Text: Elly Vogelaar Photos: Aviculture Europa After visiting Willy and Kris Borgers (see our article: Chicken Run) we were welcomed at the house of Achilles De Reys and his wife Jeannine, also club members of the Local Club W.I.K. and dedicated fanciers, keeping an enormous collection of waterfowl and ornamental fowl. How thrilling to walk around their park-like gardens and experience the beauty of all those birds in such a spacious situation with almost natural nesting and sheltering possibilities! In the old days our kind of people did not use to keep fowl as an ornament, as that would only cost money! Achilles says. But since childhood he had a great interest in nature and was allowed to keep rabbits and domesticated ducks. One day when touring through a distinguished area he and his wife saw all sorts of beautiful ornamental fowl and bit by bit they began to collect some for their own garden. At first geese to keep the grass short, later turkeys and Guinea Fowl, as those even eat the nettles! Then a friend introduced him to the exhibition scene and he started to enter his birds at the Show. Left: Manned Goose (male), also known as the Australian Wood Duck or the Maned Duck. They owe their name to the male s tuft of black feathers at the back of the neck that can be erected to create a mane-like appearance. Manned Geese are not very noisy and not aggressive towards other species like whistling ducks and mix well. They love to graze on land and are seldom seen on water, so a sufficient grassy area is needed.
Left: Achilles and some of his ducks. Clockwise: White- Whistling Duck, faced Ringed Teal, North- Wood Duck, American Bahama Pintail. Achilles likes the North- e. Unfortu- American Wood Duck and Mandarin Ducks, but they do need a lot of spac nately they are in eclipse moult now. He used to have even more species, also all kinds of birds; some of them whistling so loudly that the neighbours thought it was a man that stood whistling beneath their windows! Also the Barnacle and Cackling geese are gone because they were too noisy. And the Hawaiian geese had to leave because the gander harmed its female too seriously. Still there is more than enough to enjoy! Left: White North-American Wood Ducks with duckling. Below: Wood Ducks with ducklings. The male is in eclipse moult. Photos taken at Willie Borgers.
Above: The Red-billed Whistling ducks never laid eggs for 5 years, but this year they have ducklings! Right: Fulvous Whistling duck. It often takes 5 to 6 years before offspring is born. At Achilles they only breed natural although once in a while he tries to have the Wyandotte hen incubate some eggs of very shy breeds; a task she fulfils with success! August isn t the best month to view the fowl s splendid ornamental plumage colours, but seeing all those young sure makes our visit worthwhile! Right above: Red-breasted geese with their goslings. Left: Ross goose with their goslings.
Also Willie and Kris Borgers have Red- geese (photo left) and Magellan breasted geese (below). The Magellan gander (the one with the white head) has one blind eye, but together with its female he has all they could wish for. The pair is 3 years old now and Willie hopes they have young next year. (Photos taken at Willie s) Above and right: Lesser White-fronted geese.. Golden eyes, as Achilles calls them. And due to the golden circle around the eyes that name is certainly appropriate! His line of White-fronted project to set these geese free in the wild, because their numbers have Geese is perfect. Some time ago he participated in an Aviornis drastically decreased! Achilles couldn t possibly say which species is the dearest to him. Since the new laws on protection against bird flu he had to cover his aviaries with netting, with the pleasant extra that he can keep pheasants now and all sorts of wild doves. During the first year the pheasants are rather shy, but those that are born here are tame and will not think of escaping. In fact, they would try hard to get back in when they had happened to get out! Achilles says with a big smile. The Bronze Winged Pigeons are also very tame and are not disturbed when he enters the aviary. They have young. In fact every species in the aviaries have young, also the quails and the canaries.
Left: Ashy- Geese headed are very special. In the right is the old Wyandotte hen that sometimes volunteers to incubate ducklings or goslings. And in the background you see a pair of Ross geese. Below left: Achilles and Kris. Below: Red Jungle Fowl, also called Bankiva Fowl. Achilles bought these last year. This is the first generation raised here. Read on in Part 2. Copyright 2007 Aviculture-Europe. All rights reserved by VBC