Flamingo Penelope lays egg early in season at Hayle's Paradise Park
It's due to hatch next month
Staff at Paradise Park Wildlife Sanctuary in Hayle are excited at the early laying of a flamingo egg this year.
Head of Softbills at Paradise Park Becky Waite explains "The egg was laid very early on the morning of 3rd May, which surprised us as this is the earliest in the year that laying has happened. We’re keeping our fingers crossed this is a good sign and that it will also encourage the rest of the flock to breed.
It will be a month before it hatches, which will be around 2nd June. This pair did lay last year, but sadly the egg was not fertile. Because the shells are very thick, which you can tell by looking at the photo, we can’t tell if it is fertile so we stay optimist that all will turn out okay.
The Keepers keep a close eye on the nest just in case the parents should stop incubating, and then we would step in quickly and put the egg in an incubator and hand-rear, just as I did back in 2019 with ‘Derek’ our first flamingo chick.
The pair with the egg are called 'Penelope' and 'Colin', named after the characters on ‘Bridgerton’, and they both share the incubation and are very committed to the task.
All of us are very excited and it's great that visitors can get such an amazing close view of the flamingo lagoon - when Penelope or Colin stand up you can clearly see their beautiful egg."
Flamingo Derek hatched on 19th August 2019 and was hand-reared by Becky. When Derek joined the main flock, flamingo Auntie Rita kept her company and looked out for her. Derek is now 6 years old which is the age they can breed and she has paired with Doris... Derek being female and Doris a male.
Becky continues "Caribbean flamingos build their nests in the shallow muddy area of their lagoon. Flamingos form strong pair bonds, and just one egg is laid with both male and female feeding the chick on a special ‘crop milk’. They are long lived birds that can reach the age of 40."