brez

well its been a few days now since i last updated . the 2 remaining chicks in the spangle nest hatched wednesday and thursday the 4th chick i helped out of its shell very carefully as it was taking many hours to free itself . the 5th chick is an ino and hatched a day earlier than expected all are doing well , even the 1st chick from the fallow nest which looked funny couloured is going really well now . i will do some new pics next week when the earlier ones should be getting some feathers

thats a great price for 4 birds no matter how far you have to go to get them , i look forward to some pics . good score

hi and welcome your birds are very nice , hopefully you can keep us updated on your cute little chicks . congratulations on them too !

most coastal areas have spearfishing and or dive clubs . i always loved fishing and snorkelling so i guess it was only a matter of time til i combined both . i got into through my mate pete and along the way have met quite a few divers that i go spearfishing with . finding your nearest club / dive shop would be the best place to start , any scuba shop would probably be able to point you in the right direction

yeah well i only heard about it first hand and i couldnt stop laughing . apparently pete was so deep in concentration he just pushed the ray away thinking it was his dive buddy , didnt take long to realise it wasnt though and there was a flurry of arms and legs as he scrambled for the surface . i reckon it would only be funny from the surface and not from where he was HA!! If I had just swam 700m offshore like Brez does, I'd have trouble breathing, let alone hold my breath!! its actually a really easy swim , we have massive flippers and just cruise along . its not uncommon for us to swim a few kilometres in one day . the calmer , quieter and generally more comfortable you are the easier it is to dive for longer . sometimes we stay out for up to 5 -6 hours depending where we are and how much fish are about . its a whole other planet down there and its pretty easy to lose track of time . except when youve lost your buddy !!!

well im not as fit as some so about a minute for me , pete can lie on the bottom in 20 metres for about 2 minutes . i went diving with the current aus champion last year and he did 3 minutes easily . it was awesome to see him move on the bottom every now and then and then eventually come up not even out of breath . we have to know our limits though , 1 mistake and its easily all over . no you cant buy mateship like that . id rather chaes the sharks away than have them think they get an easy meal every time they see a diver , that opens a whole new can of worms . its the big stingrays that really scare me , no matter what you do sometimes they just keep pestering and they are evil looking things . they give me chills because they are so bold . my mat had one come in and lay on top of him while he was lying against a ledge , you reckon that got his heart pumping ?

braver or silly hills ? i havent made my mind up yet , probably more the latter :rofl: yeah i do burley now and then , but i once had a six foot bronze whaler come from nowhere to steal a snapper off the end of my spear just 2 metres below me so i dont do it as often nowadays . i never tie the fish to me , thats just asking for trouble . fish are put on the stringer and go back to the float some 30 metres from me . a few times ive had to swim back to the float to chase sharks away ( and seals ), im nervous every time though ! the way things are at the moment im seriously considreing paying the $700 for a shark shield , cheap insurance i think

well from now on i probably wont be as comfortable in the water for a while . i cant imagine life away from the ocean personally though . we had a shark attack locally this morning in the entrance to lake illawarra ( 5 mins from most of my normal dive spots ) :fear so thats a bit concerning aswell . oh well the more our fish stocks our overfished the more common it will become i guess . thems the risks

splat i think you need to find a new doctor . myn uses mild hypnosis when needling me and i never feel a thing . he reckons the more your relaxed the less it hurts . hes had to stitch me up quite alot since i was a kid too , you would think id get used to needles :fear . beofre you know it you will be back to normal

thanks JB they are cute i guess , but wait theres more . i was expecting the cobolt / spangle to chick to hatch today and it has , but the cobolt / fallow chick hatched today aswell . albeit a day early :fear . the little buggers have been hatching unexpectedly all over the place actually . maybe the fluctuating weather and temps have something to do with that ? cobolt / fallow nest , the last egg is infertile so thats it for them . 3 chicks cobolt / spangle nest . 3 chicks now , 2 to go . last egg didnt develop even though it was fertile

Me too, today I have done more with my hand so that's a good sign, have been fixing up my show cages until I hit my finger then I had to stop because of The pain :budgiedance: ha ha sounds like you cant sit still for long . im the same , when i put the kickstand of a motorbike through my foot i was supposed to stay off it for a while . a while lasted til the next day :fear

that looks great . umm when are you coming to build my aviary ?

im not great at genetics but i will have a stab at the first pairs possibles . i think you would get yf1s and normals , sky blue , mauves and true violet ( cobolt violet ) . they would be carrying violet factor too if not visibly ( i think ) as for the second pair ive got no idea , pretty babies for sure though and a real mixed lot

yeah it was pretty full on to say the least . its an extreme sport so when things do go wrong its usually to the extreme . there has also been a few shark attacks recently too around the country which was going through my head as i was swiming back . i just kept teling myself i was more likely to get a hit by a car ! but how many cars do you see in the ocean ?

something that bad could happen so easily . hope the pain eases soon , it made me queezy just reading about it

well hello all , i thought i might share my story of events that happened yesterday whilst spearfishing a remote dive spot at ulladulla on nsw south coast ( 3 hours from sydney ) , with poor mobile reception , a 3 kilometre swim and seven hundred mtre climb to get help . earlier in the week my spearfishing buddy and i started planning our day trip down the coast for some serious rest and relaxation spearfishing before we returned to work this week . everything was planned and we had 2 dive options taking into cosideration weather ( wind , swell , storms etc ) and we had a plan for each spot including where we would meet up IF we now plans are all well and good if they are FOLLOWED ! thsi was not he case on this day however . we had arrived early in the morning and decided spot #1 was out of the question due to the north east winds that were due to blow up mid morning , so off to spot #2 and conditions were perfect . so off we went swimming out 700 metres from shore before turning paralell to shore for the next 3 km swim leg to the gap . all the time keeping within sight of each other whilst we dived and caught fish . after about 2 hours , my buddy , lets call him pete , called me over to tell me he was going to dive some deep ledges in about 15-20 metres of water . i should add here that we dont use scuba gear , we do 1 div e per breath . at this depth there is a risk the diver can blackout on returning to the surface so no problem as he is well experienced at this . however we decided we would only have 1 diver down at a time . he dove , came back up i waited to make sure he was okay then i dove . when i came back up he was gone , nowhwere to be seen . i couldnt see his float or dive falg anywhere after looking 360 degrees for what seemed like eternity .i swam to our PLANNED meeting spot but after 30 minutes i decided it was a lost cause and started the long swim back to the beach to call for help as i was starting to think he had dove to deep and blacked out coming back up , then the current may have dragged him further out to sea . its the most stressful feeling , being all alone out in the ocean , and not knowing whats happened to your dive buddy . my heart was racing as fast as my head and i still had swim back to the beach before i could get help . i have had a 6 foot long shark take fish from my float here previously so this added to my stress levels on the way back . i bumped inot 2 more spearfishers and explained what had happened and they said they would keep an eye for pete . thye swim was the easy bit , when i got back to the beach i had to carry all my gear up the steep sand dunes to my car . once at the car dripping wet and struggling for breath my mobile phone had very poor surface . stress levels now through the roof . after getting enough service to make the call to the coastguard and water police , i had to take a few minutes to compose myself . with the calls made all i could do was sit and wait and hope pete was okay . after about 20 minutes i could make out a dive float out off the point . lo and behold it was pete . by this time the ambulance was coming and the police had arrived too . yeah it was pete and i was relieved beyond belief . thw wind had picked up and with it the swell which got us seperated so easily to start with . BUT the problem was we both went to different meeting spots on either sides of the bombie . he went to the wrong spot . if i hadnt been so happy to see him i couldve killed him ( figuratively speaking ofcourse ) . i was happy he was alive , he was embarrassed to the hilt but serves him right . he is due to be a father in a few months so this gave him quite a fright , making him realise what could have happened this couldve been a much worse ending , keep safe everyone .

well as promised here are some baby pics ( though not the best pics ever ! ) this is the cobolt/fallow nest , and this is the cobolt/spangle nest , biggest chick is the ino 4 happy healthy well fed little chickies, though they are very camera shy :hi:

well this is going to be a very quick update of sorts ( no photos sorry , i havnt been able to bring myself to disturb them too much this early on ) the first chick from the cobolt and fallow seems to be going pretty well despite its pale colour , its well fed which is great :sadsorry: , 2nd due to hatch tomorrow as there was 4 days between laying the 1st and 2nd eggs . the cobolt and spangle pair have 2 chicks now . first hatched yesterday evening and is an ino , this was expected as i was told these guys usually throw a high % of albinos . 2nd hatched early hours this morning and looks to have normal eyes im not sure why they hatched so close together and at such odd times . oh well i will add pics of the cute little jelly beans tomorrow im contemplating fostering 1 egg from the spangle nest to the fallow hen as she only has 3 fertile ones but i may wait and see how the ino chick goes first

cobolt cock / fallow hen have their first hatchling today it is very pale in colour though , almost creamy . and the eyes dont look as dark as i was expecting either , and dont look pink enough to be ino to me oh well i will take some pics once the next one hatches

WOW , its amazing how much they can change from moult to moult . good job on the pics too !!

gee deb she is GORGEOUS , those 2 boys will be fighting over her for sure

thanks for the well wishes too ,there will be plenty of updates with cute little baby pics , i promise !!!!

okay thanks liv , i never even considred mac to be df due to him having so much less markings than raine . until i realised he had iris rings i had thought he was recessive pied

hi ive got these 2 dom pied cocks which are very different , they both have iris rings which makes them dom pied right ? here is raine , yf2 sky blue dom pied , anything else ? and here is mac (on left ), yf2 sky blue dom pied carrying violet and for comparrison mac next to rec pied hen what i want to know is are they 2 different types of dominant pieds ? if it wasnt for the iris rings i would have thought mac was rec pied

well i put three pair down what seems like an eternity ago and ive been really busy over christmas as im sure you can all relate to . so one pair didnt really work out , laid one egg then stopped the othert 2 pair are going well though and im expecting chickies before this weeks over this cobolt normal cock and spangle hen have 6 fertile eggs (100%) and first due to hatch 8/01 . and ive been told to expect the unexpected from them ???? im hoping for nice big cobolt spangle babies to put to violets later down the track and the cobolt normal cock and fallow hen have 3 out 4 eggs fertile , first due to hatch 7/01 so hopefully soon i will have some jellybean pics to post soon , fingers crossed all goes well