These two aviaries sat nicely under a Weeping Willow tree where Slaty Heads and Kakarikis enjoyed their homes, until one day.......
A really big wind storm came and blew the big tree down. The aviaries were crushed. Luckily no birds were killed and were all recaptured except for one, a Slaty Head parakeet last seen heading east.
It took 19 hours to catch all the birds. A pair of Kakarikis were on eggs. The hen stayed in the box with her eggs during the whole tradegy as her mate flew around the yard. Continued:
The male Kakariki returned by evening to his crushed flight and was captured and rejoined with his mate. They hatched & raised all the babies. I learned pair bonding is a strong force.
The clean up took almost 2 months. I was so upset to see the flights destroyed I could hardly stand to go into the backyard. You never know what kind of tragedies can happen in life and all I could do was be grateful it wasn't worse.
Samantha helps me put the flights together. She has gotten very good putting on hog rings. She was very happy when we completed this phase of construction.
Sam and I are now experts at putting these flights together. Here she was working on a flight that measured 8' long x 6' deep x 7' tall. This will be a future home for some of my lovely and charming New Zealand Red-fronted Kakarikis. (My personal favorite aviary bird.)
The Weeping Willow was replaced with 3 Aptos Blue Redwood trees. They join the other 6 that provide great shade for the birds in our yard. Roses have been planted and the yard is healing. The new flights are standing. Onto the next phase.
After the flights are together. I buy 4'x8' ply-board and cut them down to the sizes I need and prepare to start the first painting phase.
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Aviary Page 1
Aviary Page 3
Go to page 3 for the rest of photos on aviary building.
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