December 2009
Dear Humans, Birds and Elephants who are reading this nonsense,
Aristophanes, my sweet big red macaw, is just the nicest guy and I have pictures to prove it. Notice how he is standing on hands other than mine, and he is not trying to kill anyone. Now that is what I call progress. Actually, he went from hand to hand during Thanksgiving and he was truly a happy, delightful guy. We had some friends over on the second night and his body language told us that he was being more cautious, so I refrained from handing him from person to person, but he was still good. I guess if you keep trying in a gentle, kind manner, even a bird with behavioral problems will come around.
I went to visit Judy and Alex Braun over the holiday and I was lucky enough to see the two parrots I had adopted to them besides their own wonderderful grey, “Talulahbelle”....Wow, what a great home and what a part of their family these birds had become. I love that. The saddest thing is when I visit an adoption I have made, or any bird for that matter, who is confined to a cage all the time. It is like taking an intelligent mind and imprisoning it or punishing it forever. Some the adoptions I have done really make me a very happy human.
Sometimes, of course, one never knows what is going on inside the little heads sitting on the little shoulders of the little (or big) parrot. My father in law loves my birds and he handles them all the time. Even Aristophanes at his worst did not really scare him. Zeke, my sweet little cockatiel, is his best friend. Zeke follows my father in law through the air and lands on him, eats with him or just hangs out. Sooooooooo, Zeke, Emma, who is generally very friendly, and Gene, my father in law, were having a pancake breakfast together. Emma, who had been standing and eating happily on Gene’s shoulder, suddenly ran down his arm and bit his hand. No cause, no reason, I attributed it to Zeke suddenly taking off and flying by, but in all honesty, I have no idea why it happened......That is the parrot for you.
Emma has, in rare instances, acted like that before but offering lots of excitement and body language that said “be careful”. This time there was nothing. I put Emma, who by this time was acting agitated, back in his cage for a while. Soon it was as if nothing happened and Emma was himself again. There are people who are always willing to give reasons for why parrots act the way they do. I think that unless the parrot is reacting to something very obvious we can conjecture, but that is about as far as it goes.
So much for my parrot stories. On another bird vein, I lost my oldest chicken, Ben, a New Hampshire hen. She was ten years old and was doing poorly. I gave her some medication through a syringe and I guess I must have given it too fast or incorrectly because she died shortly after that. Needless to say, I felt terrible and heart sick. I still have several other chickens, barred and buff plymouth rocks, buff wyandottes, light brown leghorns and a white orpington. I plan on getting some more New Hampshires from a guy in Pennsylavania Dutch Country as soon as we can get there, but each chicken is an individual to me and Ben’s loss is sorely felt. Maybe if I gave the medicine differently, Ben would still be alive.
Here we are, celebrating together, as in so many years gone by. This is always a special night. We get to sample the gourmet dishes put together by our fellow club members, win prizes in our penny social and just enjoy each others’ company and bird stories. I hope the weather is not too bad and several people bring their birds to share in the festivities. We will see if this “grab bag” thing takes on. If it does, we will do it again, if not....it was a fun thing to try.
Next month, Dr. Rick Stein is our speaker. February brings us the people from the Helping Wing Bird Rescue Center. We also have 2 programs coming up, one by the Adoption committee of the Connecticut Bird Club and one on Loro Park in the Canary Islands. We also have to work on those club trips to Cornell University Avian Hospital and the Central Park Zoo in the spring. Karen Graves has suggested a trip to “Space Farms” which has some bird exhibits. We will wait to see how that turns out too.
I wish everyone a very happy holiday and a wonderful and healthy new year......January 1st is not only New Years Day, but Jackie’s birthday as well...............Happy Birthday, Jackie, I love you!
Love To Everyone and especially Fritha,
Richie
Aristophanes, my sweet big red macaw, is just the nicest guy and I have pictures to prove it. Notice how he is standing on hands other than mine, and he is not trying to kill anyone. Now that is what I call progress. Actually, he went from hand to hand during Thanksgiving and he was truly a happy, delightful guy. We had some friends over on the second night and his body language told us that he was being more cautious, so I refrained from handing him from person to person, but he was still good. I guess if you keep trying in a gentle, kind manner, even a bird with behavioral problems will come around.
I went to visit Judy and Alex Braun over the holiday and I was lucky enough to see the two parrots I had adopted to them besides their own wonderderful grey, “Talulahbelle”....Wow, what a great home and what a part of their family these birds had become. I love that. The saddest thing is when I visit an adoption I have made, or any bird for that matter, who is confined to a cage all the time. It is like taking an intelligent mind and imprisoning it or punishing it forever. Some the adoptions I have done really make me a very happy human.
Sometimes, of course, one never knows what is going on inside the little heads sitting on the little shoulders of the little (or big) parrot. My father in law loves my birds and he handles them all the time. Even Aristophanes at his worst did not really scare him. Zeke, my sweet little cockatiel, is his best friend. Zeke follows my father in law through the air and lands on him, eats with him or just hangs out. Sooooooooo, Zeke, Emma, who is generally very friendly, and Gene, my father in law, were having a pancake breakfast together. Emma, who had been standing and eating happily on Gene’s shoulder, suddenly ran down his arm and bit his hand. No cause, no reason, I attributed it to Zeke suddenly taking off and flying by, but in all honesty, I have no idea why it happened......That is the parrot for you.
Emma has, in rare instances, acted like that before but offering lots of excitement and body language that said “be careful”. This time there was nothing. I put Emma, who by this time was acting agitated, back in his cage for a while. Soon it was as if nothing happened and Emma was himself again. There are people who are always willing to give reasons for why parrots act the way they do. I think that unless the parrot is reacting to something very obvious we can conjecture, but that is about as far as it goes.
So much for my parrot stories. On another bird vein, I lost my oldest chicken, Ben, a New Hampshire hen. She was ten years old and was doing poorly. I gave her some medication through a syringe and I guess I must have given it too fast or incorrectly because she died shortly after that. Needless to say, I felt terrible and heart sick. I still have several other chickens, barred and buff plymouth rocks, buff wyandottes, light brown leghorns and a white orpington. I plan on getting some more New Hampshires from a guy in Pennsylavania Dutch Country as soon as we can get there, but each chicken is an individual to me and Ben’s loss is sorely felt. Maybe if I gave the medicine differently, Ben would still be alive.
Here we are, celebrating together, as in so many years gone by. This is always a special night. We get to sample the gourmet dishes put together by our fellow club members, win prizes in our penny social and just enjoy each others’ company and bird stories. I hope the weather is not too bad and several people bring their birds to share in the festivities. We will see if this “grab bag” thing takes on. If it does, we will do it again, if not....it was a fun thing to try.
Next month, Dr. Rick Stein is our speaker. February brings us the people from the Helping Wing Bird Rescue Center. We also have 2 programs coming up, one by the Adoption committee of the Connecticut Bird Club and one on Loro Park in the Canary Islands. We also have to work on those club trips to Cornell University Avian Hospital and the Central Park Zoo in the spring. Karen Graves has suggested a trip to “Space Farms” which has some bird exhibits. We will wait to see how that turns out too.
I wish everyone a very happy holiday and a wonderful and healthy new year......January 1st is not only New Years Day, but Jackie’s birthday as well...............Happy Birthday, Jackie, I love you!
Love To Everyone and especially Fritha,
Richie