Stolen macaws found!

The Blueberry Patch blip - and stolen macaws found in midnight raid.

The 2 rare and valuable birds stolen from a wildlife park over Christmas have now been recovered from an Auburn (Sydney) backyard. On Christmas Eve, the offenders broke into the Featherdale Wildlife Park in the west Sydney suburb.

The 10 birds stolen included two blue and yellow macaws worth $6000 each, two red-tailed black cockatoos, and six white-breasted ground doves.

The police received a tip-off and visited an Auburn (Sydney suburbs) house after midnight. There, they say they found the two stolen macaws in a backyard aviary. The other eight stolen birds have still not been found.

The administration manager of Featherdale says the macaws are showing signs of stress but are otherwise well. "There's evidence that they've had a very traumatic couple of days, there's a few injuries and scratches and things but other than that, they seem fairly healthy. We're confident that once they're back in a familiar environment that they will make a full recovery."

Police say they have spoken with the home's residents where the macaws were found, and no charges have been laid at this stage, but inquiries are continuing. Police continue to appeal for information from the public to help locate the birds which remain missing.

The Blueberry Patch, Nankita near Mt. Compass, South Australia. This is of lesser importance than the good news about the macaws!

Paladian and I make several visits to this farm each summer to buy our fresh blueberries. Situated about 40 kms from Adelaide, this 4 hectare farm now has 9000 blueberry bushes and is not far from the Southern Vales wine area.

The owner, Grant Gartrell, is an old acquaintance of Paladian going back 45 years. They knew each other when Grant was doing his PhD in physics. However Grant was always a "greenie" and he finished up starting this wonderful farm in 1983 rather than practicing any form of traditional physics.

The plantation is one of the earlier commercial blueberry plantations in Australia. You can pick your own berries but we normally buy from the Farm Shop as it is much quicker.

My blip shows Grant on his quad bike, going into the plantation which is covered with netting, to get more blueberries for some of his many customers. Seen CLEARER in large. The season only lasts from mid-December to mid-February.