Birdworld Birdworld Updates

Yes, the eggs came from the group at Paultons Park, three were sent and all three were fertile.

 

Should also add another breeding success even if it is overlooked by many because it's not a parrot or flamingo.. Black-breasted thrushes! A very nice addition

 

That's a great addition

 

Video posted on Birdworld's Youtube channel yesterday about The Great Bustard Group and Birdworld's involvement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsoOau7tBWg

 

They have certainly done a lot better since they switched over to the Spanish stock last year. Before that there were only about nine surviving adults of various ages,from the Russian releases. The wild chick that survived this year was- I think- from a nest in the fox-proof release pen where it was much safer from predation.

 

The Malayan Black Hornbill chick being reared has finally fledged.

https://www.facebook.com/BirdworldS...076805680718/1023208017700921/?type=3&theater

 

Great video about a great bird and the great work they are doing ! Thanks for sharing LaughingDove !

 

Question: Why does this collection seem so overlooked on here? Is it another case of faded glories or does it suffer from being overshadowed by the CWP/CotW/CFC triumvate?

 

Good catch. Surely a situation that causes some internet traffic to get crossed over.

Maybe I'll slip it into a Cotswolds trip this summer, but realistically that's unlikely to happen. As always, gentlelemur's photos from the '70s leave us wondering what we have missed and will probably never see again.

 

I don't apologise for that, but it was a very different Birdland. Len Hill's original Birdland was on a different site at a very different time. It was a wonderful place to see a huge range of birds in a very small space: it was quirky and charming and there never was and there will never be anything like it again. I can't think of anything that would match hiring a Tardis to take me and my current camera gear back there for a week in 1974: I'm sure our old friend Parrots Andrew would want to come too
But the old Birdland wouldn't pass a modern zoo inspection and I don't think that the breeding results were wonderful. I have only visited the current Birdland once. I remember some nice birds on a nice site, with much more space for both birds and visitors than the original: but it was rather like several other bird collections and just a little bit dull in consequence.

 

Even if the question was about Bourton on the Water's Birdland, it is on a Birdworld - Farnham - thread, and is wholly relevant to this place as well....

Birdworld is located close to Guildford, on a reasonably-sized site - it really could be a very successful place, I think. I have been visiting it reasonably regularly pretty much all my life, and have seen it have occasional moments of growth and development followed by much longer periods of torpor. The current owners - the adjacent garden centre - took it over about 10 or 15 years ago; they built an excellent run of aviaries (the "crescent"), a large-ish parrot flight - and that was about it. The biggest development since has been for African penguins (quite nicely done, with other African waders on show as well), but there is a genuine sense of ennui hanging over the establishment, despite it holding some excellent species. Too much about it is distinctly small-time: too many aviaries devoted to budgies, a fairly horrible farm (in which visitors can buy rabbits and guinea pigs), public feeding of the birds, an appalling aquarium. The signs are amateur. There's a bird show which is basic, to put it kindly. And yet: a lovely setting, with real potential, and some excellent aviaries. The Seashore Walk, when it first opened (late 70s?) was genuinely groundbreaking. The paddocks for ratites are well done.

In short, there's nothing wrong with Birdworld that wouldn't be solved by £2 million of investment and a bit of imagination.

 

Quite so. I apologise for getting sidetracked. It has been a very long time since I visited either collection. I do remember enjoying the spectacular views as I drove along the Ridgeway to get to Birdland.

 

[QUOTE="sooty mangabey, post: 1005685, member: 721"

In short, there's nothing wrong with Birdworld that wouldn't be solved by £2 million of investment and a bit of imagination.[/QUOTE]
The same could probably be said for several small / medium collections outside the top 15 in the UK, that sort of money would make a massive difference to Linton, Thrigby, Shepreth, Amazona, Tilgate. New Forest WP, Chestnut Centre, Wild, ... Just a few I can think of without thinking too hard that have unfulfilled potential. Unfortunately anywhere outside the top 10/15 is desperate for major cash to move on.

 

The same could probably be said for several small / medium collections outside the top 15 in the UK, that sort of money would make a massive difference to Linton, Thrigby, Shepreth, Amazona, Tilgate. New Forest WP, Chestnut Centre, Wild, ... Just a few I can think of without thinking too hard that have unfulfilled potential. Unfortunately anywhere outside the top 10/15 is desperate for major cash to move on.[/QUOTE]

Given most small collections are not going to receive large sums of money (as it's unlikely they could recoup it and most of them have to "balance the books") I think the imagination is as important, if not more important, to them than potential large cash injections. Being able to survive and thrive on small budgets (through expertise and imagination) is possible and small should't have to mean dull or poorly executed. Examples of places that seem to pull off the balancing act would include Hamerton (which took a "while" to get the balance right), Five Sisters, Exmoor, and Crocodiles of The World (though being a builder probably helped there).

 

I wouldn't disagree with this - and, actually, a well-spent £2 million could make a big difference with some of our bigger zoos as well.

I just think that, because of its site and its location, Birdworld really could be something special. It's in a relatively rural location, but close to large swathes of population; it's a hugely affluent area; it has a god size to it (with room to expand, I think); and there are very few zoo-type places in the vicinity. The other places you list don't really have the same advantages, the same potential. Tilgate, for example, would find it very, very difficult to ever be anything other than a small collection in the corner of a municipal park (albeit an increasingly nice small collection); the East Anglian places don't have the same populations around them; Chestnut is pretty remote (although not massively far from Manchester), New Forest has Marwell with which to compete (!), and, again, isn't in an area of huge population.

Wholly agree. This is the crux of the issue: Birdworld is a zoo put together without enough flair or imagination. I just checked out their website, and the home page features a peacock, a baked potato with tuna (yummy!) and a rotating carousel of pictures of a goat, penguin feeding in the old (pretty small) pool, a macaw and a piranha. None of this places it at the cutting edge sadly.....

 

0.0.3 Black Knobbed Map Turtle have arrived from Germany (zootierliste indicates either Frankfurt or Reptilium Landau) These are the only ones in the UK and Birdworld is the 4th public collection in Europe with them

 

I agree with many of the posts. I used to visit Birdworld regularly from the mid-70s onwards, and it was always a decent place to visit, but it was a collection that changed very little over the years. Though it was well managed by the Harveys, and it ticked over nicely, but it was never really a progressive collection, very few new exhibits were built, although the park included a few choice species from time to time, this was largely due to Rob Harvey`s interest. Sadly since the Harvey`s departure from the scene, the place had stagnated further.That said I think things have developed again since Duncan Bolton moved from Bristol to take up the curators position there, two newer exhibits came along in the shape of the second penguin enclosure and walk through aviary.
The owners of the adjacent garden centre are of course the owners of Birdworld, but their bird expertise is minimal, hence why Duncan was brought in to help. In many ways this collection is ideally situated, in a location with access to a high population density, and with excellent main road connections, so why has it never ever really been a top attraction ? Is it because it`s primarily a bird collection ? Or does it lack the ambition and drive to push itself ? It is a place which has always simply, and quietly, existed, without really shouting about itself!!

 

Recent hatchings; 4 lilac-breasted roller, laughing kookaburras, 1 spectacled owl, 2 great bustard,
splendid glossy starling, white-crowned robin chat, mandarin ducks. Birds nesting include; European white storks, tawny frogmouth, avocet, sacred ibis, waldrapp ibis, hammerkops, Madagascan turtle doves, African rock pigeons, and snowy owls.
Over in the aquarium Butterfly goodieds have bred, panda corydoras and Ancistrus catfish produced fry, along with the red-lined torpedo barbs (Dennisoni) - which is possibly for the first time ? The black-knobbed map turtles are also in the process of nesting, which would probably be a UK first, if they breed.

 

Particularly happy for great bustard, waldrapp, the Dennison's barb and (fingers crossed ..) black knobbed map turtles.