Visitors & the long weekend

Hope everyone had a nice long weekend!

We had visitors on Thursday -- three bird-loving people that I knew from phone conversations and the Internet, but had never met before.

My parrots are not used to strangers, and it showed! Luckily, they tend to accept people after meeting them a few times; unfortunately, it will be a long time before they see these people again since they were from rather far away. Actually, Daphne, Kika, Rocky, Calypso, and Beeps were well-behaved. Max was pretty good, but she wouldn't step up on anyone else -- she'd fly away.

I tried to do a short clicker training demonstration, but Max was more interested in dancing than performing her tricks! We only had a short time at my house, but it was good for them to meet new people.

Here's a picture of Max, with her foot up because she wants me to pick her up.

I got home from work on Thursday, and Beeps had bathed in his water dish. What a mess he makes! He is so adorable when he's wet, though...

Here's another picture of Beeps, on alert. I could just eat this guy up! I know everyone thinks their parrots are adorable, but there is something special that draws me to this guy!I had done laundry, but placed the clean clothes at the bottom of the stairs instead of taking them immediately up to our bedroom. Rocky decided to take advantage of this. He climbed up my laundry basket, pulled out a clean pair of shorts, and brought them into the bathroom where Thomas was showering. He played with them for quite some time!I tried to get a video of him playing with my shorts (it would have been very similar to videos I've posted where he's playing with a towel), but he decided to run around with his beak on the floor instead:

Thomas had to mow the lawn over the weekend, which meant his two partners-in-crime had to keep tabs on him through the patio door that's just at their level:

In the background, you can see the one flower that I've managed to grow. I will probably pick it soon and see if the lizards will eat it!

Speaking of toys (Rocky with my shorts), we got our orders from Grey Feather Toys and from TNT Bird Toys, so the parrots have been very happy! I'll be posting more pictures of their toys in the upcoming weeks.

Here's a video of me introducing a new toy to Max. This is the large GFTC stainless steel bell. Right now, it's hanging in Kika's cage.

Here's Beeps, playing with one of his new toys. Caiques tend to be amazing toy players, and the two I own are no exception. They tend to particularly like toys that make noise when they bang them, and toys from which they can hang.

To the left is Beeps with his new Skadaddle. It has quickly become a new favorite!

Unfortunately, this picture turned out kind of blurry. But it's the best one I've been able to take of Calypso that captures the essence of how he plays. He's hanging onto his Birdy Bella.

He loves to hang off of his toys and shake them, which means he shakes in the process since he isn't holding onto the cage at all. One of his favorite things to do, which we call "the monkey," is to make his way around his cage using just his toys, with frequent stops for toy shaking and banging. I've tried to capture this on video, but when he sees me with the camera, he stops and comes over for me to pick him up!

Sometimes he'll have one foot on two different toys, and he tries to attack them both at the same time. I can spend (and have spent) a long time, just watching him play.

Our fish are still doing well. The two tiny babies are now the size of the larger baby when I first saw them last Sunday. They've been exploring different parts of the tank. Our old green cory cat also made an appearance over the weekend -- I hadn't seen him for months and assumed him dead. It never ceases to amaze me how these guys can be such great hiders!

When I called Thomas in to see the green cory cat, he remarked on the number of amazing aquarium happenings that have taken place in our house recently.