Going To The Birds
Got to the zoo about 10 minutes early. The lady at Guest Services said to wait in the lobby until someone came to show us where to go. A minute later she got a call for everyone to meet at the amplitheater. I kinda figured that's where it would be. Got out there and Dave came out to greet us. Although the limit was 20 people, only around 10 signed up. Dave mentioned how he recognized most of us from the birdshows. Yeah, so this thing became the birdshow fan club meeting. That's fine, too.
Dave went back and got Gandy the Hyacinth Macaw. Gandy's full name is Gandolf, like from "Lord of the Rings." Initially the discussion was about Parrot Conservation. About poachers and the illegal pet trade. Dave talked about going to Brazil to guard the macaw's nests from these people. Apparently it involved sitting in a tree until your butt fell asleep.
Next Floyd the Rose Breasted Cockatoo was brought out to do the dollar trick. We each got the chance to do it. I brought a dollar just in case, and everyone else did as well. I always wanted to do this, just never did because it the show it's funner when someone who's never seen it done before volunteers. It makes the jokes a lot funnier. Floyd was getting sunflower seeds each time he did it, and by the last turn he was getting a little weird. Dave said he was shorting out. It was funny- it was like he got drunk on sunflower seeds.
So the first half hour was the conservation part. Most of the time was more talking about bird as pets and just the birdshow in general. I figured that would happen. There were some great stories about things that happened at the birdshow. Like when Gandy first started outdoor flights when he got spooked he tended to always land in the tiger exhibit or way up on top of Discovery Bay.
Some stories about wildlife in the area. There were egrets hanging out the entire time by the lake, and some wild turkeys were up at the top of the amplitheater. There was talk about the robin who always goes after the harris hawk when he flies up to the top of the overhang. And of course stories about how the raptors would catch something. They used to have a red tailed hawk that caught frogs, and the harris hawk apparently once grabbed a duck and went under water with it. That must of been an amazing sight to see.
Next we got to go backstage. It's actually a lot bigger then I expected. We saw the "backstage" backstage area where the holes in the rocks are. This space is really small. Maybe ten feet by five feet at most.
The main room had the holding pens for during shows and housing for the turkey, crane and hornbill. Fred was in one of the holding pens, and was saying hi to each person as we passed by. Sense everyone there has been to a lot of birdshows, a lot of use were saying word cues to the birds to see if they would do the sound associated with it. Fred was really good at this.
Down the hall were rooms housing the birds. First room had the two toucans. Dave mentioned how the sound they make sounds like the "Psycho" sound. At they actually did. It's interesting how the toucans hop from branch to branch instead of fly.
Next room down I knew had the small parrots inside. You could here Alex's pager sound and Cocoa's siren sound. Now this room was very loud. And it doesn't help that the place is made of concrete which makes it echo. After I left I noticed I had "Concert Ears" from the noise.
Last room held the larger parrots. I went up to Coconut and said hi to se if he would repeat. Instead he just showed his crest feathers. Also in this room were two Military Macaws which haven't been in the show yet. There are being trained to fly out together. Dave showed us how the Green Winged Macaw learned how to room over. And Gandy will get down and do it to because his cage is next door and he saw that the Green-Winged Macaw got treats when he did it. It was really cute- I wish I would have got a video shot of it with my camera.
On the other side of the hall was the room of raptors. We didn't go in there because of how territorial they can be. One peaked inside and the Bald Eagle went off. Also on that side was the office area. Before leaving we got a group picture with Dave.
And that was basically it. It was weird walking back with no one else around. It's often like that at the beginning of the day, but this felt different somehow. And the tigers were back in their holding pen roaring up a storm. It was almost spooky.
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