Friday, August 29, 2008

Greys on the sink!

Thomas came home from work last night and poured himself a small bowl of pretzel snacks to tide him over until dinner. Stella made a bee-line for the food and helped herself. You may notice the shininess on her beak. That may or may not have been made by me giving her a kiss when I had chapstick on :)

As I've mentioned in previous posts, she has decided to claim the sink as her main perch in the kitchen. This can be troublesome when we're trying to cook! Last night, Max decided to join her on the sink.

I'm still somewhat hopeful that they will strike up some sort of friendship, but I'm not holding my breath. Shortly after I took this picture, Stella made a move towards Max who immediately flew off to the safety of her stand. Prior to taking this picture, Max had been inching away -- notice her foot on my salad bowl!Of course I have a couple of Rocky pictures!

Our new morning routine includes me putting him in the bathroom while I change foods and waters. The other alternative is to keep him in his cage during this time (where he screams) because he tries to attack me. He really likes the bathroom.

Yesterday, I noticed that he had backed up into a bottle I had on the curtain rod (to separate the parrots when I bring them into the shower with me) and was holding it in between his wing and body. He did this again today. It does not appear to be sexual since he's not moving at all and is no more aggressive when I have him step up and bring him back to the living room. (He's puffed up in the picture because of the camera, but normally is not puffy!)When I enlarged this picture on the computer this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I could see his tongue preening Thomas. We rarely allow our birds on our shoulders, but Rocky was in a very loving mood last night and was insistent. Thomas understands Rocky's body language, and rightly surmised that Rocky didn't have any bad intentions.This week has flown by so quickly! I have another race tomorrow, but Thomas is working, so the pressure is off on trying to beat him! I wish everyone a fantastic long weekend!

9 comments:

Stephanie said...

I wonder if there is a reason why Max and Stella have different colored beaks. Any thoughts?

Mary said...

Max is a timneh and Stella is a congo, so that's why their beaks are different. Usually there is a bigger size difference as well, but I think Stella is small for a congo (and Max is kind of big for a timneh which is why we thought she was male at first!) Their tails are really strikingly different. I will try to get pictures of that over the weekend.

I'm working my way down my blog list and am almost to yours -- can't wait to get caught up on the past 2 weeks!

Scritches.com said...

I can't get over how beautiful and happy your birds are, and you take the best pictures.

The longer I have and study parrots the more I really believe they don't belong in our homes, but free in their native lands. You, however, seem to come close to giving them the best possible environment in the human world.

And you're very sweet to leave such nice postings on my blog.

Scritches.com said...

PS: Charli chewed up Sedaris' Me Talk Pretty One Day -- which did have some stuff in about trying to learn French. Good book (what's left of it).

Mary said...

BP,

Thanks for the nice compliments! When we got Max 6 years ago, we were clueless about parrots. Luckily she is so easy going that she weathered our mistakes. Thomas and I are constantly learning and trying new things in order to make their lives the best they can be in captivity.

I completely agree -- in a perfect world, these majestic parrots would all be in the wild. But there is such a demand for parrots now. I think the key is education -- getting information out there about what it's really like to live with them, and trying to help people find the right type of bird (if any) that can be successful in their household.

I love David Sedaris! We saw him read a few years ago. He has such a way with words where even mundane things have me laughing out loud.

Scritches.com said...

PPS -- I signed up for Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar. Thanks for the tip. And don't worry if you make typos in a blog -- they're supposed to be casual (unless they're professional business ones).

One smart blue headed pionus said...

I like the banner photograph on your blog. Does everyone stay in their space during shower time?

DweezelJazz said...

I _love_ the photo of the two greys on the sink! :) And I really love your blog too.

Mary said...

OSBHP -- The birds do stay in their place during shower time. They are remarkably uninterested in each other, but we put shampoo bottles between them just in case! They each have their spot and know the routine.

DJ -- thanks! You are way too kind! I'm trying to get a video of them on the sink, but haven't been able to capture a good one yet. Stella's claimed it as hers, but Max needs to go over and try every once in a while!