissed at us.  Bilbies are endangered so the sanctuary has set up a captive breeding program, with nearly 100 babies born so far and returned to the wild.  You have to weigh and measure their food everyday, and very precise records are kept.  We also learned how to pick up and handle bobtails, which are very large lizards, with short, fat tails.  They're much heavier than they look, and two of them had just had babies.  Several were in isolation for the flu, and they exhibit symptoms just like humans with the flu.  We learned how to handle birds, and how hopefully not to get bitten.  I'm going to have to get used to feeding baby mice to the Kookaburras and the Tawny Frogmouths.  They are the strangest looking birds, their feathers look just like tree bark, and during the day they sit so still on the branches, you could walk right by and never see them.  I will have to remember to take my camera with me next time to get some pics of all these strange critters.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Well we found out the hard way that Western Australia has speed cameras, and it doesn't take much to trigger them.  Bill got a ticket for going only 4 mph over the speed limit, and it was $150.  Soooo, we're both going to be much more careful in the future, since you never know where the cameras are being used.  We have noticed that people rarely speed, even on the freeways, and I guess now we know why.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Well we're back home and this morning we rode our bikes along our local beach bike path, here's a picture of Trigg Beach.

This is another shot of the beach further north.




Monday, April 26, 2010

Today is another holiday, ANZAC Day, the Aussie version of our Memorial Day.  However, over here it is a much bigger holiday, with many marches, services, and lots of pre-holiday advertisements reminding people of the ultimate sacrifice made by the deceased veterans.  Kings Park has numerous war memorials, and hundreds of trees have markers commemorating individual soldiers.  On Monday volunteers tied a small flag and a rose onto every marker, and all the memorials had lots of floral displays.