So once I had arrived I spent a bit of time walking along the shore, in what was unexpectedly beautiful weather. In summer every inch of the beach would have been packed but it was early November and much quieter, though there were plenty of people enjoying the beach in weather appropriate ways like beachcombing, metal detecting, or letting their dogs run. Bournemouth is great because unlike most seaside towns it is big and popular enough that it doesn't have to turn into a ghost town in winter, and all the refreshment kiosks were open just as they would have been in high summer.
A lovely walk along the beach did the trick of blowing some cobwebs out of my mind, and now it was time to go and visit the birds in the aviary. The aviary is a Bournemouth institution, free for all visitors to the city's gardens. I first saw it in 2006 while visiting my then-boyfriend, and fell in love with it straight away (and far more than I did for the boyfriend to be honest). It's split into 3 parts- on the left is the small bird side, the right is the larger bird side, and the middle houses 2 green parrots. The birds are rescues and many are pets that could no longer live with their owners, and I always think of their back stories when I look at them, hoping their owners are reassured that they are happy in the huge, noisy flock of the aviary.
First I watched the small bird side for a while, which is full of zebra finches and canaries in all shades buzzing around energetically. There are a few notable larger birds in the small bird side, and vise versa- for example all the budgies and lovebirds live in the large bird side due to their boisterous behaviour, while less assertive larger birds can be found in the small bird side. I watched one of these, a kakariki (small green parrot from New Zealand) having a very splashy and energetic bath in one of the bird baths, watched by a second kakariki. It was obvious that the second bird wanted a bath but wasn't about to get in while the first one was there. Once the first bird was finally done having its very long bath it left leaving the bath free, but it seemed the second bird still wasn't sure. It carefully dipped in a foot, and then the other foot, and then slowly allowed the feathers on its belly to get wet before retreating onto dry land again. It was just like watching a person get into a rather cold swimming pool! It did finally full submerge for its bath but obviously wasn't sure about this at all!
Meanwhile Ferdie the fan tailed dove was having a nap in one of the seed hoppers. Ferdie's the largest bird in the 'small' side, and is housed there due to her gentle disposition. I have to be honest that when I first saw Ferdie I was a little shocked at her appearance- having never really seen many varieties of fancy pigeon I had no idea some had heads that sat so far back and the breast so far forward that it seemed they wouldn't have been able to see over it! Of course when I assumed this I had forgotten that pigeons have eyes on the sides of their heads and not the front. I've since grown to love Ferdie, bizarre appearance and all, and always look for her when I visit. According to the aviary volunteers (I follow the page on Facebook) Ferdie is very sweet natured and loves cuddles and being petted, sometimes landing on the volunteers' heads to facilitate this!
 |
| Ferdie in the seed hopper |
Ferdie's choice of resting spot was a little controversial with the zebra finches as she was, as discussed, much bigger than the other birds and was taking a good half of the seed hopper out of use! Zebra finches were still using the other half but Ferdie would sleepily peck in the direction of any who dared venture too close.
In the large birds side my favourite characters the golden pheasant and the red legged partridge were not feeling sociable, with the pheasant up on his high perch at the back and the partridge presumably in the heated, off-view area. But a fairly new resident, the gorgeously pink Galah cockatoo, was being extremely friendly and insisting on neck scratches from anyone who would oblige. The aviary has very tight mesh (idiots have been known to cut it in the past to 'free' them...that is, to free birds who are mostly tropical and quickly die without their heated roosting area), and of course kids you shouldn't put your finger through the bars in any animal's cage, especially big parrots, but..giving this Galah the scritches he wanted turned out to be irresistible! He achieved this by pressing his head against the mesh as close as possible so people (me included!) could reach a single finger through to scritch. The trouble is, like rubbing a dog's belly, once you've started you can never stop!! I had to eventually but couldn't help feeling guilty! I could see he had some new feathers coming in on his head by the 'pins' (a sleeve the feather is wrapped in while it's growing) and maybe he was a little itchy right then. This Galah loves interacting with people so much that I'm sure he's quickly becoming a favourite with visitors.
And then I went to visit the star bird of the aviary, Posh the talking green parrot! (and her friend the other green parrot whose name I don't know.) Posh strikes me as a parrot who lived with one person for a very long time, as her mimicry is absolutely perfect. She sounds exactly like a person, and it's sometimes incredibly eerie to hear this 'hello?' being uttered from a bird aviary with not a human in sight. By contrast the Macaw who lives up at the pet centre near where I live can also say hello, but he has the kind of stereotypical 'parrot voice' you might hear on TV, suggesting that he learned to say this from many different voices as so many different staff and visitors have been in his life. Posh was clearly someone's much beloved pet (a lady, judging by her voice and the fact that she prefers female company) and it's so sad her owner had to give her up, but sadly it often happens to these big, parrots, who often outlive their owners.
I 'conversed' with Posh for a while (me: *says all kinds of random things* Her: 'hello?' Me: .... :') ) and noticed something interesting- Posh would also converse with her companion in loud squawks, and at one point her 'hello?' got combined with a squawk and came out sort of 'helloaaawk!!' which was pretty funny!
I wished Posh a fond goodbye and headed back to my bus. I know I'll be back to visit a the beautiful birds again (I didn't even mention the weaver bird who was singing constantly while putting the finishing touches to his beautiful woven nest, and the purple glossy starling with its incredibly shiny feathers and piercing yellow eyes), before too long.
