I visited Hayle yesterday, for the first time since July 2016. I know that relatively few ZooChatters get there as it is so far from any other major collection - even Newquay is 40 minutes away by road. It was sad to see the aviary where the old St Vincent amazon lived being renovated after his death last year and I was disappointed to find that the radjah lories are no longer on-show - I hope that nothing has happened to them. I did like the new ground hornbill aviary which was being built when I visited before. The crimson-bellied conures, mentioned at the top of this thread, are doing well: I saw half a dozen youngsters and a similar number of older birds. The signs say that some of their original birds were presented by famous parrot expert Rosemary Low. They also have a pair of Emma's conures, which have bred: I hadn't seen the species before and I was frustrated that I couldn't get a photo. I did manage to get some photos of their nice new colony of Nyasa lovebirds and the pair of Abyssinian lovebirds (black-winged lovebirds) with their chick in the Tropical House. There were also some beautiful Heck's grassfinches in the little finch aviary in the Australian section (which becomes a walk-through when they release the lorikeets for their daily feeding session). I also had the satisfaction of telling a keeper that I had spotted a tiny purple gallinule chick in the big macaw aviary in the corner of the Walled Garden. I have photos Perhaps the best news is that a new range of large aviaries is being constructed in the field behind the farm animals. I saw 7 aviaries under construction and there may be more. This area will be called The Tropics and the park's leaflet says it will feature tropical birds and exotic foliage and should open this summer.
I visited again the other day also. My last visit here a few years ago was halted mid-way through by absolutely torrential rain of tropical proportions- fortunately it was fine this time.. The range of aviaries you mention above still seems under construction and only half-finished, I guess they will open next year.
I visited again yesterday. The bad news is that range of new aviaries mentioned above are not ready yet: some look complete and have tree stumps and branches in place, but some are still being built, and things have not advanced very much in the past year. It is still possible that they can be completed before the visitors migrate to Cornwall in July, but they will have to get a wriggle on. The good news is that the bird collection is still as interesting as ever, particularly the parrots of course. There is a nice colony of Abyssinian lovebirds in an outdoor aviary now and the Tropical House has a group of Goldie's lorikeets. I saw two new species on show, Forsten's lorikeets and Moluccan lories. I was also delighted to be screamed at by a pair of rajah lories (misspelled above sorry) who did their best but could not quite match the umbrella cockatoos.
Visited the other day for the first time in a few years, I love this collection, the parrots are just amazing. The new aviaries are superb, only Paradise Park have surplus (ie they've bred them) flocks of Blue-Throated Macaws, Hyacinth Macaws and Palm Cockatoos. The range of Lorikeets, Lories and Conures are way beyond my knowledge. An interesting collection of Touracos, nice free ranging flamingos, lovely citron-crested cockatoos, cheeky Choughs, a lot of red pandas, friendly donkeys and a great view of the estuary. This is such a great collection, I guess it's location at the very bottom of the country limits visitor numbers. I'm lucky as living in Devon means I can occasionally visit gems like Paradise Park and my other favourite, Exmoor Zoo. My heart still yearns for the variety of the old London Zoo, but quite glad I'm no longer in London to see the place slipping further into obscurity...
Another visit to Hayle yesterday - I was rather worried by three hailstorms during my journey, but thankfully there was no hail in Hayle At long last I could see birds in the new Tropics aviaries. There are 5 good-sized flights holding groups of Queen of Bavaria's (or golden) and grey-breasted conures, 3 palm cockatoos and 2 male Banksian cockatoos, a group of Mitchell's lorikeets and a pair of hyacinthine macaws. There is also a larger flight holding groups of crimson-bellied conures and blue-throated macaws plus 2 Cuban amazons. I think the majority of these birds are young stock bred in the Park in recent years. There is also larger aviary under construction in the middle of the row. I was told that this will have a curved plastic roof and will hold other tropical species, such as spreo starlings (of which there are quite a few in the collection). New aviary block by gentle lemur posted 4 Mar 2020 at 1:39 PM I noticed that there were quite a few empty aviaries in other areas of the park - presumably they had previously held the birds listed above. I wonder if they will be able to acquire more species to fill them as Spring arrives. The second part of the Tropics will be next to the new aviaries, behind the birds of prey, and that area seems to have been marked out already. The big surprise for me was discovering a group of collared falconets in the Pheasantry behind the walled garden. I had never seen the species before. They are amazing little birds, scarcely bigger than a sparrow, and they have the strange habit of frequently bobbing their heads, as if they wanted to take off, but then looking around and thinking again. I spent some time taking photos. Collared falconets by gentle lemur posted 4 Mar 2020 at 11:34 AM These birds are actually mentioned on Paradise Park's website, but you have to look hard to find them and there is no more information there than on the sign beside their aviary. I'm just glad that the weather was good enough for them to be on show Collared falconet sign by gentle lemur posted 4 Mar 2020 at 1:39 PM
I visited again yesterday. My main objective was more and better photos of the falconets: I certainly got more and a few are nice (they will appear in the Gallery soon). I also saw their two new Pesquet's parrots, in adjoining aviaries just beside the door into the Tropical House. That house (or greenhouse) was closed, but I could see the Nyasa lovebirds inside; they were formerly in one of the Pesquet's aviaries. Also new were a pair of Toco toucans from a recent Customs confiscation. Breedings include several spreo starlings, five sun conures, three tawny frogmouths and two grey-winged trumpeters (nearly as large as the adults, but they looked like young birds to me). The Park was quite busy and the Covid precautions were observed well. The bird show and lorikeet feeds were cancelled, but visitors could see a fish eagle being flown in the farm area in the morning (training, I assume) and at lunchtime about a dozen scarlet macaws were allowed out of their aviary to fly freely and to try some minor tree surgery too.
That I would like to see... They used to have liberty macaws but I think stopped it many years ago now- I hadn't realised they still allowed some/them out for periods of free flight- that is a great idea- I wonder if they are unique in the UK in doing that - apart from places where macaws are flow in in bird shows that is.
The signs on their aviary say that all these macaws are the offspring of their original pair (residing in an aviary on the other side of the park). I think they are flown in the bird show and I assume that they are trained to return to their aviary beside the central lawn, near the stage for the show.
Paradise Park have released a post on their Facebook page about all the animal moves both to and from the park that have been postponed. Species at the park that are awaiting the arrival of mates include two male Pesquet's parrots, a male vulturine guineafowl, a male snowy-crowned robin-chat and a male azure tit. Other moves that have been postponed include: - Male hyacinth macaw to Paignton Zoo - Male Cabot's tragopan from Birdworld - Male violaceous turaco from Dudley Zoo - Male Victoria crowned pigeon from Twycross Zoo - Male red-vented cockatoo from Wild Place - Female argus pheasant to Artis Zoo - Female red squirrel to Wildwood (Kent site) - Female red squirrel to Longleat Safari Park - Male Palawan peacock-pheasant to Harewood - Female Mitchell's lorikeet to Heidelberg - Female blue-crowned laughingthrush to London Zoo - Female yellow-backed chattering lory to Birdworld - Male white eared pheasant to Paulton's Park - Male superb starling to Birdland - Female red-billed chough to Halle Zoo - Female tawny frogmouth to Jurong Bird Park, Singapore
I had my first zoo visit of 2021 at Hayle today. The walk-through aviary shown above is now stocked and open for business, but it will probably benefit from some more plant growth this summer. The plastic roof has not materialised, but I don't think that matters. Stocking includes spreo starlings as predicted, plus a flock of budgies, with Nicobar pigeons and Bartlett's bleeding heart doves. I also saw were hill mynahs, the azure tit and a pair of Moussier's redstarts, which I think have gone on show since my last visit. The Pesquet's parrots were showing well and three falconets made a brief appearance in their flight at lunchtime. The macaws were flying around when I arrived and they had a brief outing in the afternoon too. I saw that they are trained to return to their aviary when they hear a large handbell being rung - which reminded me of the end of playtime at primary school
I really like that they still do this, albeit only for limited sessions. Maybe it is too risky nowadays to have them free-flying all the time in case they start to wander/get lost, but this sounds like a good compromise. How many/which species are allowed this?
I was there the other day and they had a large group of scarlet macaws out all day until around 3.30 but i think around 15 had access to be free roaming and there were a couple of amazons but unsure of species.
I didn't spot any free-flying amazons on my visit, but their Facebook page mentions a pair of Cuban amazons and a yellow-shouldered amazon which may join the macaws.
