Firstly, Kaiser Stuhl is a top little park. A great place to walk among remnant woodlands north of Adelaide and see some birds! Ivy was able to see Kangaroos at close range and White-browed Babblers too and I was able to get great views of a pair of Red-browed Finches looking to build a nest as well as a good number of Honeyeater species (White-naped, Brown-headed, White-plumed, New Holland and Eastern Spinebill) and other common local species. I bumped into the president of the 'Friends of Kaiser Stuhl' in the park and had a chat about the current 'news' to do with the area. She told me that the group had had a recent 'victory' of sorts, as the Barossa Council had plans afoot to "improve the profile of the park" and add more parking, paths etc. to give the park a make-over to accommodate for higher numbers of visitors...the 'friends' group lobbied hard to oppose a 'facelift' for the park and for the time being Kaiser Stuhl CP will retain its 'untouched' charm! As we talked briefly, we both agreed that this place offers that 'untouched' feel that larger Adelaide parks such as Parra Wirra, Morialta, Black Hill cannot...it'd be a shame to meddle with it!
Park, good. Zoo, not so....
I caved-in on Thursday and for a sad lack of other exciting ideas of 'things to do with a two year old' I decided to take Ivy to the Adelaide Zoo (sad lack? maybe a 2nd trip to the Stuhl?) I thought it would kill a few hours and she is still far too young to despair at the thought of animals living in such confines so I made the trip into the city with Ivy in tow (or perhaps the other way 'round??)
My first impression of the 'new' Adelaide Zoo is that there seems to be less animals 'packed in' and more space overall...probably a trend in most Zoo's in most 'modern' cities today. I remember vividly my first trip to the same Zoo as a wee boy...you could ride on an Elephant by the rotunda for loose change and the Polar Bears lived in an enclosure in full-sun that looked like a backyard swimming pool with some lumps of man-sized Styrofoam thrown in for an 'Arctic' feel. Things have changed, but it would take a strong argument from a person well qualified to convince me that these places do more today for conservation than 'cheap thrills' for bored bipeds for big bucks.
Anyway, cynicism aside we were on the quest for birds (perhaps the saddest animal you can witness in a cage?) as Ivy shares my passion for things with wings. She seemed rather non-plussed at the sight of a half-dozen Pelicans in a small yard, despite begging incessantly to see 'Pehhhcans?' on our way through the gates. She turned out to be more interested in the Crested Pigeons that were making the most of visitor's clumsily fumbled food by the kiosk, she tried in vain to pat one...wily city Pigeons staying a good foot ahead of maniacal toddler at all times.
The most interesting find of the day was the presence of a raptor on the 'outside' of the Native Bird enclosures. A young Brown Goshawk was dive-bombing and landing heavily on the string of older aviaries and poking its talons through the mesh roof trying to grab an easy meal. It sat on top of one enclosure with a few Scarlet-chested Parrots in it and all of the 'contained' birds were absolutely freaking out. They were clinging to the mesh walls closest to the gawking public just to keep out of reach of the Goshawk. This set-off all of the birds in and out of the aviaries with a shrieking chorus of alarm calls. With no real means of escape besides pressing themselves like sardines against the mesh walls of the cage, most of the birds were looking a little 'stressed' to say the least. That said, it was probably the one time I'd feel the birds were better off on the wrong side of the mesh. At least I was spared the sight of said Goshawk snacking on a headless Gouldian Finch or SCP!
Despite the improvements I think it will be another 25 years until I pass through those gates again, I'm sure Ivy would rather see her 'Pehhhhcans' looking more relaxed and flying free somewhere else like Greenfields Wetlands.
Maybe our next outing?
Wati Tjulpu
No comments:
Post a Comment