A family or maybe two families of Purple Swamphens were wowing the crowds at Floriade on Saturday… great ambassadors for the cause of birds in Canberra. They had nested in the big pond only
a few metres from a main path, so that dozens of kids and adults were lined up watching and taking reasonable pics with their phones. When we were there, the chicks were being fed constantly, the adults swimming off to less denuded islands and bringing back
a single reed each time before stripping out the pith and feeding to the 6 chicks.
It was easily the highlight of an increasingly commercial and uninspiring Floriade – the first time I’ve been in 5 years and unlikely to go back unless the new venue brings a startling improvement.
Even the kids were bored, apart from the swamphens. A much better tulip venue is the Tulip Top Garden on the Federal Hwy. Small but beautiful, less commercial even though it’s a private venture, and with the added attraction of blossom trees as well as Yellow-rumped
Thornbills and other bush birds.
Julian
www.flickr.com/photos/ozjulian/
