Anyone here interested in Birding?

[sharpiel]

Anyone here interested in birds at all?

I ask because I rescue birds and native animals and have recently undertaken the construction of an aviary for our Lorikeet rescue flock. I'd like to share the building experience and pictures here online but only if someone's interested enough to want to know. Often astronomers are birders too in my experience...

[Baddad]

Hi Les,:)
I have a passing interest in twitching (origin UK) or birding.
I have been up to O'Rilleys several times. Its a Rainforest retreat. Problem is that over the past 20 years it has become very commercialised and the birds have moved out. Still there are a few around but not anywhere near as it used to be.:mad2:

Also I live on acreage North of Brisbane. We have our own little rainforest here. There are many species that visit. Including Chanel Billed Cuckoos.
They are very shy but they like the rainforest every summer.:)

Work takes up too much of my time and so I am not into any active birding these days.

Cheers :)

[Dennis]

Hi Les

Love to hear about and look at photos of the project. Casual twitcher and occasional bird photographer here.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[el_draco]

I've done a lot of work with raptors ranging from Sea Eagles through to Masked Owls. Do marsupials now; big birds to dangerous now my reflexes have slowed a bit.... Like to see your pics.

[KenGee]

I do survey work for various groups.

[sharpiel]

Hi guys.

Sorry...been a busy afternoon. Got called out to pick up some rescue ducklings from our local vet. Had to get some living quarters set up for them. Pictures attached.

[noeyedeer]

nice work Les. it's a shame animals need rescuing, specially if it's from abuse. keep up the good work. approach local supermarkets for fruits and veg that they throw away, they should be able to since it's not for human consumption.

matt

[sharpiel]

As to my aviary, first let me say a huge thanks to Bruce from Wyong sheds who built the Colourbond and mesh sections to our design and specifications. They were really great.

Here are some pics of the foundation work using sleepers to lay out a level bed for the enclosed raised paver floor to be installed next. Corners of the sleepers are screwed to metal retaining spikes driven another 20cm into the earth.

Digging the sleepers and bed down necessitated using a shovel, trowel and hands to break up and remove a large sandstone deposit under one corner. My house sits on a stoney hillside.

[sharpiel]

Large files these pics I realise. Have to upload them one at a time.

[sharpiel]

More...

[sharpiel]

Smoothing the earth ready for paving sand in the bed.

[sharpiel]

Nice.

[sharpiel]

Now with paving sand laid smooth over the earth. It was a very zen and soothing experience using hand and eye to level this easy to spread moist granular sand. Large sweeping motions with the palms while on hands and knees. Nice connecting with the earth (hippie moment) :D

[sharpiel]

And ready for the next day's work. Cutting and laying the pavers.

[sharpiel]

Day 2 of the project involved buying concrete pavers from Bunnings and the laying them inside the wooden frame.

The paver height was deliberately set above the height of the wooden sleepers so that when the aviary was bolted down to the sleeper frame, the paver floor would be raised enough that the lorikeets (and any other future rescue birds/possums etc) wouldn't have any access to any exposed wood to break apart and chew on. Anyone who has experienced parrots/parakeets/cockatoos etc will know that they all LOVE to chew up wood. I guess I would too if I had a beak like that.

The problem is for an enclosed aviary is that the birds all p00 on the ground and we definitely don't want them consuming any wood which has been coated in p00 and thus rife with bacteria. Birds die very easily and quickly from such bacterial infections.

Hence the raised floor is a hygiene and safely measure. Also the pavers drain very quickly allowing us to wash them with a medium pressure hose without pooling of water and liquids.

[sharpiel]

The pavers were arranged from the outside in towards the middle. This meant that the middle row in each direction (forming a cross shape both length wise and width wise) required cutting down to form a tight fit without large gaps.

This was done with a 9" paver cutting disc on my angle grinder. As with all projects patience, practice and a sure hand made accurate cutting and laying a pleasant experience.

[sharpiel]

More paving...

[sharpiel]

My fiancé and a rescue cockatoo who chooses to stay in our company for the moment. Gilly is the human. EV is the avian....so named because when she was rescued from a muddy puddle as a youngster who had fallen from her nest and couldn't fly, she was brown coated like an oil slick survivor. For those of us old enough to remember the 80's EV is short for Exxon Valdez.

Like good supervisors both girls are making sure I do a good job on the worksite lol.

[sharpiel]

More EV. She is so special!

[sharpiel]

This is how dirty she was when she fell to us...

[sharpiel]

The aviary was designed so that the footprint sat squarely atop the sleepers and was fixed down with treated pine coach screws. Lots of them to make it secure in case of high winds.

[sharpiel]

Human female for scale reference :rofl:

[sharpiel]

One of 6 nesting boxes (3 each side) and shelves with holes cut in to hold feed bowls

[sharpiel]

A router and hole saw turned an old unused office table into shelves to go into each of the covered ends of the aviary for nesting and feeding.

[sharpiel]

The aviary has a central divider, hinged horizontally across the middle, which allows the top half to fold down. This way we can divide the aviary into two sides to segregate birds or folded down to allow full flight access along the entire length.

[sharpiel]

One door on either side of the divider to allow access to both halves when the central divider is up. In the top of each door is a smaller door which folds down horizontally. This allows what's called "soft releases" where we open the top of the door and allow the rehabilitated birds a way out of the aviary without us stressing them by having to chase them out.

This high door also allows the birds a safe, predator free, way to return to the sanctuary of the aviary during the transition time moving out and finding their own places I the wide wide world to live. Sometimes this takes several days for the little tikes.

[sharpiel]

The aviary sits outside my bedroom window. This is the view I get when I look out. Lots of beautiful birdies accompanied by their happy trilling and warbling and jostling for position :D

[sharpiel]

Looking down on the middle of the aviary from our verandah. We've put some native flowering plants inside for the Australian native birds to learn to feed from prior to release. Lorikeets are primarily nectivores so they will need to recognise native nectar bearing flowers when we are no longer supplying them all their food like hungry human teenagers.

[Dennis]

Excellent work – it’s so good to see that our injured and vulnerable bird life have such loving carers, well done.:thumbsup:

Cheers

Dennis

[sharpiel]

Thanks Dennis.