Right next door to Monkey Land is Birds of Eden, a free flight bird sanctuary, which I like to capitalize, but apparently they don't (see sign). Still, it's an important place that helps birds heal or adjust to regular bird life from life with humans. Beware, there are many pictures because the birds are so varied and so beautifully colored and patterned! This was a self-guided tour. I'm going to do my best to record the species.
Right away there was a bird waiting for us to enter and make our acquaintance.
Golden Starling
Preventing a poop disaster.
Knysna Lourie, Tauraco. These green birds were flying all over the place, which was a pleasure to see because they flashed red feathers under their wings when in flight, as seen below.
Blue and Gold Macaws
These Golden Pheasants were all around also and I didn't complain! With all of their colors and long tails, it was a pleasure to watch them.
Indian Ringneck Parakeet that thought Mark's shoe laces were lunch.
Anyone for Froot Loops? Channel-billed Toucan
Female Eclectus Parrot
Birds of a feather, flock together. . . when ever there is a bench available.
The refuge was covered with netting all around.
Jandaya Conure
Yellow Crowned Amazon
Male Eclectus Parrot
I sat down on a bench to rest my feet for a bit and was joined by this Alexandrine Parakeet. He had no qualms about hopping from the rail to my shoulder and pick at my hair. He also started whispering sweet nothings into my ear (but Mark wasn't jealous).
He stayed with me for quite a while until he got caught in my hair. We untangled him and he promptly found another woman. . .
. . . and then a boy! After that, one of the care takers saw us with him and told us to just lightly brush him off because they were trying to help him adjust to wild life again after being with humans. It was fun while it lasted!
Glossy Starling
Royal/Golden Breasted Starling
Mandarin Duck
Scarlet Ibis
Crowned Crane and Flamingos
Sun Conure
Look who's back! It must be because Grandma is "sexy," according to the bench.
Golden Palm Weaver. This male is hanging upside down on the nest that he weaves, the female lines the nest.
As we were exiting the park, we discovered a parrot that, well, parroted us. We were laughing so hard because he was mimicking our laugh! Mark caught a little of the laughter, then the parrot was camera shy.
Blue Crane
Black Swan - hardly an ugly duckling.
Guinea Fowl
African Spoonbill
African Grey Parrot
We ate one more time at the Peppermill (twice that day) where the adults may or may not have eaten a piece of chocolate cake while the boys were off playing. We drove to Plettenberg Bay to get some groceries, some warm clothes for Mark and to look for a USB port to allow wifi. We found success in all things but the wifi. We went back to the farm house in the glow of a beautiful sunset and played a question game. The only question I remember is what Walt Disney character would you most be like. Mark responded: Mr. Banks and I said the boys would probably call me Cruella DeVil. They agreed, so we all went to bed. Bwahahaha!
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