Parrot Musings

Thomas's current job requires that he work nearly every day, with 4 days off during the month. Monday night he told me that he had Tuesday off (thanks for the advanced notice!) and would I like to go for a hike with him? Luckily my job is flexible, so we were able to go. We went to another (different) State Park. This one is about 15 minutes north of our house, and it's where we often go cross country skiing during the winter.

Here Thomas is, walking ahead of me. I was still a bit stiff from the marathon, so I wasn't able to walk as quickly as I normally can. Additionally, I was still suffering a bit from the chaffing under my arms, so I was often walking with my arms held out to my sides, which he declared to be embarrassing!

Thomas took this picture using one of the features on our camera to highlight only one specific color. I thought it turned out pretty nice! As we were walking along, we ran into nobody for the first 4 miles of the 5 mile trail. I was reveling in the solitude and peacefulness of nature. Then, those thoughts were snapped by this:

3 busloads of high school kids! Going the opposite way as us, so we passed them all! We only saw 2 chaperons, and they were at the front of the pack. I think they needed a few more as the last student walking up the path was smoking pot as he was walking! That's right -- on a school field trip in nature!

In any case, we had a fabulous time. The weather was fantastic, and we just love being outdoors. We also saw a caterpillar of some sort; here is the video:

That was about the only wildlife that we saw clearly. There were a few birds in the trees and maybe one squirrel that we saw.

On to parrot stories!

Rocky has a fleece hat that he absolutely loves. Thomas and I love this hat, also! It had been tucked away in our closet along with the rest of our winter clothes, but Thomas brought it out a few weeks ago when we were going for a hike and he wasn't sure about the weather (turns out that he didn't need one!) Apparently, to Rocky, Thomas turns into a different person when he has this hat on! Rocky tries very hard to attack him! Rocky also loves playing with the hat, when it's not on a person. We've been letting him play with it for a few weeks. Here is a still photo and video of him. If you listen closely, you can hear how hard he is hitting the floor with his beak. We have no idea why he does this, but he also does it with towels and other fabric.

And here is a strange picture of Max. I was trying to get a picture of her chest because she has some new feathers growing in with a strange pattern that I found interesting. Of course, as I got closer to her, she started begging for attention. Only when I looked at this picture on my computer did I notice that she is doing something weird with her eye and her foot. And I didn't get her chest picture clearly.