Week 33 – In the Headlines again

Wow, what a week.  This week we have had local, national and even international exposure with the story that Missy, one of our King Penguins, could well be the oldest penguin in the world today.

This all started when I saw a zoo in Denmark claiming to have the worlds oldest penguin, a Gentoo aged 34.  Our records show that Missy arrived here in 1982 as an adult bird (31 + 5 years = 36).  So I got on to Nikki (our PR guru) to see if we could do anything about this.  A press release went out at the end of last week and the story hit on Monday
The first I knew of it was via an e-mail from Nikki to say we were in the Daily Mail with the story below
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2389714/Happy-birthday-old-bird-Worlds-oldest-penguin-turns-36-thats-108-human-terms.html
Further e-mails followed to say we were also in the Daily Star & the Express.  we also featured in The Times, the International Business Times & the Daily Mirror.  We were also featured locally in the Cotswold Journal & Gloucestershire Echo.
Then the phone started to ring! First off was BBC Radio Gloucestershire, shortly followed by BBC Coventry & Warwickshire.  Chris spoke to Capital Radio which was also played on Classic FM.  We also got a mention on BBC Radio 2.
By the evening the news was everywhere.  We were on the front page of Sky News website, we had made the BBC website and suddenly we were worldwide.  We have featured on websites from as far afield as Australia, New Zealand, America, India, Gambia & Uganda
The following day we were filmed for ITV West which went out on Wednesday night.It really has been a whirlwind week, lots of visitors and traffic through our website has nearly quadrupled during the week.
We have been asked if we are going to try and get in the Guinness Book of World Records. They state the oldest penguin as 29.  Unfortunately we have no concrete record of when she arrived other than hand written notes from previous keepers so we are not sure that they would have accepted this.

In this weeks news a lot of the birds are now starting to moult.  This tends to indicate the end of the breeding season so if you see some scruffy birds, then the Blue Pies, Orange Headed Thrush and others are preparing for the winter.
We have reintroduced the Violaceous Touracos this week after a couple of weeks apart, we believe the male had been hassling the female.  All has gone well
The Marabou introduction continues to go slowly, with the male pinning the female down this week and trying to grab her head!, no damage done
We have also put the 2 young Military Macaws back out with the parents.  They were split earlier this year after the younger birds started attacking the adults.  There has been some squabbling and a LOT of noise but things seem to have calmed down
Our Bartlett’s Dove egg is due anytime now but mum has been a bit restless, leaving the nest as regular intervals.  The gg has been left for now as it is still warm
The Bare Faced Curassow male has been in the nest box regularly calling to the female, who has also been seen up there – no eggs as yet.
The Northern Helmeted Curassow have laid however, producing 2 eggs (one of which was broken)
The Chinese Painted Quail that was rescued in the village a few weeks ago has been collected by its owner and gone to join its mate
The Yellow Shouldered Amazon chick left with the adults has been briefly seen looking out from the nest box

Hand Rearing wise Chris’ Amazon chick has been involved at Meet a Keeper, sitting happily on his shoulder
The Kookaburra chick now spends his day in an outdoor pen.  Rob continues to train the bird
The Military Macaw chick continues to grow and is maybe 3-4 weeks off from fledging

Wildlife wise we have had regular Kingfisher sightings this week, with a maximum of 3 seen at one point.  August seems to be the time that the young fledge. We believe they nest further down the river but enjoy the supply of Stickleback in the fish pond.  We have also seen Raven & Red Kite this week
An Emperor Dragonfly was seen as well as Comma butterfly again.  There are also lots of wasps around at the moment.  We trap some of these and give them to the Bee-Eaters!

Thanks for reading