and I had passed by a wildlife sanctuary with a sign advertising "Lunch with the Lorikeets". From the outside the sanctuary didn't look like much but we decided to give it a chance anyway. This was hands down the best bird sanctuary I have ever seen. I haven't been to alot of zoos in the States but compared to the ones I have seen, Australia's are so much better. They are more "environments" than zoos with all the animals that won't eat each other mingling together. The Rainforest Habitat wildlife Sanctuary had the first pair of captive breeding Black-necked Storks. The pair came to the sanctuary one injured and one abandoned. It took four years of courtship and three 
years of deciding on a nest sight before the pair had a baby. This was their newest in the nest. Birds were everywhere. I thought of my friend, Mardi who will lose it if a pigeon gets within a few feet of her and how this place would be a chamber of terror for people who were scared of birds but I loved it! My favorite were the Kookaburras a type of Kingfisher. I knew of them from the song "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree" but didn't know they were carnivores. I have heard them "
laugh" in the wild and I love the sound. Matt's favorite are hardly noticeable at first and that is just the way these birds like it. The Tawny Frogmouths are camouflage specialists and often mistaken for broken branches. I would have walked right past them if Matt hadn't pointed them out. One basked in the sun with quite a pompous little look. 
We had a close encounter with a rather large crane called a Brolga. Matt was a little nervous about his toes around the Brolga's big beak. I got a bit too close to the big bird trying to take another picture and he let me know I had crossed the line. The squawk he made wasn't a pleasant, let's be close friends noise. The definite star of the bird show was the Cassowary. This bird is in the emu/ ostrich family and is flightless. The species itself is threatened but also the rainfor
est is threatened with the decline of the Cassowary. Since the bird eats rainforest fruits it passes seeds after germinating them on the so called beak-to-bum journey. Many plants are solely dependant on this bird to spread their seeds. Cassowarys don't like people too much. They are very shy birds and will usually hide but if provoked they have been known to kill people. In World War II, Australian and American troops stationed in New Guinea were explicitly warned to stay away from these birds.There were many other animals in the sanctuary. We 
actually got to meet a freshwater crocodile named Charlie. I was very brave and even gave Charlie some pats. Yes, very brave indeed considering she was about two feet long and had a guard around her mouth so she couldn't open it. The keeper dispelled some myths about the fresh water crocodile. Evidently they are very lazy animals and couldn't be bothered with trying to eat a human since we are rather large. The salt water variety is much more aggressive but the freshwater pretty much leave people alone as long as we leave them alon
e. We spotted big turtles sunning themselves and a huge eel in the lake. We also got to feed some swamp wallabies. These guys were very cute but much less used to people than the roos in Ballarat. I had to be a little more patient to get them to eat out of my hand and we all know I am sooooo patient. The Woodducks and Ibis were much more interested in my bag of roo food than any of the roos were. One Ibis stuck his beak in a little girls ice cream while she was trying to feed a wallaby.
actually got to meet a freshwater crocodile named Charlie. I was very brave and even gave Charlie some pats. Yes, very brave indeed considering she was about two feet long and had a guard around her mouth so she couldn't open it. The keeper dispelled some myths about the fresh water crocodile. Evidently they are very lazy animals and couldn't be bothered with trying to eat a human since we are rather large. The salt water variety is much more aggressive but the freshwater pretty much leave people alone as long as we leave them alon
e. We spotted big turtles sunning themselves and a huge eel in the lake. We also got to feed some swamp wallabies. These guys were very cute but much less used to people than the roos in Ballarat. I had to be a little more patient to get them to eat out of my hand and we all know I am sooooo patient. The Woodducks and Ibis were much more interested in my bag of roo food than any of the roos were. One Ibis stuck his beak in a little girls ice cream while she was trying to feed a wallaby. We headed over to the pavilion to have our "Lunch w
ith the Lorikeets". At first it was all Egrets and Ibis hanging out in the lunch area. These are not shy birds and made themselves quite at home on our table. One egret even helped himself to little piece of food on Matt's plate. Soon all kinds of birds had come into the pavilion. One cockatoo swiped a fre
nch fry from a lucky diner complete with ketchup. He looked like he was thoroughly enjoying his fry perched high up above everyone eating. A keeper came by with two Rainbow Lorikeets and asked if we wanted to meet them. Before I could say yes they were settling themselves on my shoulder. These little colorful parrots are adorable although considered a pest by some fruit farmers. Their cousin the Ultramarine Lorikeet is endangered and one of the 50 rarest birds in the world. The two we met were a happy couple mated for life. Lorikeet couples stay together all year round feeding and pre
ening each other. They are very chatty little birds but my goodness when one of them let go of a full on squawk right in my ear I thought my hearing would be lost forever. It took quite a while for my ear to stop ringing. All in all the lorikeets had very good manners. They didn't try to steal anything off my plate and this one even used his napkin when he was sitting at the table. What a proper little bird. We tried alot of exotic fruits I had never tried before like the custard apple fruit and a plum looking thing that I
forgot the name. I had never eaten passionfruit before and it is now my favorite fruit...YUMMY!!!
ith the Lorikeets". At first it was all Egrets and Ibis hanging out in the lunch area. These are not shy birds and made themselves quite at home on our table. One egret even helped himself to little piece of food on Matt's plate. Soon all kinds of birds had come into the pavilion. One cockatoo swiped a fre
nch fry from a lucky diner complete with ketchup. He looked like he was thoroughly enjoying his fry perched high up above everyone eating. A keeper came by with two Rainbow Lorikeets and asked if we wanted to meet them. Before I could say yes they were settling themselves on my shoulder. These little colorful parrots are adorable although considered a pest by some fruit farmers. Their cousin the Ultramarine Lorikeet is endangered and one of the 50 rarest birds in the world. The two we met were a happy couple mated for life. Lorikeet couples stay together all year round feeding and pre
ening each other. They are very chatty little birds but my goodness when one of them let go of a full on squawk right in my ear I thought my hearing would be lost forever. It took quite a while for my ear to stop ringing. All in all the lorikeets had very good manners. They didn't try to steal anything off my plate and this one even used his napkin when he was sitting at the table. What a proper little bird. We tried alot of exotic fruits I had never tried before like the custard apple fruit and a plum looking thing that I
forgot the name. I had never eaten passionfruit before and it is now my favorite fruit...YUMMY!!!There was a display of paintings by Port Dougla
s artist Holly Saunders. She painted Australian wildlife in beautiful, colorful oils. I absolutely loved her pieces of Kingfishers, Treefrogs and White Possums. If you want to see more of her artwork check out her website. http://www.hollysaunders.com.au/
s artist Holly Saunders. She painted Australian wildlife in beautiful, colorful oils. I absolutely loved her pieces of Kingfishers, Treefrogs and White Possums. If you want to see more of her artwork check out her website. http://www.hollysaunders.com.au/Matt and I decided to really go all out on the fancy scale that night. We were on vacation after all so why not hang with the upper crust? Why not get
all gussied up and participate in the sport of the elite? So we did just that. We made all the necessary plans for a night at the races....the Cane Toad Races that is. We headed on down to the IRON BAR in our Saturday best for the 7:30 race time. The night started off with a toast to the late Steve Irwin, who died just off the coast of Port Douglas and to all the good he did for animal conservation. Then the toad wrangler/ master of ceremonies gave us a little back ground on his beloved cane toads. I could tell this guy was a real animal lover telling stories of trying to rescue injured kangaroos. He definitely loved his toads. The cane 
toad is a dramatic pest in Australia introduced in 1935 to reduce sugar cane eating beetles. The toads didn't have any effect on the beetles since they couldn't seem to get on top of the sugar cane to eat them. The toads did however have lots of luck in the breeding arena. The population in Australia has gone from 102 to over 10 billion cane toads. Scientists th
ink they may have finally found a cure to the toad plague in a gender changing gene that would eventually make all the toads male. For this night we were only interested in which toad was going to hop fastest. Each race started off with the toad jockey giving the toad a little kiss for good luck. Some jockeys were a little more squeamish than others. Jockeys weren't allowed to touch the toads during a race they could only encourage them with noise makers. Most of the toads didn't seem to care one way or the other about the noise makers or winning the race. It was absolutely hilarious to watch and was by far the best five dollars ($4.10 US) I have spe
nt in a long time. I even got to hold a cane toad myself. After all the racing excitement I wanted to turn in early. The next day was the big day... The Great Barrier Reef!!
all gussied up and participate in the sport of the elite? So we did just that. We made all the necessary plans for a night at the races....the Cane Toad Races that is. We headed on down to the IRON BAR in our Saturday best for the 7:30 race time. The night started off with a toast to the late Steve Irwin, who died just off the coast of Port Douglas and to all the good he did for animal conservation. Then the toad wrangler/ master of ceremonies gave us a little back ground on his beloved cane toads. I could tell this guy was a real animal lover telling stories of trying to rescue injured kangaroos. He definitely loved his toads. The cane 
toad is a dramatic pest in Australia introduced in 1935 to reduce sugar cane eating beetles. The toads didn't have any effect on the beetles since they couldn't seem to get on top of the sugar cane to eat them. The toads did however have lots of luck in the breeding arena. The population in Australia has gone from 102 to over 10 billion cane toads. Scientists th
ink they may have finally found a cure to the toad plague in a gender changing gene that would eventually make all the toads male. For this night we were only interested in which toad was going to hop fastest. Each race started off with the toad jockey giving the toad a little kiss for good luck. Some jockeys were a little more squeamish than others. Jockeys weren't allowed to touch the toads during a race they could only encourage them with noise makers. Most of the toads didn't seem to care one way or the other about the noise makers or winning the race. It was absolutely hilarious to watch and was by far the best five dollars ($4.10 US) I have spe
nt in a long time. I even got to hold a cane toad myself. After all the racing excitement I wanted to turn in early. The next day was the big day... The Great Barrier Reef!!