Yarra on You Tube

I have posted a video on You Tube of the brown headed honey eaters collecting fur lining for their nests. These little honeyeaters nest high in the eucalypt canopy.
Click on this link below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFdhL8lrchk&feature=endscreen&NR=1 

Mate In Temp pen

January end - Cripes more joeys. Carer Annette from Arakoon, arrived a few days ago with Roley and Pip two red necked wallabies.  Roley got his name as he was always falling out of his pouch, when he was tiny.  They are really sweet, friendly and healthy.
Blow me down D and G have decided to accept two more a swamp wallaby joey and another red necked joey.  This is crazy.  That will be 7, don't know how the morning and evening feeds will go. They don't have that many hands.
They've decided, these are the last newbies now as they are going adventuring in May and these littlies will have to be released before they go which is a tight timetable.  The housesitters will take over and it should all run very smoothly.

JANUARY 26, 2012  Australia Day dawned wet, gusty and all the celebrations for the Valley have been cancelled.
Not that we the macropods could care less.
D and G have just accepted yet more joeys.  In December we were joined, (well in the pens, that is)by three eastern grey babies,
Merinda from Collombatti, a neighbour nearly, whose Mum was killed by dogs; luckily she wasn't but, her shoulder was dislocated and Carol - her carer at the time had to carry out lots of physio on her tiny little body.  Shea the wonderful vet worked her magic,and Merinda survived.  Although, she did spend some time on heat pads etc.She also had trouble with her tail which was permanently curled to the right.  Now that she's a happy little hoppy, her tail is lovely and straight, and she nearly can hop without wobbling.  She's gaining weight fast and nearly has her lazy toilet habits under control.  Can now get out of her pouch to toilet.  D is so thrilled, saves on so much laundry.
Mate - a pouch buddy, who's a gorgeous creamy colour, also a Collombatti kanga, whose Mum was shot, progressed really well until one particularly wet and windy night, when the ringtail possum raiders (mum with joey on back) popped by to steal some pellets from the joeys, and spooked them all.  Mate went into shock and next morning, when G went to feed the wamberoo, he was listless and hunched up.  D was at the pool swimming laps, stopped to catch her breath and heard the phone ringing.  Jumped out only to learn of this, bolted to the car and home.  Diagnosis - Mate had coccidiosis - prognosis - usually fatal.  Luckily not, but only after careful nursing, a faecal float, by Shea the vet, and doses of antibitoics and Coccivet @ 10 times the normal preventative rate and super hydrating, pushing fluids, he survived. Eureka.
Bro the other pouch buddy.  Such a gorgeous snuggly little bloke, his Mum was killed in a vehicle collision, also a Collombatti boy.  Pretty scary out this way.  Also alovely creamy colour. His progress has been uneventful.  They all weight around 4.5kgs now.  D ill post photos soon.

More new babies

Its coming up to Xmas now and the weather is still scary and stormy - although its the lunar eclips around midnight.  That's a new experience for us, the young joeys.  D has just released little Ali our newest red necked wallaby, who now weighs in at 7kg.  We now have no joeys in care. We spend all our days lazing about the house, on the deck or grazing on the grass. D hopes well move away soon, as we bring a good supply of mozzies and the bitey march flies, great big horsefly looking creatures.
Next weekend three more joeys will be arriving from our Macropod co-ordinator.  They are Eastern Greys and there are two little boys Mate and Bro and Mindy the smallest is a girl.  It will be good to have more for the mob.
We had a visit from Chloe our last released Swamp Wallaby, she looked fat and well groomed and healthy.

New residents

Yarra at 3.5 kgs.  She's much bigger now and growing fast.

This is just a quick post - we have three new residents with two more coming.  An eastern grey female joey, that'll be good, we need more for our mob.  Her name is Yarra and she's been here in the nursery pen a few weeks now and weighs in at 5kg.  Here's for baby photo.
We also have a new Red-necked wallaby called Gabi, shes very happy and hoppy.
Our newest is Abi and he's another swamp wallaby.  He's been in the wars and had a collision with the shadecloth and broke is toe nail on his left foot so he's been getting tlc for a while and dressings and stuff. He ripped it off but its repairing nicely now the rain and fungi are gone and the weather is chillier, drier and sunny.

More Update

Last Monday, D and G went on a rescue to release a female red-necked wallaby from pool fencing she had been caught up in having been chased by 2 dogs.  This 25kg - 30kg animal had managed at full pace to jam her upper body to the waist between two steel bars about 15cm (or 6in in old measurements) once her hips hit the bars she was well stuck.  Luckily the dogs lost interest and the owner had managed to call them off.  It took about 1.5 hours to free her as D had to come and help hold her, G was there on his own.  The steel was exceptionally strong and they didn't want to risk injuring her or terrifying her with an angle grinder, so eventually used a steel crowbar to prise back the uprights.  Unfortunately during this time the animal had been bleeding from the nose and mouth and it was a very worrying situation. They kept her covered with an old rescue blanket and once freed, alerted the vets and dashed into the surgery.  Shae (the vet) checked her out and with relief discovered no broken bones, therefore no pierced lung.  Most bleeding was superficial, but she upper lung contusions(Bruises).  It was decided to give a long acting antibiotic shot and some pain relief, and bring her out here to our place.  It was risky as she was so big and only lightly sedated.
She tolerated being under car for the week in the big pen, and in the quiet of this place, with good tucker and little or no stress, D opened the gate this morning at first light and after an hour or two she hopped away into the bush. It was decided not to take her back to her old place as it is now heavily urbanised, with lots of dogs and a new highway being built within half a kilometre.
A great result all round so she was named Naiooka and will fit in well with the wild wallabies around here.