Moving on

Thank you to everyone for your good wishes and nice thoughts on our loss of Daphne. It still hasn't completely sunk in; she was such a part of the routine. I keep going to grab her food or water dishes, or to say good night to her. My birdsitter told me that she was the chirpiest she'd ever seen her, and seemed very happy the week we were gone. I don't know if she told me that just to make me feel better, but it does give me hope that she was happy until the end!

The other parrots do not seem to be affected at all by her loss. Perhaps because she was so easy going, and so much smaller than them, they never really considered her as part of their flock. After all, she wasn't taking away too much of our attention!

Max was doing her best to cheer us up last night, drinking from Thomas's ice water:
And this morning, Rocky was so funny. I wish I had this on tape! Thomas had the morning off, so he let Rocky out while we were eating breakfast. Normally, Rocky sits on Thomas's lap, but he didn't want to be there; he kept climbing off and coming by me.

He insisted on being less than an inch from me, wings spread wide. He alternated between saying "Hello Rocky!" and "Gimme a kiss! *kiss kiss kiss*" I think he was trying to get a reaction out of me. Thomas told me to just ignore him to see what he'd do, so he ramped up his cuteness. I tried to ignore him, but I couldn't stop laughing.

I don't know what's gotten into him. He certainly isn't switching his allegiance, but he could very easily have attacked me and he didn't. Maybe he senses my sadness and is trying to cheer me up!

Daphne

Yesterday, I arrived home from work to find that my beloved budgie, Daphne, had passed during the day. She was on the floor of her cage, in the corner. We only had her one week shy of four years. It wasn't long enough.
I'm just glad that it didn't happen on our pet sitter's watch, and that I cuddled her and told her how much I loved her before I left for work that day, part of our usual routine. I wish I could have been there for her at the end. She hid her illness well.

I truly hope she didn't suffer, and that she knew she was loved, even though she was alone at the end. Even though she was one of the quieter budgies I've ever met, the absence of budgie-chatter is deafening.

Thomas buried her in what we call our budgie garden -- where Lenny, Ethel, and Jeff Saturday also rest. It's a place in our backyard where the tiger lilies are in the process of growing.She was one of the most gentle souls I've ever met. I miss her so much.

Random bits of parrotness

Why would she choose to perch on my clearly unstable shoe, when there are stable shoes, not to mention, parrot perches, in our house?************************
Yesterday, Andreas's face was peeling in such a way that he looked like a uromastyx Groucho Marx. Unfortunately, the picture didn't turn out at all. But the skin under his nostrils was peeling, as was the skin above his eyes -- result: giant lizard mustache and eyebrows. I peeled them off, he sulked in his hide for a few minutes, and then all was forgotten.

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Daphne, my darling 1/2 English, 1/2 American budgie, has joined some of the others in hormonal experiences. She usually comes out of it pretty quickly, at least! She was acting strangely, so I had Thomas take her out for a once-over and determine whether we needed to take her to the vet. Then I realized she acts this way every time she gets hormonal. No need for panic!

Last night, after her once-over, she climbed up to my shoulder and proceeded to preen my cheek. She hit a very ticklish spot as I could not stop laughing. I have to remember to do this with her more often. Since she is undemanding, especially compared to the other parrots, I sometimes have to make an effort to spend quality time with her.

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I decided this morning was a good time for some one-on-one time with Calypso (another undemanding parrot who can easily be overlooked). He was the only bird who showered with me, and the only one to share my second breakfast. Here he is, eating a strawberry.
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Earlier this morning, when I was eating my first breakfast, Thomas and I had the greys out. They seem to not need as much dark/quiet/sleep time as the rest of the parrots, so they usually come out earlier than everyone else.

Thomas had the hardest time leaving for work this morning! Every time he'd try to open the door, both greys would fly over, one landing on his head and another on his shoulder. (This didn't pose any safety risk for them since he was entering our attached garage and the garage door was closed). He'd give them kisses, toss them onto stands, and the process repeated itself.

I think it makes him happy to see their outward demonstration of affection for him!

Budgie in flight

Daphne had flown to the fruit bowl and was happily perched there. I tried to take a picture of her, but she had other ideas!She rarely flies with volition, so even though she messed up my picture, I was happy about the reason why.

Lounging around with parrots

Saturday afternoon we decided to relax for a bit while watching the Olympics. When you have as many parrots as we do, relaxing is never as relaxing as it should be!

Things started out fairly well. Max was playing in her foraging bucket:Stella was preening herself on her cage:Daphne was (as always) playing nicely on her cage:Calypso was eating (sorry for the blurriness!):Beeps was playing on Rocky's cage. He loves to climb to the top of this toy hanger and then slide down. Sometimes he spins while he slides down; I'm trying to get a video of this!Then he started playing with the toys on top of Rocky's cage:Where was Rocky? Where else?:Doing some chipping while trying to fit in Thomas's pants:


Thomas kept alternating between the floor and the couch. While on the couch, he was reading a magazine when Stella flew over to join him:Rocky was not happy that she intruded on his person. Even though he had been peacefully playing by himself, he had to run over as soon as he spotted Stella on Thomas's feet. En route:He climbed up on the couch:


A small fight followed:



But Rocky quickly lost interest and headed towards Thomas and me. He is fake attacking Thomas while looking at me. However, these fake attacks can still be quite painful! Luckily Thomas has a pretty high pain tolerance so it doesn't bother him:



The afternoon ended up being a little more stressful than originally planned.

Solo bottling

I don't have any pictures to accompany this story since it took place yesterday while I was at work. Thomas got to leave work early, so decided to bottle some beer that was ready to go. This is something that's easier to do with two people. He could have waited a couple of hours until I got home, or we could have done it this weekend. Instead, he did it himself, and chaos ensued.

I knew something had happened when I walked in the kitchen and only Calypso was out with Thomas. The rest of the parrots were in their cages. I was then informed that Thomas and Max were not speaking to each other right now. Then I got the whole story.

As I've mentioned before, Thomas is more of a soft touch than I am. He feels guilty when he's home and the parrots are in their cages. While I try to have the parrots out as much as possible when I'm home, I realize there are circumstances under which it's easier for everyone if the parrots are caged. This would have been one of those circumstances.

He kept Daphne caged (due to her smaller size and the potential for a disastrous bird-on-bird incident to occur) but let everyone else out. Of course, everyone quickly migrated into the kitchen where he was brewing, as they wanted to be part of the action. As he was assembling his bottling supplies, Beeps started attacking him, so Beeps had to go in his cage. (Add beer bottling to the list of things that sets of a flying attack by this caique).

Thomas then got into bottling and reached a point in the process that required his constant presence. He was siphoning beer from the bucket into the bottles and couldn't stop because he'd have to set the hose on an unsterilized surface, which would add a lot of extra work and time for him.

Max noticed this weakness and pounced. She flew to the top of the fridge, where she is not allowed to be. She'll usually listen to the "Off!" command; however, she wasn't listening this time. Instead, she started strutting around the top of the fridge while saying, "good girl!" Thomas repeatedly told her she was not acting like a good girl and she needed to get down. She strutted some more. So he started throwing my chapstick tubes to get her off! He made sure he wouldn't hit her, but still. (I was not happy about this when he was telling me the story, and he has promised not to do it again.) She finally got off, but was angry that he was throwing chapsticks at her (understandably so).

So, she started buzzing Thomas as he was bottling, flying low and pushing off of his head. When this didn't provoke a reaction, she started buzzing Calypso! This is very strange, as the two of them generally get along. But she'd found a way to get a reaction since Calypso started freaking out and Thomas told her to go to her stand. Instead she just buzzed him some more!

Thomas claims that on one of these buzzes, he put his hand up and plucked her out of the air. Then, he set his bottling stuff down and went to put her in her cage. Of course she was squawking and unhappy with her undignified treatment. Stella came to her rescue by buzzing Thomas, and then Rocky flew over, grabbed on to Thomas's arm and attacked him. They really do protect their own!

The result was that Max, Stella, and Rocky all got put in their cages, Thomas had to resterilize his bottling equipment, and finished the process with only the quiet and well-behaved Calypso as a witness.

I came home shortly after this had gone on -- he had just finished capping the last bottle -- to find an upset husband, chapstick tubes all over the kitchen, and angry parrots.

After we put the bottles away and everyone had calmed down, we let the parrots out, Thomas gave everyone a nut, and peace was restored. Thomas and Max are speaking again.

So, Thomas and I had a big discussion about this incident. He knows that I'm a big fan of setting the environment up for success. Knowing the personalities of our parrots, it is not reasonable to expect that he could bottle for 30-45 minutes without having to physically intervene, especially if the parrots (read: Max) know that he is otherwise occupied. He should have caged everyone before starting or waited for me to come home since the role I play in bottling allows me to stop and easily restart. (I keep him company during most of it and then put caps on the bottles.)

We also started discussing about how the parrots behave much better when both of us are there than they do for either one of us individually. I'm not sure if having an extra human there evens the field a bit, or if they act out when their whole flock isn't together -- who knows!

In any case, no lasting harm was done and hopefully Thomas has a plan in place to prevent anything like this from happening again on his watch.

And it's incidents like this that make me think we're at our parrot limit.

Daphne and Thomas

Thomas and Daphne have never had a great relationship. There was no animosity; they just pretty much co-existed. She's extremely tame and would always step up for him, but she didn't seek out his attention (as she does mine) and he never really made an effort with her.

Our previous budgie, Ethel, was an amazing bird, and Thomas's constant companion. They had an incredible bond. I've heard dog people talk about a heart-dog -- that one dog that was more special to them than all of the others they've had. Of course they love all of their dogs, but there's one that rises above the others, even decades after they're gone. Ethel was Thomas's heart-bird.

After Ethel died, I could not stand how quiet is was in the house without budgie chatter. Thomas didn't want to get another budgie, fearing I was trying to replace Ethel, which of course could never happen. I didn't want to rush anything and thought we'd process through more of the grieving process before adding another budgie. And then Daphne, a failed breeder who loved people, needed a home. Thomas wasn't enthusiastic about adding another budgie only 6 weeks or so after losing Ethel, but he acquiesced.However, I think he hardened his heart, in part of the pain that losing Ethel caused. Budgies have a pretty short lifespan when compared to the larger parrots.

But he's been opening up to her lately, which makes me so happy. Last night, Thomas and I were on the couch. I was holding Daphne. I had to get up for a minute. I asked him if he'd mind holding her so I didn't have to put her in her cage. He said yes, and they played a bit until I got back.

Later that evening, Thomas and I were in the kitchen. Daphne was on the counter. He walked out of the room, and she flew after him! She so rarely flies with volition, so this was unexpected. The fact that she flew after him made this feel like a double victory! I went over to pick her up off of the floor (she hadn't quite made it all the way to Thomas) but Thomas beat me to her and said he'd take her with him.

I am so excited about this blossoming relationship, especially as I hope that means the pain of losing Ethel is fading for him. Yet still I have tears welling in my eyes as I think about Ethel. She was one special being and I suspect we'll miss her incredibly for the rest of our lives.

My cleaning buddy

When I wash the floors, which I do more than I'd like to because the mess the parrots make, most of the parrots have to be in their cages.

As previously mentioned, Beeps hates cleaning and would attack. When I clean the living room floor, he spends the entire time threatening me and sometimes throwing himself against the side of the cage in an attempt to attack. As soon as the bucket is removed from the room, he is angelic once again.

The greys are too interested in what I'm doing. They'll try to drink the cleaning water, walk through the clean floor while it's still wet (and since they eat with their feet, I don't want them walking through it). If I ignore them, Max may fly at my head, or they'll create havoc so I have to give them my attention. For example, fly to the fridge and eat my magnets.

If you've read any previous entries, you've probably surmised that Rocky would try to attack me. I can't fend off his attacks if I'm focused on cleaning, so he's got to be caged until I can focus on him again.

Calypso usually is fine, but he'll often get curious and try to go in the bucket, so it's easier to leave him in the living room as well.

That leaves Daphne, my budgie, to provide me with avian companionship.
She's so undemanding that she sometimes gets lost in the craziness that is the rest of my flock. I make an effort to make sure she gets adequate attention because she's not one to demand it if she doesn't get it. This is unlike our previous budgie, Ethel, who made sure she wasn't overlooked!

Daphne loves hanging out on the big birds' stands, but we can't allow her to do so while the larger parrots are out. It would only take a second for one of the larger birds to remove a toe or beak. But yesterday, when the rest of the birds were in the living room, she hung out with me as I cleaned the kitchen floor.

Budgies can be such amazing companions! Unfortunately, due to the size difference, Thomas and I have discussed possibly not getting another budgie after Daphne passes, which will hopefully be many years down the road yet. I don't know that I could live without one, though. People who focus on bigger birds don't know what they're missing! I can't tell you how many prospective adopters I've met who have told me that budgies and cockatiels have no personality. That couldn't be further from the truth!

Madhouse

Thomas had to work late last night, which meant I was alone with the parrots for a few hours after work. As usual, everyone was let out of their cages. One by one, everyone got locked away, with the exception of the caiques. Here's why...

Daphne kept flying from the kitchen (where we were) into the living room to her cage. I can't leave her unsupervised since she's so much smaller than the other parrots and they could hurt her. She really likes her cage and will often spend time inside her cage even when her door is open.

Rocky constantly screamed until his cage door was shut. I do not understand this! He could have just gone in his cage -- why did the door need to be closed for him to stop screaming? When will his hormones calm down? He's driving me nuts!

Max flew three times in a row right into my head. She knows how to fly, so this is obviously intentional. Plus it's rather hard. I can hear the air getting knocked out of her. I can figure out no pattern to these kinds of "attacks." I put attacks in quotes because she doesn't try to bite, she just flies into my head and then returns to her stand. Often to say "good girl!" as she lands and then launch again at me. From experience, I know the only way to stop this is to distract her. As I was cooking and unavailable to distract her in other ways, she went into her cage.

Stella's reason for going to her cage was the most bizarre and I really wish I would have been able to videotape this. First, she flew over to the closed spice cabinet, hovered in front for a second, and then flew straight up, hitting her head on the ceiling. She bounced off of the counter and landed on the table. I asked her what was going on, and she returned to her stand. Then, she launched herself at the spice cabinet and hit it pretty hard. Finally, she did that again. I was getting concerned that she might hurt herself, so she also went into her cage.

The caiques and I had a grand time -- they watched as I prepared dinner. Is it possible to be in a bad mood when there is a joyful caique around? Dinner took longer to prepare than usual because they were being so adorable I was constantly stopping to play with them.

When Thomas came home, he immediately went into the living room to let Rocky out. He greeted Max, but wasn't planning on letting her out. However, she made this adorable (and seldom-heard) sound so he let her out to reward this. Then, Stella made the exact same sound -- we had never heard her make that noise before. So she got out as well. There were no repeats of the strange flying behavior by the greys and I fear Thomas may think I made it up!

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

Randomness

I read on a uromastyx forum that pool filter sand makes a good substrate, so we switched Andreas earlier this week. He seems very happy! We will switch Elsa once she's done brumating, as we want to disturb her as little as possible during this time.

He's been quite active and more personable lately. A few months ago he'd go into his hide when I'd walk in to the room; he was giving me quite the complex! Lately, he's been staying out and even approaching my hand when it's in the tank doing some sort of maintenance. He's also been doing some amazingly cute poses, like this one where his arm is nonchalantly resting on his food dish:*************************
Max was wandering around the table, trying to eat Thomas's food (as usual) when she suddenly hopped up on my jar of Aquaphor, where she happily stayed for several minutes. ***********************
Over the weekend, Rocky was wandering around the floor, playing fetch with one of his balls when Max climbed down and started walking around the floor as well. She doesn't do this often, as she'll usually fly instead, but sometimes she likes to explore on the floor.

She found some disgarded food that Beeps had flung down from his cage:And then she proceeded to perch on the shoes I wear in the house to prevent me from stepping on wood chips:************************
Finally, I took this picture of Daphne, and she turned out pretty well (not too washed out or fuzzy), so I thought I'd post it. She has a lot of toys in her cage -- for some birds, this would be overload, but she likes it this way. Her favorite toy is that wooden dome-shaped one hanging on her left. Thomas drilled holes into it in an ill-fated attempt to make a foraging toy.One thing she loves is when I cup her in front of my mouth and talk quietly to her. I make clicking sounds and she clicks back, and she'll preen my chin a bit. Thomas walked in on me doing this a few days ago and accused me of licking her. He was joking since he knows I wouldn't do something like that.

Random stories

One way to make a parrot's cage more enjoyable is by adding perches and toys on the outside. This is one of Daphne's favorite places to perch. I think it helps her to feel secure with larger birds flying around, since she has a flat perch that acts as a ceiling.
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Rocky was playing with his towel on the couch, next to Thomas. He stopped playing for a few seconds, looked up at me (when I took this picture), and then resumed his game.*************************
Earlier this week, I had "Wheel of Fortune" on TV for the first time since at least May. Stella got so excited, especially when anyone went bankrupt! She was imitating the noises and beeps. We may try to have this on more regularly for her in the future. It seemed to be a clue to her past -- perhaps they watched it regularly at her old house?

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Max is very much in tune with Thomas and me. When I put a shirt on, she imitates me. Same thing when Thomas or I put a coat on -- she moves her body, pretending to put her own coat on. She'll also do this with noises. When I floss my teeth, she makes the sound of the floss emerging from between two teeth (I didn't really realize this had a sound until Max). When Thomas gives me a hug, she makes a kiss sound. She makes a swallow sound during the first drink I take out of every cup.

Today I witnessed a new one. Max, Thomas, and I were in the bathroom. As he put his deodorant on, she made downward sweeping motions with her beak on her wing. Then, when I put mine on, she did the same thing! I wonder how long this has been going on -- I'm usually have my back turned towards her when this happens.

She really can be such a delight!

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I found a piece of tissue paper, balled it up, and gave it to Max as a toy. Realizing a foraging opportunity, I took the ball away from her, hid a cashew in there, and returned it. Towards the end of this video, she found the cashew. I think it's so funny how she'll eat right through the paper instead of extracting the food!



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I hope that everyone has a great weekend! We don't have too many plans outside of the house, so the parrots are looking forward to spending lots of time with us!

Pictures of the ladies

Earlier this week, I was taking pictures of Daphne. She is underrepresented on the blog, as she rarely gets into mischief. Entries about how wonderful she is would quickly get boring! In any case, since she is extraordinarily beautiful and sweet, I wanted some pictures. Additionally, she is getting up there in age (at least 5 years old, as far as we can tell), especially for a half-English budgie. I really regret that I don't have more pictures of Ethel, our previous budgie, and don't want to make the same mistake with Daphne!

It's really hard to get a good picture of Daphne. When I use the flash, her coloring contributes to the result of her looking washed out. When I don't use the flash, she turns out blurry. Thomas saw my frustration, and pulled out the tripod so we could get some decent pictures of her.

Here she is, on top of her cage:And a close-up:He then started taking tripod pictures of Max:
And Stella:I'm sure it was just coincidence that he only photographed the female birds of the house!

Crabby Parrot House

What is wrong with me? I haven't been taking as many pictures lately. I think it's because many of the parrots are going through some molting/hormonal issues and their crabbiness is rubbing off on me. Why would I want to document this unpleasantness?

Beeps is healing quite well from his close call with Max earlier this week. However, he is one GIANT hormone right now. I feel horrible for him since he doesn't understand what's making him act so strange. He'll be perfectly fine one moment, and then his eyes start flashing bright red, unprovoked. I have a few seconds to put him down, or I will be missing flesh. I don't remember how long this lasted last year; I'm hoping it ends soon!

Daphne is going through a major molt and is also crabby. I imagine all of those pin feathers poking through can get uncomfortable! I had her in the kitchen with me yesterday, and she actually took off and flew back to her cage. She's never done that before. And while I'm happy she's feeling more secure in her flight skills to attempt such a maneuver, it was upsetting that she did so in order to escape my presence!

Rocky has been very insistent on ripping the wall paper off of our hallway wall, so we've had to keep a close eye on him. Part of me thinks the damage is already done, so just let him at it (less work for us to remove it later), but I'm pretty sure he shouldn't be ingesting wall paper glue.

Stella is still doing her digging and chipping up wood as though her life depended on it. But her personality is fantastic, luckily.

Neither Max nor Calypso has shown any hormonal behavior. That tallies up to three unpleasant parrots (Daphne, Beeps, and Rocky) and three pleasant parrots (Max, Calypso, and Stella) in our house right now.

We've lost 2 Australian Rainbowfish and an oto so far this week. All of our aquarium values are testing in the right range, so it's a mystery. Thomas did a slightly-larger-than-normal water change last night. We hope this clears up whatever problem might be taking place.

I made Fast Nut Burgers from my favorite cookbook. How have I had this book for almost a year and not have made these? So delicious! And easy, as the name implies. I'm going to try to make this into a "meatloaf" later this week.

Basically, you chop up an onion, 1 c. nuts (I used walnuts), and 1 c. uncooked oatmeal in a food processor (I used a blender but made sure they didn't get too finely chopped). Add in 2 TBSP ketchup, 1 tsp. chili powder, an egg. Mix, form into patties, and cook on a nonstick pan -- 5 min on one side and 3-4 on the other. The author, Mark Bittman, lists all sorts of variations, like here, which means I'll try many of them out in the coming months.

The more I've been cooking, the more I've been enjoying it lately.

Back to work -- and hoping that upon arriving home I'll be met with six pleasant parrots. But I'm not holding my breath.

Life with parrots

I was driving home last night, with Thomas in the passenger's seat. A few blocks from our house we are lucky to have a little river (it's more of a creek, but is officially a river), with a fair amount of trees. As I was driving yesterday, Thomas said, "don't hit the deer!" Luckily this street is not a busy one, as I stopped and made him take a few pictures out of the window. I know these are nothing like the pictures (and story!) Shannon can provide, but it thrilled me!

When we got home, Thomas changed his clothes and attempted to put a sweatshirt on. Rocky may have a rough winter ahead of him if he doesn't quickly get used to Thomas wearing more clothes again! Rocky was extremely agitated and quite aggressive against Thomas when he tried four different sweatshirts. Finally, he found one jacket-like object that was warm enough for Thomas while not drawing Rocky's ire.
Later that evening, Thomas was sitting at the table, reading the paper. He asked me if I'd give him a little shoulder massage, and I told him I would if he'd hold Daphne. I had been holding her and didn't want to put her back in her cage. I couldn't leave her on a stand since it's too risky that another parrot might attack her. Of course he said yes -- who could resist such a budgie?

She climbed up his arm and started perching here on his sleeve. She happily sat there, occasionally chirping, for several minutes until I took her back.
When I have to transport one of the parrots somewhere and I don't want them to fly off, I'll often flip them upside down and walk with them. We've made this into a game, so everyone enjoys this. We call it "going on a trip." So, I'll say, "Want to go on a trip?" and then flip them upside down. Max will sometimes flip herself over and hang off of my hand.
I haven't been writing much about Beeps since he has been extremely camera aggressive for a month or so. If I walk by his cage with the camera, there's about a 20% chance that he will fly at me and try to attack. I'm careful to hide the camera behind my back, out of his sight, when I pass him!

He's a bit agitated in this picture; probably thinking about an attack. I snapped it quickly and got out of the way!
For any runners, or would-be runners out there, I thought I would write a little about two of my favorite running items. I didn't find out about them until years after I started running, but wish I would have known about them sooner. I now consider them to be running essentials!

On the left is Aquaphor. It's kind of like Vaseline. It is fantastic at preventing blisters and chaffing. I put it on my feet for every run, and around the band of my shorts and sports bra for longer runs. I used to get blisters quite regularly, but haven't for years, thanks to Aquaphor. You can find it in the lotions section of stores like Target.

On the right are special socks. I wear Wigwam C-T Marathons, but there are many different brands out there. I buy mine at REI. If you run, please do not wear regular cotton socks. It's worth the extra money to get something decent. You will not believe how much better you feel with proper socks!I promise not to turn my blog into one big commercial for my favorite running gear! I just get so excited when I find a really great product and like to tell people about it!

Proof that the caiques and Daphne are well!

Beeps managed to drop this toy onto the floor of the stand and he then went down to work on its destruction...
As usual, Calypso froze up when I went to take his picture. He's not a huge fan of the camera, which is why he's rarely shown here.
Daphne was being quite funny last night. She kept wandering all over the paper when Thomas was trying to read it:Finally she got her wish: to perch on one of her favorite people. The camera just doesn't properly capture her coloring. She looks aqua, but she's really more periwinkle.
At this point, we've decided to not bring that budgie I talked about the other day home. We've tried to bring another budgie into our home in the past, and Daphne wasn't happy about it. I think I wanted to bring another one in because of the guilt I feel in keeping a single budgie since they are such social creatures.

However, Daphne is apparently not a normal budgie. As I've mentioned before, she was supposed to be a breeder, but couldn't get along with any of the other budgies. Maybe she thinks she's a human?

In any case, she is one of the sweetest birds I've ever had the pleasure of meeting, and we've been making an effort to make sure she gets enough human interaction. Thomas thinks I should sneak her into work even though she's prohibited in the lease (not her, specifically, but "all animals, including birds" are). Maybe being able to bring a budgie to work will be a requirement of my next job :)

Happy Times

Sorry about my whining yesterday! I need to start focusing on not getting upset about things that I can't change. Today will be entirely positive!

I've adjusted my morning routine again. I was feeling a bit sorry for Daphne since she gets the least amount of one-on-one time with either Thomas or me. The others are just more demanding, and she seems happy enough to play with her toys and get ambient attention.

Realizing that's not fair to her, I've been getting her up at 6:30, about 30 minutes before the rest of the parrots. Normally she doesn't shower with either of us because she has trouble breathing when the room gets steamy. But, with Thomas's schedule being a bit more relaxed this month, I've been able to bring her in the bathroom with him for just a few minutes, and she loves it!

Here she is, on the top of the shower, just like the big birds!
As I've mentioned before, she is extremely difficult to photograph well, but you can kind of see how wet she is here (Thomas put her under the spray for a moment):
Yesterday was my weekly farmers' market run, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that our favorite farmer had tomatoes already! He had two kinds, and I've already forgotten what they were. One is supposed to be less juicy than the other. Thomas was cutting up a tomato for last night's dinner, and I asked him which kind he took. He said he couldn't tell a difference! The distinction is even more apparent in person than in this photo, but clearly one is red with orange undertones (right) and one is red with blue undertones (left).
I just loved this photo of Beeps, so I had to include it in the blog. He's been spending more time on the plant stand lately to avoid getting buzzed by Max (we are still working on this, but she's stubborn!) He spends so much of his time upside down or doing other acrobatic moves!
Rocky has been extremely funny lately. Yesterday I was in the kitchen and Thomas was in the living room, sweeping. I heard riotous laughter coming from the living room, so I had to see what was going on. You have to look closely in this video to see Rocky -- and even then it's mostly the white patch on his face that's the most clear. As Thomas was sweeping near his cage, he was trying to attack the broom and laughing about it. When I call his name for the first time, you can hear him do this weird scream that he sometimes does.
Rocky has been a bit unpredictable, as usual. Especially when stepping up off of the floor. Since Thomas has to do physical exams of people, he can't very well have bites and bandages all over his hands, which means he sometimes uses creative items for Rocky to step up onto when a stick isn't available.

Rocky had followed him upstairs this morning when Thomas was getting dressed for work. They came down together, with Rocky hanging off of a sock. He kept striking all of these adorable poses, and these were among my favorites:

Max and food

Most of the Max stories I post seem to involve food in some way, and today was no exception. You would think we starve her for the foraging she does around our kitchen!

First, Stephanie had asked last week whether Max ever eats any of the greens or just plays with them. While I'm still not sure of the answer for raw greens, we found out that she absolutely loves cooked greens! Of course, this could have something to do with the fact that they were sauteed in olive oil and garlic! You can see her eye pinning. Not sure why it looks like we have red lights on. We do not live in a disco!
Beets, on the other hand, she wanted no part of. Thomas was rather disappointed since he loves them. I tend to side with Max on this vegetable, but am trying to get myself to like them since they are healthy!
Here she is, licking the water off of a peach, just like she's previously done with strawberries and apples. Like those other fruits, she will not eat them. But as soon as I put one on the counter to prepare, she flies over and starts licking the water.
I've mentioned before that when the rest of the family is in the living room, she'll sometimes fly into the kitchen and hang out alone. We find this rather strange, but usually allow it, listening for clues that she's left her stand and looking for trouble. Apparently we missed the sound of her flying over to the kitchen island (where she almost never goes).

I tried to get a picture of her in the middle of her crime, but she apparently wasn't proud of destroying the bananas, as she wouldn't stay by them:
As proof, though, you can see her banana beak:
Thomas was taking pictures of Daphne hanging out in the plants over the weekend, and captured some nice ones. I like the way that you can see the purple hue she has in this first one.
Another Daphne picture. She looks fat, but that's her English budgie genes! There's a little bit of red above her cere. I was wearing lightly tinted chapstick when I gave her a kiss -- oops!
I wish I knew how to edit videos, as Thomas, shirtless, encroached into my movie towards the end. Sorry about that! We're trying to keep our power bills low this year by not keeping our house too cool and instead dressing skimpily around the house.

In any case, in this video, Daphne is exploring one of our plants. She is so curious and playful!

Not parrot-related, but I ran across this really fun website via links on another blog. It's called Pandora Radio, and the tag is "Radio from the Music Genome Project (R)" It's free, although free registration is recommended.

You type in an artist, composer, or song that you like, and the website customizes a radio station for you by streaming music. Also, no commercials! Then, it plays songs that are similar to what you like. You can rate the songs it plays to customize what you want to hear even more. It gives you information about the songs, including a link so you can buy the CD if you want.

I had been getting kind of tired of listening to the songs on my itunes lately, so this has expanded my songs -- and it's all free!